W. Lester Stevens was a landscape
painter and teacher from the Boston school of painting. He was
born in Rockport, MA in 1888 and he died in Greenfield, MA in
1969. He studied with Parker S. Perkins in Rockport; Tarbell and
Benson at Boston’s Museum School; and in Europe after World
War I. He was a National Academician and a member of the American
Watercolor Society; a founding member of the Rockport Art Association;
Springfield, MA Art League; Guild of Boston Artists; Gallery on
Moors; New Haven Paint and Clay Club, CT; Gloucester Society of
Art; North Shore Art Association; Boston Watercolor Club and the
New York Watercolor Club. He won art awards at the Corcoran Gallery,
Washington, DC; American Watercolor Society; New Haven Paint and
Clay Club; Springfield Art League; Salons of America; Washington
Watercolor Club; North Shore AA; Rockport AA and more. He painted
USPO murals in Dedham and Rockport, MA, the Boston City Hall,
the Louisville, KY Art Museum and several schools in Boston. He
lived in Rockport until 1934 and then moved to Conway. He painted
thick impastoed post-impressionistic canvases early in his career
and at the end of his life he used almost translucent thin washes
of paint. He taught at Princeton University, Boston University,
in his various studios, and at the Springfield Art Museum. During
the Great Depression he taught painting at Grand Manan. A compulsive
painter and known to be an “eccentric,” it is estimated
he finished over 5,000 canvases. References: Movalli, Charles,
American Artist (April 1986); Who’s Who in American Art (1947);
Who Was Who in American Art (vol. 3, p. 3171-72).
