Eliza Cecilia Beaux (May 1, 1855 – September 17, 1942) was an American society
portraitist, whose subjects included First Lady
Edith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Roosevelt (née Carow; August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the First Lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She also was the Second Lady of the United States in 190 ...
, Admiral
Sir David Beatty
Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty (17 January 1871 – 12 March 1936) was a Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Mahdist War and then the response to the Boxer Rebellion, he commanded the 1st Battlecruiser Squadro ...
and
Georges Clemenceau.
Trained in Philadelphia, she went on to study in Paris, strongly influenced by two classical painters
Tony Robert-Fleury and
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who avoided avant-garde movements. In turn, she resisted
impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passa ...
and
cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
, remaining a strongly individual figurative artist. Her style, however, invited comparisons with
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
; at one exhibition,
Bernard Berenson joked that her paintings were the best Sargents in the room. She could flatter her subjects without artifice, and showed great insight into character. Like her instructor
William Sartain, she believed there was a connection between physical characteristics and behavioral traits.
Beaux became the first woman teacher at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was awarded a gold medal for lifetime achievement by the
National Institute of Arts and Letters, and honoured by
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
as "the American woman who had made the greatest contribution to the culture of the world".
Biography
Early life
Eliza Cecilia Beaux was born on May 1, 1855 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
[Kuiper, Kathleen]
"Cecilia Beaux"
''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', Retrieved May 22, 2015. the younger daughter of French
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...
manufacturer Jean Adolphe Beaux and teacher Cecilia Kent Leavitt. Her mother was the daughter of prominent businessman
John Wheeler Leavitt John Wheeler Leavitt (July 3, 1790 – July 17, 1870) was a prominent New York City businessman, founder of J. W. & R. Leavitt Company, eventually declared insolvent, and grandfather of American society portrait painter Cecilia Beaux, who frequentl ...
of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and his wife, Cecilia Kent of
Suffield, Connecticut. Cecilia Kent Leavitt died from
puerperal fever
Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial infections of the female reproductive tract following childbirth or miscarriage. Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than , chills, lower ...
12 days after giving birth at age 33.
Cecilia and her sister Etta were subsequently raised by their maternal grandmother and aunts, primarily in Philadelphia. Her father, unable to bear the grief of his loss, and feeling adrift in a foreign country, returned to his native France for 16 years, with only one visit back to Philadelphia. He returned when Cecilia was two, but left four years later after his business failed. As she confessed later, "We didn't love Papa very much, he was so foreign. We thought him ''peculiar''." Her father did have a natural aptitude for drawing and the sisters were charmed by his whimsical sketches of animals. Later, Beaux would discover that her French heritage would serve her well during her pilgrimage and training in France.
In Philadelphia, Beaux's aunt Emily married mining engineer William Foster Biddle, whom Beaux would later describe as "after my grandmother, the strongest and most beneficent influence in my life." For fifty years, he cared for his nieces-in-law with consistent attention and occasional financial support. Her grandmother, on the other hand, provided day-to-day supervision and kindly discipline. Whether with housework, handiwork, or academics, Grandma Leavitt offered a pragmatic framework, stressing that "everything undertaken must be completed, conquered." The
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
years were particularly challenging, but the extended family survived despite little emotional or financial support from Beaux's father.
After the war, Beaux began to spend some time in the household of "Willie" and Emily, both proficient musicians. Beaux learned to play the piano but preferred singing. The musical atmosphere later proved an advantage for her artistic ambitions. Beaux recalled, "They understood perfectly the spirit and necessities of an artist's life." In her early teens, she had her first major exposure to art during visits with Willie to the nearby
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, one of America's foremost art schools and museums. Though fascinated by the narrative elements of some of the pictures, particularly the Biblical themes of the massive paintings of
Benjamin West, at this point Beaux had no aspirations of becoming an artist.
Her childhood was a sheltered though generally happy one. As a teen she already manifested the traits, as she described, of "both a realist and a perfectionist, pursued by an uncompromising passion for carrying through." She attended the Misses Lyman School and was just an average student, though she did well in French and Natural History. However, she was unable to afford the extra fee for art lessons.
