reaki ng TrWaITH dition BOhio Women Painters , 1 870 –1950

FIGURE 1: Christine Fowler Shearer, M.A. Clara Deike (1881–1964) Brigitte M. Foley, M.A. Self-Portrait with Orange Hat, c. 1925 William H. Robinson, Ph.D. Oil on canvas , 23 x 17.5 Judy L. Larson, Ph.D. Private Collection Courtesy of Vixseboxse Art Galleries

THE MASSILLON MUSEUM Massillon, Ohio May 21, 2005—August 7, 2005

THE RIFFE GALLERY Columbus, Ohio November 3, 2005—January 8, 2006

THE SOUTHERN OHIO MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTER Portsmouth, Ohio February 12, 2006—May 21, 2006 © Copyright 2005 Massillon Museum 121 Lincoln Way East Massillon, OH 44646 Christine Fowler Shearer, Director

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005926800

ISBN: 0-9755555-1-0

Exhibition Curated by: Christine Fowler Shearer, M.A.

Project Coordinated by: Ann Caywood Brown

Edited by: Hugh J. Brown

Typography and Design by: Margy Vogt

Printing by: Bates Printing Inc., Massillon, Ohio

Staff Support: Alexandra Nicholis, M.A. Amanda Altimus

Photo Credits: Brian Pierce Christine Fowler Shearer Canton Museum of Art Keny Galleries Butler Institute of American Art Spanierman Gallery, LLC

FIGURE 2: May Ames (1869–1943) In the Ruins, 1926 Oil on canvas, 18 x 12 inches Collection of Robert Burns

FIGURE 3: Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Flower Market, nd Watercolor, 18 x 14 inches Collection of Robert Burns

2 FIGURE 4: Clara Deike (1881–1964) Willows and Hollyhocks 1916 Watercolor and gouache on paper 18 x 21 inches Christine and Brian Pierce Collection

Contents

Exhibition Sponsors ...... 4

Lenders to the Exhibition ...... 6

Massillon Museum Board of Trustees ...... 6

Foreword Judy L. Larson, Ph.D ...... 7

Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870–1950 Christine Fowler Shearer, MA ...... 13

Patterns and Similarities in Stylistic Development Brigitte M. Foley, MA ...... 21

Against All Odds: An Untold History of Women Artists in Ohio Wililam H. Robinson, Ph. D...... 31

Artists and Paintings in the Exhibition ...... 51

Bibliography ...... 58

Authors ...... 60

Acknowledgments ...... 62

3 Donors

This catalog and exhibition have been made possible by the generous support of the following foundations, organizations and individuals:

Canton /Stark County Convention & Visitors Bureau The Ohio Humanities Council

Jeanne Cooper Doris Browarsky William and Linda Cornell Russel Carpenter Robert and Carolyn David Beverly Denholm Nancy and Robert Dawson Barbara Gaul Maggie Denman Marie Gardner Bob and Nancy Gessner Cass and Lori Gowins Richard and Susan Gessner Kathleen Hickey Green William and Judy Kapper Robert Hopp Evaline Kirkpatrick David and Judy Lundquist Dave and Kim Leffler David and Jane Schultz Clare Murray Rod and Christine Shearer Mr. and Mrs. Richard Reichel Don and Shirley Sibila Ron and Jane Sibila Harold Smith Mr. and Mrs. Walter T. Sorg, Jr. John and Elaine Snively Dale Young John and Amelia Sparks Thomas and Nancy Straughn Robert and Susan Yund Junie and Dolores Studer Elizabeth Zelei Rudolph and Aileen Tekaucic

4 FIGURE 5: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) Docked, 1910 Watercolor on paper, 15 x 10.5 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

5 Lenders to the Exhibition

Robert Burns Daniel Bush Butler Institute of American Art The Canton Museum of Art Cincinnati Museum Center Cleveland Artists Foundation The Cleveland Play House Columbus Museum of Art James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited, Inc. 2005 Massillon Museum Pete and Pidge Diehl Dr. Eugene Folden Board of Trustees Robin and Harry Froeschke John and Susan Horseman Robert K. Yund, Chairman Keny Galleries David W. Schultz, Past Chairman Sally and Brian Kriska Fred Butler, Vice Chairman Mrs. Richard Margolis David Lundquist, Treasurer Mrs. William A. Monroe Judy Paquelet, Secretary Christine and Brian Pierce Karen Boyd Playhouse Square Center Margaret Cocklin Private Collections Beverly Denholm Rachel Davis Fine Arts William Doll Richmond Art Museum Jayne Ferrero The Schumacher Gallery, Capital University Nancy Gessner Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York Shane Jackson Thomas French Fine Art William Kapper Helen Wessel Robert Shedlarz Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland

FIGURE 6: Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) Helen Watkins, 1950’s Oil on Canvas , 24 x 21 inches The Cleveland Play House Collection

6 Foreword Judy L. Larson

Be prepared to make some stunning discoveries as you view Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870–1950, an exhibition featuring fifteen artists from three geographic areas in Ohio—Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. In reading this catalogue, you will likely find artists’ names you do not recognize or works that seem less than familiar. This should not deter you; there is both reward and joy in discovering women artists from all periods. Neglected in most art history textbooks before the 1980s, interest in women artists in the last two decades has been at the center of a resurgence of interest. Scholars comb through historic archives to add to our knowledge of women artists. Curators continue to search the corners of museum storage rooms seeking forgotten works by women artists. It is a challenging area for research, but as this exhibition reveals, there is much to be found.

During 1870–1950, the time period covered in this exhibition, women were given few solo exhibitions; they rarely received mention in critical reviews of group exhibitions, and they received little encouragement by way of commissions or through the sale of their art. Nineteenth century attitudes about a woman’s proper role of domesticity, purity, and modesty lingered well into the twentieth century. It was difficult for women to receive training at art academies; women’s classes were often segregated from men’s. A woman was at a disadvantage in the business of art, often barred from the daily commercial worries of caring for a studio, hiring models, and selling art work. Her subject matter was limited: she could not travel as freely as she might like or visit public spaces unless accompanied by a friend or relation. Marriage and motherhood usually signaled the end of any artistic ambitions for a woman, making it especially admirable that women pursued artistic careers at all.

FIGURE 7: Clara Deike (1881–1964) New England Landscape , 1931 Oil on canvas , 23 x 17.5 inches Collection of Daniel Bush

7 A scholarly trend during the 1990s in American art history delved more deeply into the works of regional artists and introduced audiences to the varied, rich inventory of new artists and to the local influences that affected artistic styles. Breaking With Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870–1950 follows this scholarly direction, focusing on important women. Ohio has always been a welcoming place for women in the arts. The shaping of arts institutions and commercial artistic venues can be traced to the dreams of a few visionary Ohio women. Many philanthropically minded women deserve mention for their roles in establishing the arts institutions and artistic communities that helped women artists achieve success. As early as the 1850s, Sarah Worthington King Peter established the Ladies Academy of Fine Arts in Cincinnati, which not only offered classes to women but also a collection of European art for their study and appreciation. Entrepreneurial leadership from Maria Longworth Nichols, founder of the Rookwood Pottery Company, and Mary Louise McLaughlin of the Cincinnati Pottery Club created employment opportunities for women interested in design and craft. In the 1930s, the Taft Museum of Art, also of Cincinnati, opened in an historic house with the gift of a large collection of art from Anna Sinton Taft and her husband. Dayton’s Art Institute counts among its founders Julia Shaw Carnell, who became the most generous and influential patron of the arts in her community. In Toledo, the Toledo Museum of Art owes as much to Florence Scott Libbey as to Edward Drummond Libbey—both were committed to artistic education as a vehicle for improving the quality of life for the citizens of Ohio. Elisabeth Severance Prentiss founded the Allen Memorial Museum at Oberlin College in the 1940s. In 1977, Harriet Anderson and her husband established The Dairy Barn—a center for Ohio artisans. Women in Ohio continue to play a significant leadership role in the arts as trustees, directors and curators in art museums today.

FIGURE 8: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Chapelle de St. Guénolé 1908 Oil on canvas 29 x 36 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York (MASSILLON ONLY )

8 FIGURE 9: Alice Schille (1869–1936) Grape Arbor, c. 1907–08 Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS ONLY )

Museum visitors are creatures of habit. We tend to gravitate to exhibitions where we are familiar with the names of artists. Because women artists are less known, it is often difficult to find those “celebrity” names on the checklist of an exhibition. In Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters 1870–1950, Elizabeth Nourse and Alice Schille are likely to be the stellar artists by name. Nourse became an expatriate from Cincinnati, finding her new home in Paris, lured by a more open attitude towards women and by a wide circle of artistic friends who influenced her style of painting and her choice of “modern life” as her subject. The opportunities to hone artistic skills in Paris were also important to Caroline A. Lord, Emma Mendenhall and Alice Schille. While Nourse, Lord, and Mendenhall studied either at the Academie Julian or privately with artists who were familiar with the accepted styles of the French Salon, Alice Schille sought out the avant-garde, looking to Post-Impressionists and Fauve painters for inspiration. The Modernism that Schille carried back to Ohio was as new and startling to American audiences as Impressionism had been to the French a generation earlier.

This exhibition held revelations for me, which is always a delight. The sun-drenched plein air landscapes of May Ames were new to me; the joy of nature is revealed in her own variation on the styles and themes of Impressionism. Ames seeks her inspiration in native Midwestern scenery as well as her encounters with landscapes on her travels. Another student of Impressionism, Dixie Selden, caught my attention because of her urban subjects—she chooses bustling city scenery with the swirl of colors and patterns of modern life.

From the turn of the twentieth century through the 1950s, American artists experimented with new stylistic directions that responded to European Post-Impressionism, especially Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, and Vincent van Gogh. Painting pleasing subjects gave way to expressions of the individual artist’s personal vision. Canvases were emblazoned with bold, expressive colors, formed with structured brushwork, organized into geometric compositions that emphasized pattern and design, and reduced to simple volumes that hinted at early abstraction. The influence of American modernism is evident in the works of Grace V. Kelly, Natalie Eynon Grauer, Carolyn Bradley, Harriet Kirkpatrick, and Yeteve Smith. Especially noteworthy as a modernist is the work of Clara Deike, who caught my attention as a painter influenced by

9 FIGURE 10: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Quinces, c. 1904–1910 Watercolor on paper 20.5 x 26.25 inches Mrs. William Monroe Collection (CATALOG ONLY )

Cubism. Few American artists, male or female, were drawn to the fractured forms of this modern way of looking. Deike adopts the cubist technique and then enlivens it with her choice of a rich, high-keyed palette and her interest in pure geometric forms.

I am often asked why so many women paint portraits and still lifes, and the obvious answer seems to be in the marketability of both subjects. The lucrative commissions for the grand subjects of history painting or sublime landscapes often went to men, while the ever-wanting demand for portraits and still life paintings, especially those suitable for the domestic décor, were seen as appropriate subjects for women artists. Edith Stevenson Wright achieved remarkable success as an Ohio portraitist. Annie Sykes and Bessie Hoover Wessel painted beautiful floral still life watercolors and oil paintings. Either observed directly from the garden or as cut flower bouquets, aesthetically arranged, the floral still life works by each woman bring freshness and vibrancy to a popular subject.

As director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., I believe that the mission of NMWA in spotlighting the cultural contributions of women artists is perfectly fulfilled in exhibitions like Breaking with Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870–1950. So many wonderful women artists—even those who did receive recognition during their lifetime— are now forgotten or ignored by art historians. These women deserve to be rediscovered and woven back into the context of American art history. I applaud the efforts of the Massillon Museum in organizing this exhibition and catalogue enabling us to learn more about the contributions of women artists.

Judy L. Larson, Ph.D., Director National Museum of Women in the Arts Washington, D.C.

