Loran F. Wilford, Sarasota. Newtown, Sarasota, oil on canvas, 34 by 39 and 1/2 inches, signed lower right, L. F. Wilford. Scott Schlesinger Collection.
Loran Wilford was born in Wamego, Kansas in 1892 with a gift for art. In 1910 Wilford got a job at the Kansas City Star doing lettering and small drawings for advertisements and began art classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. The Star quickly recognized his skill as a rapid sketch artist. Wilford said of his time at the Star, “I fussed with silver prints, did occasional illustrating and layouts for editorial page features while trying free-lance illustrating on the side.”
The Art Student’s Dream, Kansas City Star, December 8, 1912. Drawn by Loran F. Wilford in the newspaper class at the Art Institute.
William Rockhill Nelson, publisher of the Star, art collector and founder of Kansas City’s Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, urged Wilford to try his hand as a free-lance artist in the competitive environment of New York City.
Now married and with a child, in 1922 Wilford packed his bags and headed for Manhattan. “So, after several weeks of camping we arrived on the outskirts of New York and then pronto the struggle to succeed began.”
When the Ladies Home Journal, March 1927, carried his illustrations for a serial The Luck of the Laird, the Journal carried an article on Loran Wilford. The Belleville (Kansas) Telescope, March 10, 1927, where Wilford grew up, published it with the headline, “Loran Wilford is Recognized as Artist, Ladies Home Journal Points Wilford out as Being Outstanding Artist of Day.”
Wilford developed a reputation as one of America’s outstanding illustrators, his work shown in over 100 important galleries, his illustrations appearing in magazines including, Colliers, Cosmopolitan, The Ladies Home Journal, Scribner’s, McCall’s, Century, Good Housekeeping and The American.
The Brooklyn Eagle, (November 24, 1935) in reviewing Wilford’s paintings at the Argent Galleries commented, “So far as the current exhibition season is concerned, contemporary painters in oil have not rung the bell as often as have the watercolorists. To this group we must now add the name of Loran F. Wilford. Mr. Wilford has had several exhibitions of his work here, but his newest things reveal a much wider range with respect to subject matter and mood, and also a greater incisiveness of style. Light Showers is the one picture above all the others in the show which I would care to have and the one which the artist apparently is most reluctant to part with, for he has put his highest price upon it. With an engaging felicity this picture has caught the crystal clarity of colors, the gleaming surface and the earthy exuberance of a country scene that is illuminated by the splintered light of a warm, fine summer rain.”
Wilford joined the Ringling School of Art in December of 1935 teaching a landscape class on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings and two half day classes on illustration, allowing six half days for own outdoor painting. He taught at the Ringling School of Art for the next 28 years, from 1936 to 1943 and from 1948 to 1969, when he retired due to health issues.
Ralph McKelvey reviewed a Wilford painting at the Ringling Museum, in the Sarasota Herald, February 19, 1939, “…. On the west wall, the main wall of the gallery, centered by Loran Wilford’s chef d’oeuvre, ‘Old Man of Myakka.’ In the open, with the background well subordinated, the accordion player, perhaps an Italian or Greek, concerns himself with the notes from his instrument, oblivious to his audience, a dejected white pony bearing an equally dejected rider and a parcel of Florida razor back pigs. Close study of the yellow green pigment used by Mr. Wilford to attain the semblance of a white horse is recommended to diligent art students.”
Nellie Brower, art critic for the Miami Daily News (December 23, 1951) commented on Wilford’s work at the Miami Beach Art Center, “Wilford Loran’s watercolors added cachet to the show…Without undue stress on color, Wilford has infused gaiety, charm, life and a fine atmospheric quality into his work. Sunset over Sarasota, Mending Nets and Florida Fisherman won me over completely. Judging by the long list of prizes and awards, his work has received adequate recognition north, south, east and west.”
Listed in Who’s Who in American Art and called the “Dean of Florida Romantic Realistic Painters, Wilford was included in the 1955 Ringling Museums exhibit, Fifty Florida Painters.
In the summer of 1963, the Florida Federation of Art held a reception for Wilford as the new artist-in residence at the DeBary mansion, calling him, “a master craftsman who has been winner of the International Print Prize and shown by invitation of the Royal Watercolor Society at the Royal Academy in England…his prizes and credits could fill a printed page.”