At age 16, Beaux began art lessons with a relative,
Catherine Ann Drinker, an accomplished artist who had her own studio and a growing clientele. Drinker became Beaux's role model, and she continued lessons with Drinker for a year. She then studied for two years with the painter Francis Adolf Van der Wielen, who offered lessons in perspective and drawing from casts during the time that the new
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was under construction. Given the bias of the
Victorian age
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian ...
, female students were denied direct study in anatomy and could not attend drawing classes with live models (who were often prostitutes) until a decade later.
At 18, Beaux was appointed as a drawing teacher at Miss Sanford's School, taking over Drinker's post. She also gave private art lessons and produced decorative art and small portraits. Her own studies were mostly self-directed. Beaux received her first introduction to
lithography
Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...
doing copy work for Philadelphia printer Thomas Sinclair and she published her first work in ''St. Nicholas'' magazine in December 1873. Beaux demonstrated accuracy and patience as a scientific illustrator, creating drawings of fossils for
Edward Drinker Cope
Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interes ...
, for a multi-volume report sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey. However, she did not find technical illustration suitable for a career (the extreme exactitude required gave her pains in the "solar plexus"). At this stage, she did not yet consider herself an artist.
Beaux began attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1876, then under the dynamic influence of
Thomas Eakins, whose great work ''
The Gross Clinic'' had "horrified Philadelphia Exhibition-goers as a gory spectacle" at the
Centennial Exhibition of 1876. She steered clear of the controversial Eakins, though she much admired his work. His progressive teaching philosophy, focused on anatomy and live study (and allowed the female students to partake in segregated studios), eventually led to his firing as director of the Academy. She did not ally herself with Eakins' ardent student supporters, and later wrote, "A curious instinct of self-preservation kept me outside the magic circle." Instead, she attended costume and portrait painting classes for three years taught by the ailing director
Christian Schussele. Beaux won the
Mary Smith Prize
The Mary Smith Prize (defunct) was a prestigious art prize awarded to women artists by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It recognized the best work by a Philadelphia woman artist at PAFA's annual exhibition — one that showed "the m ...
at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts exhibitions in 1885, 1887, 1891, and 1892.
After leaving the Academy, the 24-year-old Beaux decided to try her hand at
porcelain painting
China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porcel ...
and she enrolled in a course at the National Art Training School. She was well suited to the precise work but later wrote, "this was the lowest depth I ever reached in commercial art, and although it was a period when youth and romance were in their first attendance on me, I remember it with gloom and record it with shame." She studied privately with
William Sartain, a friend of Eakins and a New York artist invited to Philadelphia to teach a group of art students, starting in 1881. Though Beaux admired Eakins more and thought his painting skill superior to Sartain's, she preferred the latter's gentle teaching style which promoted no particular aesthetic approach.
[Carter, pg. 65] Unlike Eakins, however, Sartain believed in
phrenology
Phrenology () is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.Wihe, J. V. (2002). "Science and Pseudoscience: A Primer in Critical Thinking." In ''Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience'', pp. 195–203. C ...
and Beaux adopted a lifelong belief that physical characteristics correlated with behaviors and traits.
Beaux attended Sartain's classes for two years, then rented her own studio and shared it with a group of women artists who hired a live model and continued without an instructor. After the group disbanded, Beaux set in earnest to prove her artistic abilities. She painted a large canvas in 1884, ''Les Derniers Jours d'Enfance'', a portrait of her sister and nephew whose composition and style revealed a debt to
James McNeill Whistler and whose subject matter was akin to
Mary Cassatt's mother-and-child paintings. It was awarded a prize for the best painting by a female artist at the Academy, and further exhibited in Philadelphia and New York. Following that seminal painting, she painted over 50 portraits in the next three years with the zeal of a committed professional artist. Her invitation to serve as a juror on the hanging committee of the Academy confirmed her acceptance amongst her peers. In the mid-1880s, she was receiving commissions from notable Philadelphians and earning $500 per portrait, comparable to what Eakins commanded.
[Carter, pg. 70] When her friend Margaret Bush-Brown insisted that ''Les Derniers'' was good enough to be exhibited at the famed
Paris Salon
The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial ar ...
