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| Archibald M. Willard |
| 1836-1918 |
| American Artist |
| Willard was 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. The only formal artistic training Willard ever received was with Joseph Eaton for several weeks in 1873. 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. Willard was one of the best-known painters working in Cleveland at the turn of the Century. |
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