10 FIGURE 11: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Farm Scene, c. 1920’s Gouache and watercolor on paper 14 x 18.5 inches Cleveland Artists Foundation

FIGURE 12: Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Tucker Property on Prince George Street, Williamsburg, VA , 1918 Watercolor on paper 15 x 20 inches Dr. Eugene Folden Collection

11 FIGURE 13: Clara Deike (1881–1964) Regal Lilies, c. 1940–41 Oil on canvas, 23.5 x 23 inches Collection of James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited, Inc. Cleveland, Ohio

FIGURE 14: Caroline Lord (1860–1927) Dutch Girl, 1916 Oil on canvas, 43 x 35 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.33

12 Breaking With Tradition: Ohio Women Painters, 1870–1950 Christine Fowler Shearer

American women entered the professional subject matter of gardens and floral still lifes. ranks as artists in great numbers during the Their confinement to the domestic, or private nineteenth century. They were important, sphere, oftentimes limited their subject matter trendsetting pioneers in their time, increasingly to those which came to be categorized as exhibiting their work. With the exception of a feminine. Male artists also focused on these few, such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, feminine subjects—particularly artists like art history has failed to recognize them. They George Inness and William Merritt Chase— were known not as professional artists but as which in turn made it easier for female artists amateurs and hobbyists. Move away from to align with the expectations of the time. the metropolitan art centers of New York or By the turn of the century, the pressures of the Paris, and the critical silence is palpable. Yet modern world began to blur the boundaries women were exhibiting their work frequently between public and private spaces. The new and successfully, albeit in ways different from art being developed captured the raw power their male contemporaries. As Laura Prieto of the new century, a rippling muscle that explains, “Out of necessity, women artists seemed decidedly male. Women had to painstakingly developed a distinct identity adapt to new concepts of gender, and were and separate route to professionalization in forced to develop their own spaces in what the course of the nineteenth century.” 1 They was becoming a larger world. 2 As the new strove to be acknowledged and respected century began, America was in the throes of as equals to their male contemporaries transition and ripe for revolutions in politics, through the establishment of art clubs and social systems and art. The style and subject organizations that represented their work and represented in art shifted from genteel themes through their entrance into art academies. to the vitality of the streets, a decidedly In addition, they traveled throughout their public sphere. A new way of seeing and careers to enhance their training. new attitudes of painting were being In the mid-nineteenth century, most women developed and exhibited. artists led traditional, domestic lives. A woman’s An artist’s lifestyle was reserved for the home was her private sphere, a place where dedicated, and according to Kirsten Swinth, she was able to create freely, focusing on “women supposedly embodied the antithesis accessible subject matter such as family and of the professional—dependent, imitative, gardens. The last third of the century, known and merely accomplished.” 3 Throughout as the Gilded Age, was a period of increased their careers, women artists struggled for industrialization, immigration, and wealth in training and recognition. the United States. This period also embodied the idealized vision of beauty and nature in Prior to the 1870s, women artists were often art. It coalesced with the expectations for limited to careers as decorative painters. women artists who chose to focus on the American art academies did not initially

13 Separate male and female life drawing classes were offered, but remained segregated through the available models. In other words, men would see both male and female models while women were only allowed access to females.

FIGURE 15: Study abroad would, by the 1870s, offer Natalie freedom from a woman’s daily life and would Eynon be a crucial step toward her independence. Grauer Women saw that the successful male artist (1888–1955) often completed his training in Europe, and Standing Nude c. 1930 they too desired an opportunity to travel. Charcoal on paper Study abroad would, however, present more 23 x 12.5 inches of a challenge for a woman than for a man. Collection of Cleveland Artists She would need to leave her family behind Foundation, and deal with financial concerns that she Gift of Gretchen Grauer Vanderhoof would not have faced at home. It would cost (CATALOG ONLY ) approximately $800 to $1000 for one year’s study abroad. 5 Some women artists were able to stretch their money and remain longer. Regardless, once they were overseas, women artists faced a number of challenges. accept women, and in the few instances In Paris, they would discover that the when they did, the women were often segregation experienced in American segregated from the men. Their work was not academies was no different in Europe. As taken as seriously as were the efforts of their a result, women artists formed networks of male contemporaries. As Prieto succinctly colleagues and friends which provided explains, “women never lived or worked in a informal support and feedback and made world isolated from men, and women artists a significant impact on each other’s formal always sought to associate with men in the training. These networks offered the advice, art world as well as with women.” 4 However, companionship and support that was not their training was seen as separate from the available in the male-dominated academies. training of their male colleagues and a first- rate education was not made available to Not unlike their contemporaries working in them until the late nineteenth century. They more metropolitan art hubs, travel was an were not given access to the nude figure or important aspect to the artistic training of the study of life drawing, since portraiture and many Ohio women artists. Elizabeth Nourse still-life were considered the only appropriate made Paris her home, and Alice Schille visited subjects for women painters. there frequently until the First World War forced her to study elsewhere. Schille began As schooling became one of the foundations traveling in 1902 to the East Coast, the of professionalism, women sought entry into American West, Latin America, Mexico, Europe the art academies and enrollment began to and North Africa. New England was another rise. By the 1880s, women art students were popular destination for the women in this receiving a rigorous education, albeit on a exhibition. Annie Sykes painted along the strictly segregated basis. Eventually, women coast every summer from Maine to were permitted to draw from draped models. Massachusetts. Bessie Hoover Wessel

14 FIGURE 16: Annie Sykes (1855–1931) Fishing Boats at Dock, Gloucester, Massachusetts c. 1905–10 Watercolor and gouache on paper 16 x 21 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC New York

frequently painted in Gloucester at the Travels were often taken with other summer home of Frank Duveneck and his artist friends, especially in the instance of sister. Alice Schille and Clara Deike also Mendenhall and Selden, who were frequent visited Gloucester—Schille for two or three companions. Carolyn Bradley traveled to summers. According to Peter Hastings Falk Mexico in 1934 with a group of artists which and Audrey Lewis, “Part of Gloucester’s included Schille. In 1937, she spent three appeal was the promise of camaraderie months in Guatemala, returned the next and the sense of dedication that came from three summers, and in 1946 spent twelve working side-by-side with artists who shared months in Chile. 7 The opportunity to paint similar aesthetic goals.” 6 Part of the summer while traveling served two purposes: to travel included attending art colonies and devote time to painting without distractions training with established artists. Clara Deike of work and home and to network with and studied under Hans Hofmann, at the Thun learn from colleagues. School in Gloucester, and, earlier, in Munich, Nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany. She also spent one summer with artists, both male and female, found it difficult Diego Rivera in Mexico. Emma Mendenhall to make a living on art production alone. Add studied with William Merritt Chase in to that the social stigma of being a single Shinnecock, Long Island. Dixie Selden was female artist and sustainability seems even also coached by Chase, in Venice in 1910. more unattainable. Many artists—May Ames, In 1914, both Selden and Mendenhall began Grace Kelly, Clara Deike, Alice Schille and taking lessons from Henry B. Snell, a well- Carolyn Bradley—taught art to supplement known American Impressionist, at St. Ives in their incomes. They worked during the fall, England. When Snell moved his school to winter and spring, and devoted their summers Gloucester, Mendenhall continued to study to studying and painting. Some artists, with him.

15 including Elizabeth Nourse, Dixie Selden, Bessie Hoover Wessel and Edith Stevenson Wright, were able to support themselves without having to take up a second career. Nourse supported herself solely through the sale of her paintings. According to James Keny, “She was the first American woman painter to be admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the first whose work was purchased by the French government for the Luxembourg Galleries.” 8 Selden and Wessel painted portraits to supplement their income while painting other subject matter in the summers when they traveled. Portraiture was Selden’s specialty and the means with which she claimed her professional status. 9 Selden was fortunate to have received an independent income when her parents passed away in 1907–1908. Edith Stevenson Wright focused solely on portraiture and made her living by painting many important industrialists in Cleveland.

Between 1870 and 1950, the art market favored men. Male artists had a better chance of having their work exhibited and represented in galleries while women, particularly in the late nineteenth century, found the gallery system inhospitable. Although the galleries did favor distinctive styles, women’s artwork was distinguished from men’s not based on style, but on gender. Dealers would promote female painters as women artists . As Swinth explains, “dealers sold the distinctive artist, with distinctive implicitly the masculine, American stylist rather than the woman artist .” 10 In the 1870s and 1880s, critics expected American artists to create academically skilled and refined art, FIGURE 17: Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) qualities of which both men and women were Caesar Augustin Grasselli, 1929 capable. In the 1890s, this ideal shifted and a Oil on canvas, 51 x 41 inches gendered language became more insistent. Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio The critics became accustomed to considering 72.65.4 art as more absolute and explicitly aligned FIGURE 18: with gender. An example of this was an art Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) Daniel Hanna (detail), c. 1920s reviewer’s response to Dixie Selden’s summer Oil on canvas, 44 x 34 inches work in the early 1900s, which stated that Playhouse Square Center Collection Selden painted like a man. 11

16 The climate of the gallery system in the early rely on his wife to provide the support twentieth century favored male artists, and needed at home, while a female artist was therefore motivated women to organize still expected to maintain her domestic duties. female art associations. According to Swinth, It seemed to help somewhat when a woman “by shaping themselves as exhibition societies, married a fellow artist; but often, as in the these organizations struggled to continue to case of Bessie Hoover Wessel, the success of place women artists in the market—even at a female artist was overshadowed by that the center of the market—balancing the of her husband’s. merit-based promise of juried shows with the Wessel was a teacher at the Art Academy special-interest approach of small artists’ of Cincinnati where she met her future groups and galleries.” 12 As Prieto concurs, husband and fellow teacher, Henry Wessel. “Separate women’s associations and Upon marrying in 1917, she quit the teaching exhibitions could have the same functions profession. Natalie Grauer married a fellow as general, dominantly male associations and artist, William C. Grauer. Annie Sykes and exhibitions, while at the same time creating a Harriet Kirkpatrick also married and had protective female sphere.” 13 Unfortunately, families. Marriage did not necessarily affect these artist clubs were forced to prove their their work in a negative manner, but the professionalism to critics in the field. They demands of marriage and children would offered fellowship, mutual respect and force their training and artistic production to support, and contact with peers. These clubs be secondary at times. An unmarried artist, provided the necessary exposure for many such as Alice Schille or Clara Deike, had artists who would otherwise not be presented more opportunities to travel and study. with opportunities to be recognized in what was, by this time, an expansive art market. Alice Schille had, however, a long series of one-woman shows in Cincinnati and Columbus during her lifetime and later without having to rely on artist clubs to establish connections. As mentioned earlier, Nourse, a highly marketable artist, was able to live on the sale of her paintings. Despite the success of Schille and Nourse during their lifetimes, the other artists in this exhibition used the artists clubs and organizations as much as possible to promote their work.

Another factor involved in a woman’s life as an artist was the decision to marry or remain single. As mentioned earlier, women were expected to live traditional, domestic lives prior to the twentieth century. The independent life of an artist did not fit into this ideal, and therefore the decision to marry required a negotiation of costs versus benefits. Some artists did marry, but often at the expense FIGURE 19: Natalie Eynon Grauer (1888–1955) of sacrificing their careers. It was often hard Minnie, 1930 to create a balance between family and Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches professional demands. A male artist could Courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Arts

17 FIGURE 20: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) New England Boats, c. 1940s Watercolor on paper, 18 x 23 inches Pete and Pidge Diehl Collection

By the twentieth century, women artists were 1 Laura Prieto, At Home in the Studio: The gaining confidence as professionals, which Professionalization of Women Artists in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 2. in turn gave them the courage to remain independent. As Prieto explains, “Women’s 2 Ibid, 108. new emphasis on art and training, instead of 3 Kirsten Swinth, Painting Professional: Women art and domesticity, made marriage seem Artists and the Development of Modern American increasingly incompatible with an artistic Art, 1870–1930 (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of career.” 14 Some artists would cohabitate and North Carolina Press, 2001), 14.

travel together, as was the case with Dixie 4 Prieto, 2. Selden and Emma Mendenhall, who at one time shared a home and studio together. In 5 Swinth, 40. addition, both Selden and Mendenhall had 6 Peter Hastings Falk and Audrey Lewis, Annie an independent income from family members, Gooding Sykes (1855–1931): An American having made their artistic careers a priority. Watercolorist Rediscovered (New York: Spanierman Gallery LLC, 1998), 21. One of the common threads among women 7 Judith Vale Newton and Carol Ann Weiss, Skirting artists was friendship. As Prieto states, “Their the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women group identity as women enabled them to Artists (Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society form valuable peer networks with other women Press, 2004), 215. artists.” 15 These networks generated many 8 James M. Keny, “Duveneck et al.,” Timeline, positive results, from advice and support to March–June 2003, 46. travel companions and studio mates. Women 9 used whatever means were necessary to Genetta McLean, Dixie Selden: An American Impressionist from Cincinnati, 1868–1935 (Cincinnati, succeed in a male dominated art world. This OH: Cincinnati Art Galleries, 2001), 31. exhibition highlights the professional careers of a group of women artists from Ohio. It 10 Swinth, 115. depicts the struggles they faced as well as 11 McLean, 78. the triumphs they encountered. 12 Ibid, 117.

13 Prieto, 111.

Christine Fowler Shearer, Director 14 Ibid, 114.

