Born in Auburn, New York, William Hilliard (1836-1905) studied in New York and Boston. He made some of the first paintings in the White Mountains, including paintings of Mount Washington and the Old Man of the Mountains. He also painted the Franconia Mountains and along the Maine coast. During the 1860s-70s Hilliard painted in Indiana; he lived in Madison and later Indianapolis. He moved to Boston, exhibiting at the Boston Art Club, the Brooklyn Academy, and the National Academy of Design in New York and other venues, winning several awards and prizes. Hilliard made several study trips to Europe, studying in Paris with Emile Lambinet and others, and exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London in 1880 and at the Paris Salons of 1882 and 1884. By 1888 he had moved once again, this time to Washington D.C., but he returned to the American West to paint, including a sketching trip to Yosemite in 1892. Known for his New England landscape and coastal scenes, he also painted portraits and floral subjects, but his best known work was a painting entitled The Flight Above the Clouds, which earned some renown when it was sold during his lifetime for ten thousand dollars.

Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking