American Women Artists: 1830-1930

Realistic painting depicts a light-skinned young man with dark curly hair, wearing a white tunic, set before distant mountains. He is kneeling victoriously atop a fearsome dead lion, clutching a serene lamb his right arm and gesturing heavenward with his left arm.
Apr 07 to Jun 14, 1987

NMWA opened officially on April 7, 1987, with the premiere of a major exhibition titled American Women Artists, 1830-1930. Assembled by distinguished scholar and lecturer Dr. Eleanor M. Tufts, the inaugural exhibition featured 124 paintings and sculptures created by American women artists during the late 19th and early 20th century.

Dr. Tufts divided the show into five categories: portraits, genre paintings, landscapes, still lives, and sculptures. She states, “American Women Artists, 1830-1930, is both the inaugural exhibition for the first museum in the United States devoted solely to women artists and the first major traveling exhibition of American women artists. It seems appropriate to open this National Museum of Women in the Arts to show one hundred years of achievement on the part of American professional painters and sculptors. The span 1830 to 1930 has been chosen in order to commence with and feature that leading family of early 19th century artists, the Peales of Philadelphia, and to include the first signs of abstraction in the paintings of Katherine Dreier and Agnes Pelton in the 1920s.”

The exhibition includes such acknowledged masters as Mary Cassatt, the only American ever to exhibit with the Impressionists at the Paris Salon exhibits and Georgia O’Keeffe, considered one of the most prominent and successful American artists of the 20th century. Three paintings by Cassatt, Woman and Child Driving (1881), Susan on a Balcony Holding a Dog (circa 1880), and Little Girl in a Blue Armchair (1878) will be on view.

In addition, a great number of lesser-known artists are featured, furthering the museum’s goal of recognizing previously overlooked women artists of exceptional stature.

A woman with a light skin tone and grayish-blonde hair is standing next to a blue wall. She is wearing a floral blouse, a long skirt, and pearls, smiling at the camera. On the wall, it says in big, white letters

Wilhelmina Cole Holladay at the private viewing of American Women Artists: 1830-1930

The Artist,

Cecilia Beaux

Sought-after portraitist Cecilia Beaux created paintings that were favorably compared with those of John Singer Sargent.
A painting of a light-skinned adult woman gazing to her right against a brown background. Her brown hair is neatly pulled back and she wears a voluminous white top with puffy sleeves and a high brown collar. The top is rendered in thick brush strokes, while her face is finely detailed.

The Artist,

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe’s sentimental oil paintings celebrating rural family life and events from American history appealed to popular Victorian tastes in England and the United Stat
A black-and-white soft-focus studio portrait photograph of an older light-skinned woman with white hair pulled back. She wears rimless glasses, three strands of pearls around her neck, and a fur wrap over her shoulders.

The Artist,

Mary Cassatt

Recognized as one of the foremost 19th-century American painters and printmakers, Mary Cassatt is known for her prolific career and Impressionist artwork.
Black-and-white photograph of a seated older woman with light skin. She wears a dark dress with a fur stole and long necklace. Her dark hat is adorned with a group of large, wispy feathers and covers her hair. Her expression is open and calm.

The Artist,

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau

Elizabeth Jane Gardner Bouguereau was among the first wave of Americans who sought art training in Paris after the Civil War.
A painting of a light-skinned woman with short, dark, curly hair and light grey eyes. She is depicted against a solid, dark grey background from the chest up, and wears a dark green coat over a white lace shirt with a ruffled collar and a sapphire and pearl brooch.

The Artist,

Ellen Day Hale

Ellen Day Hale was among the wave of American artists, both men and women, who traveled to Europe for training in the last quarter of the 19th century.
A painting of a light skinned, older woman who is seated on a black chair. She wears a large, black hat, and a white turtleneck that is barely visible beneath a black coat and black feathered shawl. The background, rendered in visible, thin painstrokes, is grey and brown.

The Artist,

Claude Raguet Hirst

Claude Raguet Hirst was the only American woman noted for painting hyperrealistic still lifes at the turn of the 20th century.

The Artist,

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer defied 19th-century social convention by becoming a successful sculptor of large-scale, Neoclassical works in marble.
A light-skinned older woman with short, wavy, red hair and brown eyes stands with her arms crossed. She leans against a white wall with part of a blue abstract painting behind her. She wears round silver-color earrings and a blue demin long-sleeve button-up shirt.

The Artist,

Anna Hyatt Huntington

Anna Hyatt Huntington earned international fame after an exhibition at the Boston Arts Club in 1900, where 40 of her animal sculptures were on display.
A vibrant painting of a light-skinned older woman in profile focusing calmly yet intently on sculpting details into a large sculpture of a human figure. Her white hair is short, neat, and wavy and she wears a blue collared shirt; she works by the sunlight beaming through a window.

The Artist,

Doris Lee

Throughout her career, Doris Lee sought to portray everyday, contemporary American life in a style that that was easily understandable to viewers.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman, shown from her chest up. Her head rests against her fist. She wears a floral, collared shirt and has dark hair that is pinned back from her face. She is slightly smiling and looking away from the viewer.

The Artist,

Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe was an American painter whose drawings and paintings of abstract forms, flowers, bones, and the New Mexico landscape mark her as a significant modernist painter.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned older woman. Standing in front of stacked wood, she is posed from the waist up with her head turned to the left in profile. She has grey hair pulled up into a large bun. She wears a blazer with a large abstract brooch.

The Artist,

Anna Claypoole Peale

Anna Claypoole Peale was one of the first two women elected to the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1824.
An oval painting in a delicately detailed frame with a protective resin cast over it depicting a light-skinned adult woman smiling gently. She wears a white dress and slightly frilled collar, and her curly dark hair is pulled up but also appears slightly windswept.

The Artist,

Lilla Cabot Perry

Although she had no formal art training until age 36, Lilla Cabot Perry became a professional painter and a devotee of French Impressionism with a formidable body of work.
Black-and-white interior photograph of a light-skinned adult woman in profile with dark hair in a bun and a light-color dress. She stands in front of an easel and holds a palatte and brushes in her left hand. She rests her right hand on a painting of a light-skinned young girl.

The Artist,

Lilly Martin Spencer

Lilly Martin Spencer’s still-life and portrait paintings were popular, but she became particularly well known for humorous domestic genre scenes.
Black-and-white studio portrait of a light-skinned older woman white hair pulled back. She sits in a chair next to an easel and holds a palatte and brushes. She wears a high-neck, long-sleeve, dark-color long dress.

The Artist,

Bessie Potter Vonnoh

Bessie Potter Vonnoh enjoyed a long and successful career at a time when it was still unusual for an American woman to be a professional sculptor.
A black-and-white photograph of a light-skinned adult woman smiling and holding sculpting tools. She wears a voluminous white top with sleeves to the elbow and an intricate, high-collared layer underneath. Behind her is a life-sized, realistic sculpture of a woman standing in a dress.