Massillon Museum 15 Ibid, 41. Massillon, Ohio

18 FIGURE 21: Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954) Lilies for Sale, Antique Guatemala, nd Watercolor, 34.5 x 30.5 inches Richmond Art Museum Purchase, 1965

FIGURE 22: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) End of Market, c. 1943 Watercolor stencil, 9 x 6 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

FIGURE 23: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) Taxco Street, c. 1943 Watercolor stencil, 11 x 8.25 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

19 FIGURE 24: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) At the Shore, Lake Erie (Grace Kelly and Clara Deike), 1911 Oil on canvas, 30 x 38 inches John and Susan Horseman Collection

20 Patterns and Similarities in Stylistic Development Brigitte M. Foley

Discovering patterns and similarities among products.” 2 No matter what conclusions such a diverse group of artists, beyond the are drawn, an examination of the stylistic obvious—that they are all women with ties to development and subject matter selected by the state of Ohio—is no simple task. The lives this group of artists certainly supplements the and careers of these artists span more than a meager existing documentation of their work. century, encompassing major stylistic changes By the mid-nineteenth century, American in art as well as socio-political and economic women moved beyond the roles of “amateur” transitions in the United States. This essay to become “professional” artists, although reveals a number of commonalities when their route to professionalization frequently the artists are considered collectively. Most differed from their male colleagues. As many of the artists received academic training that scholars have already noted, access to life heavily influenced their early work, and they drawing classes with the nude was unavailable form a group of well-educated, well-trained, to female art students until the middle and and well-traveled individuals. Some of the late nineteenth century. As a result, for many artists found progressive styles of art appealing, years women remained loyal to subjects that while others remained content to paint in did not require advanced study of the human a more conservative manner. These artists figure. Fortunately, factors such as the practiced a range of styles, from the earliest development of a consumer culture in the Salon tradition of the mid-nineteenth century United States prompted the professionalization to Naturalism, Impressionism, and Post- of women artists and dictated more Impressionism at the turn of the century, marketable subject matter. Accessibility and Modernism in the twentieth century, and market demand were logical factors embracing diverse subjects of still life, genre, in determining subject matter, refuting landscape, and portraiture. A comparison the notion that women artists with their of these artists bound by geography may imagination and intuition create specifically reveal that they created their own uniquely “feminine” pictorial imagery. 3 feminine outlook by rejecting any restrictions on subject matter and choosing to be all- Even without life drawing classes, academic inclusive. Such a premise reinforces Linda training played a key role in many of the artists’ Nochlin’s statement, “…the mere choice of careers. For example, the strong traditional a certain realm of subject matter, or the classes at the Art Academy of Cincinnati restriction to certain subjects, is not to be influenced Caroline Lord, Elizabeth Nourse, equated with a style, much less with some Dixie Selden, Bessie Hoover Wessel, Annie Sykes, sort of quintessentially feminine style.” 1 Or and Emma Mendenhall. Two years of drawing in Griselda Pollock’s words, “To avoid the classes were required before students were embrace of the feminine stereotype which allowed to study painting. As the head of the homogenizes women’s work as determined Art Academy, Thomas Satterwhite Noble instilled by natural gender, we must stress the great academic traditions from France and heterogeneity of women’s art work, the Germany, and the curriculum was frequently specificity of individual producers and supplemented by training at European art

21 academies. American art students abroad soon was short-lived; she was advised to paint on discovered that both history and religious painting her own without any additional instruction were less popular in the mid-nineteenth century, that may taint her work. Nourse’s paintings of overshadowed by genre, landscape, and French peasantry, a subject she depicted for portrait painting. For Americans acceptable an entire career, display hints of the traditional Salon paintings represented a diverse body academic teachings whose dark interiors, of work of easily recognizable images for the limited palette, and heavily laden paint buying public. 4 Women comprised a majority combined with her own sentimentality and of American art students in Paris and a large compassion on canvas. Nourse’s subject percentage of Salon exhibitors by the end of matter frequently focused on women and the nineteenth century. 5 children in genre scenes, incorporating tenets of Realism and hints of Naturalism, while Two of the most traditionally practicing artists remaining noticeably apolitical. Her focus from Ohio were Elizabeth Nourse and on French peasantry was not unusual, and Caroline Lord. Nourse attended classes at the she was not alone in seeking escape from McMicken School of Design (now the Art a turbulent contemporary society. Caroline Academy of Cincinnati). She was one of the Lord’s paintings also reflect her early first female art students to participate in the instruction at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. women’s life drawing class, but relocated Like Nourse, she traveled to France to study soon after to France to continue her training. at the academies, although unlike Nourse, Entrenched in a personal style of Naturalism, she eventually returned to the United States. Nourse’s study at the Académie Julian in Paris Her interior scenes parallel the work of Nourse,

FIGURE 25: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Intereur Breton a Penmarch, 1902 Oil on canvas , 18 x 21 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS AND PORTSMOUTH ONLY )

FIGURE 26: Caroline Lord (1860–1927) Untitled (Seated Woman), 1913 Oil on canvas , 38 x 24 inches Robin and Harry Froeschke Collection

22 although her figures do not convey the same Impressionism mediated by their own sense of narrative or even compassion. Lord’s personal styles, ultimately rejecting their brushstrokes are less bold, yet her palette is classical training as art students in Ohio. more vibrant. Travel to foreign lands also played an The generation of art students who followed influential role on this next generation of Elizabeth Nourse and Caroline Lord with forays artists. While Nourse may have ventured to into Impressionism and Post-Impressionism Russia, Italy, Spain, and North Africa, she did included Dixie Selden, Emma Mendenhall, not abandon her style. Such was not the and Annie Sykes in Cincinnati, and May Ames case with Selden, Mendenhall, Ames, and in Cleveland. With the famed hometown Schille. Selden’s portraits sustained her during artist Frank Duveneck teaching at the Art winter months, but her summer travels led her Academy of Cincinnati, the principles of the all over the world, exploring England, Spain, Munich-style of painting superceded all other Italy, Yugoslavia, France, Mexico, Syria, styles during the last few decades of the Palestine, Japan, and China. Another nineteenth century. He taught his pupils the Cincinnati-native, Emma Mendenhall, whose tenets of academic painting and promoted impressionistic tendencies became more realistic imagery, dark palettes, and paint- obvious with her watercolors, frequently joined laden canvases. Duveneck’s students began Selden on her journeys. Their travels were ideal professional careers by depicting subjects for accepting Impressionism’s tenet of painting preferred by the established venues— en plein air, and the women frequently set up academies and Salons. Frequently, images easels in the middle of a foreign city, capturing were genre scenes of simple folk with scenes of daily life all around them. Selden admirable moral piety. These traditional and Mendenhall sought inspiring subject works of art rejected the transformations of matter, which to them translated into lively American society after the Civil War, and street scenes populated with variety and the academic training led to a narrow view color. Ohio critics welcomed and applauded of subject matter, purposefully avoiding the their impressionistic paintings. “Solemnity drastic economic, industrial, and social never plays a roll [sic] in Miss Mendenhall’s changes occurring at the time. pictures as they are all so colorful and ingratiating. …When looking at these As a student, Dixie Selden remained true Mexican water colors breathing always an to Duveneck’s Munich-style teachings. She accent of truth, one feels the artist happy was a dedicated professional and had a and absorbed, so absorbed that she must portrait-painting business by her early paint for the very pleasure of painting and twenties, emulating portrait masters such as such enthusiasm never fails to contribute its Van Dyck, Reynolds, and Rubens. Although full quota to the attractiveness of the picture.” 7 Selden continued to paint portraits throughout Most critics were captivated by the artists’ her career, she progressed in her non- selection of “exotic” subject matter. “The commissioned work, incorporating a working strong light and brilliant color of this region technique of quickly-finished paintings and seemed to suit her style of vivid wash, of ultimately adopting Impressionism, heavily clean, bright color. This preference for color influenced by the teachings of William and a realistic instinct for pictorial matter Merritt Chase. Selden rejected Duveneck’s gives Miss Mendenhall an opportunity to paint teaching , transforming her work to incorporate Mexico in a typical and brilliant manner.” 8 impressionist colors with representational A sense of social commentary is noticeably drawing. 6 Selden typifies this second absent from the work of Selden and generation of artists who adopted Mendenhall—they transferred life onto canvas

23 and paper dictated by the pure beauty of

FIGURE 27: the scene without a sense of what may have Alice Schille (1869–1936) been immediately before their eyes: poverty, Guatemalan Roof Tops, c. 1930–35 hunger, a lack of education. They traveled to Watercolor, 18 x 21 inches lands seemingly untouched by urbanization. Canton Museum of Art, Gift of James M. Keny The exoticism and romanticism of foreign lands painted by Selden and Mendenhall reject the Impressionist notion of painting modern life, thus their association with the movement relies solely on their stylistic tendencies—quick, short brushstrokes blended by the eye and painted out of doors.

In contrast, the work of Cleveland-native May Ames followed the more traditional Monet- inspired Impressionist landscapes. Although trained at the Cleveland School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, and in Europe, Ames adopted French Impressionism when it became a safe alternative that was highly desired by American patrons. She influenced later generations because like many of the artists in this exhibition, Ames was an active painter whose career also included teaching. She taught at the Cleveland School of Art for eighteen years. Ames traveled to New England and the Mediterranean but did not explore more “exotic” locales like her colleagues Selden and Mendenhall. Ames’ exploration of Impressionism parallels her American male colleagues, with sun-drenched seascapes ( In the Ruins, 1926) (Fig. 2) and peaceful lakeside scenes ( Blue Mirror, 1928) (Fig. 60).

The youngest generation within this group of artists includes Alice Schille, Yeteve Smith, Carolyn Bradley, and Harriet Kirkpatrick of Columbus; and Clara Deike, Natalie Eynon Grauer, and Grace V. Kelly of Cleveland, all of whom experimented with more progressive styles to include Modernism in their work. Columbus native Alice Schille was a life-long educator, teaching at the Columbus Art FIGURE 28: School for more than forty years. Schille May Ames (1869–1943) Roadside Shrine, Syracuse, 1915 straddled Post-Impressionism and Modernism, Oil on canvas, 12 x 10 inches before completely absorbing modernist John and Susan Horseman Collection tendencies in her work. Like Selden, she was

24 influenced by the teachings of William Merritt Chase, but her instruction at the Art Students’ League and exposure to Modernism in Europe truly shaped her work. Work such as Grape Arbor (c.1907–08) (Fig. 9) reflects her traditional training, but Mother and Child in a Garden (c.1911) displays her foray into Post- Impressionism. Short strokes of vivid color fill the composition and portray an intimate moment shared between mother and child that is frequently stereotyped as the typical female artist’s subject. And yet for Schille, this painting is one of few in which she focused on the figure, especially such a domestic scene. Like Ames, Schille presented outdoor scenes rich with color and light, and less concerned with humanity than nature and architecture and the composition of the scene. Schille’s adoption of Modernism is evident in Guatemalan Rooftops (1930–35) (Fig. 27.) and Cottages, New England (c.1930–35). She was an avid traveler like Nourse, Selden, and Mendenhall, visiting Europe, Turkey, Guatemala, Mexico, Russia, and North Africa. Her exotic travels inspired the watercolors for which she is most well-known and highly regarded. As William Robinson noted, “Throughout her career, Schille drew inspiration from a variety of sources and adjusted her approach according to the specific locale and emotions aroused by the immediate subject.” 9 Such insight into Schille might also

be applied to most of the women in this FIGURE 29: collective. Schille was not alone in reacting Annie Sykes (1855–1931) to the people and scenes before her. Such The Yellow House, 1890 Watercolor on paper, 22 x 15 inches an attraction to diverse yet personal subject Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York matter most strongly connects these Ohio women artists.

Both May Ames and Clara Deike were students at the Cleveland School of Art and Henry Keller’s summer school in Berlin Heights, Ohio. Keller’s influence is apparent in Deike’s arrangement of space, even as she applied modernist design to subjects ranging from landscapes, portraits, and still life paintings. Like the other women in the exhibition, Deike painted the scenes before her and

25 incorporated modern influences to remain marketable for American consumers. Both paintings Cuernavaca, Mexico (1930) (Fig. 31) and New England Landscape (1931) (Fig. 7) indicate personally observed scene during travels abroad and Deike’s ability to compress her subject. Deike supplemented her Cleveland training by studying with Hans Hofmann and Diego Rivera, whose influences are evident within the arrangement of her compositions and are noticeably absent from her choices of subjects and meaning. She limited the number of canvases depicting portraits and the figure, and implied little or no political meaning in her work. Self-Portrait with Orange Hat (c. 1925) (Fig. 1) and a much later still life, Regal Lilies (c. 1940–1941), (Fig. 13) indicated Deike’s ability to move beyond the landscape, but the subject still remains a means to explore abstraction, color, and a changing picture plane.

Although much of her work dates from the same decades as that of Deike, Grace Kelly’s oeuvre does not emit a similar adoption of Modernism—a movement she opposed in her teachings—but identifies more with other artists practicing in the American Scene. FIGURE 30: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Kelly was a professional art critic, leaving her Cottage at Berlin Heights, c. 1910–16 summers to paint. Local scenery is evident in Oil on canvas, 27 x 34 inches Cottage at Berlin Heights (c.1910–1916) (Fig. Mrs. William Monroe Collection 30). One of her strongest compositions, At the Shore, Lake Erie (Grace Kelly & Clara Deike) (1911) (Fig. 24), is a bold view of Lake Erie with two figures sharing the focus within the composition. Kelly painted the horizontal bands of color for the lake to serve as a backdrop for both the branches in the foreground and the figures on the left. Like so many of her female counterparts in Ohio, her painting hints at a narrative by including the figures but remains true to a vivid landscape composition. Travels to Ireland inspired Tinkers Come to Castle Burke, County Mayo, Ireland (c.1927– 1929) (Fig. 34). Kelly’s travel paintings do not emit the energy of Alice Schille’s watercolors nor the understanding of a foreign culture like the work of Elizabeth Nourse, but they do

26 reflect a certain amount of interest and empathy for the Irish people. Again, specific individuals are not the primary compositional focus, rather she selects poor tinkers and fisherman to represent humanity within a somber setting and limited color palette, much like her colleagues of the Ashcan school, capturing the life around her.

