Elizabeth Saltonstall (born Chestnut Hill,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, July 26, 1900; died there May 10, 1990) was an American artist who used stone

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

and painting to depict the natural world, particularly that of her summer home of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

. Saltonstall was a member of the

Saltonstall family The Saltonstall family is a Boston Brahmin family from the U.S. state of Massachusetts, notable for having had a family member attend Harvard University from every generation since Nathaniel Saltonstall—later one of the more principled judges a ...

, a

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English colonis ...

family which had been prominent in Massachusetts since colonial days. Her first cousin

Leverett Saltonstall Leverett A. Saltonstall (September 1, 1892June 17, 1979) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. He served three two-year terms as the List of Governors of Massachusetts, 55th Governor of Massachusetts, and for more than twent ...

served as governor and U.S. senator, and her father

Endicott Peabody Saltonstall Endicott Peabody Saltonstall (April 15, 1879 – December 19, 1922) was an American attorney who served as District Attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts from 1921 to 1922. Early life Saltonstall was born on December 25, 1872, to Leverett ...

(1872-1922) was a district attorney. She studied at the

School of the Museum of Fine Arts The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Museum School, SMFA at Tufts, or SMFA; formerly the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) is the art school of Tufts University, a private research university in Boston, Massachus ...

under

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. ...

and later studied lithography in Maine with

Stow Wengenroth Stow Wengenroth (1906–1978) was an American artist and lithographer, born in 1906 in Brooklyn, New York. Wengenroth was once called "America's greatest living artist working in black and white" by the American realist painter Andrew Wyeth, and ...

. In 1922 she came to

to study with painter

Frank Swift Chase Frank Swift Chase (12 March 1886 – 3 July 1959) was an American Post-Impressionist landscape painter and a founder of the Woodstock Artists Association in Woodstock, New York, the art colony at Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the Sarasota Schoo ...

, and she spent all but one summer after that on the island. Saltonstall taught painting to girls at

Milton Academy Milton Academy (also known as Milton) is a highly selective, coeducational, independent preparatory, boarding and day school in Milton, Massachusetts consisting of a grade 9–12 Upper School and a grade K–8 Lower School. Boarding is offered ...

for 37 years, retiring in 1965. Saltonstall became known for her lithographs of flowers, shells, mushrooms, and other objects, as well as for her landscapes. She had exhibits at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, 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 ...

, the Carnegie Institute, and the

National Association of Women Artists 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 ...

. Works by her are in the collection of the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

. She was an important member of the Nantucket art colony, a founding member of the Artists Association of Nantucket, the Boston Society of Independent Artists, and the Boston Printmakers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saltonstall, Elizabeth 1900 births 1990 deaths School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni American lithographers 20th-century American painters American women painters Painters from Massachusetts American realist painters Artists from Newton, Massachusetts 20th-century lithographers 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists American women printmakers Women lithographers