(New York, NY) Hawthorne Fine Art is pleased to announce Unbound: Works on Paper by Historic Women Artists, an online exhibition and sale, on view March 26, 2024 – April 30, 2024. Comprised of works on paper in watercolor, pastel, and pencil, the exhibit features coastal scenery, depictions of wildlife, and floral and figurative works. The intimate exhibition examines the work of 19th century women artists, many of whom achieved professional success while working in media often dismissed as inferior and for amateurs.

The exhibition will highlight the work of Fidelia Bridges (1834-1923) through recent acquisitions including Swallows in the Wheat Fields, 1872. A charming watercolor, the work depicts barn swallows foraging over a wheat field. Blossoming Beach-Plum, 1898, a large-scale work by the artist captures the flora of Coastal New England. The work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1899. Equally large-in-scale, Terns Diving along the Sea Shore was discovered beneath Blossoming Beach-Plum during conservation. Renowned for her paintings of flowers and birds, many of her works were reproduced and widely distributed by L. Prang & Co. in the 1860’s.

Artist Ellen Robbins’s (1828-1905) Still-life of Flowers, Fern and Berries exemplifies the artist’s skill at rendering highly detailed wildflowers and autumn leaves. Like Bridges, Robbins’s works were published as chromolithographs by L. Prang & Co. expanding the market for the artist.

A pair of wildlife drawings, Loups, 1839 and Daims, 1840, by amateur artist Sarah Fairchild (19th century) feature wolves and deer in a landscape. Executed in Cooperstown, N.Y., Fairchild may have used French wood engravings as a reference for her drawings. While little is known about Fairchild’s life, her work depicting New York’s Union Square, ca. 1845, can be found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A painter and printmaker, Anna Lea Merritt (1844-1930) was born in Philadelphia and later moved to England where she lived the remainder of her life. Her etching entitled Eve Overcome by Remorse, 1887 was modeled after her oil painting of the same name exhibited at the Royal Academy of London in 1885.

A Pennsylvania native, Pearl L. (Hill) Worthington (1884-1949) is represented by Portrait of a Woman, a pastel depicting a woman in a field of flowers. The artist attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia and was later highly respected for her portrait work. Worthington’s work appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on eight occasions between 1922 and 1925.

Works by Rhoda Holmes Nicholls (1854-1930) and others will also be included.

About Hawthorne Fine Art:

Hawthorne Fine Art is a Manhattan based fine art gallery specializing in 19th and early 20th century American painting. To view Unbound: Works on Paper by Historic Women Artists, please visit the exhibitions page of our website: https://hawthornefineart.com/exhibitions.