page_title: Lydia Field Emmet
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Lydia Field Emmet / Career
context_page_description: Lydia Field Emmet was an American artist best known for her work as a portraitist. She studied with, among others, prominent artists such as William Merritt Chase, Harry Siddons Mowbray, Kenyon Cox and Tony Robert-Fleury. Emmet exhibited widely during her career, and her paintings can now be found hanging in the White House, and many prestigious art galleries, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
context_section_description: One of Emmet's first artistic achievements came in 1883, at the age of sixteen, when she was commissioned to illustrate Henrietta Christian Wright's children's book Little Folk in Green.
  In order to supplement her income, Emmet worked during the early 1890s as the assistant of her former instructor, William Merritt Chase, teaching preparatory classes at his Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art on Long Island, New York.
  In 1893, Emmet was selected, along with prominent women American artists such as Mary Cassatt, Mary MacMonnies-Low, Lucia Fairchild Fuller and her sister, Rosina (Emmet) Sherwood, to paint murals in the newly constructed Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition. Emmet's contributions included a painting entitled Seal of the New York State Board and a mural entitled Art, Literature and Imagination.
  Emmet later designed stained glass windows for Louis Comfort Tiffany and was a prolific illustrator for Harper's Bazaar magazine. She also received commissions from the Associated Artists, and a commission from President Herbert Hoover to paint an official portrait of the First Lady, Lou Henry Hoover, which now hangs in the White House.
  In 1896 Field Emmet designed the Cullum Geographical Medal, one of the oldest awards of the American Geographical Society, established in the will of Major General George Washington Cullum (1809–92), the vice president of the Society, and is awarded "to those who distinguish themselves by geographical discoveries or in the advancement of geographical science".
  Though best known for her portraits of children, Emmet preferred to paint adult sitters, as she did not consider child portraits to be especially challenging work. One of Emmet's most famous portraits is that of her young nephew, playwright Robert Emmet Sherwood.
  Emmet exhibited her work frequently at the National Academy of Design, and participated in several major international expositions. She was the recipient of prizes at the World's Columbian Exposition (1893), the Atlanta Exposition (1895), the Pan-American Exhibition (1901), the St. Louis Exhibition (1904) and the Carnegie International Exhibition (1912). Emmet was also awarded the Thomas R. Proctor Prize (1907) and the Maynard Prize (1918) from the National Academy of Design; the Newport popular prize (1921, 1923); and the Philadelphia Bok prize (1925). Emmet was made an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1909 and in 1911 was promoted to Academician at the academy.
caption: The Brothers, ca. 1909, Brooklyn Museum
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