Emma Jane Cady (November 13, 1854-October 27, 1933) was an American painter known for her

theorem painting Theorem stencil, sometimes also called theorem painting or velvet painting, is the art of making stencils and using them to make drawings or paintings on fabric or paper. A vogue for theorem stencil painting began in England at the turn of the 18t ...

Life and work

Cady was a native of East Chatham,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, the oldest of three children of farmer Norman J. Cady. Her family was initially from

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, but migrated to Columbia County in the middle of the eighteenth century. She was remembered by neighbors and family members as beautiful, strong-willed, and active; none remembered her artistic endeavors. Census records give her occupation as "housework". Cady remained unmarried throughout her life. After the deaths of her parents she moved in with a nephew; around 1920 she moved again, to Grass Lake,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, where she lived with her sister and sister's family until her death. Cady's work is unusual, as theorem painting was long past its popularity when she began practicing the art. Her work was discovered in the 1930s by folk art collectors J. Stuart Halladay and Herrell George Thomas, who assumed that she was another person of the same name who lived in New Lebanon, New York around 1820, when theorem painting was at its most popular. Research performed in 1978 by

Ruth Piwonka Ruth (or its variants) may refer to: Places France * Château de Ruthie, castle in the commune of Aussurucq in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département of France Switzerland * Ruth, a hamlet in Cologny United States * Ruth, Alabama * Ruth, Ar ...

and Roderick H. Blackburn revealed her true identity. Four watercolors and one oil on canvas by the artist are known; two of the former are still-life depictions of glass compotes, while the other two are images of doves sitting on a branch. One of these, produced for her brother and sister-in-law on the birth of their eldest son in 1890, is her only signed and dated work. Cady was evidently a master of the theorem technique; besides using both transparent and opaque watercolor paints, she applied

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

flecks to her depictions of glass and used a textured cloth to spread powder over her stencils, a technique known as "pouncing". Her works are considered among the finest examples of theorem painting known. She is one of the few theorem artists known to have signed her work. One of Cady's still-life paintings, ''Fruit in Glass Compote'' of c. 1895, is in the collection of the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

, to which it was donated by

Ralph Esmerian Ralph (pronounced ; or ,) is a male given name of English, Scottish and Irish origin, derived from the Old English ''Rædwulf'' and Radulf, cognate with the Old Norse ''Raðulfr'' (''rað'' "counsel" and ''ulfr'' "wolf"). The most common forms ...

. A nearly identical piece, dated c. 1890, is owned by the

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) is the United States' first and the world's oldest continually operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art. Located just outside the histori ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cady, Emma Jane 1854 births 1933 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters People from Columbia County, New York Painters from New York (state)