William Chadwick was born in 1879 in Dewsbury, England and moved with his family to Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1882. He remained there until relocating to New York City where he joined the Art Student's League. He studied under such notable artists as John H. Twachtman, George Bridgman, and Joseph DeCamp.
During the early Twentieth Century, Old Lyme Connecticut was a flourishing artist colony centered in the boarding house of Florence Griswold. Chadwick's first visit there was in 1902 and he traveled to and from Old Lyme, until he made it his homestead in 1915. Combined with his teachings from studying in Paris with Frederick Frieseke and the influence of his teachers at the Art Student's League, Chadwick was able refine his Impressionist palette and perfect his energetic brushstroke.
In New York, he shared studio space with Will Howe Foote and Harry Hoffman and summers with them at Old Lyme, and eventually these three artists and their families moved to Old Lyme. He had studied with Joseph De Camp at the Art Students League, and at Old Lyme was much influenced by Willard Metcalf and Walter Griffin. Chadwick married Pauline Bancroft of Wilmington, Delaware, and they traveled extensively in Italy from 1910 to 1912. In 1915, they purchased a home in Old Lyme, and lived there for the next forty years. He also painted at Monhegan Island, Maine, Vermont, and Bermuda.
Chadwick continued his work in Old Lyme, other parts of New England, and Florida, and died at age eighty-three in Old Lyme.