These women from Ohio found success as professional artists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their work was selected for local, national, and international exhibitions, and purchased by art-loving consumers. Some practiced accepted styles while others experimented with progressive styles of art. Their subjects show fluidity, moving among genre, still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, sometimes combining multiple subjects in one composition. Overall, the diversity in subject matter and style is indicative of each artist’s individuality and success.

Brigitte Foley Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis Missouri St. Louis, Missouri

FIGURE 31: Clara Deike (1881–1964) Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1930 Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches Private Collection, Courtesy Vixseboxse Art Galleries

FIGURE 32: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Waiting for the Catch, c. 1927–29 Oil on canvas 30.5 x 40.5 inches Mrs. William Monroe Collection (CATALOG ONLY )

FIGURE 33: Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954) Mexican Family, nd Oil on canvas, 43 x 48 inches Richmond Art Museum Gift of Ruth Bradley in memory of her sister

27 FIGURE 34: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Tinkers Come to Castle Burke, County Mayo c. 1927–1929 Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches Mrs. William Monroe Collection

1 Linda Nochlin, “Why Have Their Been No Great 5 Laura Prieto, At Home in the Studio: The Women Artists” in Art and Sexual Politics: Women’s Professionalization of Women Artists in America Liberation, Women Artists, and Art History, ed. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001), 4. Thomas B. Hess and Elizabeth C. Baker (New York: 6 Macmillan Publishing Co, 1971), 4. For detailed information on this artist see Genetta McLean, Dixie Selden: An Impressionist from 2 Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Cincinnati 1868–1935 (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Femininity, Feminism and the Histories of Art Galleries, 2001). (London and New York: Routledge, 1988), 55. 7 Mary L. Alexander, Cincinnati Enquirer, 29 3 Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, Women October 1939, Cincinnati Art Museum Library, Artists: 1550–1950 (Los Angeles: Los Angeles artist file. County Museum of Art, 1976), 64. 8 Mary L. Alexander, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 4 Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth Century Art: A September 1951, Cincinnati Art Museum Library, Critical History (London: Thames and Hudson, artist file. 1994) 230, 236. 9 William H. Robinson, Alice Schille: Ohio Artist, Her Innovative Spirit (Canton, OH: The Canton Museum of Art, 2001), 10.

28 FIGURE 35: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Meme et Bebe, c. 1912 Oil on canvas, 17 x 13 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS ONLY )

29 FIGURE 36: Caroline Lord (1860–19 27) Woman with Geraniums, nd Oil on canvas , 49 x 41 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.35

30 Against All Odds: An Untold History of Women Artists in Ohio William H. Robinson

During the decades that followed the Civil Mississippi River system. The completion of War, the state of Ohio experienced a period the Ohio Canal in 1832 further enhanced of immense change and industrial expansion. Cincinnati’s status as a major shipping center Cities grew at an astonishing pace and by opening a water route from the Ohio River became hubs of cultural activity, including to the Great Lakes, and through the Erie the visual arts, a field where women played Canal to New York City. an especially active role. This exhibition examines the achievements of a select group During the early years of the nineteenth of female painters in Cincinnati, Cleveland, century, artists and art merchants flocked to and Columbus during the years 1870 to 1950, Cincinnati to take advantage of the city’s an era of radical artistic innovation. These flourishing economy. An astonishing array women both engaged and resisted the of organizations emerged for teaching and assault against traditional styles and patronage promoting the visual arts. Among the most systems. Yet, whether conservative or rebellious, prominent were the private drawing academy they all confronted the same deeply ingrained of Edwin Smith (est. 1812), the Western Museum prejudices and stereotypes that relegated Society (est. 1818), Frank’s Gallery of Fine Arts women to a lesser place in American society. (est. 1828), the Ohio Mechanics Institute (est. Although barred from many professional 1829), the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts activities, women were at least permitted to (est. 1838), The Western Art Union (est. 1847), participate in certain aspects of the visual the Cincinnati School of Design (est. 1853), arts. For women, painting served a function the Ladies’ Gallery of Fine Arts (est. 1854), the comparable to sports for minorities: it offered Sketch Club (est. 1860), the McMicken School a portal, however limited, for entering the of Design (est. 1869), the Cincinnati Museum mainstream of American life. This exhibition Association (est. 1881), the Cincinnati Art Club concerns the untold story of how women (est. 1892), and the Women’s Art Club of artists in Ohio committed themselves to Cincinnati (est. 1892). These institutions this struggle. welcomed women at a time when they were still barred from attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Cincinnati art schools not Cincinnati, The River City: only accepted women as students, but many employed them as teachers. Caroline Lord, The growth of permanent artistic communities for instance, taught at the Cincinnati Academy in Ohio, which entered the union as a state in of Fine Arts from 1885 to 1890, and again from 1803, was closely linked to economic expansion 1892 to 1926. Equally important, Cincinnati art in the major towns and cities. 1 Founded in organizations eagerly patronized female 1788 at the conjunction of the Ohio and artists. An early sign of this activity occurred in Miami Rivers, Cincinnati rapidly emerged as 1849 when the Western Art Union purchased the state’s dominant art center and remained and distributed to its members hundreds of so throughout the nineteenth century. The city’s engravings by Lilly Martin Spencer (1822–1902), strategic location on the Ohio River connected one of the city's most prominent artists of the it by steamboat to Pittsburgh and the entire mid-nineteenth century.

31 Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938), who studied at the Cincinnati Art School in the 1870s, became one of the city’s most celebrated artists. The student of Mary Spencer, Nourse enrolled in the McMicken School of Design in 1874 and the Art Students League in New York in 1882. In 1887 she went to Paris and studied at the Académie Julian under Jules Lefebvre and Jean Jacques Henner, then privately with Emile Auguste Carolus-Duran. Nourse established her reputation through powerful paintings of French peasants, emphasizing their calm nobility and strength of character. She developed a strong empathy for her subjects by living among them in the country - side, and created a style appropriate for conveying the qualities she admired in their character. Eliminating unnecessary details, Nourse emphasized monumental forms rendered with broad, powerful brushstrokes and dramatic effects of light and shadow. It should be observed that the same qualities of personal empathy and powerful rendering of form were already evident in the portraits she painted of African American women in Cincinnati during the early 1880s (Fig. 69), and that key elements of her style derive from the early influence of Cincinnati native Frank Duveneck (1848–1919). Her favorite subjects were single figures and maternal groups. Little Brittany Girl (Fig. 35) and Meme et Bebe (Fig. 38) are excellent examples of her deep attachment to these themes. She also paint - ed still lifes and country scenes, as seen in Pansies (Fig. 70) and Chappelle de St. Guénolé (Fig. 8) of 1908, depicting three FIGURE 37: French peasants praying in a simple country Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) church. During her later years Nourse light - Little Brittany Girl, c. 1902 Oil on panel, 13 x 9 inches ened her palette under the influence of Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio Impressionism. Her compositions became more (COLUMBUS ONLY ) sophisticated, marked by a more confident handling of forms arranged in deep, complex space. Throughout her career, she constantly returned to the theme that aroused her deepest feelings: the quiet dignity of ordinary people living out their daily lives. The art historian Edna Clark of Ohio commented:

32 human interest stories which Miss Nourse pictures with lavish tenderness. 3

Nourse gained considerable international notoriety by exhibiting at the Royal Academy in London and in the Paris Salons of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where her paintings received the honor of being hung “on line.” Having received numerous awards, she became the first American woman accepted into the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Admired by the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), her paintings were purchased by the French government for the Musée du Luxembourg. Although Nourse remained in France until her death in 1938, she maintained strong ties to the Cincinnati art community and exhibited there frequently, setting a model of achievement for other aspiring female artists.

Known for her figure paintings and portraits, Caroline Lord (1860–1972) was born in Cincinnati and enrolled at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts in 1884. After teaching FIGURE 38: at this academy for five years, she went Caroline Lord (1860–1927) to Paris and spent two years studying at Woman in Contemplation, nd Oil on Canvas, 43 x 35 inches Académie Julian (1890–1892). While in Paris, Cincinnati Pubic School Collection she worked with Elizabeth Nourse, who shared Cincinnati Museum Center her love of painting humble, domestic themes CHS.IL.1991.31.34 and scenes of everyday life. Like Nourse, The impress of deep thought is upon every Lord wedded firm drawing derived from her picture she makes. She finds the great academic training with broad brushstrokes truths of life in very common, everyday and vivid color. Lord exhibited at the Paris occurrences; her genius lies in seeing the Salons of 1892–1895 and received a bronze poetry and beauty in the simplest action. medal at the Chicago Columbian Exposition A hurt, grief-stricken child finds comfort in of 1893. She left France in 1892 and studied its mother’s arms; the father of a small briefly with Kenyon Cox at the Art Students family ready to eat their frugal evening League in New York. Later that same year, she meal enjoys peace in his humble home returned to Ohio and spent the next thirty-four as he rests from the toil of the day; a baby years teaching at the Cincinnati Academy of sister is mothered in the lap of an older Fine Arts. Lord’s Women in Contemplation sister; happiness radiates from a group of (Fig. 38) wearing a white dress displays the mothers and children strolling along the lighter, Impressionist palette and freer brush - dyke; the solemn, religious procession work characteristic of her later paintings. wends its way through a Breton village; a mother’s joy in her children fills many happy hours—such, indeed, are the

33 FIGURE 39: Dixie Selden (1870–1935) Street in Grenada, 1925 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches Cinc. Public School Coll. Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.63

FIGURE 40: Annie Sykes (1855–1931) Poppies, 1910 Watercolor on paper 18 x 13 inches Robert Burns Collection

Annie Gooding Sykes (1855–1931), a Cincinnati artist known for her colorful watercolors, was born in Massachusetts and studied drawing at the Lowell Institute in Boston from 1875 to 1878, and later at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. After marrying Gerritt Sykes in 1882, she moved to Ohio and studied under Frank Duveneck and Thomas Noble at the Cincinnati Academy Dixie Selden (1868–1935) came from a genteel, of Fine Arts. She frequently exhibited at the upper-class family whose social connections Cincinnati Art Museum and the Women’s Art provided her with easy access to a society Club of Cincinnati, where she displayed her that required a steady flow of portraits and paintings on a regular basis for the next thirty- paintings. Selden enrolled in McMicken School one years. After the Traxel and Maas Gallery of of Design in 1884 and spent six years there Cincinnati hosted her first solo exhibition in 1895, studying drawings and watecolor painting. she developed a considerable reputation as Later, she spent two years of intense private one of the city’s leading Impressionist painters. study with Frank Duveneck. She traveled Like her Cincinnati colleague Dixie Selden widely, belonged to numerous art organizations, (1870–1935), Sykes often traveled in search of and served as President of the Women’s Art picturesque subjects to paint. She spent time Club of Cincinnati. During her early years, painting in Maine, Bermuda, and Canada. In Selden largely painted subjects reserved for 1906 she went to Europe, visiting France, Italy, amateur women artists—portraits, indoor and and Germany. She became especially adept outdoor scenes of domestic life and flowers. at painting Impressionist watercolors with a As she matured, she increasingly specialized quick, expert touch, emphasizing brilliant light in portraiture, the means by which she and color. Critics praised her masterful touch claimed her professional status. She also and sure sense of color, qualities evident in developed a considerable reputation for Poppies (Fig. 40) of about 1910. Her vibrant painting the daily life and lively street scenes palette and spontaneous brushwork are well she encountered in France, Portugal, Mexico, displayed in The Yellow House (Fig. 29) and Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, Japan, Sailboats (Fig. 73) of about 1905–1910. Sykes and China. Street in Grenada (Fig. 39) of 1925 achieved particularly powerful color sensation displays all of her finest qualities as an through the areas of pure red, blue, green, Impressionist painter of the quick glance and and yellow in The Fishing Boats at Dock, sure brush, the recorder of momentary life Gloucester, (Fig. 16) a watercolor of about and radiant light. 1905–1910.

