- Lucy Bacon
Lucy Angeline Bacon (
July 30 1857 –October 17 1932 ), was aCalifornia n artist who studied inParis under the famous Impressionist,Camille Pissarro (who was friends withPaul Cézanne ), and was the only known California artist to have studied under any of the Great FrenchImpressionist s.Born in 1858 inPitcairn, New York , Lucy Bacon attended art school at theArt Students League of New York and theNational Academy of Design inNew York City before leaving forFrance in 1892. In Paris she enrolled at theAcadémie Colarossi . However, she was dissatisfied with her studies there and asked expatriate American painterMary Cassatt for advice. Ms. Cassatt introduced her toCamille Pissarro and Lucy wound up studying with him.She then moved to Éragny and did some paintings that are clearly Impressionistic. By 1898, she was exhibiting Impressionist style paintings such as "A San Jose Garden" at the
San Francisco Art Association. But her letters to her family indicate she had ongoing health problems that prevented her from painting full-time. Thinking that the climate of California would assuage her chronic illness, she moved to San Jose. Unmarried, she taught at Washburn School and painted from her home studio. Her niece, Ruth, married Robert (Bob) Vickery, the son ofWilliam Kingston Vickery , who in 1891 and 1893 organized the first exhibitions of Impressionism in San Francisco (acquired, at least in part, through Lucy's connections, along with the help of Mrs.William H. Crocker .) The Vickery family ownedVickery, Atkins & Torrey , an important gallery inSan Francisco in the 1890s. In 1897, Lucy Bacon received a painting of French house tops painted by Paul Cézanne. Ms. Bacon bequeathed this painting to her nephew, Bruce Jeremiah Bacon (the son of her brother, Albert Bacon and Mary E. Bacon.) This painting has remained in the family and been handed down from generation to generation.In 1905, while Lucy Bacon renounced her painting career and devoted herself to religion, possibly finding it eased her health problems, she continued to teach art. By 1909, she was living in San Francisco where she died in 1932.
ee also
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American Impressionism External links
* [http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=110948 Biography]
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