William J. McCloskey

William J. McCloskey (1859, 1941) was an American realist painter best known for his exquisitely detailed still life paintings of wrapped oranges and other citrus fruits in tissue paper, a subject that became his signature motif. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and spent significant time in Europe, particularly England, where he and his wife, portrait painter Alberta Binford McCloskey, built their careers. His meticulous technique and luminous rendering of light on fruit and fabric have made his works highly sought after at auction, with prices regularly reaching six figures.