Mary Rogers Williams (September 30, 1857 – September 17, 1907) was an American

tonalist Tonalist (foaled February 11, 2011) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2014 Belmont Stakes, beating the favored California Chrome, who was attempting to win the Triple Crown. Tonalist won the Peter Pan Stakes in ...

and

Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

artist known for pastel and oil portraits and landscapes. She was second in command of

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

's art department from 1888 to 1906 under

Dwight William Tryon Dwight William Tryon (August 13, 1849 – July 1, 1925) was an American landscape painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work was influenced by James McNeill Whistler, and he is best known for his landscapes and seascapes pain ...

and earned acclaim for paintings of her native New England and scenes from her wide travels in Europe, from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

to the Paestum ruins south of Naples. She often depicted high horizons, whether in meadows or medieval hill towns, under ribbons of sky.

Biography

Mary Rogers Williams was born and raised in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, the fifth of six children of Edward Williams (1822–1871), a prosperous baker, and Mary Ann French Williams (1824-1861). Mary and her surviving sisters Lucy, Abby and Laura were all star students at

Hartford Public High School Hartford Public High School, in Hartford, Connecticut, was founded in 1638. It is the second-oldest public secondary school in the United States, after the Boston Latin School. It is part of the Hartford Public Schools district. Notable alumn ...

, and none ever married. Mary Rogers Williams's early mentor was James Wells Champney, and she studied at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 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 ...

with

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. ...

and at Hartford's Decorative Art Society before taking the Smith post. (A Hartford neighbor and family friend, Lindley Williams Hubbell, became a renowned poet.) Her classes at Smith included drawing, painting, sculpture, art history, "study of design with practical work" and "artistic anatomy", and she wrote a catalog of the college's plaster cast sculpture collection. She occasionally visited New York, stopping by the studio of her friend

Albert Pinkham Ryder Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of ...

. Almost every summer, she traveled in Europe, attracting crowds in villages when she sketched the scenery and locals. She sometimes walked between towns, partly because she could not afford car or carriage fees, and would set off to "catch a sketch" or "find a sketch," as she wrote to her sisters. Although she was

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

, she attended

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church services in Europe (sometimes numerous times in a row on Sundays) and wrote lavish descriptions of the costumes and music to her sisters. She had a Hartford-made bicycle shipped overseas for traveling in the countryside. She lived in

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 ...

in 1898–99 (she studied then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and with

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

) and 1906–07, in flats on rue Boissonade, with numerous other painters nearby.

Artistic achievements

A member of the New York Woman’s Art Club, she exhibited there (1899, 1902, 1903) and at venues including the

American Water Color Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

(1892), Art Association of Indianapolis (1895),

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.American Girl's Club in Paris (1898, 1907),

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 ...

(1903–04),

New York Water Color Club The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

(1892–96, 1899-1902), Society of American Artists (1896), Macbeth Gallery (1902, 1903—she also commissioned "aquarium"-like frames from Macbeth, with a glass layer an inch away from the delicate pastel surface) and

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

(1899). Commemorative posthumous shows were held in 1908 and 1909 at the Philadelphia Water Color Club (at Pennsylvania Academy),

and

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 Hartford Art Society in Hartford. Publications that praised her include the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

'', the ''

Springfield Republican ''The Republican'' is a newspaper based in Springfield, Massachusetts covering news in the Greater Springfield area, as well as national news and pieces from Boston, Worcester and northern Connecticut. It is owned by Newhouse Newspapers, a ...

'' and various art magazines. In 1894, in an article in the ''Quarterly Illustrator'' (vol. 2, no. 6, p. 111-124), the novelist

Elizabeth Williams Champney Elizabeth "Lizzie" Williams Champney (February 6, 1850 – October 13, 1922) was an American author of novels and juvenile literature, as well as travel writing, most of which featured foreign locations. Champney's observations and experiences d ...

described Mary Williams as "an artist with rare poetic instinct and feeling" and "a woman of conscience as well as feeling, and of a fine scorn for all shams." The Champney article added, "When asked what style she proposed to adopt, she replied: 'If I cannot have a style of my own, I trust I may be spared an adopted one.

