The Philadelphia Ten, also known as The Ten, was a group of American female artists who exhibited together from 1917 to 1945. The group, eventually numbering 30 painters and sculptors, exhibited annually in

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 ...

and later had traveling exhibitions at museums throughout the East Coast and the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

Purpose

The Philadelphia Ten was formed to help women who wanted to move beyond the role of

hobby A hobby is considered to be a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other ...

ists, as they were commonly viewed in the early 20th century, to be accepted as professional artists. For example, one of the objectives of the group was to give women the ability to control how their work was exhibited. They could limit the number of participants in shows and allow each one to exhibit a larger number of pieces than was typically possible in a

juried competition A juried competition is a competition in which participants' work is judged by a person or panel of persons convened specifically to judge the participants' efforts. The jury may be referred to as a competition jury or awards jury, and usually pre ...

. In addition, the group provided a supportive environment for their creativity, with discussion forums, access to models and professional instruction. The lifestyle choices of the members were unusual for the time: many of them never married; others who did marry chose not to have children or kept their maiden names. For many of the women, the group became a source of friendships and collegial relationships.

History and legacy

The group's first show was held at the

Art Club of Philadelphia The Art Club of Philadelphia, often called the Philadelphia Art Club, was a Club (organization), club in Philadelphia, founded on February 7, 1887, to advance the arts.

in February 1917. It included 247 paintings by 11 artists, nine trained at the

Philadelphia School of Design for Women in Philadelphia Philadelphia School of Design for Women (1848–1932) was an art school for women in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Housed in the former Edwin Forrest House at 1346 North Broad Street, under the directorship of Emily Sartain ( ...

(now

Moore College of Art and Design Moore College of Art & Design is a private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1848 by Sarah Worthington Peter as the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, and was renamed the Moore College of Art & Design in 1989. ...

) and two from 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 ...

. Over the years, more women joined the group; in all, 30 artists participated in the 65 subsequent exhibitions. The final exhibition of the group was held in April 1945 at the Woodmere Gallery in Philadelphia. The works exhibited reflected the influence of teachers such as

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

Henry B. Snell and included

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

still life A still life (: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, human-m ...

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 ...

and sculpture. In 1998, in celebration of the school's 150th anniversary, the faculty of the Moore College of Art and Design organized a retrospective of the Philadelphia Ten that traveled to museums throughout the country. The exhibition included 81 paintings and 9 sculptures. In 2010, Moore College showed archived pieces dating from the 1920s–40s of seven of the first eleven members of The Philadelphia Ten, along with recent works by members of The Other Woman art collective, also formed by former students of the college. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many local and regional women's art organizations were formed and sponsored exhibitions. The Ladies' Art Association of New York was among the first, followed by

The Plastic Club The Plastic Club is an arts organization located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1897 for women only, the Plastic Club is one of the oldest art clubs in the United States. It is located on the 200 block of Camac Street, the "Little Street ...

in Philadelphia, 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 ...

in New York, and others. However, the Philadelphia Ten is recognized as being the group that exhibited most widely and for the longest time.

Members

All of the members of the Philadelphia Ten attended art school in Philadelphia. After the original exhibition by 11 painters, the group eventually grew to include 23 painters and 7 sculptors. The artists were generally not on the cutting edge of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, and they are not well-represented in museum collections. However, their work was well-received during the 1920s and 1930s, when painters like

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

were not yet popular in the United States.

Original group

All of the original members were painters. * Eleanor Abrams * Katharine Marie Barker *

Theresa Bernstein Theresa Ferber Bernstein-Meyerowitz (March 1, 1890 – February 12, 2002) was an Americans, American artist, writer, and supercentenarian born in Kraków, in what is now Poland, and raised in Philadelphia. She received her art training in Philad ...

* Cora S. Brooks * Isabel Branson Cartwright * Constance Cochrane *

Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton Mary-Russell Ferrell Colton (March 25, 1889 – July 26, 1971) was an American artist, author, educator, ethnographer, and curator. She is one of the principal founders of the Museum of Northern Arizona. She was a member of the Philadel ...

* Arrah Lee Gaul * Lucile Howard * Helen Kiner McCarthy * Katharine Hood McCormick Cartwright, Cochrane and Howard participated in all 65 exhibitions held by the group.

Other painters

* Maude Drein Bryant * Fern Coppedge * Nancy Maybin Ferguson *

Margaret Ralston Gest Margaret Ralston Gest (1900-1965) was an American painter. She was a member of the Philadelphia Ten. Biography Gest was born in 1900 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1920 to 1924, ...

* Sue May Gill * Susette Schultz Keast * Marian T. MacIntosh * Emma Fordyce MacRae * Mary Elizabeth Price * Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts * Susan Gertrude Schell * Edith Longstreth Wood

Sculptors

Gladys Edgerly Bates Gladys Edgerly Bates (July 15, 1896 – July 28, 2003) was an American sculptor known for her figure carving. Her work is in permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was a member o ...

* Cornelia Van Auken Chapin * Beatrice Fenton *

Harriet Whitney Frishmuth Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (September 17, 1880 – January 1, 1980) was an American sculptor known for her works in bronze. Life She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents divorced when she was in her teens, and she moved to Europe w ...

Genevieve Karr Hamlin Genevieve Karr Hamlin (1896-1989), was an American sculptor and potter. She created the 1926 Exposition of Women's Art & Industries Medal. She was a member of the Philadelphia Ten. Biography Hamlin was born July 1, 1896, in New York City. She at ...

* Joan Hartley * Mary Louise Lawser

Gallery

M.Elizabeth Price, The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany, oil on canvas, by 1921.jpg, M. Elizabeth Price, ''The Wine Shop, Quimperle, Brittany'', by 1921 Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, Figures on the Sand, Annisquam, 1915.jpg, Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, ''Figures on the Sand, Annisquam,'' 1915 Helen Kiner McCarthy 101 Portrait Red and White.jpg, Helen Kiner McCarthy, ''Portrait: Red and White'', by 1916 Sunflower dial Rittenhs Sq.jpg, Beatrice Fenton, ''Sunflower Dial'' Speed - Harriet Frishmuth.jpg, Harriet Frishmuth, ''Speed'', 1922 Calendulas and Asters.jpg, Maude Drein Bryant, ''Calendulas and Asters'' File:Inner Harbor by Susette Schultz Keast, 1922, PAFA.jpg, Susette Schultz Keast, ''Inner Harbor''

References

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