This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  William Brewster Conely (1830-1911)
An early noted portrait, sill life, animal and landscape painter in
Detroit, 1847 and 1873 – 1911, William Conely was born in New York
City, December 15, 1830. At age seven, he moved with his parents
to Brighton, where he attended the local school.
He was a self-taught artist, except for a few months study at the
National Academy of Design, New York, which he attended after serving
in the Civil War. He was wounded in the war and crippled for the
rest of his life.
At seventeen he opened an art school in Detroit. Later he moved
to Lincoln, Illinois, and still later to Atlanta, Illinois, opening art
schools in both cities.
First exhibited at the Illinois State Fair at age eighteen, and won a
blue ribbon for crayon drawings. He spent some time in Kalamazoo
and Peoria, Illinois, painting portraits of prominent citizens.
He was married to Anna McCallum of Ann Arbor, 1860, and was the father
of Katherine Conely Margah.
In 1873, he settled in Detroit and remained there the rest of his life.
He was a charter member of the Detroit Art Association, 1875. His
work is represented in the Detroit Institute of Arts and many public
buildings.
He died at his summer home in Algonac, October 12, 1911.
Source: Arthur Hopkin Gibson, Artists of Early Michigan, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1975.
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Addendum from the Detroit Free Press, "Detroit's Art Colony", February 17, 1889
"William B. Conely is a native of New York City but he moved with his parents to Detroit when a lad. At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, Mr. Conely enlisted in the Michigan Engineers and Mechanics under Col. W. P. Innes and served until in the battle of Perrysville he received a wound from which he has not yet recovered. He was brought to his home at Ann Arbor and it was while lying upon his couch as a convalescent, that he decided to adopt the profession of a painter. He has carried out that idea to the present time, and as a painter of portraits he does exceptionally fine work. He studied in New York in 1878 and again in 1882, and he has been a regular exhibitor at the National Academy since 1882. He has also exhibited at Cleveland, Louisville, Chicago and in this city."
Submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Researcher, East Lansing, Michigan
| |
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in New York, William Conely became a portrait, landscape, still
life and marine painter. He lived in Lincoln and Atlanta, Illinois and
in Detroit, Michigan where he was a charter member of the Detroit Art
Association. In those towns, he opened and ran art schools and painted
portraits of many of the citizens.
As an artist, he was
primarily self taught, although he did study for a few months at the
National Academy of Design. He fought and was wounded in the Civil
War. He was the father of artist Katherine Conely Margah.
Source:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art |
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