Hilda Belcher

Hilda Belcher
Hilda and Martha Belcher
Born	(1881-09-20)September 20, 1881 Pittsford, Vermont
Nationality	American
Field	Painting

Hilda Belcher (September 20, 1881 - April 27, 1963 ) was an American artist known for her paintings, watercolors, portraits,^[1] and illustrations depicting individuals and landscapes, both in formal portraiture and in casual scenes of daily life.

Biography

Born in Pittsford, Vermont, in 1881, Belcher was the oldest child of Martha Wood Belcher, an artist,^[2] and Stephen Paterson Belcher, a manufacturer of stained glass. When she was a teenager, the family relocated to Newark, New Jersey, but retained their home in Vermont. Belcher graduated from Newark High School in 1900 and later moved to New York City to attend the New York School of Art, where she studied with William Merritt Chase, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Robert Henri.

After the death of her father in 1906, Belcher lived with her mother and took extended trips to Italy, England, and Wales in 1910; the Rocky Mountains in the western United States in 1912; and Europe, for an eleven-month tour, in 1913-14. Belcher also became well known in Georgia, where she painted landscapes of the Savannah area and scenes representative of the area's African American culture in the early part of the century. In 1926, Belcher was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1932.

Belcher also published illustrations, cartoons, and caricatures that appeared in popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Town and Country, as well as in the catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Company.

Belcher died on April 27, 1963, in Pittsford,^[2] and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Rutland, Vermont.

Awards

• Beal Prize, New York Water Color Club - 1909 ^[3]
• Julia A. Shaw Prize - 1926
• Thomas R. Proctor Prize - 1933
• Honorary master's degree from Middlebury College - 1941

References