Cecilia Beaux: An Important American Female Painter

Cecilia Beaux - Man with a Cat (Henry Sturgis Drinker) - 1898 - Oil on canvas, 122 x 88 cm - Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington (click photo for larger image)Cecilia Beaux (1855-1942) studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1877-78), and privately with William Sartain (1881-83). Under Sartain's guidance, she truly learned how to paint. She completed her art training in Paris at the Académie Julian and the Académie Colorossi. In 1890 she exhibited at the Paris Exposition. Returning to Philadelphia, she obtained, in 1893, the gold medal of the Philadelphia Art Club, the Dodge prize at the New York National Academy, and later various other distinctions. Henry Sturgis Drinker (the subject of this portrait) was a mechanical engineer who used his skills to help engineer the two mile long Musconetcong Tunnel, which made railroad travel between Easton, Pennsylvania and New York City possible. He was also the president of Lehigh University from 1905 to 1920. Drinker was Cecilia Beaux's brother-in-law.