Artist

Ellen Day Hale

born Worcester, MA 1855-died Brookline, MA 1940
Media - 1921.5.2 - SAAM-1921.5.2_1 - 266
Margaret Lesley Bush-Brown, Ellen Day Hale, 1910, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arthur Hale, 1921.5.2
Born
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Died
Brookline, Massachusetts, United States
Biography

Born February 11, 1855, in Worcester, Mass., the daughter of the Rev. Edward Everett Hale. In Boston, 1873–78. Studied with William Rimmer, 1873, and with William Morris Hunt and Helen Knowlton, 1874–77. In Philadelphia, 1878-79. Studied at the Pennsylvania Academy along with Margaret Lesley Bush-Brown. Was in Canada, Colorado, Texas, and Boston, 1879–80. In Europe, 1881–83. Visited England, France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy. Studied at the Academy Colarossi with Raphael Collin and Gustave Courtois; with Emile Carolus-Duran and Jean J. Henner; and at the Julian Academy with Tony Robert-Fleury, Adolphe Bouguereau, and Giovanni Giacometti. Visited Spain and London. In Boston, 1883–85. Met Gabrielle Clements, from whom she learned printmaking. Taught at the Marlborough Street School. Assisted Knowlton at Hunt's school. In Paris, 1885. Studied at the Julian Academy. In Boston, 1886–91. Published her History of Art, 1888. During the years 189193, traveled in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Set up her home "The Thickets" in Rockport, Mass., with Clements, 1893. Visited Europe with Clements, 1895. Traveled West, 1896. Lived in Washington, D.C., 1904–32, where she had come with her father, who was chaplain for the U.S. Senate. Visited the Middle East, 1929. Moved to Gloucester, Mass., 1932. Died February 11, 1940, in Brookline, Mass.

Andrew J. Cosentino and Henry H. Glassie The Capital Image: Painters in Washington, 1800–1915 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1983)

Exhibitions

An artwork image of a woman
Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano 
October 8, 2021May 8, 2022
This exhibition brings to life the Venetian glass revival of the nineteenth century on the famed island of Murano and the artistic experimentation the city inspired for artists such as John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler.