Six women who lived in the Cornish Art Colony during the period initially dominated by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (late 19th Century), and later by Maxfield Parrish (early 20th Century), were highly trained, productive, and recognized painters of their time. The course will focus on the artists Maria Oakey Dewing, Frances Houston, Lucia Fairchild Fuller, Louise King Cox, Edith Mitchell Prellwitz, and Marguerite Thompson Zorach. Art historians in the past decade have reassessed the role of women artists of this era. We will look at the art and lives of these six women and their efforts to seek recognition and remuneration, using the seminal 2001 book by historian Kirsten Swinth, Painting Professionals: Women Artists and the Development of Modern American Art, 1870-1930.

We will visit one special local work by Lucia Fairchild Fuller, a painter whose story is wonderfully told in the recently published Sargent’s Women: Four Lives Behind the Canvas, by Donna Lucey. We will consider the painting’s conception, history, and future preservation. Cornish Colony late-comer Marguerite Zorach’s work has also been reconsidered in a recent publication and exhibit in Maine. Using these examples as our inspiration, we will examine how future scholarship will re-write art history.

Some background knowledge of the Cornish Art Colony is suggested.