biographie de Jessie Willcox SMITH (1863-1935)

Birth place: Phila., PA

Death place: Phila., PA

Addresses: Phila., PA

Profession: Painter, illustrator

Studied: Phila. School Design for Women; PAFA, briefly with Eakins, 1885; Drexel Inst., with H. Pyle, 1894

Exhibited: PAFA Ann., 1888, 1898-1903 (prize), 1905-06, 1918-20; PAFA, for nearly 50 years, including 1936 (memorial exhib.); Plastic Club; Charleston Expo, 1902 (medal); Univ. Pittsburgh, 1902; AIC, 1903-22; St. Louis Expo, 1904; Soc. Illustrators, NYC, 1907; Rome Expo, 1911; Phila. WCC, 1911 (prize); Newport AA, 1912 (innaugural); Copley Gal., Boston, 1913 (solo), 1916 (solo); Pan-Pacific Expo, San Francisco, 1915 (medal).

Member: Plastic Club; Phila. WCC; SI 1904; NYWCC; Phila. Alliance; AFA.

Work: Brandywine River Mus., Chadds Ford, PA

Comments: She met and befriended Violet Oakley and Elizabeth Shippen Green while studying with Pyle. The three artists formed a close association, sharing a Chestnut Street studio in Phila. before moving, in 1902, to a remodeled country inn which they called the The Red Rose." They then moved to nearby Chestnut Hill, living and working in the home and carriage house-studio they named "Cogslea." After Green married in 1911, Smith moved to a new home which she called "Cogshill." Illustrator: Child's Garden of Verses, by R.L. Stevenson; Water Babies, by C. Kingsley; cover designer, Good Housekeeping and many other magazines. Specialty: children.

Sources: WW33; Rubinstein, American Women Artists, 161-62; Brandywine River Mus., Catalogue of the Collection 113-15; S. Michael Schnessel, Jessie Willcox Smith (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976); Falk, Exh. Record Series.