Violet Oakley

An Artist's Life

Bailey Van Hook

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781611495867
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Biografie nell'ambito delle scienze sociali

Violet Oakley: An Artist's Life is the first full-length biography of Violet Oakley (1874–1961), the only major female artist of the beaux-arts mural movement in the United States, as well as an illustrator, stained glass artist, portraitist and author. There is much human interest here: a pampered and spoiled young woman who suddenly finds herself in near poverty, forced to make a living in illustration to support her parents; a sensitive and idealistic young woman who, in a desperate attempt to save her neurasthenic father, embraces Christian Science, a religion derided by her family and friends; a 28 year old woman who receives one of the plum commissions of the era, a mural cycle in the Pennsylvania State Capitol, in a field dominated by much older and predominantly male artists; a woman in her forties who although professionally successful finds herself very much alone and bonds with her student, Edith Emerson; a friend of artists like dancer Ruth St. Denis and violinist Albert Spalding who nevertheless was supremely conscious of social mores, the "Miss Oakley" of the Social Register who preferred the company of upper class to bohemian society; the tireless self-promoter who traveled abroad to become the unofficial visual historian of the League of Nations yet who ironically was increasingly regarded as a local artist.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Author’s Note
• Preface: London, 1912
• Chapter 1: A Goodly Heritage, 1874–1894
• Chapter 2: The Magic Door, 1894–1897
• Chapter 3: 1523 Chestnut Street, 1897–1902
• Chapter 4: The Romance of the Red Rose, 1902–1905
• Chapter 5: Controversy and Triumph, 1905–1906
• Chapter 6: Building the House of Wisdom, 1906–1910
• Chapter 7: Endings and Beginnings, 1911–1912
• Chapter 8: The Painter and the Architect, 1912–1915
• Chapter 9: The Creation and Preservation of the Union, 1915–1917
• Chapter 10: The Holy Experiment, 1917–1923
• Chapter 11: The Opening of the Book of the Law, 1923–1927
• Chapter 12: Geneva and Florence, 1927–1929
• Chapter 13: The Geneva Drawings, 1929–1937
• Chapter 14: The Pilgrimage of a Painter, 1937–1961
• Appendix 1: Violet Oakley’s Illustrations, 1896–1908
• Appendix 2: Violet Oakley’s Murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol1
• Appendix 3: List of Violet Oakley’s World War II Altarpieces
• Bibliography
• About the Author