34 Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964), a native of Born in Brookville, Indiana, Bessie Hoover Cincinnati, followed a path similar to Nourse Wessel (1889–1973) enrolled at the Cincinnati and Lord. She was a member of the Women’s Art Academy in 1906 at the age of seventeen. Art Club of Cincinnati and studied under She attended classes at the academy for Frank Duveneck and Vincent Nowottny nearly a decade before becoming one of its at Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts. She teachers in 1915. She was a member of the later studied under Jules Lefebvre at the Cincinnati Women’s Art Club, the MacDowell Académie Julian in Paris and William Merritt Society, and the National Academy of Design. Chase’s school in Shinnecock, Long Island. Strongly influenced by Frank Duveneck, She received numerous awards during her Hoover spent summers painting at his summer lifetime and exhibited at the Paris Salons and home in Gloucester. In August 1917 she San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific Exposition of married Herman Wessel, a fellow teacher at the 1915. Known also for her floral subjects and academy. Wessel became known for the pastel portraits, Mendenhall’s forte was skillful elaboration of detail and texture in her painting watercolors, which she often did portraits. During the summer months, she while travelling with Cincinnati colleague Dixie abandoned portraiture to concentrate on Selden. An inveterate traveler, Mendenhall painting the seacoast and nature, traveling went on painting excursions to Virginia and to Gloucester and other scenic sites. New England, and as far as Syria and Chrysanthemums (Fig. 42) and Hollyhocks Palestine (as it was then called). She typically (Fig. 68) reveal a passionate attraction to concentrated on the unique aspects of a color and light. locale and developed a particular fondness for the small, rural villages of France, Spain, FIGURE 41: Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Morocco, Mexico, and Guatemala. Tucker Flower Seller, nd Property on Prince George Street, Williamsburg Watercolor on paper, 7 x 10 inches (Fig. 12), and Street Scene with Advertisting Robert Burns Collection Board (Fig. 71), watercolors of 1918, are travel FIGURE 42: views painted with Mendenhall’s characteris - Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889–1973) tically quick, direct technique. Her passion for Chrysanthemums, nd floral painting emerges in the context of other Oil on canvas, 38 x 45 inches subjects, such as Flower Market (Fig. 3) and Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center Flower Seller (Fig. 41) . CHS.IL.1991.31.82

35 Cleveland and the Industrial Northeast:

Cleveland’s art community developed more slowly than Cincinnati’s and did not become a significant force in Ohio until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, due largely to economic circumstances. Located where the Cuyahoga River empties into Lake Erie, Cleveland was founded in 1796 by a small band of settlers from Connecticut. The settlement remained small during the early years of the nineteenth century and did not begin to grow significantly until after the opening of Ohio Canal in 1832. This project opened a water route from Cleveland to the Ohio River, thereby placing the city on the vital trade route that connected New York City to the Mississippi River. During the second half of the nineteenth century, Cleveland’s economy began to shift to steel manufacturing and oil refining. The city also received a significant economic boost from its position as a railroad center on the line linking New York to Chicago. As railroads replaced steamboats, Cleveland gained significant commercial advantages over Cincinnati. Consequently, Cleveland experienced explosive economic and population growth during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, until it emerged as the nation’s third most populous metropolitan area in 1930.

The visual artists in Cleveland developed along a trajectory parallel to the city’s economy: slowly during the first half of the nineteenth century, then with gathering momentum in the late nineteenth century.

FIGURE 43: Clara Deike (1881–1964) Silver Birches, 1916 Gouache on paper, 22 x 18 inches Christine & Brian Pierce Collection (CATALOG ONLY )

FIGURE 44: May Ames (1869–1943) Sunlit Garden, 1918 Oil on Canvas, 18 x 12 inches Mrs. Richard Margolis Collection (MASSILLON ONLY )

36 The Art Club, established in 1876, is often cited Among the club’s founding members were as the city’s first art school, although it mostly May Ames and Grace V. Kelly. provided a place—a studio in the attic of City During a career that spanned more than forty Hall—where artists met and painted together. years, May Ames (1863–1943) moved from An important new development occurred with naturalist landscapes to a modernist style the founding of the Western Reserve School of emphasizing brilliant color. Born in Cleveland Design for Women (which also admitted men) during the Civil War, Ames studied at the in 1882. The organization soon changed its Cleveland School of Art (1897–1900) and later name to the Cleveland School of Art, and at the Rhode Island School of Design. For later to the Cleveland Institute of Art. Many many years she taught art history at the Cleveland artists of this era received their Cleveland School of Art (1898–1900, 1900– training either at this school or through the city ’s 1920). A founder of the Women’s Art Club of numerous settlement houses, organizations Cleveland, she was also a member of the dedicated to providing vocational skills for National Association of Women Painters and the exploding immigrant population. Sculptors. She exhibited widely during her Cleveland was relatively late in establishing lifetime, both in Cleveland and in national an art museum. In 1913 a group of prominent exhibitions in New York, Washington, D.C., citizens founded the Cleveland Museum of Philadelphia, and Detroit. She also traveled Art, which opened its doors to the public in widely, visiting and painting in various New 1916. In 1919 the museum instituted an annual England states, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Crete, juried exhibition, popularly known as “The May and Turkey. Show,” open to all artists in Cleveland, and Although Ames painted still lifes and portraits, soon expanded to numerous surrounding her preferred subject was landscape, counties. This exhibition played a vital role in especially sunlit scenes of abundant nature promoting regional art development. Yet, in spring and summer. She was particularly even prior to the first May Show, several groups attracted to picturesque views of the small had already formed in Cleveland to promote towns and woods around Cleveland, from progressive, modernist art. The most important Brecksville to Painesville. Path Through the were the Cleveland Secessionists, who began Woods of 1900 (Fig. 72) and Forest Landscape meeting in the Rorimer-Brooks Studio in 1910, of 1904 are characteristic of her early paintings and the Kokoon Arts Club, founded in 1911. of rural Ohio. A progressive lightening of her In the nineteenth century, men dominated palette is evident in Cornshocks, Brecksville (Fig. the art life of Cleveland. The city’s most 61) of 1913, Roadside Shrine, Syracuse (Fig. 28) prominent artists were Allen Smith, Jr. of 1915, and Sunlit Garden (Fig. 44) of 1918. This (1818–1890), Archibald Willard (1836–1918), trend matured fully with In the Ruins (Fig. 2) of Henry Church (1836–1908), De Scott Evans 1926 and Blue Mirror (Fig. 60) of 1928. Although (1847–1898), Otto Bacher (1856–1909), Max employing increasingly high-keyed color during Bohm (1868–1923), and Frederick Gottwald her later years, and often described in the (1858–1941). Among the few notable excep - newspapers as an Impressionist, Ames resisted tions were Caroline Ransom (1826–1910) and association with any modernist school or “ism.” Nina Waldeck (1868–1943), who gave art Instead, she emphasized sound craftsmanship instruction to the young Marsden Hartley and the faithful rendering of nature. During the during his early years in Cleveland. Women 1920s she painted romantic, nocturnal views of began to make their presence more strongly the Cleveland steel mills, subjects also painted felt in the early twentieth century, and in 1911 by her colleagues George Adomeit established the Women’s Art Club of Cleveland. (1879–1967) and Carl Gaertner (1898–1952).

37 FIGURE 45: Grace Kelly (1877–1950) Golden Heaps, 1920 Watercolor and gouache on paper, 10 x 13 Christine and Brian Pierce Collection

Grace Veronica Kelly (1877–1950) was one of standing on a cliff and gazing toward a Cleveland’s leading women artists, as well as brilliantly colored sea. Kelly continued to The Plain Dealer’s principal art critic for many employ a modernist palette in Golden Heaps years. Born in Cleveland, she enrolled in the (Fig. 45) and Farm Scene (Fig. 11) , both painted Cleveland School of Art at age fifteen and during the 1920s. graduated in 1896. She taught mechanical In the 1920s and 1930s Kelly went on summer drawing and watercolor painting at the painting trips to Ireland, Guatemala, San school from 1896 to 1904. In 1911 she co- Salvador, Panama, and Venezuela. She report - founded the Women’s Art Club of Cleveland. edly painted outdoors in the wind and rain in Kelly received numerous prizes for paintings Ireland, although it is not known whether this exhibited in the annual May Shows at the was the case with Tinkers Come to Castle Burke, Cleveland Museum of Art and had three County Mayo, Ireland (Fig. 34) , an oil painting of paintings accepted to the Paris Salon of 1927. 1927–1929. 4 The child of Irish immigrants, Kelly In 1926, after years of supporting herself as a developed a particular fondness for the magazine illustrator, she began writing art ancient, timeless quality of the Irish countryside, criticism for The Plain Dealer and served as of the lyrical beauty of its country roads and the newspaper’s art editor until 1949. villages, and commented that County Donegal Kelly initially developed a reputation for her “appears to be at the end of the world.” 5 Like watercolor paintings. During her early years May Ames, Kelly avoided the radical “isms” and as an art instructor at the Cleveland School remained at heart a populist, rejecting overly of Art, she employed a traditional academic theoretical art in favor of an immediate, intuitive technique of applying transparent watercolor response to the subject. She also stressed the over forms carefully drawn in pencil (Fig. 10). necessity of sound drawing and technique. “A Around 1910 she began painting at Henry favorite theory of mine,” she remarked, “is that if Keller’s summer school in Berlin Heights, Ohio. a work of art is truly great, its greatness will be as Under Keller’s influence, she explored more evident to the casual layman as to the artist or spontaneous application of bold color. Her the connoisseur, and that there will be no more vibrant palette is evident in Cottage at necessity whatever for experts to harangue on Berlin Heights (Fig. 30) of 1910–1916 and At the its qualities, because they’ll be so real [i.e., the Shore, Lake Erie (Fig. 24) of 1911, a painting work’s inherent “qualities”] that they can be felt depicting Kelly and fellow artist Clara Deike even if they’re not understood.” 6

38 Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) was one of influence of William Merritt Chase and John Cleveland's most celebrated portrait painters. Singer Sargent, two of the most sought-after It is occasionally said that she was born in portraitists of the era. Canada and studied in Europe, but, in fact, Wright came to Cleveland around 1924 to she was a largely self-made artist from a complete a commission for a posthumous working class family in Ohio. She built her portrait of Senator Marcus Hanna. career as a portrait painter on hard work and Establishing her studio in the Hanna Building, ambition. Born in Youngstown, Wright moved she began a period of painting the city’s to Toronto with her family at age thirteen and most prominent politicians and industrialists, displayed early talent at drawing. At age including three presidents of the Sherwin- sixteen, she received permission from her Williams Company and various board father to study privately with J.W.L. Forester, a members of Richman Brothers and the British painter of government ministers. She George Worthington Company. In the early spent three years as his studio apprentice. 1930s she painted portraits of Marshall Foch At age nineteen, while visiting Youngstown and U.S. Ambassador to France Myron Herrick with her mother and younger sister, Wright for the American Legion Memorial Building in received the shocking news of her father’s Paris. Other notable paintings include her sudden death in Toronto, a situation that left portraits of Daniel Hanna (Fig. 18) , the the family in debt and without any means of Cleveland chemical manufacturer Caesar support. So she began painting portraits from Augustin Grasselli (Fig. 17), Worcester Reed photographs to support her small family. After Warner (Fig. 46), and Helen Watkins (Fig. 6) . two years of study under Kenyon Cox at the Arts Students League in New York, she Wright’s most famous painting, a portrait of resumed her career as a portraitist. The President Calvin Coolidge, started with a bravura brushwork and dramatic, lustrous personal sitting in Washington, D.C. She color of her portrait Josephine Butler Ford (Fig. completed the portrait in Cleveland from 47) of 1905, painted when Wright was about photographs. Presented to the public and twenty-two years old, suggests the early press with great fanfare at Cleveland Public Hall in 1928, the portrait was subsequently donated to the city of Cleveland, reportedly because Coolidge received his nomination in the city during the Republican National Convention of 1924. The portrait hung in the musical foyer of Public Auditorium until 1935, when it burned in a fire started by a careless cigarette. (The fire was extinguished before destroying the entire auditorium.) Wright also painted Winston Churchill’s portrait. The British Prime Minister complimented the artist by noting that he vastly preferred her portrait to one painted by celebrated modernist Graham Sutherland. 7 Churchill’s attitude

FIGURE 46: Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) Worcester Reed Warner, c. 1949 Oil on canvas, 33 x 27.5 inches Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio 92.91.4

39 Deike attended high school in Cleveland and studied art under Frederick Gottwald and Henry Keller at the Cleveland School of Art from 1909 to 1912. After graduating, she taught art in the Cleveland public schools from 1912 to 1945. Starting around 1910, she spent her summers painting in Berlin Heights with Henry Keller, who imparted to his students his considerable knowledge of European modernism, including the most recent developments in Fauvism and Cubism. In 1912 Deike co-founded the Women’s Art Club of Cleveland. From 1921 to 1923 she studied with Hugh Breckenridge in Gloucester, and from 1925 to 1927 with Hans Hofmann in Capri and Munich. In the late 1920s or early 1930s she painted for a time with Diego Rivera in Mexico. Deike exhibited widely and received numerous honors and awards, especially from the May Show exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Deike began exploring Henry Keller’s technique of the “blue outline,” a method of creating three-dimensional form by surrounding large, flat shapes with intense blue

FIGURE 47: or purple, as early as 1912. This technique, Edith Stevenson Wright (1883–1975) derived from the Fauve paintings of Henri Josephine Butler Ford , 1905 Matisse, replaces modeling with gray or Oil on canvas, 70 x 38 inches neutral tones with direct juxtaposition of pure Butler Institute of American Art Collection, Gift of Mrs. Benjamin Agler, 1976 color, often applied as complementary contrasts (blue/orange, red/green, violet/ reflected a broader consensus of opinion in yellow). Deike employed this technique with conservative circles, where Wright’s portraits powerful effect in Willows and Hollyhocks (Fig. 4) were admired for their faithful representation of 1916. During the 1920s, as seen in Self- of the subject. She received considerable Portrait with Orange Hat (Fig. 1) of about 1925, press coverage during her lifetime, as well as she introduced more rigid structure into her honors from the Paris Salon. compositions, often wedding intense Fauve At the opposite extreme from Wright, the color to geometric shapes derived from traditional portraitist, Clara Deike (1881–1964), Cubism. She continued to develop this devoted herself to modernist painting. approach in New England Landscape (Fig. 7) , Although relatively obscure today, Deike Self-Portrait (Berlin), and Cuernavaca, Mexico enjoyed a considerable reputation during (Fig. 31) . During the 1940s Deike began her lifetime as one of Cleveland’s leading breaking up forms and allowing fragmented progressive artists, a status shared by, among geometric shapes to interpenetrate and others, ceramist Thelma Frazier Winter (1903– merge. These shattered and intersecting 1977), printmaker Jolan Gross Bettelheim shapes, evident in Regal Lilies (Fig. 13) of (1900–1972), and photographer Margaret 1940–1941, infused her increasingly complex Bourke-White (1904–1971). Born in Detroit, compositions with greater dynamic energy.

