Willard Warren Cummings (1915–1975) was born in 1915 in Old Town, Maine, to Willard Howe Cummings and Helen Cummings (neé Warren). Cummings was educated in France at the Académie Julian, and later earned a bachelor of fine arts from Yale University. Cummings was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, for his many contributions to the Colby College Museum of Art from its founding in 1959 (Smithsonian). Cummings enlisted in the US military in 1941 and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands (AK) as part of the United States Army Art Unit. He was known as a genius at navigating politics and public relations, all of which were integral to the Art Unit’s purpose of documenting and artistically depicting the war. During his time in the military, Cummings created portraits of notable individuals, such as politicians, generals, and celebrities. During his enlistment, Cummings met fellow artists Charles Cutler, Henry Varnum Poor, and Sidney Simon; together, they founded in 1946 the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Somerset County, Maine. Cummings’s father, Willard H. Cummings (1884–1950), was instrumental in the preservation of the South Solon Meeting House and was included in the group portrait fresco in the Meeting House’s lobby. Cummings’s wife, Mildred, became director of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in 1967 and played as well an instrumental in caring for and documenting the SSMH. Cummings remained in Maine for much of his life, passing away in Skowhegan in 1975.
—Rory Hallowell
- Cummings, Mildred H. South Solon: The Story of a Meeting House. South Solon, Maine: South Solon Historical Society, 1959.
- Maine Genealogy; Maine World War II Enlistment Records. “Enlistment Record of Willard W. Cummings.”
- SAAM (Smithsonian American Art Museum). “Willard W. Cummings.”
- Smithsonian. “Willard Warren Cummings Papers.” Archives of American Art.