, Beaux relented and sent the painting abroad in the care of her friend, who managed to get the painting into the exhibition.
Paris
At 32, despite her clear success in Philadelphia, Beaux decided that she still needed to advance her skills. She left for
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
with cousin May Whitlock, forsaking several suitors and overcoming the objections of her family. There she trained at the
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number ...
, the largest art school in Paris, and at the
Académie Colarossi
The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...
, receiving weekly critiques from established masters like
Tony Robert-Fleury and
William-Adolphe Bouguereau. She wrote, "Fleury is much less benign than Bouguereau and don't temper his severities…he hinted of possibilities before me and as he rose said the nicest thing of all, 'we will do all we can to help you'…I want these men…to know me and recognize that I can do something." Though advised regularly of Beaux's progress abroad and to "not be worried about any indiscretions of ours", her Aunt Eliza repeatedly reminded her niece to avoid the temptations of Paris, "Remember you are first of all a Christian – then a woman and last of all an Artist."
When Beaux arrived in Paris, the
Impressionists, a group of artists who had begun their own series of independent exhibitions from the official Salon in 1874, were beginning to lose their solidarity. Also known as the "Independents" or "Intransigents", the group which at times included
Degas,
Monet,
Sisley,
Caillebotte,
Pissarro,
Renoir, and
Berthe Morisot
Berthe Marie Pauline Morisot (; January 14, 1841 – March 2, 1895) was a French painter and a member of the circle of painters in Paris who became known as the Impressionists.
In 1864, Morisot exhibited for the first time in the highly e ...
, had been receiving the wrath of the critics for several years. Their art, though varying in style and technique, was the antithesis of the type of Academic art in which Beaux was trained and of which her teacher William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a leading master. In the summer of 1888, with classes in summer recess, Beaux worked in the fishing village of
Concarneau
Concarneau (, meaning ''Bay of Cornouaille'') is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. Concarneau is bordered to the west by the Baie de La Forêt.
The town has two distinct areas: the modern town on the ...
with the American painters
Alexander Harrison and Charles Lazar. She tried applying the plein-air painting techniques used by the Impressionists to her own landscapes and portraiture, with little success. Unlike her predecessor
Mary Cassatt, who had arrived near the beginning of the Impressionist movement 15 years earlier and who had absorbed it, Beaux's artistic temperament, precise and true to observation, would not align with Impressionism and she remained a realist painter for the rest of her career, even as
Cézanne,
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...
,
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fro ...
, and
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
were beginning to take art into new directions. Beaux mostly admired classic artists like
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
and
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...
. Her European training did influence her palette, however, and she adopted more white and paler coloration in her oil painting, particularly in depicting female subjects, an approach favored by Sargent as well.
[.]
Return to Philadelphia
Back in America in 1889, Beaux proceeded to paint portraits in the
grand manner
Grand Manner refers to an idealized aesthetic style derived from classicism and the art of the High Renaissance. In the eighteenth century, British artists and connoisseurs used the term to describe paintings that incorporated visual metaphors in ...
, taking as her subjects members of her sister's family as well as the elite of Philadelphia. In making her decision to devote herself to art, she also thought it was best not to marry, and in choosing male company she selected men who would not threaten to sidetrack her career. She resumed life with her family, and they supported her fully, acknowledging her chosen path and demanding of her little in the way of household responsibilities, "I was never once asked to do an errand in town, some bit of shopping…so well did they understand." She developed a structured, professional routine, arriving promptly at her studio, and expected the same from her models.
The five years that followed were highly productive, resulting in over forty portraits. In 1890 she exhibited at the Paris Exposition, obtained in 1893 the gold medal of the
Philadelphia Art Club, and also the Dodge prize at the New York
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...
. She
exhibited her work at the
Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally constructed for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 t ...
and
The Woman's Building at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...
in Chicago, Illinois.
