Pauline Lennards Palmer (1867 - August 15, 1938) was an American artist based in Chicago.

Early life

Pauline Lennards was born in

McHenry, Illinois McHenry is a city in McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is located about 46 miles northwest of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 27,135. McHenry was at one time the county seat of McHenry County, which once included adj ...

, the daughter of Nicholas Lennards, a merchant, and Frances Spanganacher Lennards. Her parents were both immigrants from Prussia; she grew up speaking German as her first language. She studied art 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 ...

, under

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 became the Parsons School of Design. ...

Frank Duveneck Frank Duveneck (né Decker; October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919) was an American figure and portrait painter. Early life Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky, the son of German immigrant Bernhard Decker. Decker died in a cholera epidemic whe ...

, and

Kenneth Hayes Miller Kenneth Hayes Miller (March 11, 1876 – January 1, 1952) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher. Career Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with Willia ...

. She pursued further training in Paris at

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 ...

, the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière () is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the A ...

, and with Paris-based American painter

Richard E. Miller Richard E. Miller (March 22, 1875 – January 23, 1943) was an American Impressionism, American Impressionist painter and a member of the Giverny Colony of American Impressionists. Miller was primarily a figurative painter, known for his paintin ...

.John William Leonard, ed.
''Woman's Who's Who of America''
(American Commonwealth Publishing 1914): 618-619.

Career

Palmer kept a studio at the Tree Building in Chicago, and exhibited paintings in many cities in the United States. Abroad, she showed works at the Paris Salon in 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1911, and also at an art exposition in Naples in 1911. In 1919, Palmer became the first woman to be elected president of the

Chicago Society of Artists The Chicago Society of Artists is a non-profit organization. The "CSA is the oldest continuing association of artists in the United States. Since its inception and incorporation in 1889, the Chicago Society of Artists has had two primary objectives ...

. The following year, she was awarded a silver medal by the Society. She was also active with the Chicago Watercolor Club, the Chicago Art Guild, the Chicago Arts Club, and the Municipal Art League, among other affiliations. In 1923 she was founder and first president of the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors, and the Association awarded her a gold medal in 1936. She also served a term as president of the Art Institute Alumni Association. Hali Thurber
"Pauline Palmer Biography"
Caldwell Gallery.

Personal life

Pauline Lennards married Dr. Albert E. Palmer in 1891. She was widowed when he died in 1920. In 1938, she was traveling with her sister, Mal Lennards, in

Trondheim, Norway Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populou ...

when both women fell ill, and Pauline Palmer died from pneumonia, aged 71 years. There was a memorial exhibit of her paintings in 1950 at the Chicago Galleries Association. Works by Palmer are in the collections of the

Provincetown Art Association and Museum Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Pro ...

, and the

San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine art museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. It opened as the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed ...

, among others.Jules Heller, Nancy G. Heller, eds.
''North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary''
(Routledge 2013): 427-428.

References

External links

*Catherine Laraia
''Windy Wonders: The Stars of The Chicago Society of Artists Who Defined A Conservative Art Scene in Chicago, 1892-1913''
(Master's thesis, Sotheby's Institute of Art 2012). {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Pauline 1867 births 1938 deaths Académie Colarossi alumni Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière American women artists School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Artists from Illinois Deaths from pneumonia in Norway