This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Known for portraits and still life painting, New York City painter
Raymond Neilson had well-known portrait subjects such as Admiral
William Halsey; Dr. Francis Blake, Dean of the Yale Medical School; and
World War II hero Brigadeer General Frederick Castle. He also did
a portrait of Hayley Lever, fellow Academician at the National Academy
of Design*. Many of the portraits were done for Civic
Organizations and presented at ceremonies commemorating the subject of
the portrait.
Neilson won many awards for his painting including
exhibition prizes at the Paris Salon*, the Panama-Pacific Exposition*
of 1915, the National Academy of Design, and the Salmagundi
Club*. Other exhibition venues included the New York World's Fair
of 1939, Carnegie Institute International*, and Grand Central Art
Galleries.*
Neilson was born in New York City and graduated from
the United States Naval Academy in 1905. However, in 1908 he gave
up a Navy career to follow his art, but he was reinstated during World
War I and served overseas as an aide to Admiral William Sims.
Then he studied at the Art Students League* in New York, in Paris, and
at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Source:
Artist's Obituary in The New York Times,
March 2, 1964, Courtesy of Frances J. Hamilton, whose brother was a
friend of Neilson's daughter and who owns a portrait by the artist.
* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see
AskART.com Glossary
http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx
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These Notes from AskART represent the beginning of a possible future biography for this artist. Please click here if you wish to help in its development:
|  Resident of Santa Barbara in 1922. | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
City Directory. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
Biography from Papillon Gallery:
|  Raymond Neilson was born in New York in 1881. He represented the
academic* strain in American Art and won many accolades from the art
establishment. Neilson reflected the social and political life
and change in America in his choice of subject matter and technique.
During
World War I Neilson, who came from an eminent Naval family that listed
Admiral Perry as an ancestor and Commander Rodgers as his namesake, was
attached to the Admiralty in London. When he returned to America,
he began a long and distinguished career as a portraitist. These
portraits for which he became so famous contain far more than just a
likeness. His women are placed in backgrounds that sometimes
highlight a magnificent bouquet of flowers, often arranged in a
carefree manner, but painted with exacting realism that would present a
sharp contrast to the static pose of his subject. The intricacies
in the pattern of the silk dress or the splendid texture of a fur stole
on his paintings share an equal role with their beautiful women.
He
studied at the Art Students League* in New Yor with George Bridgman,
George Bellows, Luis Mora and Frank DuMond. He also studied at
the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, and in Paris at the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts*, Academie Julian*, Academy Colarossi*, and Academie Grande
Chaumière*. He was also the pupil of several noted teachers
including: William Merritt Chase in New York and in New York with J.P.
Laurens (1912-14), Lucien Simon, Naudin, Caro Delvai and Riched E.
Miller in Paris.
Neilson was an associate member of the
National Academy of Design* in 1925 and 1938 became a National
Academician, or full member. He was also a member of the Century
Association* in New York, Salmagundi Club*, Allied Artists of America*,
Audubon Artists*, the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, American
Artists Professional League*.
He exhibited widely and won
several important awards including: silver medal at the Paris Salon* in
1914 and silver medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition* in San
Francisco in 1915.
He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Art (1913-16; 1924-25), the Paris Salon (1914), Corcoran Gallery
Biennials (1914-23, 3 times), Pan Pacific Exposition (1915), National
Academy of Design (1916-1946, 1941-prize), East Hampton Guild, Allied
Artists of America, New Haven Paint and Clay Club*, Salmagundi Club
(1944, 1945 prizes), Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts (prizes 1944-49),
Albright Art Gallery (1921-22), Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie
Institute, World’s Fair New York (1939), Currier Gallery of Art
(1941-prize), American Artists for Victory, Century Association, and
others.
His work is included in the collections of the
following institutions: Luxembourg Museum in Paris, New York Chamber of
Commerce, New York Public Library, New York Clearing House, F.D.
Roosevelt Library, U.S Naval Academy, US Military Academy, Cornell
University, Yale University, Princeton University, and others.
Neilson also taught at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design.
* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see
AskART.com Glossary
http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx
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Raymond Neilson is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition 1915
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