William Willet was an American artist in stained glass.
Background
William Willet was born on November 1, 1867 in New York City, the son of George and Catherine (Van Ranst) Willet. His father's occupation as a wood-worker and his mother's musical talent may have been related to young Willet's esthetic enthusiasms.
Of his earlier ancestors, Thomas Willet was the first English mayor of New York City; on his mother's side there was the romantic Anneke Jans, wife of Everardus Bogardus. Willet never boasted of his ancestors, of his athletic skill, nor of his struggles against poverty after his father's death in 1880. But he did chuckle to recall the hot baked potatoes that kept him warm on windy walks over Brooklyn Bridge before he devoured them. He never mentioned the world-championship medal he won in an English-American Walking Race in 1886, nor his successes in portrait painting in 1885 that, with his mother's position as soloist in prominent churches, kept the Willet home from crumbling.
Education
He won a college scholarship in 1884 which he could not afford to accept, but he did study at the Mechanics' and Tradesmen's Institute in 1884-85 and under the artists William Merritt Chase and John La Farge from 1884 to 1886.
Career
His vivid color-sense interested La Farge, and in that master's studio-workshop young Willet learned to make picture windows of the new opalescent glass. Later, when it was exploited by the art-glass industry, Willet rebelled against it and all its works. He appears in Brooklyn city directories from 1887 to 1892 as a designer and as a worker in stained glass. From about 1898 to 1913 he lived in Pittsburgh, where by 1899 he had established the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company.
His influence increased after his marriage. Mrs. Willett was herself a trained artist, and through her sympathetic cooperation, he was encouraged in his own efforts and to study old windows in Europe. From his trip in 1902 he returned with renewed convictions. The energy that he had poured into athletics and later into religious work returned to him when in 1902 he first challenged popular taste in Christian art. Among the converts to his convictions was the architect of the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, where minister and congregation preferred picture windows. Willet's "antique" window of 1906 was promptly hidden behind a great organ, but not before it had been observed by Ralph Adams Cram, who gave him a commission for the chancel window in his distinguished Calvary Church of Pittsburgh in 1907. That window was hailed with delight and was followed by many other windows for important buildings.
In 1913 the Willet family moved to Philadelphia, where Willet was president of the Willet Stained Glass and Decorating Company from 1915 until his death in 1921.
Achievements
The best known of his works are the sanctuary window of the chapel at West Point (1910) and the great west window of the Graduate School, Princeton University (1913). The West Point competition was international in scope, and the winning design by Willet has been called the symbol of a regenerated craft in America. Other work by Willet is to be seen in St. John's of Lattington, L. I, Trinity Church in Syracuse, N. Y. , Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia, and Calvary Church in Germantown, Pa. His original designs were exquisite water-color miniatures that seemed almost miraculous as they were developed from a grubby box of water-colors in a dusty shop. His article, "The Art of Stained Glass, " appeared in Architecture in April 1918.
Personality
His tall, slender figure would straighten and his quiet voice would take on power when he talked before interested audiences, large or small.
Connections
In 1896 he married to Anne Lee, daughter of the Rev. Henry Flavel Lee of Philadelphia. He had two daughters, and a son, who also became an artist in stained glass.
