Maud Hunt Squire (January 30, 1873 – October 25, 1954) was an American painter and printmaker. She had a lifelong relationship with artist Ethel Mars, with whom she traveled and lived in the United States and France.

Early life and education

Squire was born on January 20, 1873, in

Milford, Ohio Milford is a city in Clermont and Hamilton counties founded in 1796, in the U.S. state of Ohio, along the Little Miami River and its East Fork in the southwestern part of the state. It is a part of the Greater Cincinnati metropolitan area. The po ...

to her mother and Alfred Squire, who was a violinist and musician. Alfred gave music lessons and owned a music store. Her mother gave lessons in drawing. Squire was a talented musician and artist and was gifted in other languages. Squire attended the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

and graduated in 1894. Squire studied at the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

from 1894 to 1898; her instructors were

Lewis Henry Meakin Lewis Henry Meakin (12 July 1850 – 15 August 1917) was an English- American Impressionist landscape artist. Born in Newcastle, England, he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio with his family in 1863. After studying art in Europe he returned to Cincin ...

and

Frank Duveneck Frank Duveneck (né Decker; October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919) was an American figure and portrait painter. Early life Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky, the son of German immigrant Bernhard Decker. Decker died in a cholera epidemic whe ...

. The second in her class, she received the Alumnal Gold Medal for excellence in mathematics and Latin and the Sinton Gold Medal, which was awarded by the board.

Career

Squire gained notice for her color intaglio prints and her work in colored

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...

s, and was active as a book

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...

beginning while she was still a student; much of her work in the field was published jointly with Mars. She became a member of the Société Salon d'Automne, the Société des Dessinateurs et d'Humoristes, and the

Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (SNBA; ; en, National Society of Fine Arts) was the term under which two groups of French artists united, the first for some exhibitions in the early 1860s, the second since 1890 for annual exhibitions. 1862 Es ...

, and exhibited work widely, including at the Pan Pacific International Exposition of 1915. A joint exhibit of works by Squire and Mars was held at the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York in 2000.

Personal life

She met Ethel Mars, with whom she would remain for the rest of her life, at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. The couple went 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 ...

in 1903, remaining there until the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

forced them to return to the United States in 1915. They went to

Provincetown Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, both becoming active in the local art scene. Some years later they returned to France, living in

Vence Vence (; oc, Vença) is a commune set in the hills of the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France, north of Nice and Antibes. Ecclesiastical history The first known Bishop of Vence is Severu ...

for the rest of their lives while traveling throughout Europe. Squire and Mars were great friends of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

and Alice B. Toklas while living in France, and the writer's poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene", believed to be the first such work to use the word "gay" to describe homosexuality, is meant to describe the couple.

Edna Boies Hopkins Edna Boies Hopkins (October 13, 1872 – March 24, 1937) was an American artist who made woodblock prints, based upon Japanese ukiyo-e art and Arthur Wesley Dow's formula of three main elements: '' notan'', a balance of light and dark, line and c ...

was another friend of both Squire and Mars throughout their lives; she also attended the Art Academy and lived near them in Paris. The couple went into hiding in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, but returned to their home, La Farigoule, afterwards. Squire died of heart failure there on October 25, 1954, and is buried with Mars, who survived her, in the town cemetery of

Saint-Paul-de-Vence Saint-Paul-de-Vence (, literally ''Saint-Paul of Vence''; oc, Sant Pau de Vença; it, San Paolo di Venza) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. One of the oldest medie ...

Gallery

File:Children of Our Town, Wealth, 1902.tif, Children of Our Town, Wealth, 1902 File:Le panier de poissons, eau-forte en couleur, Maud Hunt Squire, MdepB.jpg, Le panier de poissons, eau-forte en couleur (1910), Maud Hunt Squire File:Maud Hunt Squire, Untitled (Pier with green and purple shack), ca. 1915.tif, Untitled (Pier with green and purple shack),Watercolor and graphite ca. 1915. File:Maud Hunt Squire, Clam Diggers, woodcut print, 1917.tif, Maud Hunt Squire, Clam Diggers, woodcut print, 1917

References

External links