biographie de May ALCOTT (1840-1879)

Birth place: Concord, MA

Death place: Paris

Addresses: Paris, from at least 1873, with trips home to Boston

Profession: Landscape, figure, and still life painter, illustrator

Studied: Boston with W.M. Hunt, Wm. Rimmer, Johnston; Acad. Julian, Paris, 1873; Müller; with Rowbowtham in London

Exhibited: Paris Salon (1877, 1879); Dudley Gal., London, 1877; Boston AC, 1878; Soc. Women Artists, London, 1878

Work: Louisa May Alcott Mem. Assoc., Orchard House, Concord, MA

Comments: She was able to study abroad with the financial assistance of her elder sister, Louisa May Alcott, many of whose books she illustrated. In between trips abroad, she taught at Syracuse, Boston, and Concord, where she opened an art center in 1875. While in London, Ruskin praised her copies of Turner. She also painted still lifes, flower panels, and sketches from nature. In Dec. 1879, one year after her marriage to Ernest Nieriker, a Swiss artist, she died as a result of complications during childbirth. May Alcott served as the inspiration for the character of Amy in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Auth.: Studying Art Abroad and How to Do It Cheaply (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879).

Sources: G&W; Clement and Hutton; Stern, Louisa May Alcott; Cheney, Life and Letters of Louisa May Alcott; Ticknor, May Alcott, A Memoir. More recently, see Fink, Am. Art at the 19th C. Paris Salons, 115-16, 137, 195 (repro.), 250 (repro.), 251, 315, 376; Rubinstein, Am. Women Artists, 93, 132; Petteys, Dictionary of Women Artists; Swinth, Painting Professionals, 123.