Cecilia Beaux Exhibit at PAFA

We saw this stunning exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia, PA. It is tough to capture the grandeur and elegance of Cecilia's work in a mere photo. 

At the turn of the twentieth century, the celebrated American artist William Merritt Chase named Cecilia Beaux "not only the greatest living woman painter, but the best that has ever lived." 

This handsomely illustrated book (pictured above) presents a range of the artist's strongest work and offers a fresh understanding of her career by examining critical questions of gender, class, and the importance of place. 

You can order this book (and other wonderful art books) here: http://www.portraitartist.com/bookstore/index.html

Cecilia Beaux was born in Philadelphia in 1863. She studied art privately, and then entered the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. 

In 1889, she went to Europe to study at the Académie Julian and at Colarossi's. She was later appointed to the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy, the first full time woman instructor there, where she taught for over 20 years. 

A leading portraitist, her favorite subjects were women and children. In later life, she continued to paint, dividing her time between Philadelphia, New York and Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she died on September 16, 1942.

This is a picture of Cecilia Beaux with her longtime friend and intimate companion Dorothea Gilder (pictured on right).