Inductees in Artists & Painters

Frank H. Alston, Jr.
Inducted in 1979

Mr. Alston, of Providence,RI, was a designer for the Institute of Heraldry, Department of the Army. He designed many distinctive insignias, flags, badges, and medals for all branches of the U.S. Read more >
George S. Araujo
Inducted in 2001

The late GEORGE S. ARAUJO, formerly of Providence, a Cape Verdean from the Fox Point neighborhood of the City who is regarded as one of the greatest Rhode Island boxers of all time and was the world’s number-one ranked lightweight fighter when there was only one world ranking. George served as a longtime coach and recreation director with abandoned or delinquent children. He was also an accomplished folk artist with several local exhibitions to his credit. Read more >
Edward M. Bannister
Inducted in 1976

Mr. Bannister was a nationally famous painter during the 19th century. He was a self-taught pioneer among African-American artists, and won a national award during the U.S. Read more >
John Nicholas Brown
Inducted in 1975

Mr. Brown served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air. He was a senior fellow at Brown University, and a Director of the Smithsonian Institute. He also directed the search and recovery of the works of art stolen by the Nazis, for which he was decorated by the French and Belgian governments. Read more >
Charles DeWolf Brownell (1822-1909)
Inducted in 2011

Charles DeWolf Brownell was born in Providence in 1822 to parents from old-line Rhode Island families. When Brownell was two-years-old, the family moved to East Hartford where Charles was raised and grew to manhood. In 1843, he became an attorney and lived in a house directly opposite Connecticut’s famed Charter Oak. He later rendered a well-known painting of that historical
After a decade of practice, Brownell abandoned his career as a lawyer, having become enamored of landscape painting as a result of his sketching trips through the Connecticut River Valley with artist Henry Bryant. Read more >
Sydney Richmond Burleigh (1853-1931)
Inducted in 2011

Sydney Richmond Burleigh, a man with roots in Little Compton, Rhode Island, studied art with Jean-Paul Laurens in Paris for two years from 1878 to 1880. Upon his return, he became one of the founders and one of the first exhibitors at the newly-formed Providence Art Club. He taught at the Rhode island School of Design and was one of the founders of the Providence Watercolor Club. He became a champion of the emerging Arts and Crafts Movement. Read more >
Arlan R. Coolidge
Inducted in 1988

Mr. Coolidge has been an internationally renowned violinist who is a graduate of Brown, and served as Chairman of Brown's Department of Music for thirty-one years. He was former Executive Director of the Arts Rhode Island, lived in Providence, and served as Chairman of several Governor's Commissions on fne arts. He has also been involved with the National Council of Arts in Education. Read more >
W. Spencer Crooks
Inducted in 1987

Mr. Crooks was an accompished watercolor artists from Pawtucket whose works have been exhibited throughout the world. He was apopular teacher and lecture-demonstration expert on watercolor painting across New England. He was a major contributor to internationally recognized workshop seminars conducted not only in the United States, but in several foreign countries, including his native Ireland. Read more >
Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)
Inducted in 2003

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis was born in Bloomfield, New York on August 7, 1813, the daughter of Captain Ebenezer Kellogg and Polly Saxon. After the death of both parents, Paulina was raised by a strict orthodox Presbyterian aunt. After a brief immersion with religion, Paulina married Francis Wright, a wealthy Utica merchant, in 1833. The couple became very involved in various contemporary reforms, especially abolitionism and women’s rights. Read more >
Chon Day
Inducted in 1972

Mr. Day was born in Westerly and became a nationally known cartoonist who created Brother Sebastion, and was voted 'Best Magazine Cartoonist of the Year' on three occasions by the National Cartoonist Society. Read more >
Hezekiah Anthony Dwyer (1872-1943)
Inducted in 2011

Hezekiah Anthony Dyer was a prolific and accomplished artist who ventured into the equally demanding realms of military affairs, public service, and politics.

Dyer was born in Providence into a storied political family. His grandfather, Elisha Dyer, Sr., was governor of the state from 1857 to 1859 and served as an officer and the adjutant general in the “Dorr War” and the Civil War. Read more >
Fritz Eichenberg
Inducted in 1987

Mr. Eichenberg was an internationally recognized graphic artist, illustrator, and autor whose acheivements ared documented in the Library of Conress. He holds several honorary degrees, including URI, where he served as professor and Chair of the Art Department. He became a well-known author, with texts that became standard for the feild. Read more >
Barnaby M. Evans
Inducted in 2011

Barnaby Evans is the creator, founder, and executive artistic director of WaterFire Providence. He is an artist who works in a multitude of mediums including site-specific sculpture installations, photograph, film, garden design, architectural projects, writing and conceptual works. His original training was in the sciences, but he has been working exclusively as an artist for more than twenty-five years.

