Treasures from the Vault: Lilla Cabot Perry

Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Research Curator

Lilla Cabot Perry created her first painting after she was married, had children, and was around 30 years old. Her husband was Thomas Sergeant Perry, who was a professor of 18^th-century English literature. He was a relative of Benjamin Franklin and Commodore Matthew C. Perry. His brother-in-law was American painter John La Farge.

Lilla Perry’s decision to pursue a career as an artist at the end of the nineteenth century—when few upper-class women worked—is extraordinary, as she juggled home life and a career. Although upper class women were urged to take an interest in painting and music, these hobbies were strongly discouraged and normally ended when married.

An essential part of a refined young woman’s education included learning to draw and paint. This could be accomplished through private lessons, ladies’ academies, and written manuals. Late 19^th century American women found more opportunities for formal art training than previous generations but still faced inequity and challenges. Classes were often separated by gender and cost more than those for men. Often women were not given access to the nude model, which was fundamental to understanding the human form. Few female students succeeded in transitioning to professional artists.

In fall 1885, Perry received critiques from Robert Vonnoh, a teacher at Boston Museum School and Cowles Art School. Later, she attended Cowles Art School where she studied with portrait painter Dennis Bunker. Fortunately, Perry’s teachers recognized the value in her studying anatomy and drawing from the live models.

From 1887 to 1889, the Perry family lived in Paris and were able to travel to throughout Europe, meeting American expatriates Mary Cassatt, Theodore Robinson, and John Singer Sargent. She attended Colarossi Académie (1887) and Académie Julian (1888) as the École des Beaux-Arts did not admit women as regular students until around 1896. Perry received instruction from Belgian Impressionist Alfred Stevens and German genre painter Fritz von Uhde, who informed her of an American artist colony in Giverny, France.

In 1889, Perry saw a major exhibition of works by French Impressionist Claude Monet. She spent a total of nine summers in Giverny where Monet had a home and garden. A close friend with the artist, Perry wrote Reminiscences of Claude Monet, which became an important resource as the artist rarely gave interviews. She was also a strong advocate for his work back in the U.S.

Monet did not take on students but gave Perry advice. He shared, “When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have before you, a tree, a house, a field or whatever. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape, until it gives your own naive impression of the scene before you.”[1]

Perry experimented with Impressionist techniques in light and color. This is seen readily in her landscapes and outdoor figurative works from the mid-1890s to early 1900s, in which she used a high key palette, no black, and broken brushwork. Her granddaughters recalled, “Monet said that Bonne Maman’s [grandma’s] forte was portraits out of doors, although she claimed it was much harder to paint en plein air—the light was hard to catch and reproduce on canvas. Also the weather did not always cooperate.”[2]

Perry achieved success as an artist in Boston, especially as a portrait painter, providing a well needed income for the family. She received invitations to exhibit with the all-male St. Botolph Club in Boston, which eventually became a gathering point for Impressionism. Seven figurative paintings were on exhibition at the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. While the Women’s Building showcased their achievements in the arts, Perry exhibited at the Palace of Fine Arts alongside her male contemporaries.

In FWMoA’s painting The Sculptor, Perry’s subject intently models the clay figure in her hand with a wire looped tool. The artist did not allow light to dissolve the solidity of the figure, unlike Impressionism, an approach she had been using for her outdoor works. This may reflect the artist’s academic training and appreciation of the Old Masters. In 1894 she visited Spain and admired the work of Diego Velázquez. The Sculptor and the National Gallery of Art’s painting The Needlewoman (1640/1650) by Velázquez are an interesting comparison. In both works, the figure is absorbed in a creative activity. She and Velázquez used dark, earthy colors, fluid brushstrokes, and a plain background that sets off the figure. The subdued palette and more tightly controlled brushwork were also in keeping with area figurative painters, including Frank Weston Benson, Joseph De Camp, and Edmund Charles Tarbell, who became known collectively as the Boston School.

The identity of the sculptor is unclear. Accompanying the FWMoA painting, was paperwork from Perry’s granddaughters stating that the work had been in the possession of the artist’s eldest daughter Margaret, so it must not have been a commission. Frequently, Perry’s subjects were the most familiar and accessible to her as a wife and mother—family, close friends, and pets. She enjoyed using her three daughters and then turned her attention to the next generation, painting her granddaughters. Margaret was the subject of the artist’s earliest painting, Portrait of an Infant, when the child was around age two.  It was common for Perry to give the work a nondescript title, omitting whether the subject was a family member or friend. During the 19^th and early 20^th century, it might have been seen as inappropriate to sell family portraits as they should remain private.

The Sculptor is undated, but Perry may have painted it in the mid-1910s through the early 1920s, judging by what was in vogue at the time. Her model chose a hairstyle that was practical. It is pulled back and swept up high, incorporating a braid. By the mid-1920s, however, short, sleek hairstyles, like the bob, became the norm.  

The sculptor’s navy-blue blouse is sensible and allows for easy movement. Absent is the earlier preference for ruffles, lace, and tailored fit. The loosely fitted, unbelted shirt is distinguished by a large square collar with a white trim that is inspired by a sailor’s uniform. It became known as a middy blouse; its name derived from midshipmen in the Navy. This stylish nautical attire appears in a portrait painting that is dated ca. 1907 by De Camp, who settled in Boston in the 1880s.

Military inspired clothing was popular for children and was used as gym clothing. Think of the scene where Captain Von Trapp’s children, wearing sailor-inspired uniforms, line up to meet Maria in the movie The Sound of Music. The nautical style became more common with older women for outdoor recreation, like yachting and bathing/swimming. By 1919, the middy blouse was worn unbelted and hung down from the shoulders to the hip, as in The Sculptor, flaunting a straight silhouette that was in step with the latest trends. Evidence of this fad can be found in ads for Morris & Co., Butterwick sewing patterns, and Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogs from the early 1920s. The middy blouse’s rise in popularity possibly reflected a wave of patriotism during World War I.[3]  

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[1]Lilla Cabot Perry, “Reminiscences of Claude Monet from 1889 to 1909,” in Lilla Cabot Perry: An

American Impressionist, by Meredith Martindale (Washington: National Museum of Women in the Arts,1990), 116.

[2] Lilla Levitt, Anita English and Elizabeth (Elsie) Lyon, “Family Recollections of Lilla Cabot Perry,” in Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist, by Meredith Martindale (Washington: National Museum of Women in the Arts,1990), 125.

[3] Many thanks are due to Suzanne Slick, Collection Information Specialist, FWMoA, Jenna Gilley, former Associate Curator of Exhibitions, FWMoA, and Melissa Huber, Associate Curator, The Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art for their observations about period clothing and hairstyles.