Drawn to Philadelphia: Illustration and the City of Brotherly Love (Part 1)

It’s funny how we’re never tourists in our own backyard. Just the other weekend I entered the Woodmere Museum on the edge of Philly in Chestnut Hill for the first time.

Image from Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Photo taken by en: User: Staib on 24 November 2007. (Accessed 1/29/18)

Having grown up an embarrassing 5-minute drive away from the museum within a family of sports fans, I never went to the museum in my youth. It was kind of exhilarating to finally enter a building I drove by for years. The Woodmere is a museum dedicated to artists living in Philadelphia so you'd think I'd have more hometown pride and have already been there.

The show that finally brought me in the door was the recent exhibition dedicated to Violet Oakley, one of the highest profile queer illustrators in American history. And how do we know she was family? Because she’s been serving tea since 1897. And it’s in print.

Image from: Philadelphia Inquirer (11-14-1897 • Page 24) News/Opinion. (Accessed 1/30/18)

As one of the fabled Red Rose Girls, Oakley was part of a cadre of woman illustrators including Jessie Willcox Smith, and Elizabeth Shippen Green. They lived in a little co-op supported by Henrietta Cozens in the Red Rose Inn of Villanova from 1901-1906. Fun fact, Bryn Mawr College has an entire special collection of papers and original art from Cozens. Too bad none of it is accessible online except for this ironic finding aid. What is online however, is a pithy summary of the work of the Red Rose Girls over at Philadelphiaencyclopedia.org

The Red Rose Girls, photographed in 1901 raising glasses for a toast, met while students of the famous illustrator Howard Pyle. They caused a stir by promising to not marry and to live together for life as partners. Facing the camera are Violet Oakley (left) and Jessie Willcox Smith.
Image from http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/red-rose-girls/#17602 (Accessed 1/30/18)

Violet’s highest profile work was a commission to paint the murals of the Senate Chamber at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in 1917. She also illustrated portraits, and did editorial work for magazines and books.

Oakley was a bit of a party monster in her day having her hand in many social art clubs. She was a founding member of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, the Plastics Club, and the Plays and Players Theatre. She also taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. All while being an out woman artist.

Image from Laura Blanchard's Flicker Album, Woodmere Art Museum. (Accessed 1/30/18)

In 1918 Violet moved in with her girlfriend, Edith Emerson (painter and curator of the Woodmere Museum) in a very public and daring move. What friends referred to as her “rebellious fire” attracted attention and raised eyebrows at dinner conversations. Even though artistic tastes veered towards less narrative and more abstract veins as the 20th century proceeded, Oakley continued to work until her death in 1961. She must have been one helluva strong person to live as a professional artist and out lesbian during that period. In the book, The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love, author Alice Carter includes a poem that Edith wrote on the occasion of Violet's 85th birthday:

To have inspired such devotion and created such beauty.
Here’s to you Violet Oakley! May your classical craft and transgressive fire continue to be an inspiration on paper and in life.

For an on the ground tour of the exhibition check out Laura Blanchard's Flicker album.

Image from Laura Blanchard's Flicker Album, Woodmere Art Museum. (Accessed 1/30/18)

*** Notes ***

• Carter, Alice A. The Red Rose Girls: art and love on Philadelphia's Main Line. Harry N. Abrams, New York. 2000

• Philadelphia Inquirer (11-14-1897 • Page 24) News/Opinion. (Accessed 1/30/18)

• Rickey, Carrie. (2017, October14). "The Exceptional Life and Political Art of Violet Oakley,"HYPERALLERGIC https://hyperallergic.com/405626/a-grand-vision-violet-oakley-and-the-american-renaissance-woodmere-museum-2017/ (Accessed 1/30/18)

• "Violet Oakley," IllustrationHistory.org . Retrieved from: https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/violet-oakley (Accessed 1/30/18)

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