Maine History Volume 45 Number 3 Maine Culture, High and Low Article 2 12-1-2010 Maria J.C. A’ Becket: Rediscovering an American Artist Christopher Volpe New Hampshire Institute of Art; Chester College of New England Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, Fine Arts Commons, Painting Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Volpe, Christopher. "Maria J.C. A’ Becket: Rediscovering an American Artist." Maine History 45, 3 (2010): 202-231. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol45/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Maria A’Becket, Wooded Mountainside, c. 1890s. Collection of the Portland Museum of Art. Becket (or Beckett), a pioneer woman painter in the Barbizon style, grew up in Portland and exhibited in the windows of Portland art dealers before traveling to France to study with renowned landscapist Charles Daubigny. Beckett helped blaze a trail for women through the male-dominated world of professional painting. MARIA J.C. A’ BECKET: REDISCOVERING AN AMERICAN ARTIST BY CHRISTOPHER VOLPE Maria J.C. a’ Becket (or Beckett, as she originally spelled her name) got her start as an artist in Portland, Maine, and moved on to new venues in Boston, New York, Bar Harbor, and St. Augustine. She studied in France with well-known Barbizon School landscape painters and returned to American to develop a distinctly personal and American version of the genre.