William Turner Dannat (July 9, 1853March 12, 1929) was an American artist known especially for paintings of Spanish subject matter.
Biography
William T. Dannat was born in 1853 at Hempstead, New York 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. Later, William's older brother David would succeed their father as a partner in the firm.
When Dannat was around the age of twelve, his parents decided to send him to Germany to further his education. He would later study architecture at Hanover and Stuttgart before choosing instead to become an artist. Dannat attended art classes at the Munich Royal Academy of Fine Arts and later under Mihály Munkácsy in Paris. Dannat became an accomplished draughtsman and a distinguished figure and portrait painter. He early attracted attention with sketches and pictures made in Spain. A large composition, The Quatuor Espagnol, 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 Munkácsy, though more by the latter, as can be observed in his paintings Contrebandier Aragonais and Quatuor Espagnol.
