The Red Rose Girls
New York: Abrams, 2000. Wilcox Smith, Shippen GReen, Oakley. 1st ed. Hardcover. 1st ptg., 4to harcover, full black cloth.Three women artists -- Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley -- captivated early-twentieth-century Philadelphia with their brilliant careers and uncommon lifestyle. Nicknamed by their mentor, the famous illustrator Howard Pyle, "The Red Rose Girls" took over the Red Rose Inn, a picturesque estate on the city's venerable Main Line, and set up an unconventional household.
At a time when women were prohibited from taking life-drawing classes at most art schools and generally received inferior art education, Smith, Green, and Oakley attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and met as Pyle's students at Drexel Institute where they were encouraged in their pursuits and celebrated for their talents. The women enjoyed public recognition and success, and enriched their professional lives with a fluid exchange of ideas. It was an idyllic, romantic life - until one woman left the fold to marry, a breach from which the tightly intertwined group never fully recovered. Fine in fine, unclipped dj. Item #36229
Price: $50.00