Susan Watkins and women artists of the progressive era / edited by Corey Piper ; with contributions from Alexis L. Boylan, Emily C. Burns, Michelle Green, Crawford Alexander Mann III, and Jillian Russo.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Watkins, Susan, 1875-1913, artist.

Piper, Corey, editor, writer of introduction.

Boylan, Alexis L., contributor.

Burns, Emily C., contributor.

Green, Michelle (Art historian), contributor.

Mann, Crawford Alexander, III, contributor.

Russo, Jillian E., contributor.

Chrysler Museum of Art, publisher, host institution.

Dixon Gallery and Gardens, host institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Watkins, Susan, 1875-1913--Exhibitions.

Watkins, Susan.

Watkins, Susan, 1875-1913--Criticism and interpretation.

Women artists--United States--Exhibitions.

Women artists.

Women artists--France--Exhibitions.

Painting, American--20th century--Exhibitions.

Painting, American.

Women artists--History.

Genre:

exhibition catalogs.

Exhibition catalogs.

Art criticism.

Physical Description:

ix, 166 pages : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 30 cm

Place of Publication:

Norfolk, Virginia : Chrysler Museum of Art ; New Haven : in association with Yale University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"This survey of the life and work of American painter Susan Watkins explores how she and other women artists carved paths to success at the turn of the twentieth century"--Publisher's description.

"In a career that spanned only a little more than fifteen years, American artist Susan Watkins (1875-1913) reached the heights of her profession, exhibiting regularly at the Paris Salon and earning accolades among the American art press. This study offers a close look at Watkins's story and considers how women artists of the era overcame barriers within the institutions that structured the professional art world, often through training and exhibiting at established and traditional settings. Exploring what artistic and commercial success looked like for Watkins and her contemporaries, scholars reexamine Watkins's achievements and highlight the overlooked progressive nature of her art. Essays discuss women's art training in the United States, women's art clubs in Paris, the expatriate artist community in Capri, and the role of racial and class politics in careers such as Watkins's. With more than seventy-five objects--including paintings, drawings, photographs, and manuscripts--from the artist's personal archive and works by her peers and teachers--such as William Merritt Chase, Meta Warrick Fuller, Anna Klumpke, Elizabeth Nourse, Lilla Cabot Perry, and Henry Ossawa Tanner--this beautifully illustrated book offers a new way to understand the stakes and accomplishments of women artists working at the turn of the twentieth century"--Yale University Press website.

Contents:

Director's foreword / Erik H. Neil

Introduction / Corey Piper

Plates

Women artists at the Art Students League and in U.S. art academies, 1875-1913 / Jillian Russo

Professionalism and prejudice : Susan Watkins and U.S. women's artists' clubs in Paris / Emily C. Burns

Strange currents : Susan Watkins and the expatriate artists of Capri / Crawford Alexander Mann III

Seeing Watkins, seeing whiteness / Alexis L. Boylan

Chronology ; Lifetime exhibition history / Michelle Green.

Notes:

Published on the occasion of an exhibition of the same name, organized by the Chrysler Museum of Art, at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis (July 13-September 28, 2025) and at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk (October 17, 2025-January 11, 2026).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Scott fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780300276442

0300276443

OCLC:

1520420993