Agnes Dean Abbatt (June 23, 1847 – January 1, 1917) of New York was a painter of floral still lifes, landscapes, and coastal scenes. She was the second woman elected to the

American Watercolor Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

Early life

Agnes Dean Abbatt was born on June 23, 1847, in New York City to William D. and Agnes Alice (Dean) Abbatt. Her family left England during the late 18th century and settled in Pleasant Valley, New York where her father was born. Agnes' mother was a French Huguenot. Agnes's grandmother was an amateur artist and encouraged all of her grandchildren in the study of art, but Agnes was the only grandchild to pursue art as a career. Hillside Landscape by Agnes Dean Abbatt of New York

Hillside Landscape by Agnes Dean Abbatt of New York

Agnes Abbatt entered Cooper Union in 1873 and won a medal in her first year for her drawing of the head of Ajax. This led to her acceptance to 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 f ...

in New York. At the end of her first year, her first full-length drawing was selected for an exhibition.

Career

Abbatt decided that she didn't want to be a figure painter and left the academy after a year to study landscape painting. She studied under the landscape artists James David Smillie and Robert Swain Gifford.ABBATT, Agnes Dean
in ''

Marquis Who's Who Marquis Who's Who ( or ) is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who of American Wome ...

, published 1902 In 1875, two of her first paintings, watercolor panels of flowers, were exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Club where they were purchased. She continued painting flowers, and progressed to landscapes, and coastal views of New York, Maine, and Massachusetts. In 1880, she exhibited another work, ''When Autumn Turns the Leaves'', at the American Watercolor Society exhibition in New York. That same year, she was elected to join the Society; the second woman after Catherine Tharp Altvater. American Hillside Landscape

In addition to her career in art, Abbatt taught in Washington DC, Troy, NJ, and New Haven, CN. Amongst her private pupils was the

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

-born Claude Raguet Hirst who went on to be a still life painter and the only woman of her era to adopt the ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' ("fool the eye") technique. Abbatt continued to teach in New York and Maine, and continued to paint until her death on January 1, 1917.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abbatt, Agnes Dean 1847 births 1917 deaths Painters from New York (state) American watercolorists 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century Women watercolorists 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American women painters