A painter, sculptor, and noted art teacher, William S. Kendall received his education at the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute before enrolling at the Brooklyn Art Guild under Thomas Eakins in 1883. The next year, he followed Eakins to Philadelphia to work under him at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Returning to New York in 1886, Kendall studied with H. Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith at the Art Students League. He left for Paris in 1888, spending a year in Luc Olivier Merson's atelier of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and working off and on for three years at the Acad‚mie Julian. Although he usually spent his summers in Brittany, Kendall made a formative trip to Spain in 1891. The following year, he returned to New York.
Over the next three decades, Kendall secured teaching positions at a variety of art schools. He began by instructing the life class at the Cooper Union (1892-95), then moved to the Art Students League. Before relocating to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1910, he taught at the Carnegie Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy. He took his most important position in 1913 when he became dean of the Yale School of Fine Arts.
Kendall married a fellow painter, Margaret Stickney, in 1896. She and her daughters soon became common subjects for his art. These figure studies as well as his work in portraiture advanced his reputation enough to be elected to the Society of American Artists in 1898. He also turned gradually to the nude as a subject. He was soon elected to the National Academy as well, serving on the Council from 1906 to 1909.
Kendall was divorced from his wife in 1921, and, the following year, he married a Yale student, Christine Herter. He resigned his appointment at Yale and moved to a farm in Hot Springs, Virginia. There he bred Arabian horses and continued to paint until his death.