40 Natalie Eynon Grauer (1888–1955), an important member of Cleveland’s art community, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and studied in New York at the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design (graduating in 1918), and privately in New York under Russian émigré Alexander Archipenko. In 1924 she attended the Art Institute of Chicago. That same year, she came to Cleveland after marrying painter William Grauer (1895–1985). Together, they established an independent art school in Cleveland, which followed the model of the Art Students League by stressing a non-academic approach. In 1932 Natalie began summering in West Virginia, where from 1932 to 1942 she co-directed the Old White Art School and Colony at White Sulphur Springs. She also founded the Old White Art Gallery at Greenbrier, West Virginia. In 1935 she became an instructor in portraiture at Cleveland College of Western Reserve University, where she and her husband were instrumental in founding the university’s art department. Her paintings appeared in both progressive and traditional exhibitions, from the Carnegie and Whitney museums, to the Pennsylvania Academy and the National Academy of Design.

Grauer established her reputation largely as a portraitist, but she also painted murals on commission and experimented with various modernist styles. Art critics praised her drawings of the nude for their emphasis on quick, rhythmic line and the accurate rendering of anatomy (Fig. 15). Minnie (Fig. 19), a painting of 1930, demonstrates her abilities as a traditional figure painter. She FIGURE 48: explored a more modernist approach in Ici Natalie Eynon Grauer (1888–1955) Repose (Fig. 49) of 1946, an oil painting that Still Life with Sculpture, 1930s Oil on canvas, 23 x 19 inches depicts an almost Surreal cemetery, where Courtesy of James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited the sky is rendered through fragmented planar forms of intense blue and white. FIGURE 49: Natalie Eynon Grauer (1888–1955) Ici Repose, 1946 Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches Courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Arts

41 FIGURE 50: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) Indiana Farm, 1950 Casein, 20 x 26 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

Columbus, Crossroads and Capital: William Bambrough (1792–1860), an English painter who settled in Columbus in 1819, Located in central Ohio between Cleveland may have been the city’s first resident artist. and Cincinnati, the city of Columbus was William (1819–1884) and David Walcutt founded in 1812 on the east side of the Scioto (b.1825), Silas Martin (1841–1906), Theodore River. In 1816 the state government moved Butler (1861–1936), and James Hopkins the capital from Chillicothe to Columbus, a (1877–1969) were among the city’s most site favored because of its central location. influential artists of the nineteenth century. Columbus was connected to the rest of the Columbus’s most renowned artist of the early state by a canal in the 1830s and by railroads twentieth century, George Bellows (1882–1925), in the 1860s. The city soon developed into spent most of his mature career in New York. a center for transportation and political administration, the place where Ohio soldiers Although not represented in the exhibition, assembled for Civil War service and where Lucy Stanberry Fauley (d. 1926), wife of students came to attend Ohio State University painter Albert Fauley (1858–1919), was perhaps (est. 1870). Yet, Columbus’s art community the city’s most notable female artist of the grew more slowly than Cincinnati’s and more nineteenth century. The couple’s home unevenly than Cleveland’s. The local art became a gathering place for area artists, scene received a boost in the 1850s with the and they were instrumental in founding the establishment of the annual Ohio State Fair, Columbus Art Students League. A painter of an important exhibition venue for regional landscapes and portraits, Lucy Fauley often artists. The Columbus Art Association and the spent her summers painting in Gloucester, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (now the Provincetown, and Cape Ann. Known for her Columbus Museum of Art) were founded in vibrant Impressionist palette, she received the late 1870s. The Art School of the Columbus numerous awards and critics regarded her Gallery of Fine Arts was also established at this as a better painter than her husband. 9 time to provide studio instruction. Seeking “She used a full brush with a broad and more informal instruction, local artists formed direct style which showed the influence of the Pen and Pencil Club in 1897 and the [John] Twachtman on the painting of time,” Columbus Art Students League in 1910. observed art historian Edna Clark. “Her landscapes and portraits alike are of high quality. She obtained remarkably good effects through her manner of heavily applied paint.” 10

42 FIGURE 51: Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954) Cloth Market, c. 1947 Oil on canvas, 43 x 48 inches Schumacher Gallery Capital University

FIGURE 52: Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) Sunflowers and Watermelon c. 1950 Casein, 30 x 24 inches Collection of artist’s grandson, Pete and Pidge Diehl

43 FIGURE 53: FIGURE 54 (OPPOSITE): Alice Schille (1869–1936) Alice Schille (1869–1936) Sunlight and Shadow, c. 1923 Cordes, c. 1920–25 Watercolor on paper, 17 x 20 inches Watercolor on paper, 20 x 24 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio

Alice Schille (1869–1955), an associate of In 1902 she went to Europe and visited Fauley and a leader of the Columbus Art museums in England, Holland, Germany, and Students League, was the city’s most Spain. From 1903 to 1904 she attended the prominent female artist of the twentieth Académie Colarossi in Paris and studied century. Although not as famous as Kenyon privately with Louis Collin, Gustave Courtois, Cox, she arguably produced a more and René Prinet. The Paris Salon exhibited compelling body of work. Born in Columbus, five of her paintings in the spring of 1904. Schille studied at the Columbus Art School Later that year, she returned home and from 1891 to 1893, the Art Students League in began teaching at the Columbus Art School, New York and the New York School of Art from a position she retained until 1948. During 1897 to 1899. She attended William Merritt those years she went on painting trips nearly Chase’s summer art school at Shinnecock, every summer, most frequently to France until Long Island, in 1899. 1914, and later to Gloucester, Provincetown, New Mexico, North Africa, and Guatemala.

44 Schille was not merely Columbus’s leading and large areas of pure color increasingly female artist, but one of the finest American dominated the watercolors she painted in watercolorists of the twentieth century. She New Mexico during the summers of exhibited widely and received high critical 1919–1921, and later in North Africa and acclaim and numerous awards, including the Guatemala. During this period she replaced Corcoran Prize for watercolor painting in 1908 the broken, divisionist strokes of her Gloucester and the gold medal for watercolor painting at paintings with broad, planar shapes of pure the San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition color, as evident in Guatemalan Roof Tops (Fig. of 1915. She achieved a remarkable sense of 27) , dating from the early 1930s. An exhibition Impressionistic light and color in her early review in the Chicago Herald Examiner of 1923 paintings, as displayed in Grape Arbor (Fig. 9) commented, “There is no lessening in Alice of about 1907–1908 and Early Morning in an Schille’s modernity, but there is a new freedom Old Church (Fig. 74) of 1908. By the time she and confidence… There is design and color painted Mother and Child in a Garden and meaning—there is significance in all of (about 1911), she was applying color in short, Alice Schille’s works. She is undoubtedly one rhythmic strokes for decorative effect, often of the best of America’s women painters.” 12 directly and spontaneously, without pencil More recently, art historians have reevaluated underdrawing. Her technique also featured Schille’s art and reached similar conclusions. broken strokes of color surrounded by Ronald Pisano observed, “Both for her unpainted white paper, which increases the traditional and her modernist watercolors, overall effect of intense luminosity. Eliminating she can now be ranked among America’s any suggestions of horizon or deep space, leading practitioners of the medium.” 13 she reduced the composition to decorative William Gerdts considers Schille “one of surface patterns of pure color. “In the the finest American painters in watercolor designed picture,” Schille wrote in her of her generation…certainly the most notebooks, “all spaces are limited consciously superb woman specialist of her time.” 14 in order to be built into the structure.” 11

Schille painted some of her finest watercolors in Gloucester, Massachusetts, during the summers of 1916-1918. These paintings are distinguished by more powerful color sensations created through the introduction of large areas of pure color and by outlining key forms with intense blue or violet. Uniting surfaces with rhythmic blocks of pure color, Schille merged the Neo-Impressionist aesthetics of Georges Seurat with those of Henri Matisse and the French Fauves. At the same time, Schille advanced her own watercolor techniques of staining, blotting, and allowing colors to fluidly merge wet-in-wet to create the effect of melting skies and radiant reflected light.

Schille continued to develop her distinctive watercolor style in The Green Chair of about 1917 and Ranchos de Taos, Adobe House in the Distance (Fig. 65) of 1919. Bolder forms

45 Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962), a close friend of Alice Schille, studied at the Columbus School of Art and belonged to the Columbus Art League. She also studied privately under Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, under John Carlson in Woodstock, New York, and with Hans Hofmann. For many years, Kirkpatrick directed the art department at the Columbus School for Girls. Her favorite activity was painting outdoors. She especially enjoyed painting coastal scenes of New England and California, using a style that blended naturalistic drawing with an Impressionist palette of brilliant color, reminiscent of Schille’s early watercolor style. During her later years she moved toward a style of increasingly condensed form and intense color, qualities evident in New England Boats (Fig. 20), dating from the 1940s. Kirkpatrick became particularly known for her watercolors produced with stencils, a technique that Yeteve Smith (1888–1957), a painter of emphasizes flat, stylized surface patterns, as modernist portraits and landscapes, was born seen in Taxco Street (Fig. 23) and End of in Columbus and studied at the Potsdammer Market (Fig. 22), both painted around 1943. Schüler in Berlin, the Washington Art School in During the 1950s, as seen in Sunflowers and the District of Columbia, privately with Alfredo Watermelon (Fig. 52), Kirkpatrick emphasized Galli in New York, and with painter John Hopkins more reductive forms and intense, pure color. at Ohio State University (1926–1929). Smith was She also heightened color sensation by a member of the Columbus Art League and painting with opaque casein and gouache, the Ohio Watercolor Society. She developed as evident in Indiana Farm (Fig. 50) of her reputation based on her figure paintings about 1950. and portraits, along with a modern style of vivid color and strong, simplified form. Columbus native George Bellows strongly influenced her oil technique of robust brush - work and color, as seen in Sewing in the Garden (Fig. 55), a large oil of about 1915. She demonstrated her ability to explore human character in Wings of Faith (Fig. 56), an oil painting of 1928–39. Smith also painted still lifes, animals, and landscapes. Her paintings of Maryland and Florida received critical acclaim for their exquisite color harmonies.

46 Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954), another modernist painter who associated with Alice Schille, was born in Indiana. She received her early art training at Earlham College and the John Herron Art Institute in Indiana, and later at Columbia University in New York. She also studied privately with Rufino Tomayo at the University of Fine Arts in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. A professor of fine arts at Ohio State University from 1932 to 1954, Bradley exhibited widely and received numerous art prizes and awards. She was a member of the Columbus Art League and the Women’s Art Club of Cincinnati. Her vivid landscapes concentrate on capturing the essential impression of a scene. Cloth Market (Fig. 51) of 1947 renders the energy and vitality of daily life through its rhythmic arrangement of decorative form and color.

FIGURE 55 (OPPOSITE): Yeteve Smith (1888–1957) Sewing in the Garden, c. 1915 Oil, 35 x 28 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS ONLY )

FIGURE 56: Yeteve Smith (1888–1957) Wings of Faith, c. 1928–30 Oil The Schumacher Gallery Capital University

FIGURE 57: Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954) The Viaduct, Akron, Ohio, nd Watercolor, 34.5 x 30 inches

Richmond Art Museum, Gift of Ruth Bradley in memory of her sister

47 Breaking with Tradition: Since at least the amateurs and hobbyists. “For such men,” 1870s, women have played a prominent role Nochlin notes, “the ‘real’ work of women is in the visual arts of Ohio. Their paintings range only that which directly or indirectly serves in style from academic conservatism to the family; any other commitment falls under modernist experimentation. The state’s first the rubric of diversion, selfishness, egomania notable female artists emerged in Cincinnati, …the circle is a vicious one, in which where Elizabeth Nourse and Caroline Lord philistinism and frivolity mutually reinforce painted genre subjects that conveyed profound each other.” 15 The achievements of so empathy for ordinary people and their struggle many female artists from Ohio testifies to for human dignity. Exhibiting at Paris Salons, their determination to overcome such deeply Nourse and Lord received considerable ingrained prejudices, not to mention the critical acclaim from conservative art circles countless practical obstacles in their daily and the press. Although their styles were lives. The courage and resolve of these grounded in traditional academic techniques, female painters from Ohio paved the way they still found ways of incorporating for future generations to build upon. progressive painterly qualities into their art. Although nearly a generation younger than Nourse or Lord, Edith Stevenson Wright William H. Robinson, Ph.D. epitomized the traditional academic artist. Her portraits of powerful politicians and Curator of Modern and European Art industrialists brought her considerable press Cleveland Museum of Art attention and near celebrity status during her lifetime.

