William Turner Dannat was born on the 9th of July in 1853 in Hempstead, New York, United States, 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.
Dannat attended art classes at the Munich Royal Academy of Fine Arts and later under Mihaly Munkacsy in Paris.
William Turner Dannat 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 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. 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 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, boxing 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.
Dannat became an accomplished draughtsman and a distinguished figure and portrait painter.
