Wilhelmina Weber Furlong (1878–1962) was a

German American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

artist and teacher.The Biography of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong: The Treasured Collection of Golden Heart Farm by Clint B. Weber, Among America's earliest

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

elite modernist painters, Weber Furlong was a major American artist who pioneered modern impressionistic and modern

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painting at the turn of the twentieth century's American

modernist movement Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

.Professor Emeritus James K. Kettlewell: Harvard, Skidmore College, Curator The Hyde Collection. Foreword to The Treasured Collection of Golden Heart Farm: She has been called the first female modernist painter in American Modernism. Furlong's path reflects similar struggles of

women artists The absence of women from the canon of Western culture, Western Art history, art has been a subject of inquiry and reconsideration since the early 1970s. Linda Nochlin's influential 1971 essay, "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, Why ...

during the late 1800s and early 1900s who found themselves subjugated to the tastes of realist instructors who opposed both modernism in art and

Biography

Weber Furlong's long and active artistic career spanned 1892 to 1962, during which time she thrived as a modernist artist working in St. Louis, Mexico City, New York City, and Paris. Beginning in 1892, Weber Furlong was instructed by artists including

Emil Carlsen Soren Emil Carlsen (October 19, 1853 – January 2, 1932, New York City, U.S.) was an American Impressionist painter who emigrated to the United States from Denmark. He became known for his still lifes. Later in his career, Carlsen expanded his r ...

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 Edmund H. Wuerpel of the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. She was in Paris from 1897 to 1906, where she attended the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

for three years and became acquainted with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

, and others who exhibited at the

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 ...

. From 1906 to 1913, Weber Furlong painted in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

before moving to New York City where she lived and worked until 1947. While residing in New York, Weber Furlong worked in the rural retreats of

Glens Falls Glens Falls is a city in Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,700 at the 2010 census. The name was given by Colonel Johannes Glen, the falls refe ...

, New York and New

Bolton Landing Bolton Landing is a hamlet and census-designated places in the town of Bolton in Warren County, New York. It is located on Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains. It is a common tourist destination and the closest town to the State Park lands a ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

where she hosted fellow artists at her

Golden Heart Farm Golden Heart Farm is a private residence in the hamlet of Bolton Landing, New York, in the United States. It served as the art colony of Thomas and Weber Furlong from 1921 to 1962.Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral history interviews with Do ...

from 1952 to 1962. In America, Weber Furlong's significant circle of friends and acquaintances includes John Graham,Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral history interviews with Dorothy Dehner, 1965 Oct.-1966 Willem de Kooning, David Smith,

Dorothy Dehner Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994) was an American painter and sculptor. Early life Dorothy Dehner was born on December 23, 1901, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was a pharmacist and her mother was a passionate suffragette. When Dehner was ten years o ...

, Jean Charlot, Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, Rockwell and Sally Kent, Thomas Hart Benton, Allen Tucker,

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

, Kimon Nicolaidies, and many others. As a student, she was associated with the Art Students League as a young woman prior to 1900 and in 1913 began a serious role in the New York art scene at the Art Students League as a Secretary Treasurer and member of the Board of Control along with her husband, the artist Tomás Furlong (artist). She taught art for over 56 years in New York and she was active with the Whitney Studio Club during the formative years of the organization in New York City a fact revealed in the Studio Club archives. In 1923 Weber Furlong was exhibiting at the architectural league of New York.

Legacy and honors

Weber Furlongs' close association in Bolton Landing, New York with the sculptor David Smith has had a lasting influence on the hamlet to this very day and she is known to be responsible for bringing him to the farm he purchased there with his wife sculptor and painter Dorothy Dehner. Weber Furlong's works are on permanent display at the Bolton Landing Museum.

