Jan. 20, 1869. William Sergeant Kendall is born in Spuyten Duyvil, New York, to Benjamin Franklin Kendall and his wife, Elizabeth Ann Sergeant Kendall. He is named for Elizabeth’s father, William Sergeant.
1883. Kendall enrolls at the Brooklyn Art Guild, where he studies under Thomas Eakins.
1884. Follows Eakins to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
1886. Returns to New York and studies with Harry Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith at the Art Students League of New York
1888. Leaves for Paris.
1889. Studies at the Académie Julian.
1890. Sends The Little Water Carrier-Brittany and a Breton landscape to the National Academy of Design in New York.
1891. His painting St. Yves, Priez Pour Nous wins an honorable mention at the Paris Salon.
1892. Returns to New York. Teaches a women’s painting class at the Cooper Union, in addition to instructing at the Art Students League of New York.
1893. Receives a medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition (“the White City”) in Chicago for The Glory of Fair Promise.
1896. Marries his student Margaret Weston Stickney, whom he had previously met in Paris. Later that year, their first child, Elisabeth, is born on Gerrish Island off the coast of Maine, where the couple had spent the summer painting.
1897-1906. The Kendalls live on Manhattan’s west side, first on Twenty-second Street, and then on Forty-second Street, before moving to Barrytown on Hudson.
1900. The End of the Day receives the Silver Medal at the Buffalo Pan-American Exposition, the Bronze Medal at the Carnegie Institute, and Second Prize at the Worcester Art Institute.
1901. A Fairy Tale wins the Shaw Prize of the Society of American Artists. Kendall is elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design.
1902. Beatrice, Kendall’s second daughter, is born. A Fairy Tale wins Second Prize at the Worcester Art Museum.
1904. A Fairy Tale wins the Gold Medal at the St. Louis Exposition.
1905. Elected an Academician of the National Academy of Design.
1906. The Seer is bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beatrice is purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
1907. Alison, Kendall’s third daughter, is born. Interlude is bought by the National Gallery of Art. Narcissa is bought by the Corcoran Gallery and later receives the Harris Prize of the Chicago Art Institute in 1908.
1908. Accepts a teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Also teaches classes at the Carnegie Institute. Mischief receives the Isidor Medal at the National Academy of Design, and is purchased for the Peabody Institute, Baltimore.
1909. Psyche is bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1910. Devotion is awarded the Gold Medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition. Alison is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and wins the Potter Palmer Gold Medal. The painting is later bought by the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) in 1922. The Kendalls move to Newport, Rhode Island.
1911. Penumbra is bought by Walter Lippincott of Philadelphia.
1912. Intermezzo is bought by the Rhode Island School of Design. Crosslights is bought by the Detroit Museum of Art.
1913. Kendall succeeds John Ferguson Weir as head of the department of fine arts at Yale University, and the family moves to New Haven, Connecticut. A Child and a Mirror is bought by the Detroit Art Club, later given to the Detroit Museum of Art.
1915. Quest wins the Silver Medal for sculpture at the Panama Pacific Exhibition.
1917. Kendall exhibits A Sphinx at the Century Club in New York of which he’s a member.
1918. Phantastmata, Les Gracieuses, and Portrait of Beatrice are exhibited at the Century Club.
1918. Kendall paints A Child, which wins the Butler Prize at the Chicago Art Institute.
1922. Kendall resigns from Yale to devote himself exclusively to portrait and landscape painting. On July 25, he and Margaret obtain a divorce in Paris. In the fall, he marries Christine Herter, a former student and friend. In December, the couple takes up residence at Gramercy Farm, Hot Springs, Virginia.
1923. They purchase land nearby and build a large house which they name Garth Newel, where they paint and raise Arabian horses. (The estate continues to operate today as the Garth Newel Music Center.)
1926. The Critics wins the Gold Medal at the Mississippi Art Association.
1927. Cypripedia wins the Isidor Medal and is bought by the Ranger Fund for the National Academy of Design.
1930-1931. A Girl, Statuette, Two Sisters, and Venetian Brocade are exhibited at the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, of which Kendall is a member.
1931. Kendall suffers a serious head injury as a result of a riding accident and is in convalescence for nearly a month.
1935. Trillium is exhibited at the National Academy of Design.
1935. Several portraits are exhibited at the Century Club.
1935. Kendall participates in a Genre exhibition at the Century Club.
1937. Kendall has a riding accident which injures him so severely, he is bedridden until January 1938.
1938. On February 16, Kendall dies at his home in Hot Springs, Virginia. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in New York.