Matilda Vanderpoel (1862-1950) was an American painter. She was known for her landscapes and portraits.

Biography

Vanderpoel was born on April 20, 1862, in

Haarlemmermeer Haarlemmermeer () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the west of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Haarlemmermeer is a polder, consisting of land reclaimed from water. The ...

, The Netherlands. She attended the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

where she was taught by her brother

John Vanderpoel John Henry Vanderpoel (November 15, 1857 – May 2, 1911), born Johannes (Jan) van der Poel, was a Dutch-American artist and teacher, best known as an instructor of figure drawing. His book ''The Human Figure'', a standard art school resource fea ...

. She graduated in 1891. Vanderpoel exhibited her work at the Illinois 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 from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...

in Chicago, Illinois. In 1898 Vanderpoel accepted a position teaching art at the

Colorado Chautauqua The Colorado Chautauqua, located in Boulder, Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, United States, and started in 1898, is the only Chautauqua west of the Mississippi River still continuing in unbroken operation since the heyday of the Chautauqua Moveme ...

Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the most ...

. She spent her summers in the town of

Gold Hill, Colorado Gold Hill is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Gold Hi ...

, for several decades. In 1909 she began teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where her brother John was serving as director. One of her student at the Art Institute was

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 March 6, 1986) was an American Modernism, modernist painter and drafter, draftswoman whose career spanned seven decades and whose work remained largely independent of major art movements. Called the "M ...

Also in 1909 she established, with her friend, the artist Jean Sherwood, the "Holiday House Association" in Boulder, to "conserve the health of tired working women". First they built a dwelling called the Blue Bird Cottage near the site of the Colorado Chautauqua. In 1921 they expanded into the town of Gold Hill where they converted an hotel into the Blue Bird Lodge. The Blue Bird Lodge served as a vacation spot for Chicago's working-class women, providing a respite from the city. The lodge was sold in 1962 by the Holiday House Association, but the building continues to function as an hotel. In 1923 Vanderpoel and other members of her family bought their own cabin in Gold Hill named "Sunset View". The same year her painting "Morning in the Rockies" was exhibited at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

. She died on October 21, 1950, in Chicago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanderpoel, Matilda 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters 1862 births 1950 deaths American art educators Painters from Chicago Dutch emigrants to the United States People from Haarlemmermeer School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni

Matilda Matilda or Mathilda may refer to: Animals * Matilda (chicken) (1990–2006), World's Oldest Living Chicken record holder * Mathilda (gastropod), ''Mathilda'' (gastropod), a genus of gastropods in the family Mathildidae * Matilda (horse) (1824–1 ...