William Bils [1872-1944]
German-American | Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Landscape, ca.1923
Oil on board
10-1/2 x 14 inches
Signed in pen on verso : ‘W. BiLS’.

William Bils [1872-1944]

BIOGRAPHY
William Bils [1872-1944] was a German-born landscape painter who settled in Brooklyn, NY.  Bils’ training is unknown but he may have been trained in Paris, living in Drancy, Paris and in his native Germany.  His work was influenced by the Düsseldorf school and Barbizon school of painting which could indicate that he comes from Dusseldorf.  Bils appears in Brooklyn newspapers as a renter of rooms in his home, seven bedrooms, near Prospect Park, Brooklyn at 628 Bergen Street in 1911 and 1912.  Prospect Park, most probably due to its proximity became the artist’s prime subject for his art work.  Bils had a wife, Anna Bils, a son that past before reaching the age of one (also named William Bils [1910]), and another son Bernard Bils.  The artist’s work is very thickly painted and the colors are greyed with white.  Bils died on April 3, 1944.

SOURCES
– The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn, NY, Monday, July 1, 1912, page 11.
– “William Bils – 1940 Cenus Record.” Mooseroots.com. Updated 1940. Accessed August 6, 2017. http://1940-census.mooseroots.com/l/98118446/William-Bils