Amelia C. Van Buren ( – 1942) was an American photographer. A noted portrait photographer, she was a student of

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American Realism (visual arts), realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artist ...

, and the subject of his c. 1891 painting '' Miss Amelia Van Buren'', regarded as one of his finest works.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Van Buren was born in Detroit, Michigan. Both her parents died sometime prior to 1884, when she began attending the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1805, it is the longest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. The academy's museum ...

. She had already been exhibiting her artwork in Detroit for at least four years prior to attending the Academy. Thomas Eakins 005

Her talent soon led Eakins to tutor her personally, including controversial lessons using nude models, male and female. In 1885–86, several of Eakins's former art students (including Thomas Pollock Anshutz and Colin Campbell Cooper) conspired to have Eakins fired from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. They approached the Academy's Committee on Instruction, and made numerous charges against Eakins. They alleged that Eakins had used female students, including Van Buren, as nude models. Another highly inflammatory charge was that Van Buren had asked Eakins a question regarding pelvic movements, which Eakins answered by removing his pants and demonstrating the movements. He later insisted that the episode was completely professional in nature. The committee left Eakins under the impression that the charges had been filed by Van Buren, who had moved to Detroit to recover from

neurasthenia Neurasthenia ( and () 'weak') is a term that was first used as early as 1829 for a mechanical weakness of the nerves. It became a major diagnosis in North America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries after neurologist Georg ...

. That, however, was not the case, as she greatly respected Eakins and in years to come would defend him at every opportunity, as well as express pride in owning pieces of his artwork. After recovering, Van Buren returned to

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, where she continued in her studies under Eakins at the

Art Students' League of Philadelphia Art Students' League of Philadelphia was a short-lived, co-operative art school formed in reaction to Thomas Eakins's February 1886 forced-resignation from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Eakins taught without pay at ASL from 1886 until ...

. Van Buren and Eakins stayed in close contact for a number of years afterward. Three or four years after his dismissal, Eakins painted Van Buren in '' Miss Amelia Van Buren''.

Post-Academy

There is little information on Van Buren's life and professional career following her education at the Academy. No paintings by Van Buren are known to survive. She entered into a

Boston marriage A "Boston marriage" was, historically, the cohabitation of two women who were independent of financial support from a man. The term is said to have been in use in New England in the late 19th–early 20th century. Some of these relationships were ...

with fellow student Eva Watson-Schütze. The two of them opened a

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

and

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city (New Jersey), city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of ...

, but Van Buren disliked having to make compromises in her aesthetic sense to sell any paintings, so she turned to photography instead. Both women were recognized as accomplished artists and exhibited together at the

Camera Club of Pittsburgh A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

in 1899, and Van Buren was noted for her

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

, once declaring her goal was to make portraits "to stand with hose of Sargent and

Watts Watts is plural for ''watt'', the unit of power. Watts may also refer to: People *Watts (surname), a list of people with the surname Watts Fictional characters *Albie Watts, a fictional character in the British soap opera ''EastEnders'' *Angie ...

and the other masters". It is known that by 1900, when she sent some prints to

Frances Benjamin Johnston Frances Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 – May 16, 1952) was an American photographer and photojournalist whose career lasted for almost half a century. She is most known for her portraits, images of southern architecture, and various photo ...

, she had moved back to Detroit. She had the portrait of herself in her possession, likely a gift from the artist himself, which she sold to the Phillips Memorial Gallery in 1927, by which time she was living in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. In the early 1930s, Lloyd Goodrich, who was writing the first full-length biography of Eakins, wrote to Van Buren. However, she replied that she had no particular reminiscences of Eakins. Van Buren spent her later years in an artists' colony in

Tryon, North Carolina Tryon is a town in Polk County, on the southwestern border of North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 1,562. Located in the escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, today the area is affluent and a center ...

, where she died in 1942.

Works by Van Buren

Photograph of woman seated in dress - Amelia Van Buren.jpg, Portrait of a woman in a dress, File:Amelia Van Buren, Woman draped in veil, ca. 1900.jpg, ''Study of a head'', File:Mother and Child - A. C. Van Buren.jpg, ''Mother and Child'', File:Isabella - Amelia Van Buren.jpg, ''Isabella'',

Notes

References

External links