Margaret Spencer Foote Hawley (1880–1963) was an American painter of

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

s. Hawley and her sister,

Mary Foote Mary Foote (1872–1968) was an American painter and producer of notes of Carl Jung's seminars. As an artist, she lived and worked in New York's Washington Square Park, Washington Square, Paris and Peking. From 1928 to the 1950s she lived i ...

– also later to become a painter – were born in

Guilford Guildford is a town in Surrey, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Guildford, the Diocese of Guildford and the Parliamentary constituency of Guildford. Guildford, Guilford, or Gildford may also refer to: Places Australia * Guildfor ...

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 ...

, the daughters of Charles Spencer Foote (1837–1880) and Hannah Hubbard Foote (1840–1885). Orphaned at five, she was adopted by her aunt, Harriet Foote Hawley, and uncle,

Joseph Roswell Hawley Joseph Roswell Hawley (October 31, 1826March 18, 1905) was the 42nd Governor of Connecticut, a U.S. politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties, a Civil War general, and a journalist and newspaper editor. He served two terms in the Unit ...

. Joseph was a member of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

, and Margaret went to live with the couple in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

There she attended public schools and the

Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

, where she was awarded a gold medal for her life drawing. She also took private lessons with

Howard Helmick Howard Helmick (1845 in Zanesville – 28 April 1907 in Washington, D.C.) was an American painter, etcher, designer and illustrator, who was well known for his oil on canvas paintings. He specialized in figure painting and engravings. He was be ...

, and received instruction from

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

.https://generalandrewwardcemeteryassoc.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/margaret-1.pdf After graduation she taught at a girls' boarding school, saving up enough money to go to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and spend two summers at the

Académie Colarossi The Académie Colarossi (1870–1930) was an art school in Paris founded in 1870 by the Italian model and sculptor Filippo Colarossi. It was originally located on the Île de la Cité, and it moved in 1879 to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the ...

. She received training in the creation of full-scale portraits, but soon found that she preferred the challenge of working in miniature. Almost immediately upon the start of her career Hawley began to receive awards. Throughout her career, these included a medal of honor from the

Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters The Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters was founded in 1901 by Emily Drayton Taylor to promote the work of miniature portrait A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, waterc ...

(1918); the Lea Prize from 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.Sesquicentennial Exposition The Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition of 1926 was a world's fair in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its purpose was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence, and the 50th anniversary o ...

in Philadelphia (1926); a medal of honor from the Brooklyn Society of Miniature Painters (1931); and a medal for best miniature from the

National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors 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 ...

(1931). She was elected president of the

American Society of Miniature Painters The American Society of Miniature Painters (ASMP) was an association of miniature painters, organized in March 1899. The ten founding members of the ASMP included Virginia Richmond Reynolds, Isaac A. Josephi, William Jacob Baer, Alice Beckington ...

in 1923, and was a regular fixture of its annual exhibits. She showed work in London from 1926 until 1929, and was elected in 1927 to the Royal Miniature Society. From 1920 to 1963 she was a member of the Cosmopolitan Club. Some four hundred miniatures by Hawley are known. Many are in private collections; among museums which hold her paintings are 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 ...

(the arachnologist

Alexander Petrunkevitch Alexander Ivanovitch Petrunkevitch (Russian: Александр Иванович Петрункевич, December 22, 1875 in Plysky near Kyiv, now Ukraine – March 9, 1964 in New Haven) was an eminent Russian arachnologist of his time. From ...

), the

National Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

, and the Stowe-Day Foundation in Hartford. Her 1927 portrait of Natalie Shipman was included in the inaugural exhibition of 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 ...

, ''American Women Artists 1830–1930'', in 1987. Hawley died in Midtown Hospital in New York City, in which city she had kept a studio for many years; she had another studio in Boston. Her only listed survivors were her sister and two stepsisters. She is buried in the Foote-Ward Cemetery in

Guilford, Connecticut Guilford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, that borders Madison, Branford, North Branford and Durham, and is situated on I-95 and the Connecticut seacoast. The population was 22,073 at the 2020 census. History Guilfo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, Margaret Foote 1880 births 1963 deaths 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters American portrait painters Portrait miniaturists People from Guilford, Connecticut Painters from Connecticut Painters from Washington, D.C. Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Académie Colarossi alumni Students of William Merritt Chase