Margaret Frances Bacon (May 2, 1895 – January 4, 1987) was an American artist, best known for her satirical caricatures.
Bacon studied under
Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller (March 11, 1876 – January 1, 1952) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher.
Career
Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with Willia ...
at the
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 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.
Although artists may stu ...
, where she taught herself
drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically ident ...
and published her first caricatures in the student magazine. They soon appeared in publications such as
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
and
Vanity Fair, as well as major art galleries. Bacon earned many awards, including the
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
for creative work in the graphic arts.
Early life and education
Bacon was born on May 2, 1895 in
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, 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 Charles Roswell Bacon and Elizabeth Chase Bacon.
She was the first of three children but raised an only child after her two younger brothers died in infancy. Bacon's parents were both artists and met while attending 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 ...
in New York. Her father, an errand boy for Tiffany's during his childhood, painted landscapes and figures in adulthood while her mother was a miniaturist. Both of her parents were very well read; they loved reading
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
and would read aloud as a family every evening.
Bacon's parents moved frequently and would have tutors for Bacon wherever they went.
The family lived in Connecticut but spent winters in New York and in the winter of 1902 they lived in Nassau, Bahamas. They also spent time in
Pas de Calais
The Strait of Dover or Dover Strait (french: Pas de Calais - ''Strait of Calais''), is the strait at the narrowest part of the English Channel, marking the boundary between the Channel and the North Sea, separating Great Britain from continent ...
and London. Between the ages of 9 and 11 Bacon lived with her parents in France, first in Paris and then in a house in Picardy at Montreaux-sur-Mer.
Bacon's mother did not believe in formal schooling and as a result, for most of her childhood, Bacon had tutors and studied only subjects of interest to her, such as Latin, Greek, mythology, ancient history and geography of the ancient world.
Bacon described her unconventional childhood as "absolutely delightful."
Her youth was very sheltered; she was often accompanied by a governess, most of which she hated. The only time she really had freedom from this life was when her family was living in Nassau and her parents and grandmother were quarantined because they had contracted typhoid fever.
At the age of fourteen, Bacon began attending
Kent Place School
The Kent Place School is a girls independent college-preparatory day school (with a coeducational nursery and pre-kindergarten) serving students in preschool through twelfth grade in Summit, Union County, New Jersey, United States.
Kent Pl ...
, a boarding school in
Summit, New Jersey
Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...
. In 1913, the same year she graduated, Bacon's father killed himself in his studio in New York. He had overcome alcoholism but was susceptible to bouts of depression.
After this devastating event Bacon and her mother moved to New York City and lived on the West Side in the home of family friends.
Artistic career
Bacon had always been interested in art and from a very young age her early artistic interests were encouraged and supported by her parents. Although Bacon started drawing when she was a year and a half old,
she did not receive formal training in art until after graduating from Kent Place School. At the end of 1913, Bacon first studied art at the School of Applied Design for Women but disliked it calling it,
"the prissiest, silliest place that ever was."
She transferred after a few weeks to the School of Fine and Applied Arts on the West Side where she took classes in illustration and life drawing.
During the summer of 1914 Bacon attended Jonas Lie's landscape class in Port Jefferson, Long Island.
From 1915-1920, Bacon studied painting with
Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller (March 11, 1876 – January 1, 1952) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher.
Career
Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with Willia ...
,
John Sloan
John French Sloan (August 2, 1871 – September 7, 1951) was an American painter and etcher. He is considered to be one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art. He was also a member of the group known as The Eight. He is best known ...
,
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows (August 12 or August 19, 1882 – January 8, 1925) was an American realism, American realist painting, painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. He became, according to the Columbus Museum of Art ...
, and others 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 ...
. While at the League, Bacon became friends with several other artists. Her circle of friends and acquaintances included
Dorothea Schwarcz,
Anne Rector, Betty Burroughs,
Katherine Schmidt ,
Yasuo Kuniyoshi
was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker.
Biography
Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889 in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. Kuniyoshi original ...
,
Molly Luce, Dorothy Varian,
Edmund Duffy
Edmund Duffy (March 1, 1899 – September 12, 1962), was an American editorial cartoonist. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, eventually moving to metropolitan areas. Duffy did not attend high school, but instead went into the Art Student ...
, Dick Dyer, David Morrison, and
Andrew Dasburg
Andrew Michael Dasburg (4 May 1887 – 13 August 1979) was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".
Biography
Dasburg was born in 1887 in Paris. He emigrated from Germany to New York City with ...
.
Looking back at her time at the League Bacon said, "The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial."
In 1917, she exhibited two works in the ''First Annual Exhibition of the
Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York.
Background
Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...