Born: 1892, Wamego, Kansas. Died: December 5, 1972, Sarasota. Education: Kansas City Art Institute; with Jonas Lie; George Pearse Ennis. Membership: Sarasota Art Association; Florida Federation of Art; Florida Artist Group; Art League of Manatee County; American Watercolor Society, secretary; Salmagundi Club, New York City; Royal Watercolor Society. Exhibits: Kansas City Fine Art Institute, June 1913, 1st prize, illustration; Fine Art Institute of Kansas City, March 1920, In Vacation Land; International Print Prize Los Angeles, 1922; California Print Makers, 1922, honorable mention; Kansas City Art Institute, 1922, silver medal; American Watercolor Society at National Academy, New York City, January 1929, Morning Shadows; American Watercolor Society, 1929, Gallatin Prize, Zabriske Prize, McGowan Prize; Tennessee State Fair, September 1929, Morning Shadows; New York Watercolor Club, 1929; American Watercolor Society, McGowan Prize, 1930; Salmagundi Club, Isidor Prize, 1930, Shaw Prize, 1931; Florida Federation of Art, 1931, 1st prize, oil; Philadelphia Watercolor Club, 1931, prize, Osborn Prize, 1933; Brooklyn Museum, Watercolor Show, November 1934; Argent Galleries, New York City, November 1935 two-man exhibit with Harrison Cady, including Light Showers, Return From the Waves and Cape Cod Dunes; Florida Federation of Art, 9th Annual Convention, Miami Biltmore Hotel, December 1936, 1st prize, over all in oil, professional, Juan and His Horses; Sarasota Art Association, February 1937, oils, Girl With a Mandolin, Myakka Trees, watercolor, Mid-Day Sun in Florida; Pearson Conrad Gallery, South Pineapple, Sarasota, one man show, February 1937; Florida Federation of Art Annual, St Petersburg Federal Gallery, February 1937, best picture in any medium, Juan and His Horses; Florida Federation of Art, 11th Annual Exhibition, St. Augustine, December 2-5, 1937, watercolors, Florida Live Oak, Myakka Woods; Argent Galleries, New York City, January 1938; Sarasota Art Association, 10th Annual, March 1938 (While living in Stanford, Conn.); American Watercolor Society, 71st Annual, February 1938, New York City, Montauk Cliffs; Ringling School of Art, Aqua-Chromatic Exhibit, February 1938, Florida Fisherfolk, sponsored by Grumbacher Galleries, New York; Florida Federation of Art, All Florida Show, Palm Beach, April 1938, Myakka Trees and Buzzards; American Fine Arts Society Galleries, 3rd Annual, New York City, July 1938, chosen to exhibit, Myakka Trees and Buzzards; Florida Federation of Art 12th Annual, Society of The Four Arts, Palm Beach, December 1938, watercolor, Fishermen at Dawn and 2nd honorable mention, 3rd best painting in exhibit, watercolor, Night Fisherman; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum of Art, February 1939, 2nd prize, oil, Florida scene, Henry and Esmeralda; Sarasota Art Association, Florida Theater building, March, April 1939, watercolor, Siesta Key Beach, oil, Sketch of Estelle; Sarasota Art Association, Cain Building, Orange Avenue, Art in Our Town, December 1939; Sarasota Art Association, 10th Annual Members Exhibition, March 1940, Myakka Fisherman, Rain in the Mountains, The Model; Clearwater Art Museum, April 22- May 5, 1941, Twelve Florida Artists, Celery Pickers, Nude with Still Life, Alien; Clearwater Art Museum, Gulf Coast Artists Group, Annual Circuit, 1942, Little Mo, Celery Pickers; Sarasota Art Association, February 1943, Tampa Scrub, Wilderness; Audubon Prize for Oil, National Academy of Design, 1945; American Watercolor Society, Osborne Purchase Prize, 1948; Sarasota Art Association, 25th Anniversary Year, Members Show, January 1951, Enka; Florida Artist Group, 2nd Annual national circuit, shown under auspices of the Art Department, University of Florida, May 1951 to April 1952, Madonna of the Fog; Miami Beach Art Center, December 1951, joint