Irving Ramsey Wiles was born in
Utica, New York on April 8, 1861. He was educated at the Sedgwick Institute in
Great Barrington, and learned the basics of painting from his father,
Lemuel M. Wiles (1826–1905), who focused primarily on landscapes. From 1879 to 1881 he studied in the
Art Students League of New York under
James Carroll Beckwith and
William Merritt Chase, and later in
Paris under
Carolus-Duran. In his early years, he worked as an illustrator for American magazines, and later he devoted himself with great success to portraiture. He was a member of the
Society of American Artists, which prefaced his 1897 election into the
National Academy of Design as an associate. Wiles was also a member of the
American Water Color Society. While active as a varied painter in the late 19th century, his career reached new heights in 1902, when his portrait of the actress
Julia Marlowe was exhibited at the National Academy. The elegant and successful
grand manner portrait bolstered him to fame, and from 1902 until the late 1920s, when he retired due to infirmity, Wiles continually received portrait commissions from America's elite. Wiles would go on to paint notable Americans such as
Theodore Roosevelt and
William Jennings Bryan. While prized today for his paintings and portraits of women, Wiles was considered accomplished in the field of male portraiture during his life: in 1919 he was selected by the National Art Committee to paint portraits for a pictorial history of World War I. Toward the end of his career Wiles was noted for the plein-air land and seascapes he painted at his home in
Peconic, New York. Wiles died penniless (without so much as headstone) in Peconic on July 29, 1948. File:Irving Ramsay Wiles - The Sonata - Google Art Project.jpg|Irving Wiles.
The Sonata (1889) Oil on canvas.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (
de Young Museum) File:Miss julia marlowe.png|Irving Wiles.
Portrait of Miss Julia Marlowe (1901). Oil on canvas.
National Gallery, Washington, D.C. File:Irving_R._Wiles_-_Brown_Kimono_(Portrait_of_Kathryn_Beta_la_Forque)_-_1909.7.77_-_Smithsonian_American_Art_Museum.jpg|Irving Wiles.
Brown Kimono(Portrait of Kathryn Beta La Forque) (1908). Oil on canvas.
Smithsonian American Art Museum ==References==