Emerging from the shadows, Lucia Fairchild Fuller (1870-1924)

Abstract

The life and work of Lucia Fairchild Fuller represents a pioneering point in the history of female artists at the turn of the century. She was born in 1870 soon after the American Renaissance, its "Gilded Age," and died in 1924 shortly after women achieved the right to vote. In 1893, she won a mural commission for the Woman's Building at the Columbia Exposition. Then she turned to the genre of miniature painting and continued to work in that medium for her entire career. Professionally, she became well-known during her lifetime supporting her family through her prolific production of nearly three hundred paintings. In her short lifetime as a successful artist, as a advocate of professional standards in the arts, and as a teacher she contributed to elevated skills and ennobled standards for the genre of miniature painting. In 1899, Lucia was a founding member of the American Society of Miniature Painters. She was active in several women's suffrage groups and professional artist societies and was elected as an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in 1906. In 1918, when her vision failed and she could no longer paint she turned to writing and contributed to many artist journals. She died in 1924 from complications of pneumonia.