Portrait study of Gertrude Houston Woodward

Object Details

Title:

Date:

c. 1925

Artist:

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

42 x 30 in.

Classification

Paintings

Credit Line:

Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2012

Description

Oakley made several drawings as well as an oil sketch in preparation for a full-size portrait of her friend, Gertrude Houston Woodward. Some of the works on paper capture facial features or experiment with different poses. In the oil sketch, Oakley focuses less on likeness and more on the context of the Krisheim library, with its great books and furnishings. Woodward’s gown shimmers as if spun with gold, and an eagle is emblazoned on her chest, suggesting her authority as matriarch. It is not known if Oakley completed the final portrait.

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The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.