Women artists in New York City

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2003 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

The National Academy of Design in New York City is one of the country's oldest continuously operating arts organizations. Loosely modeled on the Royal Academy of Arts in London, it was founded by a group of artists late in 1825, and the following year a Miss C. Roberts hung a landscape in the first annual May exhibition. In the spring of 1827 eighteen artists were elected to membership in the academy, of whom six were female and most had a male relative who was in some way connected to the arts. Daughters of artists included Rosalba Peale, Emily and Maria Maverick, and Julia Fulton. Although this was an auspicious start, it was not a harbinger of things to come, for between 1827 and 1900 only eleven more women were admitted.

By 1831 women were able to enroll in the National Academy of Design School where they could study art, except in life classes, which were not opened to women until 1847. Between the 1820s and the 1860s women's participation in the annual exhibitions grew at a steady pace, and by 1880 they made up fourteen percent of the contributors. An exhibition that chronicles the role of women artists at the National Academy of Design is on view at that institution until January 4, 2004. The show is entitled Challenging Tradition: Women of the Academy, 1826-2003 and includes more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, most of them drawn from the academy's permanent collection. Among the requirements for admission to the academy was the presentation of a self-portrait, and there are many of these in the current show, as well as diploma presentation pieces.

Regular participation in the annual exhibitions and at one time residency in or near New York City were pre-requisites for membership, which may have been stumbling blocks for women artists. The first woman to be granted honorary membership was the painter Lilly Martin Spencer. Notable American sculptors who were members were Harriet Hosmer, Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Malvina Hoffman, Harriet Frishmuth, and Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington. In 1939 the latter and her husband, Archer Milton Huntington, donated their Fifth Avenue mansion to the academy, which is its headquarters today.

The exhibition catalogue is written by David B. Dearinger and Isabelle Dervaux. It may be obtained by telephoning 212-369-4880, extension 201.