Evans, a resident of Providence, is best known for WaterFire, a sculpture which he installed on the three rivers of Downtown Providence that draws over one million visitors to the city each year. Read more >
John J. Fawcett
Inducted in 1990

Mr. Fawcett of North Kingstown earned international acclaim during an outstanding thirty-seven year career with the Providence Journal Company. He was an accomplished sports and editorial cartoonist, and a champion for the rights of others. He gained four National Brotherhood Awards from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and his prolific works have been sought by heads of State. Read more >
Milton R. Halladay (1874-1961)
Inducted in 1966

Mr. Halladay, a native of Vermont, was a noted political cartoonist for the Providence Journal for nearly fifty years, and his cartoons were published in countless other newspapers and magazines. He has been called "one of the deans of American political cartooning". His cartoon commemorating the death of Thomas A. Read more >
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)
Inducted in 2011

Martin Johnson Heade was an accomplished landscape, portrait, and still life painter, a poet, and a naturalist. Heade is one of the most important American Romantic painters of the 19^th Century and one of the major figures in the development of Luminism. Born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1819, he received his first art training around 1838 from local folk artists Edward and Thomas Hicks.

In 1858 Heade took a studio in the Tenth Street Studio building in New York City. Read more >
John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)
Inducted in 2011

John Frederick Kensett was one of the most influential members of the second generation of the Hudson River School of landscape painters. By age twelve, he was working in his family’s engraving and printing business in New Haven. When he was thirteen, Kensett went to New York to work for Peter Maverick, then America’s leading engraver. In Maverick’s shop he met John W. Read more >
Charles Bird King (1785-1862)
Inducted in 2012

Charles Bird King (September 26, 1785 - March 18, 1862) was born in Newport, the only child of Deborah Bird and Revolutionary War veteran Captain Zebulon King, who moved the family to Ohio in 1789 and was killed there by Indians.

When Charles King was fifteen, he went to New York to study portrait painting, and he then journeyed to London, where he was taught by Benjamin West at the Royal Academy.

After returning to America in 1812, he eventually settled in Washington, D.C. Read more >
John La Farge (1835-1910)
Inducted in 2011

John La Farge was born in New York City in March 1835 to parents of French ancestry. His interest in art began during his training at Mount St. Mary’s College and St. John’s College (now Fordham University). Read more >
Frank B. Lanning
Inducted in 1970

Mr. Lanning was a 'Providence Journal' sports cartoonist and President of the Hall of Fame. He was well known throughout the state for his sports cartoons and his contributions to Rhode Island life in general and its' youth, in particular. Read more >
Edmund Darch Lewis (1835-1910)
Inducted in 2011

Edmund Darch Lewis was one of the most popular of the Philadelphia landscape painters and one of the best artists of Narragansett Bay, particularly in capturing the Victorian heyday of the Towers and grand casino of Narragansett Pier.

A student of Paul Weber from 1850 to 1855, Lewis exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Boston Athenaeum, the National Academy of Design, and the Boston Art Club. In the second half of the 19^th century he was one of America’s premier watercolorists. Employed briefly in Narragansett, Rhode Island by a photographer to touch up photos, he also painted original watercolor works prolifically--sometimes three a day. Read more >
James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888)
Inducted in 2004

James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888) was Rhode Island’s premier artist of the mid-nineteenth century and has been acclaimed by his peers as “Father of Rhode Island Art.”

The Massachusetts-born Lincoln was orphaned in his teens and left his Bay State farm to become an apprentice to a firm of Providence engravers and then to Providence portraitist C. T. Hinckley. Read more >
Charles I. D. Looff (1852-1918)
Inducted in 2005

Charles I.D. Looff (1852-1918) is considered the first of the great American carousel builders having created 17 of them during his long career--some of which was spent living and working in Riverside, Rhode Island.

Charles I. Read more >
Maxwell Mays
Inducted in 1977

Mr. Mays was a lay preacher in his hometown of Greenville, Rhode Island, and one of the top painters of folk art in the United States. He exhibited in many of the major cities across the nation, and was past President of the Providence Art Club. His work was published in the 'Collier's, 'Yankee', and 'American', and 'Cosmopolitan' magazines. Read more >
Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf
Inducted in 1996

Ms. Rowe Metcalf, formerly of Providence, was leader in the drive to establish the Rhode Island School of Design and devoted most of her time from 1878 to her death in 1895 to directing the School. Her influence and administrative skills enabled RISD to be founded with the goals of training artisans, teaching students the principles of art, and promoting appreciation of art, allowing it to become recognized as one of the most prestigious fine arts schools in the country. Read more >
William Trost Richards (1833-1905)
Inducted in 2011

