Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett (November 9, 1831 – January 4, 1898) was an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

. She painted portraits of politicians. Her most famous work is her painting of the Electoral Commission of 1877.

Biography

Cornelia Adele Strong was born in

Owasco, New York Owasco is a town in Cayuga County, New York, United States. It is part of the traditional territory of the Cayuga nation. The population was 3,793 at the 2010 census. Owasco is in the eastern part of Cayuga County and is at the southeast city li ...

, the third of six children of Captain Walker Strong and Sarah Devoe Strong.Judy Bullington
"Cornelia Adele Fassett's Portrait of Martha J. Lambe"
''Woman's Art Journal'', Autumn2002/Winter2003, Vol. 23 Issue 2, page 3 et seq. Cornelia married artist and photographer, Samuel Montague Fassett, in 1851. She then studied in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, with Scottish artist J.B. Wandesforde, who taught her how to paint miniatures. Cornelia Fassett spent three years in both Paris and Rome studying under Giuseppe Castiglione, Henri Fantin La Tour, and Lambert Joseph Matthew. After an early career in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, Fassett and her husband moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, in 1875, where she painted successful documentary portraits of notable government figures and he was photographer to the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. A year after their move, her 1876 group portrait of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

justices was exhibited at the

Philadelphia 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 ...

. After her death the ''Washington Post'' described Cornelia Fassett as "one of the best known artists and portrait painters in the United States."Abraham Lincoln
The Civil War in Art website. Retrieved 2013-05-15.

''The Florida Case Before the Electoral Commission''

''The Florida Case Before the Electoral Commission'' is a massive historical painting created by Fassett between 1877 and 1878.
United States Senate (Paintings Collection). Retrieved 2013-05-15. It depicts an

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

's meeting in relation to the disputed U.S. presidential election of 1876. Fassett was not commissioned to produce the painting of the Electoral Commission’s 1877 meeting, but created it independently. She was able to set up a temporary studio in the U.S. Capitol’s Supreme Court Chamber, during the summers of 1877 and 1878 while the Court was not in session. The completed work, in oil paint on canvas, measured 75 inches in width and 60 inches in height. It was signed "C. Adele Fassett / 1879". The painting depicts 256 people, including 60 women some are wives and daughters, others are professionals (including 17 journalists in the gallery). Fassett also includes herself, as well as another female artist, Imogene Robinson Morrell and the writer Mary Clemmer Ames. Included in the painting were almost every person involved in the political crisis. Other prominent city figures were included too, for example James G. Blaine, who had unexpectedly lost the Republican nomination to Hayes. Banker and art collector

William Wilson Corcoran William Wilson Corcoran (December 27, 1798 – February 24, 1888) was an American banker, philanthropist, and art collector. He founded the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Early life Corcoran was born on December 27, 1798, in Georgetown in the Di ...

is portrayed in the row just below the commissioners. Not all of the individuals depicted attended the hearings and Fassett based some of the characters on photographic portraits by

Mathew Brady Mathew B. Brady ( – January 15, 1896) was one of the earliest photographers in American history. Best known for his scenes of the American Civil War, Civil War, he studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique ...

. Fassett’s painting is comparable to

Samuel F.B. Morse Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...

’s much larger work, ''The Old House of Representatives'', completed in 1822. Morse's work shows the House Chamber from the same viewpoint, though it includes almost three times fewer persons. While Fassett has to crowd her figures into receding rows, Morse was able to compose his people into groups. Fassett would have known Morse’s painting, because it had been publicly displayed at the

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 ...

in Washington, D.C. Fassett's painting attracted much criticism from the newspapers and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Congress eventually agreed to buy the painting seven years after its completion. They paid $7,500 (much less than was asked). The painting remains in the painting collection of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

''Portrait of Martha J. Lamb (1878)''

Described as "one of her finest portraits". Fassett used Martha J. Lamb's home library, to showcase the literary figure, sitting her among stacks of books and Renaissance furnishings. In 1886, a writer for the New York Column, " Gossip of Noted Ladies" mentions that "One of the striking features of the study is a beautiful painting by Mrs. Fassett of Washington representing its interior and Mrs. Lamb seated in a large crimson armchair which throws into capital relief her fine face and handsome figure." Originally the painting was exhibited 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 ...

in 1878, but later moved to the

New York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...

, where it remains today.

Other notable works

* Pastel portrait of

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

(1860), later claimed to be the first portrait Lincoln ever sat for. Now in the collection of

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, two regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the ...

. * Portrait of

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

- put on show at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition * Portrait of Martha J. Lamb (1878), described as "one of her finest portraits". * Portrait of Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite - now in the painting collection of the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fassett, Cornelia Adele Strong 1831 births 1898 deaths Painters from New York (state) 19th-century American women painters 19th-century American painters Painters from Washington, D.C.