exhibition with Syd Solomon, Joel Reichard, Coming Storm, Two Nudes; Florida International Art Exhibit, Florida Southern College, Lakeland, 1952, prize; Florida Artist Group, 3rd Annual Members Exhibit, Ft. Harrison Hotel, Clearwater, shown under auspices of the Clearwater Art Group, March 1952, black & white drawings and prints, brush and ink study; Southeastern Exhibition, Atlanta, prize; Ringling Museum, 1952, 1st prize, circus subject; Florida Artist Group, 3rd Annual National Circuit, shown under auspices of the Clearwater Art Group, May 1952 to April 1953, Out of the Window; Art League of Manatee County, Members Exhibit, January 1953; Florida State Fair, Tampa, February 1953, oil; Salmagundi Club, New York, honorable mention and certificate of merit, 1953; Sarasota Art Review Week, March 1953; Goddard Gallery, Sarasota, February 1953, twenty-one oils and six watercolors, exhibit moved to Tampa Art Institute; Tampa Art Institute, November 1953; Sarasota Art Association, special mention for oil, 1953; Art League of Manatee County, 18th Annual Members’ Exhibit, February 1954, 1st prize, The Village Street; Ringling Museum of Art, 1955, Fifty Florida Painters, oil, Moon and Rocks; Florida Artist Group, 6th Annual Circuit, Palm Beach Art League, April 1955, Calle de Jesus Maria; Art League of Manatee County, All Members Exhibit, October 1955, 209 Ninth St. W. Bradenton, oil, Night Club; Manatee County Art Center, one man exhibit, oils and works in other media, December 4-16, 1955; Sea Isle Hotel, Miami, 1955, Watercolor Show; Art League of Manatee County, Members Exhibit, February 1956; Ringling Museum of Art, Paintings of the Circus, March 1956, Offstage Clown; Art League of Manatee County, December 1956; Florida State Fair, Fine Arts Exhibition, January 29-February 9, 1957, Introspective, Bayou Boats; Art League of Manatee County, 21st Annual Members Exhibition, February 1957, honorable mention; Tampa Art Institute, April 1957, one man show; Florida Artist Group, annual exhibit and symposium, Morse Gallery, Rollins College, Winter Park, May 1957, The White Babushka; Miami Beach Art Center, 2100 Collins Avenue, Circus Art by Sarasota Artists, Clown Acts; Florida Artist Group, 9th Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1958-1959, an oil, Back Country; Sarasota Art Association, Flowers and Landscape Exhibition, January 1959, Gay Bouquet; Art League of Manatee County, Pure Watercolor Member Exhibit, January 1959, El Cubano, Cliff Dwellers; Art League of Manatee County, Annual Members Juried Exhibit, March 1959, Sissie, Ballet Girl; Contemporary Arts Gallery, Pinellas Park, May 1959, new watercolor and tempera paintings of Florida and Cuba; Langford Gallery, Tampa, July 1959, one man show; Governor’s All Florida Art Show, Ringling Museum, Sarasota, January- February 1960, oils, Hills and Clouds, In the Hills, Ladies Auxiliary; Sarasota Art Association, Members’ Annual Juried Exhibition, February 1960, award of merit, Sharon; Art League of Manatee County, Members Annual, February 1960, Nude Study; Sarasota Art Association, Ringling Museum, April 1960, The Prodigal; Society of The Four Arts, 22nd Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1960, oil, Land of the Sun; Florida State Fair, Tampa, exhibited between, 1956-1962; Sunshine Festival Painting and Sculpture Competition, Contemporary Arts Gallery, Pinellas Park, March 1960, 4th prize, Hills and Clouds; Art League of Manatee County, Loran Wilford Retrospective Exhibit, January 1978; Permanent Collections, New York Public Library; High Museum, Atlanta; Toledo Museum of Fine Arts. Exhibited at Carnegie Institute; Chicago Art Institute; Pennsylvania Academy of Art; National Academy of Design. Directory: Listed in the Sarasota City Directory, 1959, 1960, as an artist with a studio at 5760 General Eaker Avenue.
