From collection Creating Acadia National Park: The George B. Dorr Research Archive of Ronald H. Epp

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Page 7

Page 8

Page 9
Search
results in pages
Metadata
Oakey, Alexander F. 1850-
Cakey/Alexanda Alexander F.
Maria Oakey Dewing - Wikipedia
Page 1 of 5
WIKIPEDIA
Maria Oakey Dewing
Maria Oakey Dewing (October 27, 1845 - December 13, 1927)
Maria Oakey Dewing
was an American painter known for her depiction of flowers. ¹ Her
work was inspired by John La Farge and her love of gardening. She
also made figure drawings and was a founding member of the Art
Students League of New York. Dewing won bronze medals for two
of her works at world expositions. She was married to the artist
Thomas Dewing.
Contents
Personal life
Education
Career
Art
Writer
Death
Collections
References
Thomas Dewing, Woman in Black:
External links
Portrait of Maria Oakey Dewing, oil
on panel, 1887.
Born
Maria Oakey
Personal life
October 27, 1845
New York
Maria Richards Oakey was born in New York City, the fifth child of
Died
December 13, 1927
William Frances Oakey and Sally Sullivan Oakey, who had ten
(aged 82)
children together. William was an importer, and was also interested
New York
in the arts, Sally was a cultured woman and writer who came from a
wealthy family from Boston. [2][3] Her younger brother, Alexander F.
Nationality American
Oakey, was an architect with, like his sister, an interest in textiles.
Education
Cooper Union, Antique
He wrote The Art of Life and Life of Art in 1884. [4]
School of National
Academy of Fine Arts,
She decided at age seventeen to paint. [1][4] In 1881 Maria Oakey
John La Farge
married Thomas Dewing, whose career was less well-established.
Spouse(s) Thomas Dewing
After that, she was disappointed in her career. As the wife of one of
the most prominent figure painters of the day, she felt unable to
Patron(s)
Charles Lang Freer,
compete with her husband. At the end of her life, Dewing,
Whitelaw Reid, John
Gellatly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Oakey_Dewing
8/28/2018
Maria Oakey Dewing - Wikipedia
Page 2 of 5
expressed doubt in her accomplishments and regret for what she had given up: "I have hardly touched any
achievement" [5][5][6][7] They had a son who died while an infant. In 1885 their daughter Elizabeth was born. [6]
Education
She first attended the Cooper Union School of Design in 1866,
studying there until 1870(6) with William Rimmer, Edwin Forbes,
Robert Swain Gifford and George Edmund Butler. There, she took
classes with her friend Helena de Kay. [4] From 1871 to 1875 she
studied at the Antique School of National Academy of Fine Arts, [6]
during which time she shared an apartment with de Kay{4] and took
painting lessons from the painter John La Farge. He specialized
in
Japanese aesthetics and was said by Dewing to have created
paintings that were "the most beautiful in all the world" and greatly
influenced her own work. 6 As a student she had already begun to
gain a reputation as a capable painter, her works attracted "much
attention for its broad, vigorous brush work, and rich, glowing
color" and were exhibited at the National Academy of Design. [4] She
studied with John La Farge, and her work was influenced by La
Farge's fascination with Japanese aesthetics. In 1875, Oakey and
other students from the academy left to establish the now
renowned Art Students League of New York. [4] The same year her
works were exhibited at a show organized in New York by La Farge
Maria Richards Oakey, The
and she studied with landscape artist William Morris Hunt and in
Philosopher's Corner, 1873, High
Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
1876 with homas Couture. [4][6]
Career
Art
Maria and her husband spent the summers from 1885 to 1905(9) at
the Cornish Art Colony in New Hampshire. There both of the
Dewings were avid gardeners, [4] an activity that Maria believed was
important to paint nature and inspired her floral paintings. She
said, "The flower offers a removed beauty that exists only for
Maria Oakey Dewing, A Bed of
beauty, more abstract than it can be in a human being, even more
Poppies, 1909, Addison Gallery of
exquisite." Garden in May made in 1895, Bed of Poppies made in
American Art, Andover,
1909 and Iris at Dawn are among her most well-known paintings.
Massachusetts
[6] In 1921 art critic Edwin Bye said her flower paintings were
"absolutely unique" and William H. Gerdts said in 1942 that her
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Oakey_Dewin
8/28/2018
Maria Oakey Dewing - Wikipedia
Page 3 of 5
"flower paintings combine a poetic sensibility derived from her
teacher, John La Farge, with a thorough knowledge of botany
nourished and enhanced by the cultivation of her own garden. "[6]
It
is also possible that she changed in order to focus her artistic effort
in a different
Dewing created embroidered applique pieces that were like
tapestries in the early 1880s. 4 [4] In 1886 Dewing and her husband
worked together on the painting Hymen, which was signed by both
of them, and she also painted floral portions of other paintings for
him, but without her signature. [6]
At the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and 1901 Pan
American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, Dewing won bronze
medals.4 In 1907 a solo exhibition of 22 of her flower and figure
Maria Oakey Dewing, Portrait of Dr.
Charles Carroll Lee, 1914
paintings was held at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. [3]
She began making figure paintings again later in life. [6]
Her patrons during her career included Charles Lang Freer, Whitelaw Reid and John Gellatly. In her lifetime,
her works were compared to French painters Antoine Vollon, Henri Fantin-Latour and John La Farge.14
