Biography

William Adelbert Dolwick grew up in Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art as a scholarship student from 1926-1930. He then spent a year in London and Paris on a travelling scholarship. Returning to the United States at the height of the Depression, he found employment with the Public Works of Art Project and the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts doing easel paintings and murals. But he couldn't support himself with his preferred genre of portrait painting, so he went to work as a commercial illustrator for Illustration House in New York and was elected to the New York Society of Illustrators. In 1974 he married Marion Buchanon and moved to South Carolina, where he succeeded in gaining commissions for a number of portrait paintings. In later years me moved to Eufala, Alabama, where he died in 1993.

Critical Analysis

Dolwick is remembered for both his portraits and his commercial art. Two portraits provided turning points in Dolwick's career. The first, a portrait of his grandfather, earned Dolwick a scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art. The second, a portrait of Dean Rusk commissioned by Rusk's Alma Mater Davidson College, reenergized Dolwick's work as a portrait artist. It's interesting to contrast Dolwick's portraits with his commercial art. The former are rather somber, even a bit brooding, while the latter are carefree-looking to the point of being almost giddy.

Murals

• Gas City, Indiana - Post Office: Gas City in the Boom Days
• Hobart, Indiana - Post Office: Early Hobart
• Cleveland, Ohio - Public Library: Ohio City in 1834

References

1. (Portrait of a Man) (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
2. What a powerful difference this high octane gasoline makes! (Plan 59).
3. William Adelbert Dolwick (Smithsonian American Art Museum).
4. American Gallery, William Dolwick (1909 – 1993), AMERICAN GALLERY – 20th Century December 12 (2016).
5. William Dolwick (1909 – 1993) (ask ART).