Fanny Adele Watson (1873-1947) was an American painter and lithographer. Watson was born on April 30, 1873 in Toledo, Ohio. In 1880 her family moved to

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

after the death of her father. She studied at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

as a young adult, and returned to California in 1917. She traveled to Paris and became a pupil of

Raphael Collin Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

and friends with poet/artist Khalil Gibran. She exhibited and was a member of the American Artists Professional League, the

Pen and Brush Club Pen and Brush Club (also known as Pen + Brush) is an international organization of professional women, writers and artists. Organized in 1897, the women formed themselves into a club of which the object was to be recreation and the promotion of soc ...

, and the Society of Independent Artists. She also exhibited her work at the National Academy of Design. She was influenced by Symbolism and Mysticism. Watson's first public exhibit was in 1913. Watson's first New York solo exhibit was held in 1916 at the Folsom Galleries and was reviewed as having "joy, freedom, vitality and abounding sense of rhythm." Reviewing an exhibit of Watson's work in 1918, Anna T. Craig, writing for American Art News, suggested, "Miss Watson had especially the dramatic, epic and pageant sense for conveying her thoughts through her work." Arthur Miller, writing for the Los Angeles Times in 1933 about Watson's exhibit of paintings and painted screens, suggested "Miss Watson see landscape in terms of the soul of man." Miller continued, "this is her first Los Angeles showing of her works which have gained favor in the East." Watson's work is associated with the California Coast and Zion National Park in Utah. Watson died in

, on March 23, 1947. In 1953 the

Pasadena Art Institute The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California, United States. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds. Overview The Norton Sim ...

held a retrospective of Watson's work, and again in 1963, the Pasadena Art Institute held a memorial exhibition of her work. Watson's work was included in the 2022-2023 exhibit, ''At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism'', at the Whitney Museum of American Art where examples of her work are also held. Her work is also in the collections of the Orange County Museum of Art and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

Note

There was another Adele Watson who was a contemporary who was an actress: Adele Watson (1890-1933) from Minnesota starred in over 20 films in the 1920s-1930s.

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Adele 1873 births 1947 deaths 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists Artists from Toledo, Ohio Art Students League of New York alumni