Portrait of Violet Oakley

An accomplished painter who also designed murals, stained glass, illustrations, and bookplates, Edith Emerson was the director of Woodmere Art Museum from the early 1940s through her retirement in 1978. Here, she lovingly depicts her life partner and former teacher, the eminent artist Violet Oakley, presiding over the couple’s colorful dining room. The composition is thoroughly symmetrical, leading the viewer’s eyes to Oakley at the center of a rainbow array of fruit, flowers, candles, and further furnishings. Behind Oakley is her painting Il Convito (The Banquet), which features Emerson herself as her alter-ego, Giovanni, in a banquet scene celebrating Oakley’s completion of her murals for the Pennsylvania Senate Chamber. 

Emerson was born in Oxford, Ohio, into a family of artists and scholars. She received an introduction into artistic training at the early age of twelve, as a student under Norwegian painter Olaf Branner, then the Fine Arts Department head of Cornell University. At 15, Emerson went to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. Later on, she took classes at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), where she became acquainted with Violet Oakley. To Emerson, Oakley was the “most stimulating... electrifying teacher, opening up undreamed of possibilities and encouraging every effort. It was exciting, especially to women students as it abolished any sense of inferiority.” PAFA awarded Emerson two Cresson Scholarships that enabled her to travel across Europe. She kept in close correspondence with Oakley, becoming her studio assistant in 1916 and then moving in with her in 1918. The two women developed a partnership that continued until Oakley’s death in 1961. 

Emerson exhibited her work at PAFA from 1918 through 1945, and taught at institutions including Chestnut Hill College and the Agnes Irwin School. She moreover served as director of Woodmere from the early 1940s through her retirement in 1978. Her dedicated work for the institution is commendable; she was a multiple recipient of rewards for successful exhibitions she curated, and much of the preservation of Woodmere’s holdings and of its ephemera of local artists is due to her diligence and commitment to the art and artists of the Philadelphia area. 

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