Annie Traquair Lang (September 8, 1885 – November 8, 1918) was an American Impressionist painter, known for experimental impasto brushstrokes and jewel-tone abstracted forms. She exhibited portraits, still lifes and landscapes at two dozen venues in Europe and the U.S., and institutions including the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

acquired her works. She was acclaimed in publications including the ''New York Times'' and ''The International Studio''. She also earned praise for her collection of paintings by her mentor,

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

, with whom she traveled in Europe and California. She was considered the Chase pupil "who best assimilated his technique and verve."

Biography

Annie Lang was born in Philadelphia on September 8, 1885, the second eldest of seven children of the Philadelphia attorney James Traquair Lang (1858–1920) and Winona Barker Sewell Lang (1862–1928). Among her paternal ancestors were the stone carver James Traquair (1756–1811), who worked with the architect

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was an Anglo-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, draw ...

; Thomas Traquair (1790–1824), a lieutenant in the War of 1812; and the engraver George Shortread Lang (1799–1877). Annie Lang studied at the Public Industrial Art School, the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, Chase's summer art school on Long Island in Southampton's Shinnecock Hills, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she won scholarships for travel in Europe. Her teachers, in addition to Chase, included

Elliot Daingerfield Elliott Daingerfield (1859–1932) was an American artist who lived and worked in North Carolina. He is considered one of North Carolina's most prolific artists.Johnson, Lucille Miller (1992). ''Hometown Heritage, Volume II'', p 2-3. Taylor Publi ...

, Cecilia Beaux and Thomas Anshutz. Around 1911, she moved to Manhattan. She traveled widely during the summers, painting views of North Carolina, Venice, Florence, Bruges and Carmel, California. She posed for portraits by Chase (one belongs to 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 ...

), and she painted him (one of her portraits of Chase hangs at the Metropolitan Museum). Among her other sitters were the arts educator J. Liberty Tadd, the artist Helen Thurlow, the actress

Maude Adams Maude Ewing Adams Kiskadden (November 11, 1872 – July 17, 1953), known professionally as Maude Adams, was an American actress who achieved her greatest success as the character Peter Pan, first playing the role in the 1905 Broadway production ...

, the writer

Mary Hunter Austin Mary Hunter Austin (September 9, 1868 – August 13, 1934) was an American writer. One of the early nature writers of the American Southwest, her classic '' The Land of Little Rain'' (1903) describes the fauna, flora, and people – as well as e ...

and the painter and poet Countess Gabriella Fabbricotti. Lang, although she was bereft after Chase's death in 1916 (she was his longtime mistress, according to her descendants), continued to paint overseas. In 1918, after a yearlong trip through Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Lang returned to New York with plans to volunteer at battlefield canteens in France. While preparing for the trip, she developed fatal bronchopneumonia (caused by the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

), and died on November 8.

Achievements

At age 18, Annie Lang began displaying her artworks at Philadelphia venues including Wanamaker's flagship store (1903), the

Art Club of Philadelphia The Art Club of Philadelphia, often called the Philadelphia Art Club, was a club in Philadelphia, founded on February 7, 1887, to advance the arts.

(1904, 1907), Philadelphia Water Color Club (1907), American Art Society (1907), T Square Club (1908), and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1911, 1912). Her other Pennsylvania venues included the

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...

in Pittsburgh (1911, 1913, 1914) and the State Normal School in West Chester, Pa. (1915). In New York, she showed at the New York Water Color Club (1904), American Water Color Society (1907),

Architectural League The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines". The league dates from 1881, when Cass Gilbert organized meetings at the Salmagundi Club for ...

(1908),

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 ...

(1912, 1914),

National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'' to "stimulate, foster, and promote public ...

(1917) and Knoedler galleries (1917). Knoedler also showed her collection of Chase's works. At the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915), she received a silver medal for her portraits of women in kimono and Venice views. Among her other U.S. venues were the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

(1912, 1913, 1916),

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

(1912–1913), Muncie Art Association (1913),

St. Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, Mi ...

(1913) and Art Association of Richmond, Indiana (1913). The American Federation of Arts included her portrait of Chase in a traveling show (1913–1914). Overseas she exhibited at the Roman Art Exposition (1911) and the Anglo-American Exposition in London (1914). In 1910, Chase predicted that her "remarkable ability" boded well for the future of American art. ''The'' ''New York Times'' praised her ability to execute "evanescent gradations of color with such authority." ''The International Studio'' ranked her acquisitions of Chase's paintings as "in all probability the finest private collection of his works in this country" and described her pictures as "very direct and forceful, painted in a virile manner." She worked alongside Chase at his summer schools in Florence (1910, 1911), Bruges (1912), Venice (1913), and Carmel, California (1914).

Legacy

Posthumous misattributions

In the 1920s, Lang's family sold her possessions and artworks. On a few of her paintings, including her portrait of Chase now at the Metropolitan Museum, her signature was cut away or erased and replaced with fraudulent Chase signatures. In the 1970s, the art historian Ronald G. Pisano identified a number of her works that had been misattributed to Chase. At the time, her portrait of her mentor was on exhibit and ranked among the important self-portraits in which painters "capture the essence of themselves." Pisano observed that the obliteration of her signatures "in such a wanton way is the ultimate crime that could be perpetrated against an artist."

Surviving works and papers

Institutions that own her paintings include Lancasterhistory.org (
Japanese Print
', portrait of Helen Thurlow, 1951.013), the

Tweed Museum of Art The Tweed Museum of Art is a museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth, in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. The Tweed Museum of Art was established in 1950 when Alice Tweed Tuohy, widow of George P. Tweed, donated their house an ...

in Duluth (''Conversation in the Park'', D62.x15), the Metropolitan Museum of Art
portrait of Chase
1977.183.1), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (portrait o
J. Liberty Tadd
1944.22) and the Huntington Library, Art Collection, and Botanical Gardens (portrait o
Mary Hunter Austin
AU 5464). The Huntington also owns a few of Lang's letters (AU 3451 and 3452), as does the Smithsonian's

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

(Carnegie Institute, Museum of Art records, correspondence, Box 73, folder 73.46, and Macbeth Galler
records
reel 2606, microfilmed). Works by Chase that Lang collected include his portrait of the artist Baron Hugo von Habermann
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
33–1599), ''Lady in Opera Cloak'' (Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1935.1.4), ''Self-Portrait''

2014.136.15), and ''Still Life (Fish from the Adriatic)''
Chrysler Museum of Art
71.847). In 1913, the Met had acquired ''Portrait of a Lady in Black (Annie Traquair Lang)''

1928-63-4) from Chase, but a few months after his death, his widow Alice reclaimed the painting and Lang later acquired it. Alice Chase replaced it at the Met with her husband's
For the Little One
' (13.90), a portrait of herself sewing clothes for one of the couple's 13 children. Five of Lang's paintings—the Tadd portrait; ''Tea Time Abroad'' (c. 1912); ''A Bit of Venice'' (1913); ''From Mr. Chase's Studio Window, Bruges, Belgium'' (c. 1912); and ''Isabella Lothrop'' (c. 1912)--have been featured in a Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts show, ''Women in Motion: 150 Years of Women's Artistic Networks at PAFA'' (July 8, 2021 – July 24, 2022).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Annie Traquair 1885 births 1918 deaths American Impressionist painters Painters from Philadelphia 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters Philadelphia School of Design for Women alumni Deaths from the Spanish flu pandemic in New York (state) Deaths from bronchopneumonia Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)