Biography

William T. Dannat was born in 1853 at Hempstead, New York

Hempstead (village), New York

Hempstead is a village located in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 53,891 at the 2010 census.Hofstra University is located on the border between Hempstead and Uniondale.-Foundation:...

  the younger of two boys raised by William H. and Susan (née Jones) Dannat. His father was a successful lumber dealer who, with Charles E. Pell, founded the firm Dannat and Pell. Later William’s older brother David would succeed their father as a partner in the firm.

At around the age of twelve Dannat's parents decided to send him to Germany to further his education. He would later study architecture at Hanover and Stuttgart before choosing instead to become an artist. Dannat attended art classes at the Munich Royal Academy of Fine Arts and later under Mihaly Munkacsy

Mihály Munkácsy

Mihály Munkácsy was a Hungarian painter, who lived in Paris and earned international reputation with his genre pictures and large scale biblical paintings.-Early Years of Munkácsy:...

 in Paris. Dannat became an accomplished draughtsman

Draughtsman

A draughtsman or draftsman , is a person skilled in drawing, either:*drawing for artistic purposes, or*technical drawing for practical purposes such as architecture or engineering...

 and a distinguished figure and portrait

Portrait

thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

 painter. He early attracted attention with sketches and pictures made in Spain, and a large composition, The "Quatuor Espagno", that was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...

 in New York, was one of the successes of the Paris Salon of 1884. Dannat later settled in Paris, where he taught at the Académie Julian

Académie Julian

The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...

. He was influenced by a number of masters including, Carolus Duran and Munkacsy, though more by the latter as can be observed in his paintings "Contrebandier Aragonais," and in the "Quatuor Espagnol,"
Though at one time his name was mentioned alongside other great American painters such as Sargent

John Singer Sargent

John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...

 and Whistler, Dannat’s popularity was more in Europe than his homeland. As he approached middle age the financially secure artist began to devote more and more of his time to other interest, fencing

Fencing

Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...

, boxing

Boxing

Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 and later automobile racing. For nearly twenty years Dannat ceased painting and when he resumed around 1913 his art had adopted a more surrealistic style with illusionary landscapes and bizarre themes. During his hiatus from painting Dannat spent much of his time touring Europe studying the techniques of the great masters while remaining active in artistic circles in Paris where he served at one time as the president of the Society of American Painters.

William Turner Dannat passed away in 1929, aged 75, while at Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco....

.