Death

Williams died a few days after she was diagnosed with abdominal tumors in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and is buried in the

Allori Allori is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter *Angelo Allori (1502–1572), Florentine Mannerist painter *Cristofano Allori (1577–1621), Italian portrait painter {{surnam ...

cemetery there (there is also a marker for her with her siblings' and parents' graves in

Spring Grove Cemetery Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum () is a nonprofit rural cemetery and arboretum located at 4521 Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the third largest cemetery in the United States, after the Calverton National Cemetery and Abraham L ...

in Hartford). Family and friends kept her paintings inventory together, and most remain in a private New England collection. Institutions that have her work include the

Smith College Museum of Art The Smith College Museum of Art (abbreviated SCMA), is an art museum in Northampton, Massachusetts connected with Smith College. The museum is known for its compilation of American and European art of the 19th and 20th centuries, including works by ...

Connecticut Landmarks Connecticut Landmarks is a non-profit organization that has restored and operates significant historic house museums in Connecticut. Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, the organization was founded in 1936 as the Antiquarian & Landmarks Societ ...

and the

Connecticut Historical Society The Connecticut Historical Society (CHS) is a private, non-profit organization that serves as the official statewide historical society of Connecticut. Established in Hartford in 1825, the CHS is one of the oldest historical societies in the US. ...

—the latter both own Williams' portraits of her friend and patron, the New Haven antiquarian George Dudley Seymour.

Papers

Williams' diary, photos of her and thousands of pages of her correspondence are in a private New England collection. A few letters about and from her are in the Macbeth Gallery papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art and the George Dudley Seymour papers at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

and at the Connecticut Historical Society.

Note on references

Virtually all biographical information for Mary Rogers Williams (1857–1907) comes from her archive in a private New England collection, a promised gift to Smith College, which contains diary entries, sketches, letters and clippings and other ephemera including concert programs and confetti from Paris parades. She wrote home from her frequent trips in Europe almost every day, delving into topics including her works in progress, passing scenery, treatment of women travelers, and her criticisms of ancient building restorations and of art and recent art restorations in European museums and gallery shows. The handwritten material confirms, corrects and fleshes out information published about her in publications including ''

Art Amateur ''The Art Amateur'' (1879–1903) was an American magazine published in New York in the 19th century. Editors included Montague Marks and John W. Van Oost.WorldCatThe art amateur/ref> References External links * JstorThe Art Amateur, Vol. 1, ...

'', the Macbeth Gallery's Art Notes, ''

Boston Journal ''The Boston Journal'' was a daily newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1833 until October 1917 when it was merged with the '' Boston Herald''. The paper was originally an evening paper called the ''Evening Mercantile Journal''. Whe ...

'', ''

Brooklyn Daily Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'', ''

Buffalo Evening News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'', ''The Critic'', ''

'', ''

New York Evening Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established i ...

'', ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. His ...

'', ''

New York Press ''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011. The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hento ...

'', ''

New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'', ''

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

'', Smith College alumnae publications, and the ''

''. An exhibition of her work with biographical material published ran from Oct. 2014 to Jan. 2015 at the

Florence Griswold Museum The Florence Griswold Museum is an Art Museum at 96 Lyme Street in Old Lyme, Connecticut centered on the home of Florence Griswold (1850–1937), which was the center of the Old Lyme Art Colony, a main nexus of American Impressionism. The Museum is ...

in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
biography
of her has been written by the journalist Eve M. Kahn for Wesleyan University Press.

References

#Champney, Elizabeth Williams (1894).
Woman in Art
" in ''Quarterly Illustrator'', vol. 2, No. 6, April–June 1894, pp. 111–124. #Jordan, Mary Augusta. (1907). "Ars Longa," obituary for Mary Rogers Williams, in ''Smith College Monthly'', Northampton, Mass., October 1907, Vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 40–42. #Kahn, Eve M. (2014).
Rediscovering Mary Rogers Williams
" in ''Fine Art Connoisseur'', New York, N.Y., October 2014, pp. 50–55. #Macbeth Gallery (1902). "Art Notes Published in the Interest of the Macbeth Gallery." New York, April 1902, no. 19, p. 300. #Merrill, Linda (1990). An Ideal Country: Paintings by Dwight William Tryon in the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. . #White, Henry C. (1930). The Life and Art of Dwight William Tryon. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin. #Williams, Mary R. (1898). Catalogue of Casts in Hillyer Art Gallery, Smith College. Hartford, CT: Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Mary Rogers 1857 births 1907 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century male artists 19th-century American women painters