Her portrait of ''The Reverend Matthew Blackburne Grier'' was particularly well-received, as was ''Sita and Sarita'', a portrait of her cousin Charles W. Leavitt's wife Sarah (Allibone) Leavitt in white, with a small black cat perched on her shoulder, both gazing out mysteriously. The mesmerizing effect prompted one critic to point out "the witch-like weirdness of the black kitten" and for many years, the painting solicited questions by the press. But the result was not pre-planned, as Beaux's sister later explained, "Please make no mystery about it—it was only an idea to put the black kitten on her cousin's shoulder. Nothing deeper."
[Carter, p. 114] Beaux donated ''Sita and Sarita'' to the
Musée du Luxembourg, but only after making a copy for herself. Another highly regarded portrait from that period is ''New England Woman'' (1895), a nearly all-white oil painting which was purchased by the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
In 1895 Beaux became the first woman to have a regular teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she instructed in portrait drawing and painting for the next twenty years. That rare type of achievement by a woman prompted one local newspaper to state, "It is a legitimate source of pride to Philadelphia that one of its most cherished institutions has made this innovation." She was a popular instructor.
In 1896, Beaux returned to France to see a group of her paintings presented at the Salon. Influential French critic M. Henri Rochefort commented, "I am compelled to admit, not without some chagrin, that not one of our female artists…is strong enough to compete with the lady who has given us this year the portrait of Dr. Grier. Composition, flesh, texture, sound drawing—everything is there without affectation, and without seeking for effect."
Cecilia Beaux considered herself a "
New Woman", a 19th-century woman who explored educational and career opportunities that had generally been denied to women. In the late 19th century
Charles Dana Gibson
Charles Dana Gibson (September 14, 1867 – December 23, 1944) was an American illustrator. He was best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent Euro-American woman at the turn of the ...
depicted the "New Woman" in his painting, ''The Reason Dinner was Late'', which is "a sympathetic portrayal of artistic aspiration on the part of young women" as she paints a visiting policeman. This "
New Woman" was successful, highly trained, and often did not marry; other such women included
Ellen Day Hale
Ellen Day Hale (February 11, 1855February 11, 1940) was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker from Boston. She studied art in Paris and during her adult life lived in Paris, London and Boston. She exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Ro ...
,
Mary Cassatt,
Elizabeth Nourse
Elizabeth Nourse (October 26, 1859 – October 8, 1938) was a realist-style genre, portrait, and landscape painter born in Mt. Healthy, Ohio, in the Cincinnati area. She also worked in decorative painting and sculpture. Described by her contemp ...
and
Elizabeth Coffin.
Beaux was a member of Philadelphia's
The Plastic Club
The Plastic Club is an arts organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1897 for women only, the Plastic Club is one of the oldest art clubs in the United States. It is located on the 200 block of Camac Street, the "Little Stree ...
. Other members included
Elenore Abbott,
Jessie Willcox Smith,
Violet Oakley,
Emily Sartain, and
Elizabeth Shippen Green
Elizabeth Shippen Green (September 1, 1871 – May 29, 1954) was an American illustrator. She illustrated children's books and worked for publications such as '' The Ladies' Home Journal'', ''The Saturday Evening Post'' and ''Harper's Magazine'' ...
. Many of the women who founded the organization had been students of Howard Pyle. It was founded to provide a means to encourage one another professionally and create opportunities to sell their works of art.
[''The Plastic Club.'']
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
New York
By 1900 the demand for Beaux's work brought clients from
Washington, D.C., to
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, prompting the artist to move to New York City; it was there she spent the winters, while summering at Green Alley, the home and studio she had built in
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...
. Beaux's friendship with Richard Gilder, editor-in-chief of the literary magazine ''The Century'', helped promote her career and he introduced her to the elite of society. Among her portraits which followed from that association are those of
Georges Clemenceau; First Lady
Edith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Roosevelt (née Carow; August 6, 1861 – September 30, 1948) was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the First Lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She also was the Second Lady of the United States in 190 ...
and her daughter; and
Admiral Sir David Beatty. She also sketched President
Teddy Roosevelt during her
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
visits in 1902, during which "He sat for two hours, talking most of the time, reciting
Kipling, and reading scraps of Browning." Beaux also became very close with Gilder's daughter Dorothea, and the two women exchanged affectionate letters for many years. Her portraits ''Fanny Travis Cochran'', ''Dorothea and Francesca'', and ''Ernesta and her Little Brother'', are fine examples of her skill in painting children; ''Ernesta with Nurse'', one of a series of essays in luminous white, was a highly original composition, seemingly without precedent. She became a member of the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the ...
in 1902. and won the
Logan Medal of the arts at the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
in 1921.
