WILL HICOK

LOW (1853- )  , American artist and writer on art, was born at Albany, New York, on the 31st of May 1853 . In 1873 he entered the atelier of J . L . Gerome in the Ecole des Beaux Arts at Paris, subsequently joining the classes of Carolus-Duran, with whom he remained until 1877 . Returning to New York, he became a member of the Society of American Artists in 1878 and of the National Academy of ,Design in 189o . His pictures of New England types, and illustrations of Keats, broughthim into prominence . Subsequently he turned his attention to decoration, and executed panels and medallions for the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, a panel for the Essex County Court House, Newark, New Jersey, panels for private residences and stained-glass windows for various churches, including St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, Newark, N.J . He was an instructor in the schools of Cooper Union, New York, in 1882-1885, and in the school of the National Academy of Design in 1889-1892 . Mr Low, who is known to a wider circle as the friend of R . L . Stevenson, published some reminiscences, A Chronicle of Friendships, 1873-1900 (1908) . In 1909 he married Mary (Fairchild), formerly the wife of the sculptor MacMonnies .