The Hyde Collection The Hyde Collection is an art museum in the city of Glens Falls in Upstate New York. The collections were endowed by the Hyde family. The museum is housed in a historic refurbished early twentieth-century residence, the Hyde House, located at ...

in Glens Falls, New York has displayed the works of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong since 1966 where they hosted a major solo retrospective of the artist's work after her death in 1962. The Tang Museum at Skidmore College holds a work by Weber Furlong which has been exhibited regionally since 1952. In the early 1950s Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York held solo exhibitions of the works of Weber Furlong for several years and she exhibited alongside the artist David Smith at the State Capital in Albany, New York. The Ft. Edward Art Center hosted a solo exhibition in May 1994. Starting in late September 2012 through early April 2013, The International Woman's Foundation in Marfa, Texas held a major retrospective of the works of Weber Furlong featuring over 75 unseen works and private belongings of the artist including her Victorian easel. The one woman show was held at the Iconic

Building 98 Building 98 at Fort D. A. Russell is the historic US army base bachelor officer quarters, officers club, and grand ballroom near Marfa, Texas; it was active from 1911 to 1946. Building 98 is Located at Fort David A. Russell's central fort complex. ...

studio galleries along with a one-hour lecture by Professor Emeritus James K. Kettlewell, retired curator of the Hyde Collection. Marfa Texas Weber Furlong Banner

In Spring of 2012, Wilhelmina Weber Furlong became the subject of a documentary film based on the biography on the life of the popular early American woman modernist. Permanent displays of the work of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong are at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York and the

, New York town history museum.The Chronicle Glens Falls, New York On August 7, 2012 the Crandall Public Library in

, New York hosted a documentary film crew and lecture on Wilhelmina Weber Furlong featuring James K. Kettlewell, Professor Emeritus Skidmore College and retired curator of the Hyde Collection, where they displayed one of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong's lost works. Weber Furlong Historic Marker

On July 23, 2013 the City Glens Falls, New York Common Council approved a resolution to place a New York State historical marker in downtown Glens Falls near City Hall. The resolution stated: "Weber Furlong (1878–1962) One of America's great and influential artists of the twentieth century, Weber Furlong was among the first to champion the Modern art movement. The final years of her life were spent in Glens Falls, where she lived and taught near this site at her Ridge Street studio until her death in 1962. ''Placed for the Warren County Bicentennial''." 2019 Lake George, New York "Two Centuries of Art from Bolton Landing" Bolton Historical Society Museum. Landscapes Lost and Found. 2019 Dublin, Ireland Weber Furlong Her Life. Her Art. Her Legacy. The exhibition presented by Clint Weber, Director and Curator of The Weber Furlong Collection of Modern Art; Mona Blocker Garcia of the International Woman’s Foundation and artist Martin De Porres Wright, in association with the Irish Georgian Society. Knight of Glin Exhibition Room, City Assembly House, South William Street. Dublin, Ireland. 2022 Manhattan New York, The Art Students League of New York. Proudly presented To Live is to Paint: Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, Dorothy Dehner and American Modernism July 21 – August 23, 2022 Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, Dorothy Dehner and American Modernism, curated by the League’s 2022 guest curator, Jillian Russo PhD. To Live is to Paint follows Furlong’s and Dehner’s artistic influences from their extensive travels to their close friendships throughout the 1920s and 1930s. 2022 Austin, Texas Prizer arts and Letters community organization and gallery. Wilhelmina Weber Furlong. Struggled to be taken seriously as an artist, both because of her gender and because of resistance to the modernist movement. She persisted, stating that, “''To live is to paint''.

References

External links

League Video Talks Art Students League of New York...

The Weber Furlong Foundation...

Detailed description of the Max Weber papers, 1902–2008 ...

Detailed description of the Dorothy Dehner papers, 1920 ...

Detailed description of the Ben Benn papers, 1905–1993 ...

Oral history interviews with Dorothy Dehner, 1965 Oct.-1966 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furlong, Weber 1878 births 1962 deaths 19th-century American painters 19th-century artists 20th-century American painters Abstract expressionist artists American Impressionist painters American Expressionist painters American people of German descent American watercolorists American women painters American art educators Art Students League of New York alumni Art Students League of New York faculty Painters from Missouri Flower artists Cubist artists Modern painters Painters from New York City Feminism and history Post-impressionist painters School of Paris American still life painters People from Glens Falls, New York People from Bolton Landing, New York 20th-century American women artists 19th-century American women artists Women watercolorists American women academics