The Bruce Child

Cecilia Beaux

1880 · Enamel on porcelain · The American Wing

Beaux was the most celebrated turn-of-the-twentieth-century woman painter of figures working in the United States. She achieved her first commercial success with naturalistic portraits on porcelain, a popular art form of the period pursued by both professional women artists and amateurs. Having trained for just one month with the French ceramicist Camille Piton, an experience that strengthened Beaux’s technical precision and sensitivity to color, she quickly obtained a reputation for this work, which she noted "parents nearly wept over." While largely based in Philadelphia, Beaux opened a painting studio on Washington Square in 1899. A decade earlier, she had been introduced to the Gilders, forging a close friendship with the family who would become major supporters of her art.

Artist

Cecilia Beaux

Date

1880

Medium

Enamel on porcelain

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Friends of the American Wing Fund, 2002