Archibald Willard

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...