William Fulton Soare, soared through 1930's as he pursued a growing success as a commercial illustrator. His productivity was remarkable. His colorful paintings depicted glamorous, adventurous and flamboyant images of pop culture of the 1930’s. His work appeared on the covers of leading magazines, advertisements and calendars and provided Americans an escape from the grim realities of World War I and The Great Depression.

Soare had the artistic ability to capture and accurately depict a wide range of human experience and emotion with painstaking historical authenticity. His work appeared on the covers of numerous western, detective, adventure, fashion and general interest magazines, among which were the New York Herald Tribune’s, This Week Magazine, Boys' Life, American Boy, Scribners, Adventure, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Soare was a student of the great masters of American illustration, including Dean Cornwell, Harvey Dunn, and N.C. Wyeth. He had received his art training as an student at the Sorbonne in Paris, following the end of World War I in 1918, when he was released from active duty with the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.

In 1935 came the biggest break of William’s career - a commission from Bausch & Lomb, for an "Optical Progress Series" comprised of six major canvases that illustrated highlights in the history of optics.

In that same year, William married Valdora Joyce Seissinger, who was a Memphis schoolmarm and a scholar of English literature . He had met and fallen in love with her on an excursion boat in the summer of 1930, when he was still a starving New York artist

Soare died February, 1940, on the threshhold of national recognition - in the prime of his creativity, when he was struck down at the age of 43, by a massive heart attack , while shoveling deep snow off his front walk in Englewood, New Jersey. He had been anticipating a visit from a representative from The Saturday Evening Post, who was meeting him to discuss a cover illustration for an upcoming issue.

Now, over six decades later, the importance of his work continues to be recognized as exemplified by a six-piece collection of oil paintings, that were recently donated by his son, Thomas F. Soare to the Mount Vernon collection in Washington’s home. William was commissioned to create the paintings in 1931 for a bicentennial calendar. They depict George Washington and moments of his presidency. In 1932, the paintings toured major cities in the U.S. through a sponsorship with the Daughters of the American Revolution.

For more information,
visit Thomas F. Soare’s website for
William F. Soare's work at:

www.sunlightreflections.com

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