Emma Fordyce MacRae (April 27, 1887,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– August 6, 1974) was an American representational painter. She was a member of the

Philadelphia Ten The Philadelphia Ten, also known as The Ten, was a group of American female artists who exhibited together from 1917 to 1945. The group, eventually numbering 30 painters and sculptors, exhibited annually in Philadelphia and later had traveling exh ...

, a group of women artists who worked and exhibited together. Her work — including still lifes and paintings of women — shows the influence of Asian flower paintings and of

Seurat Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as Divisionism, chromoluminarism and pointillism and used Conté, conté crayon for drawings on pa ...

Biography

MacRae grew up in New York City, where she attended

Miss Chapin's School Chapin School is an all-girls independent day school in New York City's Upper East Side neighborhood in Manhattan. History Maria Bowen Chapin opened "Miss Chapin's School for Girls and Kindergarten for Boys and Girls" in 1901. The school origin ...

and the

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9– ...

. She enrolled at the Art Students League in 1911, studying first with

Frank DuMond Frank Vincent DuMond (August 20, 1865 – February 6, 1951) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent teac ...

and

Kenneth Hayes Miller Kenneth Hayes Miller (March 11, 1876 – January 1, 1952) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher. Career Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with Willia ...

, and beginning in 1915, with Luis Mora,

Ernest Blumenschein Ernest Leonard Blumenschein (May 26, 1874 – June 6, 1960) was an American artist and founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He is noted for paintings of Native Americans, New Mexico and the American Southwest. Early life and educat ...

, and

John French Sloan John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...

. She also attended one of Robert Reid's summer courses. MacRae's painting, "Green Jade," was shown at the Anderson galleries in 1928, at an exhibit of artist members of the American Woman's Association. Many exhibitions and gallery showings followed. In 1937, MacRae's painting "A Persian Girl," was listed as deserving of special mention by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' critic

Edward Alden Jewell Edward Alden Jewell (March 10, 1888 – October 11, 1947) was an American newspaper and magazine editor, art critic and novelist. He was the New York Times art editor from July 1936 until his death. Early life Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, E ...

. In the 1940s, MacRae was chairman of the awards jury of 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 ...

. Galleries rediscovered MacRae's art in the 1980s; the Richard York Gallery in New York exhibited thirty of her paintings in December 1983. In 1987, her painting of a Venetian cafe was part of "American Women Artists, 1830-1930," an exhibition displayed at the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

in Washington, D.C. and in four other museums. MacRae had studios in New York City and in

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...

. Where MacRae painted her New England landscapes form the Cape Ann Landscapes Tour. Recent exhibitions of MacRae's work have been held at Cape Ann Museum and

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

Collections and museums

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

Emma Fordyce MacRae
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Retrieved 2013-06-19. * Cape Ann Historical Museum, Gloucester, MA * Cosmopolitan Club, New York *

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 ...

, New York

References

External resources

Emma Fordyce MacRae (1887-1974)
Emma Fordyce MacRae website.

''Artnet''.
Emma Fordyce MacRae, "Elizabeth" (oil on canvas)
The Mint Museums.
Emma Fordyce MacRae, "Cherry Blossoms,"
SILS Art Image Browser. Review.
American Art Review
Volume 20 Number 2 March–April 2008 Article: Paintings of Emma Fordyce MacRae, N.A (1887–1974) by Karen E. Quinn. {{DEFAULTSORT:Macrae, Emma Fordyce American women painters 20th-century American painters Painters from New York City 1887 births 1974 deaths 20th-century American women artists National Association of Women Artists members Brearley School alumni Chapin School (Manhattan) alumni American expatriates in Austria-Hungary