Lucy Ellen Hayward Barker (November 29, 1872 – November 16, 1948) was an American painter. Born in

Portage Lake, Maine Portage Lake is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 359 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Portage Lake is ...

, Barker attended St. John's Academy in Presque Isle, before spending two years at St. Catherine's Hall, an

Episcopal Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

school in Augusta. She then 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 ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

; her instructors included

Frank Weston Benson Frank Weston Benson, frequently referred to as Frank W. Benson, (March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1951) was an American artist from Salem, Massachusetts known for his Realism (arts), Realistic portraits, American Impressionism, American Impressio ...

, Alger V. Currier,

Philip Leslie Hale Philip Leslie Hale (1865–1931) was an American Impressionism, American Impressionist artist, writer and teacher. His work was part of the Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics#Painting, painting event in the Art competitions at the 1932 ...

, and

Edmund Charles Tarbell Edmund Charles Tarbell (April 26, 1862August 1, 1938) was an American Impressionist painter. A member of the Ten American Painters, his work hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian ...

. Associated with the

American Impressionists American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose b ...

, she kept a studio in Boston from 1898 until her marriage to Roy Barker in 1906. After motherhood, in 1929, she resumed her career in Maine, working in Presque Isle. She is buried in that town's Fairmount Cemetery; her daughter claimed that she literally died "with a paint brush in her hand". A drawing of Alice Tobey by Barker is in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, and her work is also owned by the

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Cathedral Church of St. Luke in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

. A collection of her papers, donated by her daughter, is owned by the

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

at the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Lucy Hayward 1872 births 1948 deaths American women painters 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists People from Presque Isle, Maine People from Aroostook County, Maine Painters from Maine School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni American Impressionist painters