May Wilson Preston

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For Surrealist artist (1905–1986), see May Wilson.
May Wilson Preston
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase
Known forIllustrations
Spouses
May Wilson Preston, The Confidantes, 1907, Barnes Foundation

Mary (May) Wilson Watkins Preston (August 11, 1873 – May 18, 1949) was an American

New York School of Art with William Merritt Chase
.

Following the death of her first husband, Thomas Henry Watkins, Preston embarked on a career as an illustrator to support herself. She socialized and exhibited with artists of the Ashcan School and married one of the group, James Moore Preston, in 1903. They traveled to Europe together, summered on Long Island, and co-illustrated a magazine story. She became a successful illustrator for magazines, like Harper's Bazaar and The Saturday Evening Post, and was a successful book illustrator. Considered one of the top women illustrators between 1900 and 1940, Preston was one of the few female members and exhibitors of the Society of Illustrators, having been admitted March 29, 1904, after peers Florence Scovel Shinn, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, and Jessie Willcox Smith. Like them, she was only an Associate Member since full membership was not allowed for women until the 1920s.[2] She exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show and won a medal at the Panama–Pacific Exposition in 1915. Preston was one of the major suffrage artists. Her works are in a number of museum collections. She played herself a chapter of the film serial Our Mutual Girl that was shown in theaters in 1915.

Early life

Mary Wilson was born on August 28, 1873, in New York City.[3] She was the only child [4] of Ann Taylor Wilson and John J. Wilson.[5] Preston was one of the founders of the country's oldest women's fine arts organization, the Women's Art Club, at the age of 16.[6]

Education

She was a "high spirited girl" whose parents tried to dissuade her from becoming and artist and sent her to

James Whistler.[6]

She studied under Chase again at the

New York School of Art in 1901.[3][7] She met Edith Dimock and another art student, Lou Seyme there.[7] After the three moved into the Sherwood Studios on 57th Street, they became known as the "Sherwood Sisters" for the weekly open house they held at their studio, noted for its "fun and high jinks".[7][8]

Marriage

In 1898 she married Thomas Henry Watkins, who died in 1900.

John Sloan, and Robert Henri.[3] Her roommate Dimock married one of the original Ashcan School painters, William J. Glackens.[7] The two couples spent summers together from 1911 to 1917 in Bellport on Long Island and took trips together to Europe. May and James traveled to France often. In New York, they frequented Cafe Francis and Mouquin's with a group of fellow artists.[9] In 1935, the Prestons moved to East Hampton, New York.[6] The Prestons did not have any children.[4]

Career

May Wilson Preston, Dejeuner, circa 1910, oil on canvas, Barnes Foundation[10]

After her first husband's death, she supported herself by working as an illustrator. Unsure of her talent, she approached a magazine with trepidation. When asked by the editor why she brought her drawings to them, Preston said, "Because, I am a beginner and thought that this was the worst magazine I had ever seen." He bought a sketch, with a smile on his face.[11] Preston began illustrating in 1900 and the following year her works were published in Harper's Bazaar.[3]

From "People who interest us: May Wilson Preston, Illustrator of Real Life" in The Craftsman (1910):

[S]he lived courageously through years of repeated defeat, experiencing every variety of supercilious rebuff that tradition can offer fresh creative effort ... her determination to stick to her ideals has been as great as her courage.[11]

At the turn of the century there was a movement to incorporate greater realism in illustrations. Preston was one of the artists who effectively followed the lead of William Glackens, George Luks and Everett Shinn.[12] She was considered one of the top woman illustrators between 1900 and 1939. Others were Elizabeth Shippen Green, Jessie Willcox Smith, and Violet Oakley.[13] Preston became the first, and for years the only, woman to be an associate member and exhibitor at the Society of Illustrators.[3] In 1920, the four top women illustrators and society's associate members became full members when the Society of Illustrators was incorporated.[14] Preston also showed her work with the artists of the informal Ashcan School.[3]

She was one of the major

John French Sloan and F. Luis Mora were the other judges.[16]

Preston was a co-illustrator with her husband, James Moore Preston, on the "Our Horse" story printed in a 1910 edition of Everybody's Magazine.