'' (April 10-May 6, 1917). Around 1917 Bacon also became interested in printmaking and taught herself
drypoint
Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically ident ...
as there was no one teaching etching at the Art Students League at the time.
Bacon's first caricature prints were featured in single-issue, satirical magazine ''Bad News'', which was published by Bacon and her fellow art students in 1918. Drypoint was Bacon's primary medium until 1927, and pastels until 1945.
Although Bacon had trained as a painter, she eventually became famous for her satirical prints and drawings. Her caricatures were first published in a single issue spoof, entitled Bad News. Her early portrait caricatures in Bad News, like her early drypoints, depended upon a hard, controlling outline, filled in with shading or an obscure pattern. The intensity of the hues, the highly selective and organized palette, and her visually satisfying compositions all contribute to the high quality and formal aspects that distinguish Bacon's pastel portraits from others. Bacon was also featured in solo shows in prominent galleries such as; Stieglitz's Intimate Gallery, the
Weyhe Gallery
Weyhe Gallery, established in 1919 in New York City, is an art gallery specializing in prints. It is now in Mount Desert, Maine.
History
Erhard Weyhe (1883–1972) established the Weyhe Gallery in 1919. He also operated a bookstore, the Weyhe bo ...
, and
the Downtown Gallery.
In the summer of 1919, Bacon studied with Andrew Dasburg, in Woodstock, New York.
That same summer she was engaged to American painter
Alexander Brook
Alexander Brook (July 14, 1898 – February 26, 1980) was an American artist, teacher, and art critic, known for his paintings. He was active from 1910 until 1966.
Biography
Brook was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 14, 1898, to a Russian f ...
and the two married on May 4, 1920.
After marrying, Bacon and Brook moved to London for a year, where their daughter, Belinda, was born.
When they returned, the family divided their time between Greenwich Village and Woodstock, New York, two vibrant artist communities.
In 1922 a son, Sandy, was born in Woodstock.
In 1940, Bacon and her husband divorced.
Bacon was a very prolific artist. In 1919, at the age of 24, she wrote and illustrated her first book, ''The True Philosopher and Other Cat Tales''. She went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote, including a successful mystery book, ''The Inward Eye'', which was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award in 1952 for best novel. Bacon's popular drawings appeared in magazines such as ''The New Yorker'', ''New Republic'', ''Fortune'', and ''Vanity Fair'' and she exhibited in galleries and museums frequently.
Bacon had over thirty solo exhibitions at such venues as Montross Gallery,
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...
's Intimate Gallery, and the Downtown Gallery.
In 1934 Bacon was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship for creative work in the graphic arts.
During her time as a fellow she completed 35 satirical portraits of art world figures for a collection called ''Off With Their Heads!'', which was published that same year by
Robert M. McBride & Company.
In 1942 she was granted an award from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
and in 1980 the Academy awarded her a gold medal for her lifelong contribution to illustration and graphic art. In 1947, Bacon was elected into the
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 ...
as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1969. In December 1975, the National Collection of Fine Arts, now 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 ...
, honored Bacon with a yearlong retrospective exhibition titled, "Peggy Bacon: Personalities and Places." Bacon was also a member of the
Society of American Graphic Artists
The Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA) is a not for profit national fine arts organization serving professional artists in the field of printmaking. SAGA provides its members with exhibition, reviews and networking opportunities in the Ne ...
and participated in many of their annual exhibitions.
In addition to her artistic career, Bacon taught extensively during the 1930s and 1940s at various institutions, including the Fieldston School, the Art Students League, Hunter College, the
Corcoran Gallery
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...
in Washington, D.C., and summers at the School of Music and Art in Stowe, Vermont.
Bacon's philosophy of caricatures
Later life and legacy
In the 1970s Bacon's eyesight began failing and she eventually went to live in
Cape Porpoise, Maine. She died in 1987 at the age of 91 in
Kennebunk, Maine
Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 11,536 at the 2020 census (The population does not include Kennebunkport, a separate town). Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife R ...
.
From June 27, 2012, to November 4, 2012, the Lawrence A. Fleischman Gallery at the
Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture exhibited “Six Degrees of Peggy Bacon.” The exhibit traced her associations using photographs, letters, graphics, and archival documents from the Archives of American Art to illustrate Bacon’s connection to dozens of other prominent artists.
References
External links
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A Finding Aid to the Peggy Bacon papers, 1893-1973, bulk 1900-1936, in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Peggy
1895 births
1987 deaths
American women painters
Kent Place School alumni
People from Ridgefield, Connecticut
Art Students League of New York alumni
20th-century American women writers
Writers from Connecticut
Artists from Connecticut
20th-century American painters
American women illustrators
American illustrators
American women printmakers
20th-century American women artists
20th-century American printmakers
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters