Alice Kent Stoddard

Alice Kent Stoddard
Born1883
Watertown, Connecticut
Died1976 (aged 92–93)
NationalityAmerican
SpouseJoseph Thurman Pearson Jr.
Awards
Alice Kent Stoddard, (American, 1883-1976), Leila, 1915, oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in., Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania, Gift, George D. Horst

Alice Kent Stoddard (1883–1976) was an American painter of portraits, landscapes, and seascapes. Many of her works, particularly portraits, are in public collections, including University of Pennsylvania's portrait collection, Woodmere Art Museum, and other museums. She lived and painted on Monhegan Island in Maine, an enclave of artists. During World War II, she worked as a combat artist and drafted designs for airplanes. She married late in life to Joseph Pearson, who had been a friend and taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Personal life

Monhegan Island Harbor Looking Toward Manana, 1910, The Monhegan Museum, Maine

Alice Kent Stoddard was born in Watertown, Connecticut in 1883.[1][2] Her first cousin was artist Rockwell Kent.[1] She rented and then bought her cousin's house known as Rockwell Kent Cottage and Studio in Monhegan, Maine.[3][4]

She was good friends with fellow artist Joseph Thurman Pearson Jr., who taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Pearson's wife, Emily, died in 1947, and Stoddard married him in 1948.[1][5] They lived at "Pearson's Corner," along the Pennypack Creek, in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.[1] Pearson died in 1951.[5]

Education

Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, 1910, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Stoddard studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, after which she studied under William Merritt Chase, Thomas Anshutz and Cecilia Beaux at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).[1] She won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship from PAFA.[1]

Career

Fisherman's Little Sister, 1915, Dallas Museum of Art

In 1911 and 1913, she was awarded the Mary Smith Prize from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts[6] for Paper Dolls.[7]

She was a member of The Plastic Club.[8] In 1938, she became an associate of the National Academy of Design.[3]

Stoddard painted portraits of Philadelphia socialites, often including pets in the paintings.[1] She painted her mother and sister in Mother and Virginia in Sitting Room about 1934. Woodmere Art Museum states, "Here she masterfully conveys the intimacy of family life... Virginia pauses while knitting, seemingly lost in thought. Across the room, Stoddard's mother focuses on a game of solitaire. The large, rectangular space between the two women emphasizes the psychological distance between them in their respective moments of quiet contemplation.[9]

Stoddard visited and lived in Monhegan, Maine, and integrated the people and scenery in her paintings."[3][10] She painted Manville Davis, a fisherman in Mending the Nets and a portrait of artist Andrew Winter.[10] The area became an enclave for artists, some of the other artists who painted and visited there were Robert Henri, the Wyeth family (N. C., Andrew, and Jamie), and Charles Ebert.[11]

During World War II she worked as a mechanical draftsperson for airplane design for Budd Company[9] and as a combat artist. Her work was exhibited at Woodmere Art Museum, where she also volunteered her time.[1]

Stoddard painted a mural in one of the courtrooms of the Family Court Building in Philadelphia. The mural featured a couple planting a tree and a family scene, within a construction area. It was one of 37 murals made in the building to depict the societal usefulness of the jurisprudence system.[12] She won a "Small Oils Painting" medal at a Philadelphia Sketch Club.[13]

Collections

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "The Puppies' Angel". Online Collection, Woodmere Art Museum. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  2. ^ "Alice Kent Stoddard (1883-1976)". Ashley John Galleries. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d "Monhegan celebrates century of art, 400 years of settlement: An art show at the island museum re-creates a famous 1914 exhibition". Portland Press Herald. Retrieved March 26, 2015. Her painting of the Monhegan Island Harbor is the 5th in a series of 11 images with the article.
  4. ^ "The Fitzgerald Legacy". Monhegan Museum and Library. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "The Twins: Virginia and Jane, 1917" (PDF). Michener Art Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  6. ^ Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1914). Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture. pp. 10–11.
  7. ^ "Some of the Striking Pictures to be Seen in this Year's Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy" (PDF). New York Times. February 16, 2015. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  8. ^ "Noted Past Members". The Plastic Club. Archived from the original on April 7, 2015. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Alice Kent Stoddard". Women and Biography: Telling the Story of Philadelphia's Art and Artists (PDF). Woodmere Art Museum. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  10. ^ a b "From the Tree". The Plattsburgh State Art Museum. Archived from the original on 2015-08-29. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  11. ^ "History". Monhegan Quadricentennial. Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  12. ^ "Juvenille and Domestic Branches of the Municipal Court (also known as the Family Court Building) Nomination Form" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service. p. Section 7, page 8, Section 8, page 16, 17. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  13. ^ "History". Philadelphia Sketch Club. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  14. ^ "Beatrice Fox Griffith of Haverford, West Pennsylvania". Your Paintings. BBC. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  15. ^ "Fisherman's Little Sister". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  16. ^ "Collection Inventory: Portrait Paintings". Retrieved March 27, 2015.
  17. ^ "The Artist Sketching, (painting)". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  18. ^ "Portrait of Andrew Winter". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  19. ^ "Benjamin Franklin". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  20. ^ "Mending Nets". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  21. ^ "Self-Portrait, Alice Kent Stoddard". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  22. ^ "Clarence Clark Zantzinger". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  23. ^ "Uncle John Stoughton". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  24. ^ "Polly (Mrs. H. Lea Hudson)". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  25. ^ "Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  26. ^ "Leila". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  27. ^ "Melville Griffith Baker (1875-1930)". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Search: Alice Kent Stoddard". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  29. ^ "Edwin R. Keedy". Smithsonian Institution Research Information System. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  30. ^ "Office of the Curator, University Portraits: Clarence Ewing McClung". University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  31. ^ "Boy with Hawk". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  32. ^ "David Gates with Dog". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  33. ^ "Mary Stuard Townsend Mason". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  34. ^ "Master Pomeroy". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  35. ^ "Red-Headed Girl with a Doll". The Collection, Woodmere Art Museum. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  36. ^ "James A. Waller". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.
  37. ^ "Harriet Walton Dunbar". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 26, 2015.

Media related to Alice Kent Stoddard at Wikimedia Commons

External image
image icon Beatrice Fox Griffith of Haverford, West Pennsylvania, 1949, Alderney Library, Channel Islands