He born on October 23, 1853 at Hinesburg, Vermont, United States, was the son of the Rev. William Lamb Picknell and Ellen Maria (Upham) Picknell. His father, a Baptist minister, was of Scotch descent. His mother was a descendant of one of the settlers of Weymouth, Massachussets. Upon the death of his father, Picknell, then about fourteen years old, went to Boston, and, after a brief interval of business, in 1874 traveled to Rome.
In Rome he met George Inness and under his tutelage did his first experimental work at painting on the Campagna. He also was trained with Jean-Léon Gérôme in Rome (1874–75) and received some informal training from Robert Wylie in Brittany.
In 1880 he sent to the Paris Salon his "Road to Concarneau, " which made a name for him. It was followed in 1881 by another excellent landscape. The artist then went to England and painted for two winters near the south coast and in the New Forest. "Bleak December, " now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and "Wintry March, " belonging to the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, were conspicuously successful works of this period.
After a decade abroad Picknell returned to America and painted at Annisquam, Massachussets, for several summers, usually going to the Mediterranean shores for his winter work. He spent one winter in Florida and another in California, where he painted his "In California, " which brought $2, 025 at the executor's sale of his works, in New York, 1900.
In 1890 he went abroad and remained in France until 1897. He worked in Moret in the summer and at Antibes in the winter. The pictures painted there served to increase his reputation in France, especially the "Déclin du Jour. "
The death of his only child at Antibes in 1897 was a heavy blow. Picknell was himself far from well, but he sailed for America in July and got to Marblehead, Massachussets, to die there of heart disease in August, at the age of forty-three.
His style is naturalistic and large; the construction is notably firm, and there is an invigorating atmosphere in his canvases of fresh air and strong sunlight.
He was a member of Society of American Artists, Society of British Artists.
He married Gertrude Powers in 1889. They had a son.
