Claude Raguet Hirst (born Claudine, 1855–1942) was an American painter of still lifes. She was the only woman of her era to gain acclaim using 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.

Early life and education

Claudine was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio 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 wi ...

in November 1855, the eldest of two daughters of Juliet and Percy Hirst. She counted Pennsylvania Congressman

Henry Wynkoop Henry Wynkoop (March 2, 1737March 25, 1816) was a member of the Continental Congress (from 1779) and later a United States representative for the state of Pennsylvania during the First United States Congress, 1789 to 1791. Life and career Wy ...

among her ancestors. When she was seven, the family moved to Clifton, a wealthy suburb with a burgeoning artist community. In a 1940 interview with the ''Villager'', Hirst recalled starting painting lessons at the age of ten and attending dance school alongside a young

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...

. By the time she was 14, she was enrolled at the Mount Auburn Young Ladies Institute. The 1872 Cincinnati Industrial Exposition included three of her early works. In 1874, Hirst enrolled in the McMicken School of Drawing and Design where she took classes in three-dimensional drawing and

wood carving Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...

. Her works were exhibited in the Women's Pavilion of the 1876

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

in Philadelphia. She left the School of Design in 1878 and taught wood carving. She was one of the artists who carved the elaborate Cincinnati Organ Screen for the Music Hall's organ. Beginning in the 1870s, she truncated her name to "Claude", possibly to avoid the sexism that stymied many women artists of the era.

Move to New York

Hirst moved to New York City by 1880, where the promise of training, employment, and fame lured many of her contemporaries. Her mother and sister followed her there shortly after, leaving the alcoholic Percy Hirst in Ohio, where he soon died. Hirst rented a studio in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

where she befriended landscape painter William Crothers Fitler. The pair married in 1901. Whilst in New York, Hirst taught art and took private lessons from

Agnes Dean Abbatt 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. Early life Agnes Dean Abbatt was born on ...

Charles Courtney Curran Charles Courtney Curran (13 February 1861 – 9 November 1942) was an American painter. He is best known for his canvases depicting women in various settings. Biography Curran was born in Hartford, Kentucky in February, 1861, where his father ...

, and

George Henry Smillie George Henry Smillie (December 29, 1840SMILLIE, George Henry
in ''

. She joined both the

Woman's Art Club of New York The Woman's Art Club of New York was founded in New York City in 1889 and provided a means for social interaction and marketing of women's works of art. The club accepted members from the United States and abroad. In 1913, the group changed its name ...

and 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 ...

. She exhibited still lifes and

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

s in New York and other cities. Her works were frequently exhibited alongside those of her instructors at venues such as the

National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...

, 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 ...

, the

Boston Art Club The Boston Art Club, Boston, Massachusetts, serves to help its members, as well as non-members, to access the world of fine art. It currently has more than 250 members. History The Boston Art Club was first conceived in Boston in 1854 with the co ...

, the Art Club of Philadelphia, and the Art Institute of Chicago. The subjects of her early still lifes in New York included fruit and flowers, most often pansies and roses, and she often identified the rose varietals in her titles. During the 1880s, Hirst's brushwork tightened, and would eventually become nearly indiscernible. Hirst began using the hyper-realistic ''

'' technique and masculine iconography. Her bachelor still lifes incorporated elements such as books, candles, newspapers, and

meerschaum Sepiolite, also known in English by the German name meerschaum ( , ; ; meaning " sea foam"), is a soft white clay mineral, often used to make tobacco pipes (known as meerschaum pipes). A complex magnesium silicate, a typical chemical formula ...

pipes arranged on a wooden table. She created a number of pipe and tobacco still lifes, one of which was purchased by sugar baron H.O. Havemeyer.

Style

Hirst was one of the few women to employ ''trompe-l'œil'' during the Victorian Era. She was described as "the female Harnett" in reference to her contemporary,

William Harnett William Michael Harnett (August 10, 1848 – October 29, 1892) was an Irish-American painter known for his trompe-l'œil still lifes of ordinary objects. Early life Harnett was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland during the time of the Gr ...

. She abandoned flowers as a subject after 1890 and spent the rest of her career focusing on library table compositions. While the change in theme has been attributed to Harnett, Hirst herself related that " itlerwas not very orderly. His tobacco things were always around and one day I noticed what an attractive group they made. He had a meerschaum pipe that was a glorious color. It was like old ivory. I always liked old books and old engravings, so I put the pipe with some of my old books and painted them." According to Christine Crafts Neal, Hirst's 1890s work, ''A Gentleman's Table'' "recalls the 17th-century Dutch tradition of the moralizing (

vanitas A ''vanitas'' (Latin for 'vanity') is a symbolic work of art showing the temporality, transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, often contrasting symbols of wealth and symbols of ephemerality and death. Best-kn ...

) still-life composition." The piece has the features of a typical bachelor still life, with pipes, bottles, glasses and cards arranged on a table. According to art historian Martha Evans, works in the oeuvre of contemporaries

Peto Peto may refer to: People * Peto (surname), includes a list of people with the surname Peto * Kawu Peto Dukku (1958–2010), Nigerian politician, Senator for the Gombe North constituency of Gombe State, Nigeria Other uses * PETO, a German party * ...

and Harnett typically condoned the male culture that was represented and rarely offered depictions of alcohol. Evans relates that while Hirst's work was commissioned by a men's club in Chicago, she offers a subtle criticism of the male pursuits of gambling and drinking. Most of the bottles are empty, implying that heavy drinking has taken place. The sugar cubes and sliced lemon suggest that one of the liquors is absinthe, "considered the 'cocaine' of the nineteenth century." The overturned bottles, the cards strewn about the table and the abandonment of a pyramidal composition create a sense of disarray in the work.
pp. 50–54
/ref>

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hirst, Claude Raguet 1855 births 1942 deaths American women painters American woodcarvers Artists from Cincinnati Art Academy of Cincinnati alumni Painters from Ohio Trompe-l'œil artists 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists Women woodworkers