Green Alley
By 1906, Beaux began to live year-round at Green Alley, in a comfortable colony of "cottages" belonging to her wealthy friends and neighbors. All three aunts had died and she needed an emotional break from Philadelphia and New York. She managed to find new subjects for portraiture, working in the mornings and enjoying a leisurely life the rest of the time. She carefully regulated her energy and her activities to maintain a productive output, and considered that a key to her success. On why so few women succeeded in art as she did, she stated, "Strength is the stumbling block. They (women) are sometimes unable to stand the hard work of it day in and day out. They become tired and cannot reenergize themselves."
While Beaux stuck to her portraits of the elite, American art was advancing into urban and social subject matter, led by artists such as
Robert Henri who espoused a totally different aesthetic, "Work with great speed..Have your energies alert, up and active. Do it all in one sitting if you can. In one minute if you can. There is no use delaying…Stop studying water pitchers and bananas and paint everyday life." He advised his students, among them
Edward Hopper and
Rockwell Kent, to live with the common man and paint the common man, in total opposition to Cecilia Beaux's artistic methods and subjects. The clash of Henri and
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...
(representing Beaux and the traditional art establishment) resulted in 1907 in the independent exhibition by the urban realists known as "The Eight" or the
Ashcan School. Beaux and her art friends defended the old order, and many thought (and hoped) the new movement to be a passing fad, but it turned out to be a revolutionary turn in American art.
In 1910, her beloved Uncle Willie died. Though devastated by the loss, at fifty-five years of age, Beaux remained highly productive. In the next five years she painted almost 25 percent of her lifetime output and received a steady stream of honors. She had a major exhibition of 35 paintings at the
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desig ...
in Washington, D.C., in 1912. Despite her continuing production and accolades, however, Beaux was working against the current of tastes and trends in art. The famed "Armory Show" of 1913 in New York City was a landmark presentation of 1,200 paintings showcasing
Modernism
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
. Beaux believed that the public, initially of mixed opinion about the "new" art, would ultimately reject it and return its favor to the Pre-Impressionists.
Beaux was crippled after breaking her hip while walking in Paris in 1924. With her health impaired, her work output dwindled for the remainder of her life.
That same year Beaux was asked to produce a self-portrait for the Medici collection in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. In 1930 she published an
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
, ''Background with Figures''.
Her later life was filled with honors. In 1930 she was elected a member of the
National Institute of Arts and Letters; in 1933 came membership in the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, which two years later organized the first major retrospective of her work. Also in 1933
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
honored Beaux as "the American woman who had made the greatest contribution to the culture of the world". In 1942 The National Institute of Arts and Letters awarded her a gold medal for lifetime achievement.
Death and critical regard
Cecilia Beaux died at the age of 87 on September 17, 1942, in
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...
.
[ She was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania. In her will she left a Duncan Phyfe rosewood secretaire made for her father to her cherished nephew ]Cecil Kent Drinker
Cecil Kent Drinker (March 17, 1887 – April 19, 1956) was a physician and founder of the Harvard School of Public Health. He was professor at Harvard School of Public Health from 1923 till 1935. Drinker was involved in the effect of radium on ...
, a Harvard physician whom she had painted as a young boy.
Beaux was included in the 2018 exhibit ''Women in Paris 1850-1900'' at the Clark Art Institute.
Though Beaux was an individualist, comparisons to Sargent would prove inevitable, and often favorable. Her strong technique, her perceptive reading of her subjects, and her ability to flatter without falsifying, were traits similar to his.
