Fishing Fleet
by Mabel May Woodward, watercolor on paper

Catinou Knitting
by Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, oil on canvas, 1887

The Ranch by Jessie Arms Botke, oil on panel

Summer Outing
by Eleanor Parke Custis, watercolor, 1916

The women in this exhibition have been daring both inwardly and outwardly. Choosing art as a profession in the late nineteenth century was a bold act for a woman. Social forces constantly emphasized the importance of “respectability” for women, defined as silence, invisibility and passivity (except perhaps in the American West, where art was not much of an option for pioneers). Artistic success required moving actively in public to seek and assure an audience for one’s art. That changed only slowly in the early 20th century. It was not until 1920 that women gained the vote, and more liberal thinking women became more visible throughout society. It was not until World War II, however, that women often took over the work of men to keep the country running — much like women had done during the Crusades in Europe. Art, however, was one of the professions, like law or medicine, which was traditionally associated with men.

Art made by women of the western world has been largely ignored throughout much of cultural history. Only now are great artists such as Artemesia Gentilleschi, Rosa Bonheur, Mary Cassatt and many others finally making their appearance in the art history tomes along with great male artists. The art of American women is even further behind in acknowledgement. To be sure, Georgia O’Keeffe’s later works have been extolled and are best sellers in notecards and calendars, and Judy Chicago’s work has been on the cutting edge of the Feminist movement over the last 20 years.

But what American women artists do you know from 1850 to 1930? There were many artists of skill and insight who were painting on a regular basis during these years when women were still struggling to get to vote. It is the artists from this period that the Sellars collection of Art by American Women focuses on.

Louise and Alan Sellars set out to collect works by American women artists because they seemed to be so underrepresented and little known. Alan Sellars brings attention to the fact that of the approximately 25,000 artists working between 1880-1930, probably 40 percent were women, but fewer than five percent are being shown in museums. In Marietta, Georgia, they amassed the largest collection of art of this kind in the country, and it has brought to light the sheer breadth and brilliance of this body of work.

The Sellars developed several guidelines for collecting: all geographic areas of the country were to be represented; all major mediums of the time — oils, watercolors, drawings — were to be included; subject matter was to be diversified; the artist’s work had been shown in major exhibition; and these women had involved themselves in the art world of the time. Consistent feminine or feminist themes are not present, however. Perhaps the main distinguishing characteristic of the artwork is that it is hard to see.

A few common threads run through this body of work.

• Many women came to the field by being in artistic families where their fathers or brothers were established artists. Many married an artist and had children who became artists.
• Many were writers as well, writing poetry, novels of merit, art criticism, and biography.
• Many studied with William Merritt Chase in the northeast, and other independent well known teachers who accepted women into their classes. Chase’s excellence as a teacher came from his filling “his pupils with a wonderful inspiration . . . he makes them want to paint” said one of his students.
• Many attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the finest art school in the nation during this period, studied at the Art Student’s League or the National Academy of Design in New York.
• Most studied for at least a year in Europe, and often traveled widely throughout the United States.
• All were active leaders in their fields — founding Art Societies, academies, museums, being presidents of art organizations, and teaching students of their own.
• All exhibited widely — at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Paris Salon, international exhibitions, the Corcoran, the Whitney, and other venues
• All of the women won major awards for their work.

By 1860, study abroad offered opportunities and training unavailable to women in the United States. In Paris, the Ecole des Beaux Arts, bastion of tradition and reliable credentials into the art world, did not accept women until 1897. The Académie Julian, however, was founded in 1868 and admitted women by 1873. Women had equal access to the classes, curriculum and exhibitions as their male counterparts — although their tuition was double that for men. Still, American women formed a substantial contingent of this school.

In the United States, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts had been accepting women since the 1820s and by the end of the 19th century, had established itself at the center of the American art world. Its Director in the 1870s was the eminent American realist, Thomas Eakins, and prominent women artists such as Mary Cassatt studied there and Cecelia Beaux was on the faculty.

Women artists had to excel. In artistic families, often their work surpassed that of their better known brother, or they exhibited equally with a well-known father, still they are little known.

At the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, more than 30 percent of the work was by women (320 artists). In the critical review of this exhibition by one of the members of the International Jury of Awards, Eugen Neuhaus stated

“The standard is very high . . . They do hold their own, and they do not need any male assistance to convince one of their big part in the honors of the exhibition. . . . The many portraits done by men seen in various galleries would scarcely make as good a showing in a group as the work of the women, and it was very wise not to attempt it.”They were showing with artists James Abbott McNeill Whistler, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, William Merritt Chase, John Twachman, and Albert Bierstadt.

