DAN'NAT, WILLIAM T. (1853—). AnAmeri can painter, born in New York City. lie studied in Munich and under Alunkacsy in Paris, where lie afterwards took up his residence and became a teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. But he owes more to Manet and Degas than to his own master. One of his first pictures, "The Quar tette" (1884), now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, is a fine example of his earlier work. It shows the technical ability, the daring style, the solid, broad painting, and absence of conventionality characteristic of all his work. Among the many Spanish subjects done at this time are a "Sacristy in Arragon" (1888), in the Chicago Art Museum, and "A Cafe Chantant" (Munich, 1892), which was the sensation of the Exhibition. For sheer bravura, this startling. masterly study of artificial light has been equaled by no other American artist, and by few foreigners. His "Lady in Red," a one-color
scheme, is in the Luxembourg. The difficulties presented by such a subject as this one are man aged with consummate ease. Something in the same manner is his ''Lady in White." Among the portraits that have made him at once criti cised and praised is that of "Madame E." (Salon of 1805), the three-quarter length of a woman, almost colorless except for the vivid red of her lips. He joined the Society of American Artists in 1881, and became a member of the Societe Na tionale des Beaux-Arts. He was one of the In ternational Art Jury in 1889, and the same year received the cross of the Legion of Honor. Con sult: _Maher, Painting in the Nineteenth Cen tury (New York. 1896) ; Hartmann, History of American Art (Boston, 1902 ) .