Elisabeth Augusta Chant (March 10, 1865 – September 21, 1947) was an American painter and teacher, noted especially for her landscapes.

Early life and education

Born in

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, Chant was the daughter of James Chant, a merchant captain involved in the Asian spice trade, and Elizabeth Rowe Wills; she was one of nine children. She claimed that before she was seven she had sailed the world as one of her father's passengers. With her family she immigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1873, settling in Hawley,

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, with numerous other Yeovil residents; upon her mother's death, her father moved the family to

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

and opened a market. She early displayed a taste for art, but was encouraged to turn her talents elsewhere, so she enrolled in the Training School for Nurses at Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children and graduated in 1886.

Nursing and art

She continued taking art lessons, studying with Douglas Volk between 1890 and 1893 and receiving instructions in the evenings from Burt Harwood. The outbreak of the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

in 1898 saw her transferred by the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

to the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

, where she worked in

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

and Augusta,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. She was discharged in 1899 and returned to Minneapolis, becoming active with the Handicraft Guild and the Minneapolis Art League and creating

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s and decorative paintings as well as pottery and prints. During a two-year sojourn in England beginning in 1901 she traced her family's relationship to

King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...

and his court, with the result that much of her work became focused on medieval legends. The tour also provided fodder for a series of feature articles for the ''

Minneapolis Journal ''The Minnesota Star Tribune'', formerly the ''Minneapolis Star Tribune'', is an American daily newspaper based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As of 2023, it is Minnesota's largest newspaper and the seventh-largest in the United States by circula ...

''. A decade later she moved to Springfield,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

for work, remaining for six years at a firm that specialized in various interior fittings and furnishings.

Treatment for manic depression

Chant long had a reputation as an eccentric – in later years she dressed in an outré manner and claimed to talk to "spirits" – and in July 1917 concerns about her well-being led members of her family to have her arrested and committed to the Minnesota Sanitarium. Later in the year she was transferred to the Rochester Hospital in Rochester, where she underwent treatment for

manic depression Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that each last from days to weeks, and in some cases months. If the elevated m ...

, a condition which may have been exacerbated by the deaths of several family members and a close friend.

Travels, return, and promotion of art in Wilmington

On her release in 1920 she began a trip to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

, and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, all of which she had visited in childhood; upon her return to the United States she settled in Wilmington,

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 ...

, forswearing nearly all ties with her family. In Wilmington Chant first attempted to establish an art colony; when prevented by limited finances and poor health, she turned her attention instead to supporting the local artistic community. In 1923 she established the Wilmington Art League, which later led to the creation of the Wilmington Art Association. She was also active in promoting the creation of the Wilmington Museum of Art, which opened in 1938 and which was the forerunner of the town's current art museum. She taught design, painting, and batik, both in her own studio and at the museum; pupils included

Claude Howell Claude may refer to: People and fictional characters * Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Claude (surname), a list of people * Claude Callegari (1962–2021), English Arsenal supporter * Claude Debussy (1862–1918), F ...

, Henry Jay MacMillan, Helen MacMillan Lane, Hester Donnelly, and Joe Nesbitt. She encouraged her pupils to look to the wider world for influence; her own work was informed by the

Arts and Crafts Movement The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

, the work of the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti ...

, and the art of

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

Death

Chant died in Wilmington and is buried there in Oakdale Cemetery.

References

Addition News 2022 News Paper articles: New Zealand artist's family tree has links to Yeovil: Somerset County Gazette, England 29 July 2022 https://www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/news/20586989.new-zealand-artists-family-tree-links-yeovil/
Wilmington artist Elisabeth Chant influential 75 years after death (starnewsonline.com)
https://www.localmatters.co.nz/health/artistic-connections-now-uncovered/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Chant, Elisabeth 1865 births 1947 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters American muralists American women muralists Burials at Oakdale Cemetery (Wilmington, North Carolina) People from Yeovil Artists from Somerset English emigrants to the United States Artists from Minneapolis Painters from Minnesota People from Wilmington, North Carolina People with bipolar disorder Painters from North Carolina