Sarah Jane Blakeslee (January 13, 1912 – January 12, 2005) was an American landscape and portrait painter.

Education

Born in Evanston,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, Blakeslee studied as a teenager at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

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 ...

. She also took lessons at the private school 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, ...

run by

Catharine Carter Critcher Catharine (sometimes Catherine) Carter Critcher (September 13, 1868 – June 11, 1964) was an American painter. A native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, she worked in Paris and Washington, D.C. before becoming, in 1924, a member of the Taos Soci ...

, who encouraged her to enroll in the

Chester Springs Chester Springs is an unincorporated community in Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is centered on West Pikeland Township, and extends into Charlestown Township, Upper Uwchlan Township, Wallace Township, East Nantmeal Township, ...

branch of 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.Cresson Traveling Scholarship The Cresson Traveling Scholarship, also known as the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, is a two-year scholarship for foreign travel and/or study awarded annually to art students at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Phi ...

Family life

Among Blakeslee's instructors at the academy was Francis Speight, whom she married on November 7, 1936, shortly after graduating. In 1961, Speight took a position as artist in residence at

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

(then East Carolina College), and the couple moved south. Blakeslee continued teaching and painting in her new home, continuing following her husband's death in 1989. She rented out rooms to international students until 1998, when she retired and returned to Pennsylvania to be near her daughter. She died on January 12, 2005, in the

Center City, Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the city borders to be coterminous wi ...

neighborhood.

Exhibits

She was a regular exhibitor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1938 until 1964, and showed work at the

North Carolina Museum of Art The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. It opened in 1956 as the first major museum collection in the country to be formed by state legislation and funding. Since the initial 1947 appropriation that e ...

, and the

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) (1939 and 1940), held at San Francisco's Treasure Island, was a World's Fair celebrating, among other things, the city's two newly built bridges. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge opened in 1936 ...

at the

1939 World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

. She was involved with the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, and in 1938 painted a mural, ''Apple Orchard'', for the post office in Strasburg,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, where it may still be seen. Among the institutions which hold examples of her work are the

; 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.Muskegon Museum of Art The Muskegon Historic District is a public and residential historic district in Muskegon, Michigan, consisting of the four blocks between Clay Avenue, Webster Avenue, Second Street, and Sixth Street, and the two blocks between Webster Avenue, M ...

; and the

Cameron Art Museum The Cameron Art Museum, formerly known as St. John's Museum of Art, was established in 1962 in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, ...

. She is also represented in the Johnson Collection of art from the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

. Her papers are held along with those of her husband in the library of the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

Awards

Blakeslee received numerous awards during her career, including the Mary Smith prize of 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.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 ...

; first prize at the Woodmere Gallery in

Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania Chestnut Hill is a neighbourhood, neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is known for the List of highest-income urban neighborhoods in the United States, high incomes of its residents and high real e ...

, in 1952; and first prize and a gold medal from the National Exhibition in

Ligonier, Pennsylvania Ligonier is a borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,513 at the 2020 census. Ligonier was settled in the 1760s. The borough is well known for nearby Idlewild Park, one of the oldest amusement parks in t ...

, in 1961. In 1994 she received a

North Carolina Award The North Carolina Award is the highest civilian award bestowed by the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is awarded in the four fields of science, literature, the fine arts, and public service. Sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize of North Carol ...

for her work. In 1996, her artwork was featured, along with 44 other artists, in an exhibit in Yellow Springs, Pennsylvania of attendees of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Art critic Victoria Donohoe praised the quality of her work.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakeslee, Sarah Jane 1912 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters Artists from Evanston, Illinois Painters from Illinois People from Doylestown, Pennsylvania Painters from Pennsylvania Painters from North Carolina School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Federal Art Project artists