Mary Fairchild Low
Mary Fairchild Low (also Mary Louise Fairchild or Mary Fairchild MacMonnies ) (born August 11, 1858 in New Haven (Connecticut) , † May 23, 1946 in Bronxville ) was an American painter . She lived in France for several years, where she painted numerous works in the style of Impressionism in the Giverny artists' colony .
Life
Mary Louise Fairchild was born in New Haven, Connecticut , in 1858, and spent the first seven years of her life there. Due to the father's work for the US Military Telegraph Corps , the family moved several times. From 1861 they lived in New Orleans , from 1865 permanently in St. Louis . Mary Fairchild showed no artistic ambitions as a child or when choosing a career. After graduating from high school , she became a teacher and taught at a school for five years. It was through her mother, who was an artist who painted miniatures , that Mary Fairchild only discovered her artistic talent as a young woman. At the St. Louis School of Fine Arts she attended evening classes in visual arts in 1882 and began full-time studies there in 1883. The director of the art school, Halsey Ives , soon noticed her extraordinary talent and rapid progress in her studies. With his support, she received a scholarship in 1885 to study for three years in Paris.
She studied at the Académie Julian in Paris in the class of Tony Robert-Fleury and also attended the women's class of Émile Auguste Carolus-Duran . In 1886 she exhibited the portrait of Sarah Tyson Hallowell , a friend of hers , who was one of the most important promoters of Impressionism, in the Salon de Paris . Hallowell organized exhibitions and advised American collectors on the purchase of works of art. Until 1890, works by Mary Fairchild could be seen in the Salon de Paris. From 1895 she exhibited her work in the salon of the Société nationale des beaux-arts . She was also represented at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889 , where she received a bronze medal for a self-portrait. In addition, her works were repeatedly shown in exhibitions in the United States, through the mediation of friend Hallowell also at the world exhibition in Chicago in 1893 .
In 1887, Mary Fairchild met the American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies in Paris. Shortly afterwards, contrary to social conventions, both maintained a joint studio. The couple married in August 1988. Mary Fairchild used the name Mary MacMonnies during the marriage and also signed her pictures with this name. The couple first came to Giverny in 1890 . Here, at the place of residence of the painter Claude Monet , an American artist colony had established itself at that time, and the couple were on friendly terms with them. After further visits in 1893, the couple finally moved to the town permanently in 1895. They initially rented Villa Bêsche for the summer before moving into the former Le Moutier monastery . Daughter Berthe was born there in 1895, daughter Marjorie in 1897 and son Ronald in 1899. The son died in 1901 at the age of two. While her husband repeatedly traveled to the United States on business, Mary MacMonnies lived with the children in France. The frequent separation of the spouses and affairs between her husband and his female students led to a divorce in 1909. In 1910 she married the American painter Will Hicok Low , whose wife had died a few months earlier. She left France with Low and her daughters from their first marriage and moved to the United States, where they settled in the New York suburb of Bronxville. Mary Fairchild Low died there in 1946 at the age of 88.
plant
The earliest known work by Mary Fairchild is the portrait of his friend Hallowell from 1886. It is entirely in the tradition of her teacher Carolus-Duran, whose influence can also be felt on her work in the following years. In the summer of 1887 she painted landscapes in Picardy that are reminiscent of works by the Barbizon School .
Her best-known work was created for the so-called Woman's Building at the World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Her friend Sarah Tyson Hallowell commissioned two American artists to paint large murals on the life of women. While the impressionist painter Mary Cassatt was commissioned for the motif of the Modern Woman , the commission for the Primitive Woman went to Mary Fairchild. With this motif, the original image of women should be illustrated. Mary Fairchild was based on pictures by the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and showed women farming, cooking and caring for children. The large-format mural received positive reviews and marked the artist's breakthrough.
During her marriage to Frederick William MacMonnies and her stay in Giverny, Mary MacMonnies' painting style was clearly influenced by the American artist colony there and the style of Impressionism. Landscapes in the Seine valley , the walled garden of his own house and the interior served as motifs . While local farmers stood as models for her paintings at the beginning, she later preferred to portray her daughters. Bright colors and distinctive lighting effects can be found in the pictures from Giverny.
After her marriage to Will Hicok Low and her return to the United States, Mary Fairchild Low's painting style changed significantly. She returned to a traditional style of painting in the style of academic art and reduced the colors in favor of darker tones. This stylistic change may have taken place at the request of her clients, who preferred to order portraits from her.
Works in public collections
- Portrait of WH Low , 1911, National Academy Museum and School , New York City
- Five O'Clock Tea , 1891, Swope Art Museum , Terre Haute
- Normande en costume avec son chat Musée de Vernon , Vernon
- Roses et lys , 1897, Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen , Rouen
literature
- Low, Mary Fairchild . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 23 : Leitenstorfer – Mander . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1929.
- Clara Erskine Clement Waters: MacMonnies, Mary Fairchild . In: Women in the fine arts, from the seventh century BC to the twentieth century AD Hacker Art Books, New York 1974, pp. 220 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Kathleen Adler: Americans in Paris, 1860–1900. National Gallery, London 2006, ISBN 1-85709-301-1 .
- Judith Cernogora: Portraits de femmes. Point de vues, Rouen 2016, ISBN 978-2-37195-009-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The artist was born as Mary Louise Fairchild , after the first marriage she was named Mary Fairchild MacMonnies from 1888 to 1909 , from the second marriage from 1909 until her death in 1946 the name Mary Fairchild Low . There are varying names of names in the literature. The Union List of Artist Names Online of the Getty Research Institute recommends the spelling Mary Fairchild Low , see getty.edu . The general artist encyclopedia also lists the painter under Low, Mary Fairchild . In the more recent literature there are entries for the painter with her maiden name Mary Fairchild , see Judith Cernogora: Portraits de femmes. P. 82 or Kathleen Adler: Americans in Paris. P. 240.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Low, Mary Fairchild |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | MacMonnies, Mary Fairchild; Fairchild, Mary Louise |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 11, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Haven (Connecticut) |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1946 |
| Place of death | Bronxville |