Eulabee Dix is not the only female artist I became aware of through the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The museum also introduced me to American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry. Given her lengthy career and prominence, its a shame I hadn’t heard of her before.
Perry came to painting relatively late in life. She started pursuing formal study when she was 36, although her first known painting was made when she was 29 or 30 years old. She began her studies under a portrait painter; within a few years she was receiving instruction from a number of other artists in the United States and Europe. While in Europe, she became friends with artists such as Mary Cassatt and Claude Monet. The latter was particularly influential in helping her develop her own Impressionist style.
When Perry returned to the United States in the early 1890s, she worked hard to promote Impressionism. By the time she was 49, she was on the move again, this time moving with her husband to Japan, where they lived for a few years. Her exposure to art in Japan also helped influence her developing style.
By the time Perry was in her late 50s, she was helping to support her family through her paintings, largely due to financial losses they had suffered. Because they sold better than landscape paintings, most of her work at this time was focused on portraits, such as Lady With a Bowl of Violets.
Perry continued to paint until her death at the age of 85. There have been a few retrospectives of her work since 1969, thirty-six years after her death, and her work has also appeared in exhibits focused on female artists. You can find her art in several museums scattered across the United States, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, both in Washington, D.C.; the Hirshl & Adler Galleries in New York City; Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts; the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Louvre also owns at least one of her paintings. (Note: Since museums rotate their art and loan paintings to other museums, her art may not be on display at any of the above museums if and when you visit.)
What female artists do you feel are underappreciated?