William Trost Richards was born in Philadelphia, the son of Quaker parents. His formal academic education ended in 1847 following his father’s death when he worked as designer and illustrator of ornamental metalwork to help support his family. Richards married writer Anna Matlack in 1856 and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania, where he lived until 1881. He studied drawing with the German-born artist Paul Weber and traveled and sketched with William Stanley Haseltine. Read more >
Karl R. Rittmann
Inducted in 1990

Mr. Rittmann, Warwick, RI, had outstanding artistic talents and produced hundreds of famous portraits, features for newspapers, book illustrations, and colorful landscapes which are on display throughout the state and across the nation. He taught art in the Warwick School System for tenty-one years and served ten more years as Vice Priciple of Veterans's Memorial High School. His major contributions to culture and art in Rhode Island is chronicled by his prolific works. Read more >
John Paul Selinger (1850-1909)
Inducted in 2011

Jean Paul Selinger was born in 1850 in Boston. He studied art at the Lowell Institute, Boston and next trained abroad at the Art Academy in Stuttgart, and then under Wilhelm Lieble at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Selinger was a colleague of William Merritt Chase and became a skilled portraitist, genre painter, and landscape artist.

In the 1880s, Selinger opened an art studio in Providence and married Rhode Island-educated floral artist Emily Harris McGary (a distinguished silver medalist in Providence and Boston Art club competitions). Read more >
Charles Walter Stetson (1858-1911)
Inducted in 2011

Charles Walter Stetson was born at Tiverton Four Corners on March 25, 1858, to an ailing mother and an impoverished father, a Baptist preacher who dabbled in herbs. He was raised from age eleven in Providence, in an unhappy household of economic worries; he died in Rome at age fifty-three having gained recognition as a distinguished painter and an incomparable colorist. The year after his death, critics at his large memorial exhibition said, “few paintings convey such majesty and sublimity of feeling.”

Self-taught, Stetson was painting by the age of 14 and was quickly admired for his colors and his landscapes, patterned after his favorite--the British art critic, essayist, and watercolorist John Ruskin. Read more >
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
Inducted in 1965

Mr. Stuart, born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, is one of America's most notable portrait painters. After study in Dublin and London, he returned to America in 1793, where he painted renowned portraits of many of our founding fathers including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Read more >
Jane Stuart (1812-1888)
Inducted in 2011

Jane Stuart was Newport’s first woman portraitist, following in the illustrious footsteps of her famous father Gilbert Stuart. Jane was the youngest of his twelve children and his tenth daughter. She appears to be the great artist’s favorite offspring, and worked with him in his declining years until his death in 1828, often completing the portraits he had begun.

When her father died penniless, Stuart, at the age of sixteen became the sole support of the family. Read more >
Marjorie Joy Vogel (1930-2007)
Inducted in 2008

Born in Dayton, Ohio on October 31, 1930, the daughter of Theodore and Margaret (Burke) Suman, Marjorie received her B.Sc. in Business/Psychology at Kentucky’s Bowling Green University. Her early years gave little indication that she would become the most prolific artist ever of Rhode Island’s architectural, or built, landscape. Read more >
George William Whitaker (1840-1916)
Inducted in 2011

George William Whitaker (1840-1916), a Fall River native, was one of the four founders of the Providence Art Club in 1880, along with Edward M. Bannister, Charles Walter Stetson, and Sydney Burleigh. Having studied in Paris with Laszlo De Paal, his work was influenced by the Barbizon School of landscape painters, where natural scenes became the subjects of paintings rather than being mere backdrops. He is best known for his Tonalist landscapes, which he developed in his years at Barbizon and Fontainebleau. Read more >

Browse through our collection of 600+ amazing Rhode Islanders:

Search by Name or Keyword:

Area of Accomplishment:

Inductees in Artists & Painters

Charles DeWolf Brownell (1822-1909)

Sydney Richmond Burleigh (1853-1931)

Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis (1813-1876)

Hezekiah Anthony Dwyer (1872-1943)

Milton R. Halladay (1874-1961)

Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)

John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872)

Charles Bird King (1785-1862)

John La Farge (1835-1910)

Edmund Darch Lewis (1835-1910)

James Sullivan Lincoln (1811-1888)

Charles I. D. Looff (1852-1918)

William Trost Richards (1833-1905)

John Paul Selinger (1850-1909)

Charles Walter Stetson (1858-1911)

Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)

Jane Stuart (1812-1888)

Marjorie Joy Vogel (1930-2007)

George William Whitaker (1840-1916)

Search by Name or Keyword:

Area of Accomplishment:

Browse Years of Induction: