Violet Oakley

Violet Oakley
Born	June 10, 1874(1874-06-10) Bergen Heights, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	February 25, 1961(1961-02-25) (aged 86) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Field	Painting, murals, stained glass
Movement	Pre-Raphaelite influence
Works	Pennsylvania State Capital murals

Violet Oakley (June 10, 1874 – February 25, 1961) was an American artist known for her murals and her work in stained glass. She was a student and later a faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Life

Oakley was born in Bergen Heights, New Jersey into a family of artists. Her parents were Arthur Edmund Oakley and Cornelia Swain. Both of her grandfathers were member of the National Academy of Design.^[1] In 1892, she studied at the Art Students League of New York. A year later, she studied in England and France. After her return to the United States in 1896, she began study with Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute. She had early success as a popular illustrator for magazines including The Century Magazine, Collier's Weekly, St. Nicholas Magazine, and Woman's Home Companion.^[2] Oakley was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. Like the Pre-Raphaelites, Oakley's works utilize color, capture luminosity, and portray philosophical beliefs.

Oakley was a pacifist, feminist and socialist and strove to reflect her belief in a better world through her work. Oakley's commitment was such that in June 1927 she moved to Geneva, Switzerland as a self-appointed artistic ambassador to the League of Nations. She stayed for three years.

Lithograph by Oakley for The Lotos Library (1896)

Oakley was raised in the Episcopal church but in 1903 became a devoted student of Christian Science after a significant healing of asthma while she was doing preparatory study for the first set of Harrisburg murals in Florence, Italy. She was a member of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Philadelphia from 1912, when it was organised, until her passing in 1961.^[3]

She received many honors through her life including an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree in 1948 from Drexel Institute.^[1] In 1905, she became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal of Honor from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.^[2]

Oakley and her two friends, the artists Elizabeth Shippen Green and Jessie Willcox Smith, were named the Red Rose girls by Pyle. The three illustrators received the "Red Rose Girls" nickname while they lived together in the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, Pennsylvania from 1899 to 1901. They later lived, along with Henrietta Cozens, in a home in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia that they named Cogslea after their four surnames (Cozens, Oakley, Green and Smith). Cogslea was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 as the Violet Oakley Studio.^[4] Her home and studio at Yonkers, New York, where she resided intermittently between 1912 and 1915 is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Plashbourne Estate.^[5]

Work

Violet Oakley Studio
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	627 St. George's Rd. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Coordinates:	40°3′8″N 75°12′20″W / 40.05222°N 75.20556°W / 40.05222; -75.20556Coordinates: 40°3′8″N 75°12′20″W / 40.05222°N 75.20556°W / 40.05222; -75.20556
Built:	1902-05
Architect:	Day & Klauder
Governing body:	Private
NRHP Reference#:	77001188[6]
Added to NRHP:	September 13, 1977

Oakley painted a series of 43 murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg for the Governors Grand Reception Room, the Senate and the Supreme Court. Oakley was originally commissioned only for the murals in the Governor's Grand Reception Room, which she titled "The Founding of the State of Liberty Spiritual." In the fourteen reception room murals, Oakley depicts the story of William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania. She conducted extensive research on the subject, even traveling to England. The series of murals were unveiled in the new Capitol Building in November 1906, shortly after the dedication of the building. When Edwin Austin Abbey died in 1911, Violet Oakley was offered the job of creating the murals for the Senate and Supreme Court Chambers, a 16-year project.

Oakley's other work includes:

• two murals and stained glass work for All Angels Church, New York City, her first commission, 1900
• murals for the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland, Ohio, her only major mural commission outside Pennsylvania
• panel for the living room of the Alumnae House at Vassar College
• eighteen mural panels on The Building of the House of Wisdom and stained glass dome for the Charlton Yarnell House, 1910, now part of Haverford College, artwork now removed and placed in the Woodmere Art Museum
• Great Women of the Bible murals, First Presbyterian Church in Germantown, 1945–1949
• David and Goliath for the library at the Chestnut Hill Academy

• 

  Senate mural, Pennsylvania State Capitol.

• 

  Supreme Court mural, Pennsylvania State Capitol.

• 

  Supreme Court mural, Pennsylvania State Capitol.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Violet Oakley papers
2. ^ ^{a b} Violet Oakley (1875-1961), Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee
3. ^ Christian Science Sentinel 62: 2194–2195. 
4. ^ Violet Oakley Studio
5. ^ Phillip Seven Esser and Paul Graziano (August 2006). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Plashbourne Estate". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=102096. Retrieved 2011-01-01. 
6. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://nrhp.focus.nps.gov/natreg/docs/All_Data.html. 

Sources

• Rowland Elzea and Elizabeth H. Hawkes: A Small School of Art: The Students of Howard Pyle, Wilmington: Delaware Art Museum (1980)
• Alice A. Carter: The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love, New York: HN Abrams (2000)

External links

Biography portal

• Cogslea Historic Marker
• Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee's Violet Oakley Biography
• Violet Oakley at Find a Grave

Persondata
Name	Oakley, Violet
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 10, 1874
Place of birth	Bergen Heights, New Jersey, U.S.
Date of death	February 25, 1961
Place of death	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.