Stokely Webster, born in l9l2 in Evanston, IL, is truly American since he traces his roots back to the arrival of his ancestor, John Webster, from England in l633 to rule as colonial governor. However, the apellation “impressionist” fits him well, as French and American Impressionists such as Manet, Pisarro, Bonnard, Sargent and most of all Monet have heavily influenced him all his life. When he was learning to paint in Paris at age nine, these artists were alive and painting. “I started painting after seeing Monet at work in his garden at Giverny”, said Webster. Indeed, he has been nicknamed “The American Monet” .

“Stokely Webster's paintings are about light, which the artist claims is he inspiration to paint. It was what inspired the Impressionists over a hundred years ago, converting them to plein air painting, which initially shocked and then delighted the world with its fresh, sparkling vision of nature. Webster continues the tradition”.

Harold C. Schonberg, cultural correspondent for the New York Times wrote, “Stokely Webster is a fast painter. He is also a lyric painter.” One must be swift in order to catch the light. His paintings are “never overworked, never fussy…he is an imaginative painter as well as a technician, he has a lyric vision that also expresses himself as well as what he sees” Webster, very much a realist, is one of those rare artists who operate from both sides of the brain, giving his work a technical and painterly in style. Webster lived and worked through all the “isms” of the twentieth century—abstract expressionism, cubism, dadaism, conceptualism, etc., but never wavered in his highly impressionistic renderings.

To understand the artist's motivation, one must look at his background. Stokely's father, John Kitchell Webster, a prolific novelist, moved the family to Paris in l922 to join the band of expatriates--Hemingway, Henry Miller, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein. Finding that he didn't fit in with the “lost generation”, the elder Webster returned to Illinois but left his son with his friend, Lawton Parker who taught Stokely to paint. The nine-year-old eagerly took in the museums and sights of Paris . “ Lawton Parker…to take my easel to the Paris streets…and to paint plein air.”

Webster returned to America in l924. Art took a back seat to his technical side, as he built an automobile at age l2 and learned to fly at l4. He later studied architecture at Yale, and attended Stern University and the University of Chicago . However, the allure of the art world took over and he quit to paint full time. In l933, he married Iva Kitchell, a ballet dancer, who would often serve as his model. They moved to New York, where he studied with Wayman Adams, Robert Henri disciple, and also spend long hours copying the masters at the Metropolitan Museum . It was Wayman's influence that predisposed Webster's ability to capture the essence of a person in portraits in the luxurious painterly manner of Henri and Sargent.

He exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington in l937. Thereafter, his work was recognized with several solo exhibitions. His first one-man show in New York at the O'Toole Gallery in l940 brought remarkable reviews. Henry McBride of the “New York Sun” wrote: “Among the clever new painters being shown to New Yorkers, Stokely Webster…is by no means the least of them…Mr. Webster paints in the way that at one time was thought the only way to paint, using flowing strokes and well-thinned out pigments that come to us through Sargent via Frans Hals and Velasquez.” From the “New York Herald Tribune”, “his work…suggests such technical skill as Sargent had, in his smoothly and brilliantly painted landscapes…It seems to us that this artist has the makings of a sure success where taste calls for something sophisticated and elegant.”

The next year, he earned top prize for his painting “IN THE PARK” at the ll5th exhibition of the National Academy of Design. World War II again interrupted his artistics pursuits. Webster studied engineering at Columbia University at night and designed airplanes for Grumman Aircraft until l948, when he once again returned to painting full time in his New York studio that was once owned by George Luks. He was quite prolific during this period, amassing a huge body of work for his next one-man show. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed much of this work in l952, ending his exhibition plans. Crushed by the loss, the Websters moved to Long Island, where Sokely retreated once more to engineering, designing gyroscopes for NASA. He rose to president of the company, but resigned in l960 to paint in earnest.

The 70's saw major exhibitions for Webster—in the Salon des Artiste Francais and the Salon des Independents in Paris , in Biarritz , Palm Beach , etc. The French were particularly fond of his work. One reviewer wrote of his Biarritz exhibition: This is equally at home in France …The sense of observation, remarkable in the hands of this artist, translates itself by figurative works perpetuating the tradition of the great Impressionists.” And so “Stokely Webster was welcomed back into the fraternity of painters from which circumstances had so long contrived to exclued him.”

There have been many critically acclaimed exhibitions since. A recent showing of his work at the Hammond Museum in North Salem , N. Y. brought glowing reviews. Webster's work is in 33 museums—The National Museum of American Art, The National Academy of Design, The High Museum, The Denver Art Museum, Gracie Mansion, The Corporate Collection of AT&T, etc.

Webster and his wife, the former Audrey Lenz Coutant, now live in New England where he creates paintings in his studio, a l50 year old barn. They travel to France each year to be inspired to paint “plein air” intimate scenes in the beloved parks at Paris and surrounding areas. He surely has earned the admiration and respect of renowned museum directors, collectors, and critics alike.

Stokely Webster has studied under his uncle, Lawton Parker who studied under James McNeal Whisler, Gerome, and Durand.

• George Korńye , Korńye Galerie, Dallas , New York , London
• Mary Louise Kane, ”Stokely Webster's Sparkling Vision of Nature”, Antiques and the Arts Weekly, July 23, l993.
• Harold C. Schomberg in the Forward to “Stokely Webster-Paintings, l923-l984 Retrospective Catalogue, Museum of Arts and Sciences-Daytona Beach, Florida l985.
• Louis Roney, “Stoke” Centerstage, Maitland, Florida, Vol.5,#11, December l983, Pg. l.
• THE NEW YORK SUN, February l0, 1940
• Carlyle Burrows, “Two American Realists”, New York Herald Tribune, June 2, 1940. The other realist was Ernest Fiene.
• Gazette de Biarritz, July 7, l970.
• Harry Rand, Curator of 20 th Century Art, The National Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington , D.C. , in the Introduction to op.cit. Stokely Webster – Paintings.