Cecilia Beaux

(b Philadelphia, PA, 1 May 1855; d Gloucester, MA, 17 Sept 1942).

American painter. She began her career painting on porcelain and producing lithographs and portrait drawings. She studied with Catharine Ann Drinker (1871), Francis Adolf van der Wielen (1872-3) and Camille Piton (1879), at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1877-8), and privately with William Sartain (1881-3). Under Sartain's guidance, she learnt to paint, producing her first major portrait, the Last Days of Infancy (1883-5; priv. col., see 1974 exh. cat., p. 25). She completed her art training in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colorossi (1888-9).

On her return to Philadelphia, Beaux established her reputation with portraits of her family, such as Ernesta with Nurse (1894; New York, Met.). Commissions for double portraits, such as the Dancing Lesson (1899-1900; Chicago, IL, A. Inst.), brought her critical acclaim and won her numerous awards and prizes. Her last significant commission came in 1919 from the US War Portraits Commission, painting likenesses of Cardinal Mercier, Georges Clemenceau and Admiral Sir David Beatty (all Washington, DC, N. Mus. Amer. A.). Beaux's mature style was marked by unconventional compositions and flowing brushwork in the manner of John Singer Sargent. She was considered by her contemporaries the most distinguished woman portrait painter in America. (Source: TARA L. TAPPERT, "Cecilia Beaux," The Grove Dictionary of Art Online, (Oxford University Press, Accessed August 10, 2004) )