William Charles Baker   (American, 1872 – 1958)
Title:  View of Cayuga Lake, New York
Medium: Watercolor on Panel
Size:  9-1/2” x 11-1/2”
This beautiful watercolor on panel measures 9-1/2" x 11-1/2" or in the period wood frame dimensions of 10" x 12" signed lower right, W.C. Baker.  This watercolor by William Charles Baker of Cayuga Lake, the largest of the famed Finger Lakes of New York, is looking north from the Cayuga Heights neighborhood near where Baker lived and a vantage point from where he created many of his works. This is one of two watercolors that I purchased from a New England home sale many years ago and is a quintessential representation on Baker's work.  The watercolor is in good condition with beautiful color and detail... very nice. 
 
Biography:
Born on November 17, 1872, in Buffalo, NY, William Charles Baker went to Cornell University as a student in 1894.  As an underclassman his drawing ability was so outstanding in biological courses that various professors called upon him for illustrations for their publications. Graduating from Cornell in 1898, Baker stayed to teach drawing for several years before traveling to Paris in 1904, where he studied with J.P. Laurens at the Academie Julian.  Returning back to Ithaca in 1905, Baker became professor of drawing in the College of Agriculture at Cornell in 1907, a position that he held until retiring in 1938.
Though he exhibited widely, he would not join any national societies of art, nor did he ever want a dealer handling his works.  In fact, most of his paintings were given as gifts from the artist.
William Charles Baker painted the Finger Lakes landscape around Ithaca, in both oil and watercolor for over sixty-fours until his death on February 20, 1958 at the age of 85. He was an enthusiastic artist and teacher who took great pleasure in introducing the beauty he saw in nature to others. He loved to paint the Finger Lakes countryside in western New York State. "We live in a beautiful world," Baker once said, "and those who live in the Finger Lakes region dwell in one of the finest parts of this beautiful world." His paintings captured the area's seasonal changes and atmospheric qualities. Baker's work was exhibited in Paris, New York, Philadelphia, and Buffalo, as well as in his adult hometown of Ithaca, New York.