Laura Woodward (1834-1926)
- Laura Woodward (1834-1926)
- Forest Interior, 1874
- Oil on canvas
- 15 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches
- Signed and dated 1874, lower center
Laura Woodward, a New Jersey native, once shared a New York studio building with the Hart siblings, as well as pioneering female painters such as Eliza Pratt Greatorex (1819- 1897), Sara Bascom Gilbert and Hannah Jane Blauvelt. While Woodward would ultimately become well-known for her mid- to late-career plein air paintings of the undeveloped Florida wilderness, her success in doing so was predicated on the reputation she forged among the ranks of the male-dominated Hudson River School during the 1870s and 1880s. Woodward exhibited annually at the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Design, and the Boston Art Club. She also participated in Expositions, including Louisville (1873- 75, 1878, 1885), Cincinnati (1874), Chicago (1875, 1878), and Philadelphia (1876), in addition to numerous galleries.