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Edith Loring Getchell

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Edith Loring Getchell
"A Windswept Road," n.d., etching on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chicago Society of Etchers, 1935
Born
Edith "Ella" Loring Peirce (Getchell after 1885)

(1855-01-25)January 25, 1855[1]
Bristol, Pennsylvania, US
DiedSeptember 18, 1940(1940-09-18) (aged 85)[1]
Worcester, Massachusetts, US
EducationPhiladelphia School of Design for Women, Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts
Known forLandscape etchings
SpouseDr. Alfred Colby Getchell
ChildrenRuth Peirce Getchell and Margaret Colby Getchell Parsons

Edith Loring Getchell (1855 – 1940) was an American landscape painter and etcher, highly regarded for the "exquisite" tonalism of her etchings, drypoints and watercolors."[2] Working during the "American Etching Revival," a period that lent legitimacy to an art form that had once been scorned as commercial, Getchell made use of the opportunities the vogue for etching gave her, despite a crowded field and the gender discrimination of her era. Considered one of America's leading etchers in her lifetime, Getchell's work is notable for its skill, its aesthetic values and its approach to depicting American landscape.

Career

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Getchell was one of only two women included in a book on America's 25 leading American etchers in 1886. The following year she was invited to exhibit in "'Women Etchers of America,' the earliest comprehensive exposure of the work of women artists by an American institution" — and an historic first.[2][3] That year, she was also accepted into the nearly all-male New York Etching Club, which her teacher Robert Swain Gifford had helped found.[4] "One of the preeminent groups for the nineteenth-century etching revival," it helped her create key connections for building a viable career.[5]

Over the next several years, Getchell's work was frequently reproduced in print, widely acquired by American art museums and exhibited in London, Paris and across the United States.[6] In 1908, the Worcester Art Museum curated a two-week solo exhibition of her etchings.[6][7]

Atlanta's High Museum of Art organized an exhibition revisiting the "American Women of the Etching Revival" in 1988.[8] Curator Phyllis Peet cited a 1902 review to describe her:

[T]he work of Edith Loring Getchell is vigorous, original and effective without affectation. . . . Her hand is particularly sympathetic to all that is beautiful in foliation and growth of trees, atmospheric or climatic conditions of light, and those subtleties of nature best adapted to expression with the point. ’ — Will Jenkins, Modern Etching and Engraving in America.[8]

Education

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Getchell studied painting, printmaking and textile design at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, one of the "art schools [that] conferred professional status in a cultural field once dominated by men... to counter the accusation of amateurism.[9][10] One of her teachers there was tonalist William Sartain.[11][12] Another was Peter Moran, best known for his etchings of animal subjects, and for brothers Thomas and Edward who were also professional artists.[6][13]

At the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Getchell studied with landscape painter Robert Swain Gifford who was influenced by the more realist, and less romantic, approach to painting of the Barbizon school.[4] At PAFA, she also studied with realist Thomas Eakins, who would later paint a well-received portrait of Getchell's husband [6][14] As a private student, Getchell also studied with landscape painter and etcher Stephen Parrish, with whom she later exhibited alongside artist Mary Cassatt.[6]

Memberships

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Collections

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Publications

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  • American etchings: A collection of twenty original etchings by Moran, Parrish, Ferris, Smillie, and others ; with descriptive text and biographical matter. Boston: Estes and Lauriat: January 1, 1885 ASIN : B00086AUHE
  • Gems of American Etchers. New York: Cassell, c1885. (Sirsi) ACO-0770 62653
  • Union League Club, Exhibition Catalogue of the Work of Women Etchers of America. New York: Frederick Keppel & Company[21]
  • Philadelphia Art Union. New York: Frederick Keppel & Company.

Commissions

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  • Philadelphia: Robert M. Lindsay
  • San Francisco: W.K. Vickery
  • Union League Club: Cover of the "Women Etchers of America" exhibition catalogue
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"Carmel Mission Before Restoration,' after William Keith, etching, 1885–86.
A 1908 portrait of daughter Margaret Colby Getchell Parsons as a teenager.
A 1907 portrait of husband Albert C. Getchell by Thomas Eakins.
Worcester Art Museum, 1908 solo exhibition list of included works.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Peet, Phyllis (2000). "Getchell, Edith Loring Peirce (1855-1940), painter and etcher". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1701483. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7.
  2. ^ a b Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013-12-19). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63889-4.
  3. ^ Welzenbach, Michael (1989-03-23). "ART". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  4. ^ a b "Robert Swain Gifford | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  5. ^ Weyl, Christina Moisant (2015). "Abstract Impressions: Women Printmakers and the New York Atelier 17, 1940-1955". Rutgers Library.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Edith Loring Peirce GETCHELL (1855-1940) - Biography, life, background and work by Artprice". Artprice.com. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  7. ^ Worcester Art Museum; Getchell, Edith Loring (1908). Exhibition of etchings by Edith Loring Getchell: December 5 to December 14, nineteen hundred and eight. Worcester Art Museum Library. Worcester Art Museum.
  8. ^ a b Peet, Phyllis; High Museum of Art (1988). American women of the etching revival: February 9-May 9, 1988, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta, Ga.: The Museum. ISBN 978-0-939802-45-6. OCLC 19220858.
  9. ^ Walls, Nina de Angeli (2001). Art, industry, and women's education in Philadelphia. Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey. ISBN 978-0-89789-745-7. OCLC 43561903.
  10. ^ Eisenmann, Linda (1998). Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-29323-8.
  11. ^ Ackerman, Gerald M. (1994). American Orientalists. www.acr-edition.com. ISBN 978-2-86770-078-1.
  12. ^ Raynor, Vivien (1982-06-27). "ART; MOODY SCENES FROM TONALISTS". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-28.
  13. ^ "Peter Moran | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  14. ^ "Edith Loring Getchell - Biography". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
  15. ^ "Gardiner, Eliza Draper". museums.fivecolleges.edu.
  16. ^ "Artist Info". www.nga.gov.
  17. ^ "Edith Loring Getchell | Princeton University Art Museum". artmuseum.princeton.edu.
  18. ^ "Edith Loring Getchell | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu.
  19. ^ "Object Record". uarizona.pastperfectonline.com.
  20. ^ "Edith Loring Peirce Getchell – People – Worcester Art Museum". worcester.emuseum.com.
  21. ^ "OpenStax CNX". cnx.org. Retrieved 2021-11-27.
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