William Anderson Coffin was an American landscape painter and an influential art critic. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated with a degree in fine art from Yale University before traveling to Paris to study painting with Léon Bonnat. In Paris, he exhibited at the Salon in 1879, 1880, and 1882, reaching the pinnacle of achievement for American artists in this period. He moved to New York City in 1882, where he exhibited regularly at the National Academy of Design. He also worked as an art critic, writing for Harper's Weekly, Scribners, and the New York Post. He became art editor at the New York Sun. In 1901 he directed the Fine Arts Division of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, and in 1915 he served on the advisory board for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
