Archibald Willard

b. 1836 — d. 1918

Archibald Willard was one of the best-known painters working in Cleveland at the turn of the Century. Born in Bedford, Ohio, Willard loved to draw and paint at an early age. At the age of 17 he received two weeks of training from an unidentified portrait artist traveling through Bedford. After moving with his family to Wellington, Ohio in 1855, he began a career as a carriage painter. In his spare time he created easel work. After serving in the Civil War, he returned to Wellington and resumed painting. In the 1870s he produced a number of comic paintings that were made into chromolithographs published by James F. Ryder. In 1873 royalties from these print sales provided Willard with enough money to study in New York with Joseph Eaton for several weeks, the only formal artistic training Willard ever received. The following year he exhibited in the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1875 he moved to Cleveland where he began work on "Yankee Doodle" (later knows as "The Spirit of ‘76"), which became his signature image. The enormous success of this conception dominated the remainder of his career, and he was repeatedly called upon to create replicas. His fame established, Willard became an important member of Cleveland's art community, exhibiting in numerous group shows from the 1880s through the 1910s. Willard was a founding member of the Art Club and also involved in the Society of Cleveland Artists and the Cleveland Brush and Palette Club.