"The critics are very enthusiastic. (Bernard) Berenson, Mrs. Coates tells me, stood in front of the portraits – Miss Beaux's three – and wagged his head. 'Ah, yes, I see!' Some Sargents. The ordinary ones are signed John Sargent, the best are signed Cecilia Beaux, which is, of course, nonsense in more ways than one, but it is part of the generous chorus of praise." Though overshadowed by Mary Cassatt and relatively unknown to museum-goers today, Beaux's craftsmanship and extraordinary output were highly regarded in her time. While presenting the Carnegie Institute's Gold Medal to Beaux in 1899, William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...
stated "Miss Beaux is not only the greatest living woman painter, but the best that has ever lived. Miss Beaux has done away entirely with sex ender
Ender may refer to:
Given name
* Ender Alkan, Turkish footballer
* Ender Arslan, Turkish basketball player
* Ender Inciarte, Venezuelan baseball player
* Ender Konca, Turkish footballer
Surname
* Erika Ender (born 1974), Panamanian singer, s ...
in art."
During her long productive life as an artist, she maintained her personal aesthetic and high standards against all distractions and countervailing forces. She constantly struggled for perfection, "A perfect technique in anything," she stated in an interview, "means that there has been no break in continuity between the conception and the act of performance." She summed up her driving work ethic, "I can say this: When I attempt anything, I have a passionate determination to overcome every obstacle…And I do my own work with a refusal to accept defeat that might almost be called painful."[Carter, p. 173]
Gallery
Landscape with Farm Building Cecilia Beaux.jpeg, Landscape with Farm Building, 1888
Cecilia Beaux - Portrait of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge (Catherine Eddy, Lady Primrose Portrait) - 1999.44 - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg, Portrait of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge, 1916
William Henry Howell (painting, 1911).jpg, Painting of William Henry Howell (1919)
Cecilia Beaux painting Cardinal Mercier.jpg, Cecilia Beaux painting of Cardinal Mercier
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, th ...
(c. 1919)
Portrait of Cecil Kent Drinker.jpg, Portrait of Cecil Kent Drinker
Cecil Kent Drinker (March 17, 1887 – April 19, 1956) was a physician and founder of the Harvard School of Public Health. He was professor at Harvard School of Public Health from 1923 till 1935. Drinker was involved in the effect of radium on ...
, 1891
Lady George Darwin by Cecilia Beaux 1889.jpeg, Lady George Darwin, Beaux's pastel
A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
portrait
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...
of the former Martha du Puy of Philadelphia, who married Sir George Darwin. 1889
Mother_and_Daughter_Cecilia_Beaux_1898_PAFA.jpg, Mother and Daughter Cecilia Beaux 1898
Mrs. Robert Chapin and Daughter Christina by Cecilia Beaux.jpg, Mrs. Robert Chapin and Daughter Christina by Cecilia Beaux, 1902
References
Sources
* Grafly, Dorothy. "Cecilia Beaux" in Edward T. James, Janet Wilson James, and Paul S. Boyer, eds. ''Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary'' (1971)
* Beaux, Cecilia. ''Background with Figures: Autobiography of Cecilia Beaux''. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1930.
* Goodyear, Jr., Frank H., and others., ''Cecilia Beaux: Portrait of an Artist''. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1974. Library of Congress Catalog No. 74-84248
* Tappert, Tara Leigh, ''Cecilia Beaux and the Art of Portraiture''. Smithsonian Institution, 1995.
*
External links
Cecilia Beaux
from Smithsonian American Art Museum
A finding aid to the Cecilia Beaux Papers, 1863-1968, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Portrait of Mrs. John Wheeler Leavitt, 1885, grandmother of Cecilia Beaux, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pa., ExplorePAHistory.com
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030701013.html Cecilia Beaux's Contemporaries Judged Her to Be the Cat's Meow; History Sees a Bit of a Chameleon, The Washington Post, March 9, 2008, washingtonpost.com]
Documenting the Gilded Age: New York City Exhibitions at the Turn of the 20th Century
A New York Art Resources Consortium project. Woman's Art Club of New York exhibition catalog.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaux, Cecilia
1855 births
1942 deaths
19th-century American painters
20th-century American painters
American expatriates in France
Académie Julian alumni
Artists from Philadelphia
Leavitt family
American women painters
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts faculty
American people of French descent
American portrait painters
Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery
20th-century American women artists
19th-century American women artists
Académie Colarossi alumni
Drinker family
American women academics
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters