Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love - Softcover

Carter, Alice

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810990687 ISBN 13: 9780810990685

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002

Synopsis

This is the biography of illustrators Jessie Wilcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Muralist Violet Oakley, who took over the Red Rose Inn, a picturesque estate on Philadelphia's Main Line. They made a pact to live together forever - until one of them created havoc by marrying.

About this title

Review:

The Red Rose Girls traces the lives of three talented artists: Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley. After studying together under the sympathetic guidance of Howard Pyle in Philadelphia, the three (all youngest siblings) decided that they could work best away from the distractions of the city. In 1900, they established their home and studios in a rambling country house called the Red Rose Inn, leading Pyle to dub them the "Red Rose Girls". Strengthened by the emotional support and artistic inspiration that each gave the others, their careers blossomed. Green was a successful illustrator, especially for Harper's Magazine;, Smith produced charming portraits of children; and Oakley was famous for huge murals commissioned to decorate state buildings. With their friend Henrietta Cozens acting as "housewife", their unconventional living arrangement attracted much interest, not all of it positive. The author, a professor at San Jose State University, claims that it freed them from the domestic responsibilities and isolation that could cripple an artist, especially a female artist in pre-emancipated society. For eight years the four led an almost idyllic existence of genteel lifestyle and artistic productivity, but eventually the group disintegrated, Green's marriage causing an especially painful break. Carter's sympathetic, easy prose perfectly complements the women's idealised art and their uncomplicated belief in the goodness of life. Combining delightful photographs of their domestic lives with examples of their work, The Red Rose Girls recreates a vanished world of optimism and grace. --John Stevenson

Synopsis:

A beautiful art book and a richly illustrated biography, The Red Rose Girls is the story of three remarkable women artists--Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green, and Violet Oakley--who captivated early-twentieth-century society with their brilliant careers and bohemian lifestyle. Nicknamed by their mentor, the famous illustrator Howard Pyle, "The Red Rose Girls" lived and worked at a picturesque former inn of the same name in an idyllic suburb on Philadelphia's Main Line. In the course of their years together they formed intimate bonds of friendship and love and enriched each other's professional lives by sharing ideas and inspiration. Smith and Green were prolific illustrators, celebrated for their work in children's books and periodicals such as Scribner's, Collier's, Harper's; and Oakley was a painter and muralist of national reputation whose work graces the interior of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. Full-color illustrations and wonderful period photographs bring their work and milieu to life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0810990687
• ISBN 13: 9780810990685
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216