page_title: Cecilia Beaux
section_title: Return to Philadelphia
hierarchical_section_title: Cecilia Beaux / Biography / Return to Philadelphia
caption_attribution_description: English: "The Lady George Darwin," pastel, by the Philadelphia portraitist Cecilia Beaux. 19 in. x 13.5 in. Private collection. Image courtesy of The Athenaeum.
context_page_description: Cecilia Beaux was an American society portraitist, in the manner of John Singer Sargent. She was a near-contemporary of American artist Mary Cassatt and also received her training in Philadelphia and France. Her sympathetic renderings of the American ruling class made her one of the most successful portrait painters of her era.
context_section_description: Back in America in 1889, Beaux proceeded to paint portraits in the grand manner, taking as her subjects members of her sister's family as well as the elite of Philadelphia. In making her decision to devote herself to art, she also thought it was best not to marry, and in choosing male company she selected men who would not threaten to sidetrack her career. She resumed life with her family, and they supported her fully, acknowledging her chosen path and demanding of her little in the way of household responsibilities, "I was never once asked to do an errand in town, some bit of shopping…so well did they understand." She developed a structured, professional routine, arriving promptly at her studio, and expected the same from her models.
  The five years that followed were highly productive, resulting in over forty portraits. In 1890 she exhibited at the Paris Exposition, obtained in 1893 the gold medal of the Philadelphia Art Club, and also the Dodge prize at the New York National Academy of Design.  She exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Her portrait of The Reverend Matthew Blackburne Grier was particularly well-received, as was Sita and Sarita, a portrait of her cousin Charles W. Leavitt's wife Sarah (Allibone) Leavitt in white, with a small black cat perched on her shoulder, both gazing out mysteriously. The mesmerizing effect prompted one critic to point out "the witch-like weirdness of the black kitten" and for many years, the painting solicited questions by the press. But the result was not pre-planned, as Beaux's sister later explained, "Please make no mystery about it—it was only an idea to put the black kitten on her cousin's shoulder. Nothing deeper." Beaux donated Sita and Sarita to the Musée du Luxembourg, but only after making a copy for herself. Another highly regarded portrait from that period is New England Woman (1895), a nearly all-white oil painting which was purchased by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
  In 1895 Beaux became the first woman to have a regular teaching position at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she instructed in portrait drawing and painting for the next twenty years. That rare type of achievement by a woman prompted one local newspaper to state, "It is a legitimate source of pride to Philadelphia that one of its most cherished institutions has made this innovation." She was a popular instructor. In 1896, Beaux returned to France to see a group of her paintings presented at the Salon. Influential French critic M. Henri Rochefort commented, "I am compelled to admit, not without some chagrin, that not one of our female artists…is strong enough to compete with the lady who has given us this year the portrait of Dr. Grier.  Composition, flesh, texture, sound drawing—everything is there without affectation, and without seeking for effect."
  Cecilia Beaux considered herself a "New Woman", a 19th-century women who explored educational and career opportunities that had generally been denied to women. In the late 19th century Charles Dana Gibson depicted the "New Woman" in his painting, The Reason Dinner was Late, which is "a sympathetic portrayal of artistic aspiration on the part of young women" as she paints a visiting policeman. This "New Woman" was successful, highly trained, and often did not marry; other such women included Ellen Day Hale, Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Nourse and Elizabeth Coffin.
  Beaux was a member of Philadelphia's The Plastic Club. Other members included Elenore Abbott, Jessie Willcox Smith, Violet Oakley, Emily Sartain, and Elizabeth Shippen Green. Many of the women who founded the organization had been students of Howard Pyle. It was founded to provide a means to encourage one another professionally and create opportunities to sell their works of art.
caption: Lady George Darwin, Beaux's pastel portrait of the former Martha du Puy of Philadelphia, who married Sir George Darwin. 1889
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