Boston Watercolor Club

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The Boston Watercolor Club (sometimes written Boston Water Color Club) was a society formed in 1887 to promote women watercolor artists in and around Boston, Massachusetts.

History[edit]

The Boston Watercolor Club was formed in 1887 to promote and exhibit the work of women artists at a time when they were barred from admission to the male-run Boston Watercolor Society.[1] The group held annual exhibitions.[1] In 1896 the group began admitting male members,[1] and artists such as John La Farge[2] and Maurice Prendergast[3] joined the club.

The group had counterparts in other cities, including the Baltimore Watercolor Club, founded in 1885 because women artists were barred from the Charcoal Club of Baltimore.[4]

The club's records from the period 1887–1916 are held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.[1]

Notable women members[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Water Color Club administrative record book, 1887-1916". Smithsonian Institution website.
  2. ^ Yarnall, James L. "John La Farge and Henry Adams in Japan." American Art Journal 21:1 (1989), 41-77.
  3. ^ Burke, Doreen Bolger. American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 1. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 336.
  4. ^ Rasmussen, Frederick N. "Back Story: Female painters founded Watercolor Society". Baltimore Sun, April 11, 2013.
  5. ^ a b c Heller, Jules, and Nancy G. Heller. "Sears, Sarah Choate (1858-1935)". In North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary, pp. 84, 127, 501.