Every artist here has a story and every one is significant to our history. Almost all of these women were involved in teaching either privately or in a variety of schools, and were significant influences in developing attitudes and acceptance of new art styles in their state or in the nation. The artists in this exhibition had the best education in art available in the United States and Europe, and they stand on level ground with their male contemporaries in the quality of the work produced. Perhaps though, it took more “daring” to be a woman artist.

As an ancillary to this collection, an exhibition of contemporary Mississippi women artists is being hosted by the Mississippi State Chapter of the National Museum of Women in the Arts on the Jefferson Davis Campus of MGCCC through Thanksgiving.

For further viewing of art by women, visit the impressive collection at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D. C.

Landscape, Mary Katherine Loyacono McCravey; No date, oil on board, Gift of First National Bank, 1964.007; Collection of Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson

South on Monroe, Caroline Compton, No date, oil on board, Bequest of the artist Collection of Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson

The state of Mississippi has a strong history in the visual arts as well as the literary ones. From the portraits and landscapes of the 19th century, the 20th blossomed into a veritable garden of visual activity. The 1922 group of intellectuals, the “Fugitives” at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, were among the first to call for visual artists as well as writers to nurture the spirit and traditions of the south. The cry was being taken up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast even earlier. From New Orleans, William Woodward, called the “Father of Art in New Orleans,” and Louise Amelia Giesen, his wife and also an artist, moved to Ocean Springs and later settled in Biloxi. Woodward and his brother, Ellsworth who was a frequent visitor and founder of Newcomb School of Art, became catalysts for art activity on the coast.

Patti Carr Black says in Art in Mississippi that Annette McConnell Anderson had an even greater impact on the Gulf Coast and ultimately on the history of art in Mississippi. She was an artist with training by Ellsworth Woodward, J. Alden Weir, Cecilia Beaux, and William Merritt Chase and the fourth painter to be given a one-person show by the Delgado Museum (now the New Orleans Museum of Art). She purchased 24 acres of land in Ocean Springs in 1918, moved there with her family in 1922, and started Shearwater Pottery with her oldest son, Peter, in 1928. She “fiercely nurtured the careers of her three artist sons,” Peter, Walter and Mac, and taught art the rest of her life. She is the matriarch of the Anderson family and The Walter Anderson Museum of Art is dedicated to the collection and exhibition of her three son’s work.

Penny Marshall, Annette McConnell Anderson, c. 1935 Terra Cotta,Collection of Shearwater Pottery

The Mississippi Gallery exhibits representative works by other noted Mississippi women. Marie Hull was such an influence on art within the state that the Governor of Mississippi proclaimed a state-wide “Marie Hull Day” in 1975. Dusti Bonge is acknowledged as the first “Modernist” painter in the state. Her work is scheduled for a national debut in Washington, D. C. in 2003. Both Hull and Bonge were close friends with the Anderson family and they often worked together.

Mississippi women’s work has been exhibited at the Whitney, in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Corcoran, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, and the other important American Museums.

Young Woman, Walter Anderson, Collection of Walter Anderson Museum of Art

Discovery can be such an exciting process, especially when one’s vision and understanding are greatly expanded in the process. Through its presentation of Daring From Within: The Art of American Women from the Sellars Collection, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art provides our audience with a vital and missing piece of the puzzle that is American art history. Furthermore, the ancillary exhibition, Mississippi Women Artists, is proof of the many cultural treasures from within our state.

Thanks to the passion of Alan and Louise Sellars for these sophisticated and technically brilliant works by American women, our horizons are redrawn and our appreciation deepened. History shows that great discoveries are typically won with generous amounts of daring. The gifted artists represented in this exhibition were pioneers, risk takers, mothers and wives. They did not allow the restrictions of their era to suppress their insatiable desire to explore their inner visions and bring them to light for all to see. Through their courage, we are given a gift that reveals much about our true history. Their gift will continue to inspire and dare other women and men to not leave their inner creativity unexplored.

Thanks to the following organizations and
individuals in the development of this exhibition.
• The Families of Peter, Walter and Mac Anderson
• Louise Sellars & Sue Sellars Rice
• The Mississippi Museum of Art
• The University Museums at the University of Mississippi
• The Kate Freeman Clark Gallery of Art
• The Dusti Bonge Foundation
• The Mississippi State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
• Guy Chatham
• Alice Moseley
• Patt Cucullu