Description:
Bust portrait of a woman, tilting head
Label Text:
Minerva Chapman, a member of the Class of 1880 at Mount Hoyloke College, was among the first students at the new Chicago Academy of fine Arts, which in 1882 was to become the Art Institute of Chicago. Later, she travelled and studied in Europe, most notably in Munich at the famous Academie Julian, where women were able to draw from live models. Chapman pursued a career as a professional painter throughout her long life, specializing in the two diverse fields: oil paintings and watercolor miniatures on ivory. A selection of her works were seen in a major retrospective of her work at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum in 1986.
This study of a woman's head was probably made between 1889 and 1897, when Chapman was in the studio of Charles Lasar, an expatriate American who also taught Cecilia Beaux. The delicacy of the treatment, and the softened geometric planes of the head are evidence of the lessons learned from her Parisian teachers who emphasized technical virtuosity and elegance of execution.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+1986.25.15 |
