In one of her masterpieces, "Ernesta (Child with Nurse),” 1894, Beaux emphasized the vantage point of her 2-year-old niece, while capturing her appealing look as she holds the hand of her cropped-out nurse. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
:Less than a century ago, Cecilia Beaux (1855–1942) was generally considered the best American woman artist. Later, she was routinely rated one of the country's greatest women of the first half of the Twentieth Century. In 1933, she was hailed by Eleanor Roosevelt as "the American woman who had made the greatest contribution to the culture of the world." Nowadays, however, little is heard or seen of her work.
Because Beaux painted upper-class portraits in an academic, international style that fell out of favor, and because she has been overshadowed by fellow female artist Mary Cassatt — enduringly popular in part because of her links to French Impressionism — the reputation of this superb painter has declined precipitously in the last half-century.
A comprehensive exhibition, "Cecilia Beaux, American Figure Painter," comprising 85 paintings and works on paper, goes a long way toward restoring Beaux's standing. The exhibition is curated by Sylvia Yount and is on view at the Tacoma Art Museum through January 6.
Beaux worked diligently to create more than 300 portraits, which hang today in important museums or are treasured possessions of private collectors. Her canvases, often double, full-length likenesses of socially or professionally prominent figures or of children and mothers, are characterized by fluid brushstrokes, sensuous colors, dynamic use of texture and pattern and insights into sitters. The current exhibition documents that when Beaux was at the top of her game, she ranks with the best portraitists America has produced. Renewed interest in neglected American artists, and in Beaux as a reflection of her culture and a role model for female artists, has begun to revive appreciation for her achievements.
Cecilia Beaux's first major painting, "Les derniers jours d'enfance (The Last Days of Infancy),” 1885, showing her sister holding her son, drew on inspiration from James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Eakins. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Beaux was born and brought up in Philadelphia. When her mother died shortly after her birth and her father returned to his native France, she was raised by maternal relatives in genteel, cultivated surroundings.
She studied art privately and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she avoided classes taught by the controversial Thomas Eakins, but adopted his sober realism. Her first major painting, "Les derniers jours d'enfance (The Last Days of Infancy)," 1885, was well received when exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1887 and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. This sensitive portrayal of her sister holding her small son in her lap is reminiscent of James McNeill Whistler's celebrated likeness of his mother, while its somber tones recall Eakins.
