Wilford Conrow
Wilford Seymour Conrow (1880–1957) was an American portrait painter. He married Lyra Millette.
He was born June 14, 1880, in South Orange, New Jersey. He studied business at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and earned a Princeton University degree in 1901. He then worked eight years in a wholesale paper business.
From 1911 to 1916 he lived in Paris to study art at the Académie Julian and exhibited at the 1914 Paris Salon. World War I interrupted his studies; he served in the U.S. camouflage department in Europe, designing disguises. In Paris he met Lyra Millette, his future wife.
After the war he moved to New York City and ran a successful portrait studio above Carnegie Hall, while summers were spent in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
In 1940, at an Asheville art exhibition, he met young painter Paul Whitener. Though he did not plan to teach, he agreed to mentor Whitener, and they worked together each summer for 14 years.
Whitener wanted to found an art museum in his hometown of Hickory, North Carolina. As vice-president of the American Artists Professional League in New York, Conrow supported the idea and helped develop the Hickory Museum of Art, sharing his knowledge, connections, and many of his paintings.
Conrow’s portraits are known for capturing more than appearance; he spent weeks getting to know his subjects to reveal character, and he used bold color to enhance flesh tones.
His work is in the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Hickory Museum of Art.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 02:05 (CET).