Fanny Adele Watson (1873-1947) was an American painter and lithographer. Watson was born on April 30, 1873 in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

. In 1880 her family moved to

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

after the death of her father. She studied at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

as a young adult, and returned to California in 1917. She traveled to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and became a pupil of

Raphael Collin Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

and friends with poet/artist

Khalil Gibran Gibran Khalil Gibran ( ar, جُبْرَان خَلِيل جُبْرَان, , , or , ; January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931), usually referred to in English as Kahlil Gibran (pronounced ), was a Lebanese-American writer, poet and visual artist ...

. She exhibited and was a member of the

American Artists Professional League The American Artists Professional League (AAPL) is an American organization that promotes artists and their works. It was formed in 1928 in New York City by Frederick Ballard Williams Frederick Ballard Williams (1871- 1956) was an American landsc ...

, the

Pen and Brush Club Pen and Brush Club (also known as Pen + Brush) is an international organization of professional women, writers and artists. Organized in 1897, the women formed themselves into a club of which the object was to be recreation and the promotion of soc ...

, and the

Society of Independent Artists Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York. Background Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...

. She also exhibited her work at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

. She was influenced by

Symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sy ...

and Mysticism. Watson's first public exhibit was in 1913. Watson's first New York solo exhibit was held in 1916 at the Folsom Galleries and was reviewed as having "joy, freedom, vitality and abounding sense of rhythm." Reviewing an exhibit of Watson's work in 1918, Anna T. Craig, writing for

American Art News ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countri ...

, suggested, "Miss Watson had especially the dramatic, epic and pageant sense for conveying her thoughts through her work." Arthur Miller, writing for the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

in 1933 about Watson's exhibit of paintings and painted screens, suggested "Miss Watson see landscape in terms of the soul of man." Miller continued, "this is her first Los Angeles showing of her works which have gained favor in the East." Watson's work is associated with the California Coast and

Zion National Park Zion National Park is an American national park located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert regions, the park has a unique geography and a variety ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Watson died in

, on March 23, 1947. In 1953 the

Pasadena Art Institute The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Sim ...

held a retrospective of Watson's work, and again in 1963, the Pasadena Art Institute held a memorial exhibition of her work. Watson's work was included in the 2022-2023 exhibit, ''At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism'', at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

where examples of her work are also held. Her work is also in the collections of the

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration o ...

and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

Note

There was another Adele Watson who was a contemporary who was an actress: Adele Watson (1890-1933) from Minnesota starred in over 20 films in the 1920s-1930s.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Adele 1873 births 1947 deaths 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists Artists from Toledo, Ohio Art Students League of New York alumni