Women Artists

Collection Info

Art by American women constitutes eight percent of the Terra's collection and includes oil and watercolor paintings, pastels, and various types of prints. (updated 2/2019, following deaccessions)

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The Green Hat

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: 1913

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1987.25

Text Entries: Ward, Lisa M. Lilla Cabot Perry. (exh. cat., Mongerson Gallery). Chicago, Illinois: Mongerson Gallery, 1984. Ill. p. 9 (black & white). Martindale, Meredith. Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist. (exh. cat., National Museum of Women in the Arts). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990. Text pp. 80, 155 (checklist); fig. 19, p. 84 (color). Gomes, Rosalie. Impressions of Giverny: A Painter's Paradise 1883–1914. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Text pp. 81, 115; pl. 53, p. 84 (color). Reymond, Nathalie. Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text p. 74; ill. p. 72 (color). Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. p. 99 (color). Lecomte, Vanessa, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peintures de photographies américaines (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américaine Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text (checklist) p. 94. Bardazzi, Francesca and Carlo Sisi, editors. Americans in Florence: Sargent and the American Impressionists. (exh. cat. Fondazione Plazzo Strozzi). Venice, Italy: Marsilio, 2012. Text, cat. no. 99, p. 237, ill. cat. no 99, p. 220 (color). Tóbín, Colm, Marc Simpson, and Declan Kiely. Henry James and American Painting, (exh. cat. The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, New York). University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press and New York, New York: The Morgan Library & Museum, 2017. Text, p. 41; ill. fig. 19, p. 41 (color).

Japanese Garden (Japan)

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: c. 1898–1901

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1987.26

Text Entries: Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. (exh. cat., Henry Art Gallery). Seattle, Washington: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1980. Text p. 134 (checklist); ill. p. 149 (black & white). Master American Impressionists. (exh. cat., Marietta/Cobb Fine Arts Center). Marietta, Georgia: Marietta/Cobb Fine Arts Center, 1983. Text p. 5; pl. 17, p. 5 (black & white). Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. Pl. 92, p. 89 (color). American Paintings III. New York: Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., 1985. Text p. 81; ill. p. 81 (color). Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 60; fig. 53, p. 60 (black & white). Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 60; fig. 53, p. 60 (black & white). Gomes, Rosalie. Impressions of Giverny: A Painter's Paradise 1883–1914. San Francisco, California: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1995. Text p. 115; pl. 50, p. 81 (color).

Thomas Sergeant Perry Reading a Newspaper

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: 1924

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1987.27

Text Entries: Martindale, Meredith. Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist. (exh. cat., National Museum of Women in the Arts). Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990. Text pp. 84, 86, no. 64, p. 156; pl. 46, p. 87 (color). Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 59; fig. 50, p. 59 (black & white). Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 59; fig. 50, p. 59 (black & white). Lévy, Sophie, et al. Twarze Ameryki: Portrety z kolekcji Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940/Faces of America: Portraits from the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, 1770–1940. (exh. cat. International Cultural Center). Cracow, Poland: International Cultural Center, 2006. Ill. front cover (color), p. 100 (color). Sgarbi, Vittorio et al. L'Arte delle Donne dal Rinascimento al Surrealismo. (exh. cat., Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy). Milan, Italy: Federico Motta Editore, 2007. Text p. 359; ill. p. 240 (color as Thomas Sargeant Perry mentre legge il giornale). Muto, Shuji. American Literature and Culture at the Turn of the Century. Tokyo, Japan: Chuo University Press, 2008. Ill. p. 95 (black & white).

Autumn Afternoon, Giverny

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: c. 1905–1909

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.106

Text Entries: In 1889 Lilla Cabot Perry made her first trip to Giverny, summering there intermittently for many years. When her neighbor, friend, and mentor Monet died in 1926, she wrote an article that contributed significantly to the French Impressionist's renown in America. In Autumn Afternoon, Perry demonstrated her understanding of contemporary scientific color theory of the law of contrasting color. Perry's rapid painting technique, energetic but not random, and her brilliant colors-violet and green hues and an absence of black-have an affinity with Monet's palette and paint application.

Self-Portrait

Lilla Cabot Perry

Date: c. 1889–96

Credit Line: Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection

Object number: 1999.107

Text Entries: Known first as a close friend of Monet and a champion of Impressionism in the face of her native Boston's early misgivings, Lilla Cabot Perry also built a successful career as an artist. Perry, who described herself in 1889 as no less than "[a]rtist and woman, daughter, mother, wife," displayed resourcefulness and determination in establishing herself as a painter of portraits and landscapes. She was a published poet and the mother of three when she enrolled for her first formal art course in 1884. As an art student in Paris, she grew frustrated with the crowded conditions and teachers' lack of interest at well-known ateliers such as the Academie Julian, and opted to attend Alfred Stevens' select and conservative studio for ladies. When an exhibit of Monet's work at a Paris gallery inspired her to abandon an academic style for the bold color experiments of Impressionism, she relocated her family to Giverny, where they spent ten summers between 1889 and 1909. While she and her husband, a literary scholar, circulated with eminent members of Boston society such as novelists Henry James and William Dean Howells, they were not wealthy; throughout her life the sale of Perry's art works provided a needed source of income for her family. In these two poised self-portraits Perry presents herself in her contrasting but coexistent roles as professional artist and society matron. In the earlier portrait, Perry depicts herself capably at work, standing upright before her canvas with squared shoulders and chin aloft, her gaze intently directed toward an object or person to the viewer's right. Depicted at a greater distance, the ornately dressed Perry of the second portrait stands elevated above the viewer, her face mostly veiled in shadow. Her clothing in each work communicates differently; the loose work smock and bow tie of the first portrait are not gender-specific, unlike her elaborate fur-trimmed gown and hat in the later work. While both figures exude confidence, the later work resembles many fashionable turn-of-the-century portraits of women by American artists such as John Singer Sargent and Frederick MacMonnies in its mood of lush solemnity. It offers no indication that the elegant woman pictured is also the creator of the image, and appeals to the viewer through the figure's mysterious rather than commanding presence.