Alice Schille and Clara Deike, dedicated modernists, represent the extreme opposite of Wright. Deike, the most progressive female painter in Cleveland, merged brilliant Fauve color with geometric Cubist construction. Schille, the brilliant watercolorist, created paintings of national stature. She influenced and set the standard for a generation of Ohio modernists, including her Columbus colleagues Harriet Kirkpatrick, Yeteve Smith, and Carolyn Bradley. Annie Gooding Sykes, Emma Mendenhall, Dixie Selden, and Bessie Hoover Wessel advanced the path of modernist painting in Cincinnati. May Ames, Grace Veronica Kelly, and Natalie Eynon Grauer contributed to the development of modern art in Cleveland.

Art historians have already chronicled the obstacles women painters of the modernist era faced in their struggle to secure a place in the art world. Linda Nochlin has observed that in the nineteenth century many if not most men regarded women artists as mere

48 FIGURE 58 (OPPOSITE): Annie Sykes (1855–1931) The Summer Repast, Eden Park, 1910–20 Watercolor on paper, 21 x 16 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

FIGURE 59: Alice Schille (1869–1936) Robert Louis Stevenson House, Monterey, c. 1919 Watercolor on paper, 17 x 20 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (PORTSMOUTH ONLY )

1 The painter George Jacob Beck was active in 7 Marie Kirkwood, “Cleveland Artists Paints Church,” Cincinnati “as early as 1792,” according to Edna Cleveland News (May 14, 1955), Edith Stevenson Marie Clark, Ohio Art and Artists (Richmond, Wright artist’s file, Ingalls Library of the Cleveland Virginia: Garrett & Massie, 1932; republished by Museum of Art. Page numbers not recorded. Gale Research, Detroit, 1975), 73. 8 See the Natalie Enyon Grauer artist’s file, Ingalls 2 Histories of this period often cite slightly different Library of the Cleveland Museum of Art. names and founding dates for these organizations. 9 Compare Clark’s Ohio Art and Artists , 73–101, with Clark, 120. William H. Gerdts, Art Across America 1710–1920 10 Ibid. vol. 2 (New York: Abbeville Press, 1990) 172–92, and E. Jane Connell, “Pioneers,” Timeline vol. 20 11 Schille Archives of the Keny Galleries of (March–June 2003), 4–23. Biographical information Columbus, Ohio. in this essay was also derived from James M. Keny 12 Review of the Third Annual International with Nanette V. Maciejunes, Triumph of Color and Exhibition of Watercolors, Chicago Herald Examiner Light: Ohio Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, (March–April 1923), Schille Archives. Quoted also in exh. Cat. (Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Ronald G. Pisano, Lyrical Colorist: Alice Schille, Art, 1994). 1869–1955 , exh. Cat. (Columbus, Ohio: Keny and 3 Clark, 200. Johnson Gallery, 1988), 32.

4 Kelly quoted in an unidentified newspaper 13 Ronald Pisano, Alice Schille Watercolors, exh. clipping (most likely from a Plain Dealer article of Cat. (Columbus, Ohio: Keny Galleries, 1991), 6. 1931) in Grace V. Kelly artist’s file, Ingalls Library, 14 William H. Gerdts, “Introduction” to Alice Schille The Cleveland Museum of Art. Watercolors , exh. cat. (Columbus, Ohio: Keny 5 Grace V. Kelly, “Miss Kelly Risks Hazards of Journey Galleries, 1991), 6. to Dunfanaghy, Ireland’s ‘End of the World’,” Plain 15 Linda Nochlin, Women, Art and Power and Other Dealer (August 1931), newspaper clipping in Grace Essays (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), 166. See V. Kelly artist’s file, Ingalls Library of the Cleveland also Nancy Heller, Women Artists: Works from the Museum of Art. Exact date and page numbers National Museum of Women in the Arts (New York: not recorded. Rizzoli, 2000); Griselda Pollock, Differencing the 6 Florence Davies, “With All Thy Getting,” Detroit Canon: Feminist Desire and the Writing of Art’s News (July 1, 1927, newspaper clipping in the Histories (New York: Routledge, 1999); Whitney Grace V. Kelly artist’s file, Ingalls Library of the Chadwick, Women, Art and Society (New York: Cleveland Museum of Art. Page numbers Thames and Hudson, 1997); and Norma Broude not recorded. and Mary Garrard, Feminism and Art History (New York: Harper and Row, 1982).

49 FIGURE 60: May Ames (1869–1943) Blue Mirror, 1928 Oil on canvas, 12 x 18 inches Robert Burns Collection

50 FIGURE 61: May Ames (1869–1943) Cornshocks, Brecksville, 1913 Oil on canvas 23 x 35 inches

Thomas French Fine Art

Artists and Paintings in the Exhibition

May Ames (1869–1943) Carolyn Bradley (1898–1954) Blue Mirror, 1928 Oil on canvas The Viaduct, Akron, Ohio , nd 12 x 18 inches Watercolor Robert Burns Collection 34.5 x 30 inches Richmond Art Museum, In the Ruins, 1926 Gift of Ruth Bradley in memory of her sister Oil on canvas 18 x 12 inches Mexican Family, nd Robert Burns Collection Oil on canvas 43 x 48 inches Roadside Shrine, Syracuse, 1915 Richmond Art Museum, Oil on canvas Gift of Ruth Bradley in memory of her sister 12 x 10 inches John and Susan Horseman Collection Lilies for Sale, Antique Guatemala, nd Watercolor Sunlit Garden, 1918 34 x 30 inches Oil on canvas Richmond Art Museum Purchase, 1965 18 x 12 inches Mrs. Richard Margolis Collection

Cornshocks, Brecksville, 1913 Oil on canvas 23 x 35 inches Thomas French Fine Art

51 Clara Deike (1881–1964) Grace Kelly (1877–1950)

Self-Portrait with Orange Hat, c. 1925 At the Shore, Lake Erie Oil on canvas (Grace Kelly and Clara Deike), 1911 23 x 17 inches Oil on canvas Private Collection, Courtesy of Vixseboxse Art Galleries 30 x 38 inches John and Susan Horseman Collection New England Landscape, 1931 Oil on canvas Tinkers Come to Castle Burke, County Mayo 20 x 16 inches c. 1927–29 Daniel Bush Collection 30 x 40 inches Oil on canvas Regal Lilies, 1940–41 Mrs. William A. Monroe Oil on canvas 23.5 x 23 inches Cottage at Berlin Heights, 1910–16 James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited Collection Oil on Canvas 27 x 34 inches Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1930 Mrs. William A. Monroe Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Golden Heaps, 1920 Private Collection, Courtesy of Vixseboxse Art Galleries Gouache on Board 10 x 13 inches Willows and Hollyhocks, 1916 Christine and Brian Pierce Collection Gouache on Board 18 x 21 inches Farm Scene, 1920s Christine and Brian Pierce Collection Gouache and watercolor on paper 14 x 18 inches Cleveland Artists Foundation Collection

Natalie Eynon Grauer (1888–1955)

Ici Repose, 1946 Oil on Canvas 36 x 30 inches Courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Arts

Minnie, 1930 Oil on Canvas 36 x 30 inches Courtesy of Rachel Davis Fine Arts

Still Life with Sculpture, 1930s Oil on Canvas 23 x 19 inches Courtesy of James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited

FIGURE 62: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Breton Interior/Intereur Breton, Plougastel, nd Oil on board, 38 x 33 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.49

52 Harriet Kirkpatrick (1877–1962) Caroline Lord (1860–1927) Docked, 1910 Watercolor on paper Untitled (Seated Woman), 1913 15 x 10.5 inches Oil on canvas Collection of artist’s granddaughter, 38 x 24 inches Sally and Brian Kriska Robin and Harry Froeschke Collection

New England Boats, 1940s Dutch Girl, 1916 Watercolor on paper Oil on canvas 18 x 23 inches 43 x 35 inches Collection of artist’s grandson, Cincinnati Public School Collection Pete and Pidge Diehl Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.33 Sunflowers and Watermelon, c. 1950 Casein Woman in Contemplation, nd 30 x 24 inches Oil on canvas Collection of artist’s grandson, 43 x 35 inches Pete and Pidge Diehl Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center Indiana Farm, 1950 CHS.IL.1991.31.34 Casein 20 x 26 inches Woman with Geraniums, nd Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Oil on canvas Sally and Brian Kriska 49 x 41 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection End of Market, c. 1943 Cincinnati Museum Center Watercolor stencil CHS.IL.1991.31.35 9 x 6 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

Taxco Street, c. 1943 Watercolor stencil 11 x 8.25 inches Collection of artist’s granddaughter, Sally and Brian Kriska

FIGURE 63: Alice Schille (1869–1936) Philadelphia—Foreign Quarter c. 1917–18 Watercolor 18 x 21 inches

Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (CATALOG ONLY )

53 FIGURE 64: Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Street Scene in Mexico, 1930s Watercolor on paper, 20 x 15 inches Dr. Eugene Folden Collection

Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938)

Breton Interior/Intereur Breton, Plougastel Oil on board 38 x 33 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.49

Head of a Negro Girl, nd Oil on canvas 24 x 19 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.50

Pansies, nd Watercolor 28 x 34 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.51 Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Chapelle de St. Guénolé, 1908 Flower Seller, nd Oil on canvas Watercolor on paper 29 x 36 inches 7 x 10 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York Robert Burns Collection (MASSILLON ONLY )

Flower Market, nd Little Brittany Girl, c. 1902 Watercolor on paper Oil on panel 18 x 14 inches 13 x 9 inches Robert Burns Collection Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio Street Scene in Mexico, 1930s (COLUMBUS ONLY ) Watercolor on Paper 20 x 15 inches Interieur, Breton a Penmarch, 1902 Dr. Eugene Folden Collection Oil on canvas 18 x 21 inches Tucker Property on Prince George St. Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Williamsburg, VA, 1918 Columbus, Ohio 15 x 20 inches (COLUMBUS AND PORTSMOUTH ) Dr. Eugene Folden Collection Meme et Bebe, c. 1912 Street Scene with Advertising Board, 1918 Oil on canvas Gouache on paper 17 x 13 inches 21 x 28 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Cincinnati Museum Center Columbus, Ohio CHS.FA.49 (COLUMBUS ONLY ) 54 FIGURE 65: Alice Schille (1869–1936) Ranchos de Taos, Adobe House in the Distance c. 1919–21 Watercolor on paper, 18 x 21 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio

Alice Schille (1869–1936) Ranchos de Taos, Adobe House in the Distance, c. 1919–21 Guatemalan Rooftops, 1930–35 Watercolor on paper Watercolor on paper 18 x 21 inches 18 x 21 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio Canton Museum of Art Collection, Gift of James M. Keny Grape Arbor, c. 1907–08 White Houses, ca. 1916–18 Watercolor on paper Watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches 17 x 20 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries James C.and Barbara J. Koppe Collection Columbus, Ohio Canton Museum of Art (COLUMBUS ONLY ) (MASSILLON ONLY ) Robert Louis Stevenson House, Monterey, Early Morning in an Old Church, 1908 c. 1919 Watercolor on paper Watercolor on paper 17 x 20 inches 17 x 20 inches Columbus Museum of Art Bequest of Josephine Klippart Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (MASSILLON AND COLUMBUS ) (PORTSMOUTH ONLY ) Cottages, New England, c. 1930–35 Watercolor on paper Cordes, c. 1920–25 Columbus Museum of Art Watercolor on paper Bequest of Margaret Ellen Taylor Benjamin 20 x 24 inches in memory of her mother, Margaret Schille Bobb Taylor Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS AND PORTSMOUTH )

Sunlight and Shadow, c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 17 x 20 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries Columbus, Ohio

55 Dixie Selden (1870–1935)

Street in Grenada, 1925 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.63

The Patched Sail, nd Oil on canvas 21 x 17 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.77

Yeteve Smith (1888–1957)

Wings of Faith, 1928–30 Oil The Schumacher Gallery, Capital University

Sewing in the Garden, c. 1915 Oil 35 x 28 inches Private Collection, Courtesy of Keny Galleries, Columbus, Ohio (COLUMBUS ONLY )

