Ethel V. Ashton

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Ethel V. Ashton
Born(1896-02-09)February 9, 1896
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died1975 (aged 78–79)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Artist, muralist, librarian
Years active1929–1970
Notable workMurals

Ethel V. Ashton (February 9, 1896 – May 1975) was an American artist who primarily worked in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was both a subject of noted artist Alice Neel and a portraitist of Neel. Her early works reflect the influence of Ashcan realism focused primarily on portrait painting. She was commissioned to work on the Works Progress Administration's post office mural project and has works hanging in the permanent collections of several prominent museums. By the mid-1950s she worked with abstract concepts and through the end of the civil rights era, her works synthesize both abstract and realism. She also served as the librarian of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
from 1957 into the early 1970s.

Biography

Ethel Ashton was born on February 9, 1896, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Charles and Mary V. Ashton.[1] She studied art at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women,[2] with classmates Rhoda Medary and Alice Neel,[3] graduating in 1921.[2][4] Neel would gain renown for her expressionistic portraits depicting other artists as well as friends, family and lovers.[5] During their schooling, the three girls took classes at the Graphic Sketch Club and used actual people they encountered on the streets as models. The real-life actions and diversity of the everyday people in the street, was very different from the posed models in their classrooms.[3] They also used each other as models and would continue to do so.[6] In 1923, Ashton spent three months abroad studying in Florence and Rome, as well as in London and Paris.[7] When she returned, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA).[2]

Career

Beginning in 1929, Ashton exhibited works at the PAFA.

Ashcan realism and her 1930 rendering of Neel is a pencil portrait.[6] Ashton eventually rented her own new studio in 1931, when Medary married and Neel was in the sanitarium at Gladwyne Colony.[10]

During the 1930s, Ashton began participating in national competitions and juried exhibitions with the

Sullivan's March.[13]

Throughout the 1940s, Ashton continued exhibiting at venues such as the Gallery of the daVinci Alliance from 1939 to 1944 and from whom she won the 1943 prize; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1941 and 1946; the American Color Print Society in 1945; the National Academy of Design (1946), as well as others.[2] Ashton's early work focused on portraiture, but by the mid-1950s she was working with abstract concepts.[6] Her later works synthesize both abstract and realism. From 1943 to 1957, she served on the Fellowship selection committee of the PAFA[11][6] and traveled extensively in Central America and the Caribbean.[7] Though Ashton became the librarian of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1957, she continued to paint and exhibit.[6] One such show was for the Philadelphia Art Alliance's exhibit entitled "Carnival" in 1962.[14] She retired as a librarian in the early 1970s.[6] Ashton died in May 1975 in Philadelphia[15] and within a month a posthumous art award was named in her honor by PAFA.[16]

Legacy

In 1998, the mural Ashton painted in the

Civil Rights Movement and depicts an African-American family on the Philadelphia street near Fairmount Park, which was controversial subject matter at that time.[25]

References

Citations

  1. ^ Philadelphia City Births, 1860–1906 1896, p. 125.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Falk 1985, p. 20.
  3. ^ a b Hoban 2010, p. 27.
  4. ^ Evening Public Ledger 1921, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b Hoban 2010, p. 89.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Sozanski 2013.
  7. ^ a b The Woodmere Art Museum 2015, p. 43.
  8. ^ Hoban 2010, p. 74.
  9. ^ a b Bauer 1995, p. 23.
  10. ^ Hoban 2010, p. 86.
  11. ^ a b c Norton 2016.
  12. ^ Wolf 1937.
  13. ^ a b Rudolf 2009.
  14. ^ Delaware County Daily Times 1962.
  15. ^ SS Death Masterfile 1975.
  16. ^ Delaware County Daily Times 1975, p. 27.
  17. ^ National Gallery 2008.
  18. ^ Michener Art Museum 2016.
  19. ^ JSTOR 2021.
  20. ^ The Woodmere Art Museum 2011.
  21. ^ The Woodmere Art Museum 2015.
  22. ^ The Woodmere Art Museum 2021.
  23. ^ The Washington Post 2001, p. T-60.
  24. ^ The Washington Post 2011, p. T-02.
  25. ^ Crugnale 2013.

Bibliography

External links

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