Lily Martin Spencer
Famous Artist Friday
Self Portrait
Born November 26, 1822 as Angelique Marie Martin in Exeter, England, she was nicknamed Lily.
Unlike many women I've considered for this feature, Lily's parents were very progressive particularly in areas that gave women more opportunities and education and she benefitted greatly from those views.
Her parents emigrated to New York when she was eight, and remained there for three years before moving to Marietta, Ohio where her well educated parents home schooled her and her brothers.
Lily had obvious artistic talent when as a child she drew figures of every person in the household on the walls of their home. She studied drawing and oil painting with local artists and soon became a curiosity and sought direction from many in the area and finally studied in Cincinnati for seven years as a student of John Insco Williams.
Her popularity grew and in 1942 she began accepting commissions and exhibiting her work in local stores.
In 1844, Lily married Benjamin Spencer, an Englishman who worked in the tailoring trade, but he quickly quit that profession and began to work for his wife as her business manager, promoted her work and even painted backgrounds for her. In studying the norms of the times and other female artists, this was a highly unusual arrangement for the day. She would become the most popular and widely reproduced female genre painter of the mid 19th century.
Most women pursued painting as a genteel accomplishment but Lily pursued art as a career and while she gained in popularity, she did not often benefit financially and her family was often in dire straits.
In 1848 the family moved to New York where Lily could sell her art and study at the National Academy of Design. She worked during the day coloring lithographs and took classes in the evening. Her husband took on most of the domestic duties for their home and children. Her most popular works were created between 1848-1858.
Lily produced a large body of work that consisted mainly of happy domestic scenes but often had the focal figure looking directly at the viewer in a coy, playful or flirtatious gaze.
Many things impacted Lily's ability to earn a living at her art, the most important of which were the 13 children she had, seven surviving to adulthood. She joined the American Art-Union, a subscription based society where thousands of lithographs of her work were sold, but she only received payment for the sale of the rights to the paintings. She worked tirelessly illustrating books and magazines, and her portrait commission work.
The civil war also impacted her ability to earn. The war itself, the inability of people to pay for art at the time, and the mood of the nation changed after the war.
Home of the Red White and Blue
1867-68
This was Lily's view after the war where she believed that the country was torn apart, just as the American flag was in the foreground and that the work of putting the nation back together belonged to women. Notice the central figure in white and her two daughters are in red and blue. Men are in the background.
In 1869 Lily completed what she believed to be her masterpiece in Truth Unveiling Falsehood. The painting shows on one side a monstrous woman with a sheeps head and on the other side is a beautiful woman nursing a child. She was offered up to $20,000 for it but refused to sell it. The piece was eventually lost.
Click HERE to see the painting.
Lily Martin Spencer worked until the day of her death in 1902 at the age of 79. Her career spanned 60 years and she had produced thousands of pieces, but always struggled financially and for the recognition she deserved, not unlike artists today.
Information for this post was gleaned from 2 main websites:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/lilly-martin-spencer/truth-unveiling-falsehood-yfy9V1ItIWf8Q6mhNMNenQ2
and
I hope you have enjoyed this post and all the Famous Artist Friday posts. Unfortunately I will not be able to continue this as a weekly feature but will continue as a monthly post. The time it takes to research and write these posts has taken a great deal of time away from my own art and the project I've been working on of updating my website and creating a membership site for beginning artists, that I think you're going to love.
I appreciate your comments on these features and hope you have learned as much as I have with them.
Have a great weekend.
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