Annie Sykes (1855–1931)

Poppies, c. 1910 Watercolor on paper 18 x 13 inches Robert Burns Collection

Summer Repast, Eden Park, 1910–1920 Watercolor on paper 21 x 16 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

The Yellow House, c. 1890 Watercolor on paper 22 x 15 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

Fishing Boats at Dock, Gloucester, Massachusetts c. 1905–10 Watercolor and gouache on paper 16 x 21 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

Sailboats, c. 1905–10 Watercolor on paper 15 x 22 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

56 Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889–1973)

Chrysanthemums, nd Oil on canvas 38 x 45 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.82

Hollyhocks, nd Oil on canvas 55 x33 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.83

Still Life with Duveneck Vase, c. 1940s Oil 35 x 40 inches Courtesy of Helen Wessel

Edith Stevenson Wright (1883-1975)

Helen Watkins, 1950s Oil on Canvas 24 x 21inches The Cleveland Play House Collection

Daniel Hanna, c. 1920s Oil on Canvas 44 x 34 inches Playhouse Square Center Collection

Josephine Butler Ford, 1905 FIGURE 66 (OPPOSITE): Dixie Selden (1870–1935) Oil on Canvas The Patched Sail, nd 72 x 38 inches Oil on canvas, 21 x 17 inches Butler Institute of American Art Collection, Gift of Mrs. Benjamin Agler, 1976. Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.77 Worcester Reed Warner, c. 1949 Oil on Canvas 33 x 27 inches FIGURE 67 (OPPOSITE): Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889–1973) Cleveland, Ohio Still Life with Duveneck Vase, c. 1940s 92.91.4 Oil on Masonite, 35 x 40 inches Courtesy of Helen Wessel Caesar Augustin Grasselli, 1929 Oil on Canvas FIGURE 68: 51 x 41 inches Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889–1973) Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society Hollyhocks, nd Cleveland, Ohio Oil on canvas, 55 x 33 inches 72.65.4 Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.83

57 Bibliography

Julie Aronson, editor, The Cincinnati Wing: The Story Nancy G. Heller, Women Artists: An Illustrated of Art in the Queen City . Athens, OH: Ohio History. New York: Abbeville Press, 1987. University Press, 2003. Nancy G. Heller, Women Artists: Works from the Norma Broude and Mary Garrard, Feminism and National Museum of Women in the Arts. New York: Art History. New York: Harper and Row, 1982. Rizzoli, 2000.

Mary Alice Heekin Burke, Elizabeth Nourse, James M. Keny, Triumph of Color and Light: Ohio 1859–1938: A Salon Career. Washington: Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Columbus, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983. OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 1994.

Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art and Society. New Kathleen D. McCarthy, Women’s Culture: American York: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Philanthropy and Art, 1830–1930. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991. Edna Maria Clark, Ohio Art and Artists. Richmond: Garret and Massie, 1932. Genetta McLean, Dixie Selden: An American Impressionist From Cincinnati 1868–1935. Wayne Craven, American Art: History and Culture. Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Art Galleries, 2001. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994. Eugen Neuhaus, The History & Ideals of American John A. Cuthbert, Early Art and Artists in West Art. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1931. Virginia. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Press, 2000. Judith Vale Newton and Carol Ann Weiss, Skirting the Issue: Stories of Indiana’s Historical Women Stephen F. Eisenman, Nineteenth Century Art: A Artists. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society Critical History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Press, 2004.

Peter Hastings Falk and Audrey Lewis, Annie Linda Nochlin, Women, Art and Power and Other Gooding Sykes (1855-1931): An American Essays. New York: Harper and Row, 1988. Watercolorist Rediscovered. New York: Spanierman Gallery, LLC, 1998. Linda Nochlin, Art and Sexual Politics: Women’s Liberation, Women Artists, and Art History. New York: Lois Marie Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth- MacMillan Publishing Co., 1971. Century Paris Salons. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Ronald Pisano, Alice Schille Watercolors. Columbus, OH: Keny Galleries, 1991. William H. Gerdts, Alice Schille. New York: Hudson Hill Press, 2001. Griselda Pollock, Differencing the Canon: Feminist Desire and the Writing of Art’s Histories. New York: William H. Gerdts, American Impressionism. New Routledge, 1999. York: Abbeville Press, 1984. Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Ann Sutherland Harris and Linda Nochlin, Women Feminism and the Histories of Art. London and New Artists: 1550–1950. Los Angeles: Los Angeles York: Routledge, 1988. County Museum of Art, 1976.

58 Laura R. Prieto, At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

William H. Robinson, Alice Schille: Ohio Artist, Her Innovative Spirit. Canton, OH: The Canton Museum of Art, 2001.

William H. Robinson, A Brush With Light: Watercolor Painters of Northeast Ohio. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Artists Foundation, 1998.

William H. Robinson, Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796–1946. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.

Kirsten Swinth, Painting Professional: Women Artists & the Development of Modern American Art, 1870–1930. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001.

Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.

H. Barbara Weinberg, The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth- Century painters and their French Teachers. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1991.

The Collections of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 2000.

FIGURE 69: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Head of a Negro Girl, nd Oil on canvas, 24 x 19 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.50

59 Authors Judy L. Larson, Ph.D.

Dr. Judy L. Larson has been the director of the National Museum of the Arts since 2002. Christine Fowler Shearer, M.A. Under her leadership, the museum has increased its visibility with the formation of Christine Fowler Shearer is the director of the new international committees and the Massillon Museum. She received her BA in Art organization of major exhibitions such as History from Kent State University and her MA Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers for which in Art History from the University of Notre Larson was co-curator. Prior to working at Dame in 1996. Before coming to the Massillon NMWA, Larson served for over four years as Museum in 2001, Shearer served as the first director at the Art Museum of Western Virginia full-time executive director of the Cleveland in Roanoke. Under her tenure, the museum Artists Foundation for three years. She is added more than twenty million dollars of currently an officer and member of the board new acquisitions, with a special emphasis on of trustees of the Ohio Museums Association. American nineteenth century art. Preceding She has been a contributor to a number of her tenure at Roanoke, Larson was curator of publications including Carl Gaertner: A Story American art at the High Museum of Art in of Earth and Steel; Paul Travis; and Framework Atlanta where she organized exhibitions on of a Community: The Steel Industry in Ohio. Mary Cassatt, John Twachtman, Norman Shearer has curated a number of exhibitions, Rockwell and others. She published the first including Transcended Memories; Framework collection catalogue on American art and of a Community: The Steel Industry in Stark founded an active support group for the County; Untrodden Paths: Contemporary American department. Larson is a graduate Landscape Painters; William Glackens: Works of UCLA in Art History for both her B.A. and and Process; Carl Gaertner: A Story of Earth M.A., and pursued her Ph.D. at Emory and Steel; and The Poetics of Place: Charles University in the Institute of Liberal Studies. Burchfield and the Cleveland Connection. Her scholarly pursuits have involved projects with the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts; the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in California. She has lectured and published on many aspects of American nineteenth century art and culture.

FIGURE 70: Elizabeth Nourse (1859–1938) Pansies, nd Watercolor, 28 x 34 inches

Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.51

60 Brigitte M. Foley, M.A.

Brigitte currently serves as the Director of William H. Robinson, Ph.D. Sponsorships and Grants at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, where she is responsible William Robinson is the Curator of Modern for acquiring funding from foundations, European Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art corporations, and public sources. Previously and Adjunct Professor of Art History at Case Brigitte worked as Associate Curator at the Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia, received his Ph.D. in art history from Case where she curated numerous exhibitions Western Reserve University in 1988. In 2001 including those of Pop Art, contemporary he studied at the Instituto Hispanicos of the Southern art, nineteenth century decorative Universitat de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. art, American Impressionism, and folk art. She He has organized major international touring served as a contributor for the publications exhibitions and published extensively on American Art in the Columbus Museum (2003) European and American art of the 19th and and Taos Artists and Their Patrons, 1898–1950 20th centuries, including scholarly articles and (1999). She has taught art history courses at books on Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Giorgio Saint Louis University, Chattahoochee Valley de Chirico, Otto Dix, Marsden Hartley, Charles Community College, and OASIS. While Burchfield, Clarence Carter, and many others. working as an NEA intern at the Cincinnati He received awards from the Getty Research Art Museum, she performed extensive Institute, the Mellon Foundation, the American research on a large collection of drawings Association of Museums, the Ohio Arts by Ohio artist Henry Mosler, which concluded Council, the National Endowment for the with an exhibition of his work. She received Humanities, and the National Endowment for a master’s degree in Art History from the the Arts. The National Endowment for the Arts University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s recently awarded a major implementation degree in Fine and Performing Arts and grant to his exhibition, Barcelona & Modernity: History from Saint Louis University. Her master’s Gaudí to Dalí, which he is currently organizing thesis discussed the Midwestern patronage for the Cleveland Museum of Art and the of Taos artists Joseph Henry Sharp and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Oscar Berninghaus.

FIGURE 71: Emma Mendenhall (1873–1964) Street Scene with Advertising Board 1918 Gouache on paper, 21 x 28 inches Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.FA.49

61 FIGURE 72: May Ames (1869–1943) Path Through the Woods, c. 1900 Oil on Canvas, 12 x 18 inches James Corcoran Fine Arts Limited

Acknowledgments

This exhibition and publication would not For encouragement and guidance we thank have been possible without the support and Susan dePasquale and Ken Emerick at the encouragement of numerous individuals Ohio Arts Council. and institutions. A special thanks goes to the Of course, without the authors and the editor, Ohio Arts Council and the Stark Community all of the information would not be properly Foundation for their financial support and showcased. The Massillon Museum would like encouragement of the Massillon Museum. to express its appreciation to Brigitte Foley, Thank you also to the Canton/Stark County Judy Larson and William Robinson for their Convention and Visitors Bureau and the contributions as essayists. Thank you also to Ohio Humanities Council. Hugh Brown for his editing assistance. For their commitment and interest, our The Massillon Museum would like to thank gratitude goes to the Massillon Museum Brian Pierce for his patient and talented Board of Trustees. We are especially grateful photographing of many of the Cleveland to Alexandra Nicholis for her assistance in the works, and Andy Rock for transporting the development of the exhibition and catalog; art to and from the Museum. to Margy Vogt for designing the publication and providing public relations support; to Jeff The Massillon Museum would also like to thank Hoskinson, Deborah Ferree, Jennifer Morosko the many financial donors listed in the front of and Kristin Paquelet, staff; to Christopher this catalog, for their contributions helped Craft, museum assistant; and Amanda Altimus, make this exhibition and publication possible. collections intern, for helping out with the many tasks associated with the exhibition; to To all those who have helped make this project Harry Harper for his staff assistance; and to a reality we extend our heartfelt gratitude: Christine Edmonson, librarian, Cleveland At Riffe Gallery: Mary Grey, for her enthusiasm and Museum of Art, Sally Kriska, Deborah Pinter support from the very beginning of this project. and Gretchen Grauer for research assistance.

62 FIGURE 73: Annie Sykes (1855–1931) Sailboats, c. 1905-10 Watercolor on paper, 15 x 22 inches Spanierman Gallery, LLC, New York

At the Southern Ohio Museum: Sara For facilitating loans: James Keny and Johnson, who also was enthusiastic Darlene Cobb at Keny Galleries, Columbus; about this exhibition from the start. William Tregoning III of Tregoning Fine Arts; and Ellen Kloppman at Vixseboxse Galleries. At the Columbus Museum of Art: Nannette Maciejunes, Director; Elizabeth At The Independent: Teresa Melcher, editor, Hopkins, Registrar; and Jennifer Seeds, and her staff for their continued support and Assistant Registrar, for their able and prompt promotion of the exhibition. assistance. Also to Mark Cole, former Our most sincere appreciation to those art Curator of American Art, for advice. lovers who have collected and cherished At the Cincinnati Museum Center: Jane these paintings and are now so generously MacKnight, Registrar, for her assistance lending them to the exhibition. and enthusiasm. The Massillon Museum is very grateful for At the Canton Museum of Art: M.J. Albacete, the encouragement, confidence, help Director; Lynnda Arrasmith, Registrar /Curator and support we have received from of Collections; and Robb Hyde, Marketing/ the community. Development Manager, for their support and prompt assistance. Christine Fowler Shearer To Becky Davis, Registrar, Butler Institute of American Art, and Danielle Routhier, Director Registrar, Western Reserve Historical Society, for their assistance. Ann Caywood Brown To Jan Mack and Ann Belliveau at PSF Project Coordinator Management Company and Jackie York at Playhouse Square Center for their assistance in photographing paintings in their collections. 63 FIGURE 74: Alice Schille (1869–1936) Early Morning in an old Church, c. 1908 Watercolor on paper, 20 x 17 inches Columbus Museum of Art, Bequest of Josephine Klippart (MASSILLON AND COLUMBUS ONLY )

BACK COVER: Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889–1973) Hollyhocks, nd Oil on canvas, 55 x 33 inches Cincinnati Public School Collection Cincinnati Museum Center CHS.IL.1991.31.83