page_title: Ethel Mars (artist)
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Ethel Mars (artist) / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of Maud Hunt Squire and Ethel Mars
context_page_description: Ethel Mars was an American woodblock print artist, known for her white-line woodcut prints, also known as Provincetown Prints, and a children's book illustrator. She had a lifelong relationship with fellow artist Maud Hunt Squire, with whom she lived in Paris and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
context_section_description: Ethel Mars was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1876 to Adelia and Alonzo Mars, a railroad clerk. During most of her childhood, Mars and her parents lived with her mother's parents. She began creating art as a young girl, for which she won prizes at the Illinois State Fair. Mars attended socials and church teas and was known to have a "voice of wonderful power and sweetness."
  After the McClernand Grade School, Mars secured a scholarship and attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati beginning in 1892. While there, she met and began a lifelong relationship with Maud Hunt Squire (1873–1954), living mostly in Europe. Lewis Henry Meakin and Frank Duveneck provided instruction, which included drawing, illustration, and painting. Edna Boies Hopkins was a friend of both Squire and Mars throughout their lives.
caption: Maud Hunt Squire and Ethel Mars (right), Springfield, Illinois, c.1898, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Department of Image Collections.
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