Mabel Rose Welch (March 26, 1871 – January 1, 1959) was an American painter of

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting from Renaissance art, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, watercolor, or Vitreous enamel, enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illumin ...

Early life

Born in

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

, Welch was the daughter of Dr. Follansbee Goodrich Welch Jr. and Rosa Phillips (Merrill) Welch. She studied under

Kenyon Cox Kenyon Cox (October 27, 1856 – March 17, 1919) was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, writer, and teacher. Cox was an influential and important early instructor at the Art Students League of New York. He was the designer of the League ...

and Robert Reid at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

. She moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

for further study, showing her work at the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. She returned to the United States and was active in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

for some while.

Art career

During her career she served as the secretary of the American Society of Miniature Painters, from whom she was once the recipient of the Levantia White Boardman Memorial Medal; she was also a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, the Woman's Art Club, and the Art Workers' Club. Among her other awards were a silver medal from the

Panama–Pacific International Exposition The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...

in 1915; the Medal of Honor of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters in 1920; a medal from the Brooklyn Society of Miniature Painters in 1933; and awards from the

National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...

(the Lindsey Morris Sterling Prize for Miniatures) and the California Society of Miniature Painters in 1937. Welch died in Wilbraham,

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 ...

, and is buried there in the Woodland Dell Cemetery.

Collections

A portrait by Welch of Rosina Cox Boardman, in watercolor on ivory and dating to around 1940, is currently owned by the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

owns two miniature portraits in the same medium, a ''Portrait of a Lady'' from the first half of the 1910s and a portrait of ''Mrs. S. Keith Evans'' from around 1911.

References

1871 births 1959 deaths American portrait painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters Artists from New Haven, Connecticut Painters from Connecticut Art Students League of New York alumni {{US-painter-1870s-stub