MacDowell Club.[19] Preston played herself in the movie Our Mutual Girl which was shown in theaters in 1915.[20]

In 1920, Preston illustrated two F. Scott Fitzgerald stories for The Saturday Evening Post: Bernice Bobs Her Hair and Myra Meets His Family. She also illustrated stories published in the Post by Mary Roberts Rinehart.[21] Her drawings illustrated articles by Ring Lardner and P. G. Wodehouse.[7]

Later years

Her career was essentially over after contracting a skin infection that made it difficult for her to paint and as a result of the dwindling market during the Depression. She died on May 18, 1949, in East Hampton on Long Island, New York.[3] Her husband, James Moore Preston, died in 1962.[9]

Collections

Works

Illustrated books
May Wilson Preston, "Without cutting down her speed, bumped home the winner", Illustration for Tish, Mind over Motor, 1916

The following is a short list of 41 books at the Library of Congress for Preston:[29]

  • LCCN 08011086
    .
  • Alice Woods (1912). Fame-seekers. Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. New York: George H. Doran Company.
    LCCN 12008667
    .
  • Margaret Cameron (Dramatist) (1913). The Golden Rule Dollivers. Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. Harper & Bros.
  • Him (1915). How it Feels to be the Husband of a Suffragette Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. New York : George H. Doran Company. LCCN 15015726.
  • Mary Roberts Rinehart (1916). Tish. Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. New York:
    LCCN 19011339
    .
  • Mary Roberts Rinehart (1917). Bab, A Sub-Deb. Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. New York: George H. Doran Company.
  • Katherine Haviland Taylor (1917). Cecelia of the Pink Roses. Illustrated by May Wilson Preston. New York: George H. Doran Company.
    LCCN 17013951
    .
  • Ring W. Lardner (1917). Gullible's Travels, etc. Illustrated by May Wilson Preston. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
    LCCN 17005401
    .
  • Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (1917). Piccadilly Jim. Illustrations by May Wilson Preston. Grosset & Dunlap.
  • Wallace Irwin (1918). Venus in the East. Illustrated by May Wilson Preston. New York: George H. Doran Company.
    LCCN 18022249
    .
  • LCCN 19011941
    .
  • Frances Roberta Sterrett (1869-1947) (1919). Jimmie the Sixth. Illustrated by May Wilson Preston. New York; London: D. Appleton and Company.
    LCCN 18020479.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )
  • ISBN 978-1-314-39159-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link
    )

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8161-8456-9
    .
  2. ^ Michele H. Bogart, Artists, Advertising, and the Borders of Art, University of Chicago Press: 1995
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-486-24523-2
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Barbara Morgan (2002). "Preston, May Wilson (1873–1949)". Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Gale (via HighBeam Research archive). Archived from the original on March 23, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  5. ^ City Life Illustrated, 1890-1940: Sloan, Glackens, Luks, Shinn, Their Friends and Followers, Delaware Art Museum, September 7-November 23, 1980. The Museum. 1980. p. 76.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-1-60949-499-5
    .
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Charlotte Streifer Rubenstein (1982). American Women Artists: from Early Indian Times to the Present. Avon Publishers. p. 166.
  8. ISBN 978-0-8078-4971-2
    .
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-87099-639-9
    .
  10. ^ a b "May Wilson Preston". Barnes Foundation. Retrieved September 28, 2014.
  11. ^ a b The Craftsman. United Crafts. 1910. p. 472.
  12. ISBN 978-0-393-03901-6
    .
  13. ISBN 978-0-399-51986-4
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-300-06835-1
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-674-00486-3
    .
  16. ISBN 978-1-4766-0150-2
    .
  17. ^ "Our Horse". Everybody's Magazine. Vol. 22. North American Company. January–June 1910. pp. 221–230.
  18. ^ Milton W. Brown (1963). The Story of the Armory Show. The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation. p. 278.
  19. ^ American Art Directory. R.R. Bowker. 1914. p. 230.
  20. ^ "Our Mutual Girl (advertisement)". Daily East Oregonian. Pendleton, Oregon. January 22, 1915. p. 4.
  21. ISBN 978-1-4381-0845-2
    .
  22. ^ "Mrs. Pamela C. Copeland Honored by Gift Enriching the Brandywine River Museum's Permanent Collection". Brandywine River Museum. February 2001. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2014-10-01.
  23. ^ "Untitled Illustration, 1917". Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  24. ^ "There's Only One Thing to Do and That's to Be Married at Once, On Six Dollars a Week". Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  25. ^ "Woman and Man". Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  26. ^ "Conversation". Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  27. ^ "Search: May Wilson Preston". Washington, D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014. Ernest Lawson, 1911
  28. ^ "One Hundred Percent". Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  29. ^ "Search:May Wilson Preston". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 29, 2014.

Further reading

Exhibition catalogs
Books

External links

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