Preston Dickinson

Preston Dickinson was born in New York City in 1891. He studied at the Art Students League from 1906 until 1910 where he developed a reputation for works that involved architectural subjects especially ones that had an industrial theme, all of which were conceived in a very Precisionist style of painting. Two of his fellow students were Ernest Lawson and George Bellows. In 1915 Dickinson moved to Paris where he remained until 1919. In Paris Dickinson was greatly influenced by the Cubist movement and particularly with the work of Paul Cezanne. During his stay he exhibited at the Salons des Artistes Français. When he returned to New York City, he exhibited his works at the Daniel Gallery. Beset by financial troubles and in ill health he returned to Europe in 1930 and sadly died of pneumonia the same year on September 25th in Spain. He had brought with him to Europe a large portfolio of drawings which he had hoped to show to art dealers in Paris. This portfolio was returned by the United States Embassy to his sister Enid Dickinson, who sold them to Edith Halpert of the Downtown Gallery in New York City, as the Daniel Gallery where Dickinson had previously shown his work had closed.