Born in Syracuse, New York in 1878, Cahill began his studies of art at the Art Students League in New York, learning from Howard Pyle and Birge Harrison.  He then went on to study in Boston, Massachusetts with Edmund Tarbell and Frank Benson.  Out of his academic background Cahill developed a style based on Impressionism, and his work includes landscapes and figure studies.

Cahill shared a studio in Boston with John Hubbard Rich and also maintained a studio in Woodstock, New York.  In 1914 Cahill and Rich moved to Los Angeles where they founded the School for Illustration and Painting.  They sold the school to J. Francis Smith in 1917.  Cahill was an active professor in Southern California where he taught at various studios in Laguna Beach, Pasadena and Hollywood.

In 1915 he exhibited one painting at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.  He had a solo exhibition in 1917 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and also exhibited in 1919 at the Phoenix Exhibition, where he won a first prize.  He exhibited frequently with the California Art Club.  For one school year he taught drawing and painting at the University of Kansas, but soon returned to California.

Cahill and his wife, Katharine moved to San Francisco in 1920 where he worked as a commercial artist for two years and showed his paintings with the San Francisco Art Association. He spent his last two years in Chicago, Illinois where he died of a heart attack in 1924.


Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Peter Hastings Falk, Who Was Who in American Art

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