Archibald M. Willard - Untitled
Attributed to Archibald M. Willard (1836-1918), American
Untitled, undated
OIL ON CANVAS, 10 x 11 ¾ inches
Gift of Cornelia Taylor Fairbanks
Ohio painter Archibald Willard made a career in art with his comic scenes of young children on dog-drawn carts chasing down rabbits, His paintings of this theme devel¬oped considerable popular interest during the early 1870s and reportedly sold thousands of copies when reproduced in the newly devel¬oped mass medium of chromolithography. This painting is either by Willard or a replica of one of his compositions.
Willard is best known, however, for his depiction of a Revolutionary piper and two drummers leading the troops entitled The Spirit of ‘76 which he exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876. The work remains a beloved national symbol, incorporating Willard's unpretentious, unrefined realism with his flair for the dramatic.