Friends, Colleagues, and Acquaintances

Had Violet Oakley not become a muralist, she would have had a successful career as a portraitist. With the exception of mural paintings, portraits comprise the largest genre in the corpus of her work. The exact number of her commissioned portrait paintings has not been determined, but the surviving studies number over one thousand. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Oakley studied with Cecilia Beaux, the most successful woman portraitist in the United States, an indication that Oakley was considering a career as a portrait painter in 1896.

As Oakley’s fame as a muralist grew, she began to receive portrait commissions from friends and associates, some of which were recognized not only for her interpretations of the sitters, but also for their aesthetic qualities. Her portrait of poet Florence Earle Coates (1912) was awarded the medal of honor in Painting at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Her posthumous portraits of two children of George and Gertrude Woodward, Henry Howard Houston Woodward (1922) and Quita Woodward (1939), both garnered awards at PAFA. Leaders in the fine and performing arts, politics, and academia sat for Oakley, among them violinist Albert Spalding, Coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci, social reformer Jane Addams, Swarthmore College professor William I. Hull, and Sarah Lawrence College founders, Sarah and William Van Duzer Lawrence.

Works in Woodmere’s Collection

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Works in Other Collections

Historical Images

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Related Works in Woodmere’s Collection

Trumpeter (Carolyn Haywood model), date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Estate of Carolyn Haywood, 1990)

Study for the figure of the mother (Mrs. James Crosby Brown [Agnes Hewlett] model) in "The Child and Tradition" lunette, from the mural series "The Building of the House of Wisdom," Charlton Yarnall House, c. 1910 (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2012)

Illuminated text study for "A Tribute of Love in Honouring our Friend, Hannah Clothier Hull," date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Illuminated text study for "A Tribute of Love in Honour of our Friend, Hannah Clothier Hull," date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for the academic figure (Eugenie Fryer model), "Unity" mural, from the series The Creation and Preservation of the Union, Senate Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol, c. 1911-17, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for the teacher (Mary Nixon model), "Unity" mural, from the series The Creation and Preservation of the Union, Senate Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol, c. 1911-17, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Illuminated text study for recording of descendants of Henrietta Auchmuty Sturgis Ingersoll (1864-1944), 1944, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Detail study of figure for Cosmopolitan Club bookplate (Beatrice Griffith model), 1941, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study of figure for Cosmopolitan Club bookplate (Beatrice Griffith model), 1941, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Figure study for Cosmopolitan Club bookplate (Beatrice Griffith model), 1941, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Figure study for Cosmopolitan Club bookplate (Beatrice Griffith model), c. 1941, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)

Study for Cosmopolitan Club bookplate (Beatrice Griffith model), 1941, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)