William Kingston Vickery
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William Kingston Vickery | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of William Vickery at age 40 by Alphonse Legros. | |
| Born | 16 March 1851 Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 25 March 1925 (aged 74) |
| Occupation | Art dealer |
| Relatives | Anne Hadden (niece) |
William Kingston Vickery (16 March 1851 – 25 March 1925) was an Irish-American picture dealer who founded the San Francisco interior design firm and art gallery of Vickery, Atkins & Torrey. His art exhibitions are credited with bringing French Impressionism to the attention of Californians.
William was born 16 March 1851, Ballydehob, County Cork, Ireland to Paul and Mary Anne Levis Vickery. Paul Vickery died young and Mary Anne supported the family by successfully running the family store in Skibbereen. Paul and Mary Anne had ten children.
- Samuel emigrated to Australia
- Minnie (Waters) stayed in County Cork
- Sarah Ellen (Burrowes) also emigrated to Australia, married Robert Burrowes,M.L.A. Bendigo
- Elizabeth (Hadden) moved to Piedmont, California next door to the William Vickerys
- Frances (Keppel) emigrated to New York with her husband Fred Keppel
- Avesia died at 17
- Georgiana (Atkins) married Henry Atkins. Their son, also named Henry Atkins, became a partner in Vickery, Atkins & Torrey. Henry Atkins (the son) eventually moved to Piedmont just down the street from William and Elizabeth
- George stayed in Southern Ireland
- John moved to London (his son Philip was knighted)
- William moved to California, ending up in Piedmont, on Kingston Avenue.
William went to school in Skibbereen and subsequently to the Blue Coat School (known more formally as The King's Hospital) in Dublin. When he finished school he went to work for a Dublin bank. The bank sent him to the West Indies to check on various accounts. While there, he made a trip to northern South America. He went by dugout canoe up the Essequibo River. Later, a San Francisco newspaper referred to him as "the adventuresome Mr. Vickery".
When he came down with tuberculosis, the family sent him to California to get well (or die). He travelled by way of New York where his brother-in-law Fred Keppel had a well-known art store. Fred Keppel dealt primarily in etchings as he was color blind. He gave William a consignment of etchings to sell, if he could, in San Francisco. William did not take the recently completed transcontinental railroad, but went by ship to Nicaragua, portaged across to the Pacific, and continued by ship to San Francisco. In 1880, he was living in San Rafael, Marin County,[1] where he was able to follow doctor's orders to lead an outdoor life of activities such as horseback riding.
Family
After establishing himself in California and regaining his health, William wrote to his sweetheart, Sarah Keppel (1852–1917),[2] in Ireland, "come marry me". They had 3 children:
- Frederick Paul Vickery (1879–1965) Professor of Geology at U.C.L.A. and Sacramento State and later Director of the Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Art Center at Montalvo, Saratoga.
- Ruth Vickery Moser (1884–1936) housewife active in civic affairs in Cupertino California.
- Robert Kingston Vickery (1890–1971)[2] entomologist and builder in Berkeley. He married Ruth Bacon (1893–1983),[2] a niece of Lucy Bacon, an early California impressionist painter who had studied under Pizarro in France.
