American Art Collaborative

“Wolcott always said he would be a great man if he could live up to that bust.” Charles Erskine Scott Wood, 189
In 1877, Olin Warner lived with Henry Wolcott, nicknamed “The Bird.” Wolcott exhibited a painting at the annual show of the National Academy of Design in 1879, but his artistic career was short-lived. Warner was often appalled by his roommate’s drunken antics, reporting to a friend that “The Bird” brought “objectionable friends” home late at night and would turn the “small den and studio into a place of fearful noise and orgy till sometimes the police would interfere.” Despite his disdain for his friend’s lack of discipline, Warner portrayed him in painter’s garb holding a palette