Marion Boyd Allen (23 October 1862 – 28 December 1941) was an American painter, known for her portraits and landscapes.

Family and early life

Allen was born in Boston in 1862 to Stillman Boyd Allen, an attorney and state legislator, and Harriet Smith Allen, née Seaward. She was sister to Willis Boyd Allen, author of ''The Mountaineers''. When Allen was young, her parents took her on a European vacation, where she first decided to become a painter after sketching the Alps. Unfortunately, Allen had to postpone her artistic education for several years, as she devoted much of her life as a young adult to caring for her sick mother. She married her father's cousin, William Augustus Allen, in 1905. Allen was widowed only six years later in 1911.

Education and career

Encouraged by landscape artist Charles H. Davis, Allen entered the

Boston Museum School 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, Massachusett ...

in 1896 at the age of 36, where she studied under

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 ...

Edmund C. 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, Smithson ...

and

Philip Hale Philip Hale (March 5, 1854 in Norwich, Vermont – November 30, 1934 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American music critic. Hale attended Yale, where he served on the fourth editorial board of ''The Yale Record''. After graduating in 1876, ...

; she received her diploma in 1909. Anna Vaughan Hyatt, 1915

After graduation, Allen gained particular recognition for her portraits. She exhibited in group shows at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris;

National Arts Club The National Arts Club is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and members club on Gramercy Park, Manhattan, New York City. It was founded in 1898 by Charles DeKay, an art and literary critic of the ''New York Times'' to "stimulate, foster, and promote public ...

, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; and the Cincinnati Art Museum, among others. After graduation, she held a solo exhibition at the Copley Society Gallery in 1910, and continued to exhibit there until about 1930. Some of her other solo exhibitions were held at the Ferargil Galleries in New York in 1928, Bose Galleries in Boston in 1929 and 1930, Argent Galleries in New York in 1931, 1932 and 1934, and the Boston Art Club in 1936. Her career took off after her painting ''

Enameling Vitreous enamel, also called porcelain enamel, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between . The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word comes from the Lati ...

'' was included in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915. Her life-sized portrait of

Anna Vaughn Hyatt Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (March 10, 1876 – October 4, 1973) was an American sculptor who was among New York City's most prominent sculptors in the early 20th century. At a time when very few women were successful artists, she had a thrivi ...

won the

Newport Art Association The Newport Art Museum, founded in 1912 as the Art Association of Newport, is located at 76 Bellevue Avenue in Newport, Rhode Island. The museum operates a gallery in the John N. A. Griswold House, a National Historic Landmark that is one of th ...

's popular prize in 1919. On March 8, 1924, her half-length figure study ''A Girl of the Orient'' made the cover of ''

The Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an influential American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current O ...

.'' Her particular strengths were considered to be her skill with portraits and drawing, a “natural feeling for color”, and her ability to carry the energy of her first sketches through to the finished product. From 1925 to 1936, she traveled to the American West and

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

, sketching and painting landscapes, including national landmarks such as the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

and

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

. She climbed mountains and at times lived in isolated cabins to reach vantage points to paint her subjects. She also spent time in Arizona, driving up to one thousand miles across the desert and scaling long ladders to reach Native American ruins. Allen painted several portraits of Native Americans while in the Southwest and often exhibited her portraits in frames carved by local craftsmen. She continued to exhibit her work and win awards, like th
New Haven Paint and Clay Club
prize, and the Hudson prize from th
Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
at a time when landscape painting was almost exclusively a male-dominated field. In 1932 she attended an event by the Woman’s Club of Newton Centre in Massachusetts, whose purpose was to exhibit women’s achievements in art. She was described as having “attained international prominence”. Some other artists present were

Margaret Fitzhugh Browne Margaret Fitzhugh Browne (June 7, 1884 – January 11, 1972) was an American painter of portraits, indoor genre scenes, and still lifes. Family Browne was the second child of Cordelia Brooks Browne and James Maynadier Browne. She had three s ...

Gertrude Fiske Gertrude Horsford Fiske (1879–1961) was an American visual artist, figure painter, still life painter and landscape painter.Erica E. Hirschler. A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston, 1870–1940. MFA Publications, 2001 (p179); Gertrude F ...

Lilian Westcott Hale Lilian Westcott Hale (December 7, 1880 in Bridgeport, Connecticut – November 3, 1963 in Saint Paul, Minnesota) was an American Impressionist painter. Biography According to the 1880 original Bridgeport archival records at the Connecticu ...

Laura Coombs Hills Laura Coombs Hills (1859–1952) was an American artist and illustrator who specialized in watercolor and pastel still life paintings, especially of flowers, and miniature portrait paintings on ivory. She became the first miniature painter elected ...

Lilla Cabot Perry Lilla Cabot Perry (born Lydia Cabot; January 13, 1848 – February 28, 1933) was an American artist who worked in the American Impressionist style, rendering portraits and landscapes in the free form manner of her mentor, Claude Monet. Perry was ...

, and

Anna Coleman Ladd Anna Coleman Watts Ladd (July 15, 1878 – June 3, 1939) was an American sculptor in Manchester, Massachusetts, who devoted her time and skills throughout World War I to designing prosthetics for soldiers who were disfigured from injuries recei ...

.A New England Women's Club promotes Women's Work in Art. (1932). The American Magazine of Art, 24(2), 152–153. Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/23935971 Some of her most characteristic paintings are ''The Green Veil'', ''Air Castles'', ''The Morning Stint'', and ''Enameling''.

Legacy

Allen's 1915 portrait of Anna Vaughan Hyatt 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Marion Boyd 1862 births 1941 deaths American women painters American landscape painters 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American women artists School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni Artists from Boston Painters from Massachusetts