Julie Hart Beers Kempson (1835 – August 13, 1913) was an American landscape painter associated with the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. The paintings typically depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, ...

who was one of the very few commercially successful professional women landscape painters of her day.

Life

Born Julie Hart in

Pittsfield, Massachusetts Pittsfield is the largest city and the county seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the principal city of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Berkshire County. Pittsfield� ...

, she was the daughter of James Hart and Marion (Robertson) Hart, who had immigrated from Scotland in 1831. Her older brothers William Hart and

James McDougal Hart James McDougal Hart (May 10, 1828 – October 24, 1901), was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter of the Hudson River School. Family and education Hart was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and was taken to America with hi ...

were also important landscape painters of the Hudson River School, and her nieces Letitia Bonnet Hart and

Mary Theresa Hart Mary Theresa Hart (January 7, 1872 – February 25, 1942) was an American artist and illustrator. She was known for portraits of sitters as prominent as her father, the Hudson River School painter James McDougal Hart and the writers William Aust ...

became well-known painters as well. In 1853, she married journalist George Washington Beers. After his death in 1856 she and her two daughters moved to New York City, where her brothers had their studios. Like most women artists of the day, she had no formal art education, but it is thought that she was trained by her brothers. Well into her forties, with her second husband, Peter Kempson, she moved to

Metuchen, New Jersey Metuchen ( ) is a suburban borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. The borough, along wit ...

, where she set up her own studio. She continued to use the surname Beers when signing her artwork. At the time of her death she was living in Trenton.

Career

By 1867, Beers was exhibiting her paintings. Although she had her own studio in New Jersey, she continued to use William's studio on 10th Street in New York City as a showroom. She was one of very few women to become a professional landscape painter in the America of her day, in part because women were excluded from formal art education and exhibition opportunities. Beers's mature style balances sweeping, well-balanced compositions with telling details. In the 1870s and 1880s, she exhibited frequently 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 ...

as well as at the Brooklyn Art Association, the

Boston Athenæum The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of subscription library, membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The instit ...

, and the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

. She was able to sell a good deal of work through the Brooklyn Art Association, but she also took groups of women on sketching trips to the mountains of New York and New England to supplement her income. She also painted some still lifes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beers, Julie Hart 1835 births 1913 deaths Hudson River School painters 19th-century American women artists 19th-century American painters American landscape painters People from Pittsfield, Massachusetts American women painters Painters from Massachusetts