Son of a prominent attorney, Dougherty followed in his father’s footsteps and passed the Bar Exam in 1898; but he never practiced, deciding instead to pursue his innate artistic abilities. Best known today for his dramatic oil paintings of churning, turbulent waves crashing against the rocky coasts of Maine, Cornwall, Brittany and the Monterey Peninsula, Dougherty forged a distinguished reputation and a successful career very early on. By age 18 he had a work accepted for the National Academy of Design’s annual exhibition. Full membership and top awards followed there, along with a Gold Medal triumph in the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Essentially self-taught, he augmented his scant formal training by studying the Old Masters in European museums. Bi-continental exhibits in leading galleries mounted, along with glowing feature articles and reviews, all with comparisons to Winslow Homer. Museums purchased his oils for their permanent collections. As one art historian wrote, “Everything came to him; all his pictures sold, he won all the prizes…the rich delighted to honor him, and his wives were glamorous.” In 1928 Dougherty moved west, spending summers in Carmel and winters in the California desert to ease his increasingly debilitating arthritis. He joined the Carmel Art Association in 1931 and became active in the local art scene. When he died he was recognized as one of America’s most recognized and prize-winning artists, his work grounded in Realism but with energetic brushstrokes and iridescent hues indicating his debt to Impressionism.