| Harriet Hallowell | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 15, 1873 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Field | Landscape painting, portrait painting, still life, |
| Training | Studied in Paris |
| Movement | Miniature painting |
| Influenced by | French Impressionism |
Harriet Hallowell (1873–1943) was an expatriate American artist who lived in France for almost fifty years. She was born in Boston to a distinguished and artistic Quaker family. During the First World War, The Great War, in the British vernacular of the time, she remained in France and was an industrious worker at a small volunteer hospital. The hospital was near the home she shared with her aunt Sarah Tyson Hallowell (1846–1924), the famous American art curator, located in the village of Moret-sur-Loing, which borders the Forest of Fontainebleau.[1] Because of her war relief efforts on behalf of the French and Allied soldiers, the French government awarded her the Légion d'honneur in 1930.[2] She remained in France during World War II, was again involved in relief work and died in the hospital after a cycling accident and subsequent case of pneumonia.[3]
Contents |
Harriett Hallowell was born in Boston on June 15, 1873. Her father was the Civil War veteran Lewis Morris Hallowell (1844–1909) and her mother was Harriet Hawley Hallowell. Her family were Quakers from Philadelphia, with deep roots in Pennsylvania. She had one brother George Hawley Hallowell, who was a year older. The children lost their mother in 1879 and raised by their grandmother, Mary Morris Tyson Hallowell.[4] The Hallowell family was large and distinguished with branches in Massachusetts and Maine. Mary Morris Tyson Hallowell (1820–1913)[5] was a strong woman who had been very active in the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War and she also traveled extensively to assist war refugees. The older Hallowell women who influenced Harriet were also active in the cause of Woman's suffrage and the Temperance Movement.
There was an artistic tradition among the Hallowells and Harriet's aunt Sarah had began her career as a painter. Harriett and her older brother George both drew and painted as children and their aunt was a major influence on their artistic development. Harriet Hallowell's artistic career has almost escaped notice in the United States and few of the standard references have any biographical information on her or any examples of her work.[6] Harriet's work may have been exhibited in Boston in 1893,[7] before her departure for France. She was a member of the Paris branch of the American Artist's Professional League.[8] Hallowell was usually described as a miniature painter. Her work was also included in the annual Paris Salon. Few works seem to have surfaced thus far, perhasps because she spent most of her career in France and upon her sudden death, her belongings became the property of the state. She is known to have painted landscapes near her French home.[9]
Harriet's aunt Sarah Hallowell was an important curator in Chicago. She had assembled the loan exhibit of French paintings from American collections for the World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.[10] She was also instrumental in the Women's Pavilion for the fair,[11] recommending Mary Cassat and Mary Fairchild MacMonnies for the large murals. After the fair was over, Sarah Hallowell moved to France, where she served as an agent for the Art Institute of Chicago, curating their annual exhibition of American paintings from the expatriate American artists who lived in France. She also served as an advisor to American millionaires, introducing them to the leading French artists of the day. Their circle included Mary Cassatt, Auguste Rodin and Anders Zorn.[12] In 1894, Harriet Hallowell, then twenty-one and her grandmother joined her aunt Sarah in Paris. Through her aunt, she was able to meet the leading French and American painters and experience the salon lifestyle of the Parisian elite.[13] As her grandmother grew infirm, she took care of her, first in their apartment in Paris and then in the small house in Moret-sur-Loing, a small, picturesque village that had been a favorite of the French Impressionists. The Hallowells probably took the Moret-sur-Loing house about 1900, because the painting she sent to the Art Institute in 1901 bears that address.[14] Her grandmother's illness prevented her from visiting home and soon after her death in 1913, the Germans invaded and World War I began.[15]
Because the war was so close to their home, a small hospital was set up in Moret-sure-Loing, "Hôpital Aux No. 26" [16] which in English would be Auxiliary Hospital Number 26.[17] The hospital opened in August 1914 and was active throughout the war.[18] Sarah Hallowell and Harriett Hallowell helped to treat wounded soldiers and like their grandmother, raised money for refugees. At home they knitted warm clothing for French citizens who had been displaced by the fighting or whose homes had been destroyed. Also in the war, they also were involved in efforts to send care packages to allied soldiers who had been captured by the Germans. In a 1918 letter, Sarah Hallowell emphasized that because of rationing in Germany, allied prisoners were in danger of starvation stating that "It is absolutely vital that such relief should be sent." [19]
Harriet Hallowell's aunt Sarah died in 1924, leaving her alone in their little house in Moret-sur-Loing. She inherited her aunt's estate, which while not rich in cash, was rich in art, with paintings by artists such as Anders Zorn (1860–1920) and two works of sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), a gift from the famous sculptor, who was a close friend's of her aunt's. She continued to paint and remained active with the Paris chapter of the American Artists Professional League. She exhibited her work with the American Women's Club of Paris and at the annual Salon.[20] Halloway finally returned home for at least two visits, in 1926 and again in 1927 [21] The French government honored her with the Croix d'Honneur" for her war work in 1930.[22] Despite her family's objections she remained in France after the start of World War II, when the Germans overran and then occupied France, even after the Americans entered the war in 1941. Seemingly in good health, she had a bicycle accident in 1943 and died in the hospital of pneumonia at the age of seventy. According to family letters, her home was sealed up and left undisturbed until after the end of the war, in 1946, when her family was able to visit. Her heirs could not afford to bring her extensive art collection back to the United States which required matching their value and they became property of the French state.[23]