Wistful that as a wife of a successful figure painter she had not realized her full potential, Dewing said in the
later years of her career, "I have hardly touched any achievement I dreamed of groups and figures
in
big
landscapes and I still see them. "[9]
Dewing was an early convert to Modernism, and in an article published in Art and Progress in 1915 she wrote:
"The flower offers a removed beauty that exists only for beauty, more abstract than it can be in the human
being, even more exquisite. One may begin with the human figure at the logical and realistic, but in painting
the flower one must even begin at the exquisite and distinguished."18
Writer
Dewing wrote books and articles about keeping house, etiquette and painting, the articles about art were
published in Art and Progress and the American Magazine of Art. [4]
Her works included the following, written from the perspective of an artist:14
Beauty in Dress. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1881. LCCN 10-1025 (https://lccn.loc.gov/10001025)
Beauty in the Household New York: Harper & Brothers, 1882. LCCN 12-4027
(https://lccn.loc.gov/12004027)
From attic to cellar. New York, G. P. Putman's sons, 1879. LCCN 07-26540
(https://lccn.loc.gov/07026540)
Death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Oakey_Dewing
8/28/2018
Maria Oakey Dewing - Wikipedia
Page 4 of 5
Maria Oakey Dewing died on December 13, 1927, in the same city where her life began. [9] She died at her
home
on 12 West 8th Street (near Washington Square Park) in New York City. At that time her daughter was
Elizabeth Dewing Bender.11 Her husband, Thomas, died in 1938. [1]
Collections
Her work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Gallery of Art,
Detroit Institute of Arts, The Hood Museum of Art, 9 and the Addison Gallery of American Art. (6)
References
1. Joan Marter (20 January 2011). The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art
https://books.google.com/books?id=sPGdBxzaWj0C&pg=RA1-PA65).Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-533579-8. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
2. "Maria Oakey Dewing - Surovek Gallery" http://surovekgallery.com/maria-oakey-dewing/).
surovekgallery.com. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
3.
An Exhibition of Paintings by Maria Oakey Dewing: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. March 2
to March 23 1907 (https://books.google.com/books?id=afc4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PP2).The Academy; 1907.
p. 1-3.
4. Metropolitan Museum of Art. In Pursuit of Beauty: Americans and the Aesthetic Movement
(https://books.google.com/books?id=56F8Qv96FzwC&pg=PA420).Metropolitan Museum of Art; 1
January 1986. ISBN 978-0-87099-468-5. pp. 419-420.
5. "Maria Oakey Dewing | Smithsonian American Art
Museum" (http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1246) americanart.si.edu. Retrieved
2017-04-24.
6. Carol Kort; Liz Sonneborn. A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts
(https://books.google.com/books?id=iCcpVOQRtN0C&pg=PA54). Infobase Publishing; 1 January 2002.
ISBN 978-1-4381-0791-2. p. 54.
7. "Hood Museum of Art Acquires Rare Outdoor Still Life by Maria Oakey
Dewing" (http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/1aa/1aa29.htm). Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. 2010. Retrieved
2012-01-28.
8. "Maria Oakey Dewing | Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art" (http://crystalbridges.org/blog/maria-
oakey-dewing/). crystalbridges.org. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
9.
"Search Artists / American Art" (http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=1246). Smithsonian
Institution. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
10. "Maria Oakey Dewing" (http://crystalbridges.org/blog/maria-oakey-dewing/).
11. Deaths. New York Times. December 14, 1927.
External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maria_Oakey_Dewing&oldid=841338498
This page was last edited on 15 May 2018, at 07:19 (UTC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Oakey_Dewing
8/28/2018
Oakey, Alexander F., 1850- | The Online Books Page
Page 1 of 1
The Online Books Page
Online Books by
Alexander F. Oakey
(Oakey, Alexander F., 1850-)
Books from the extended shelves:
i
Oakey, Alexander F., 1850-: Appletons' home books (New York, D. Appleton and Co..
1884), also by Irenaeus P. Davis, Alfred H. Guernsey, Brander Matthews, Emma Whitcomb
Babcock, M. E. W. Sherwood, Janet E. Ruutz-Rees, and Ella Rodman Church (page images at
HathiTrust)
i Oakey, Alexander F., 1850-: Building a home. (New York, D. Appleton and Company,
1884) (page images at HathiTrust)
i Oakey, Alexander F., 1850-: Home grounds. (New York : D. Appleton and company, 1881)
(page images at HathiTrust)
i Oakey, Alexander F., 1850-: "My house is my castle"/ (San Francisco : Pacific State
Savings, Loan and Building Co., 1891) (page images at HathiTrust; US access only)
See also what's at your library, or elsewhere.
Help with reading books -- Report a bad link -- Suggest a new listing
Home -- Search -- New Listings -- Authors -- Titles -- Subjects -- Serials
Books -- News -- Features -- Archives -- The Inside Story
Edited by John Mark Ockerbloom (onlinebooks@pobox.upenn.edu)
OBP copyright and licenses.
hhttp://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Oakey%2c%20Alexa...
8/28/2018
The Art of Life and the Life of Art. (Book, 1884) [WorldCat.org]
Page 1 of 2
OCLC
WorldCat®
Search WorldCat
Search
Advanced Search Find a Library
Viewer Controls
Toggle Page Navigator
P
Toggle Hotspots
H
Toggle Readerview
V
Toggle Search Bar
S
Toggle Viewer Info
I
Toggle Metadata
M
Zoom-In
+
Zoom-Out
-
Re-Center Document
Previous Page
←
Next Page
→
Oakey, Alexander F. 1850-
Details
Series 2