Diattaart Blog

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• Price range information:  Oils range from $20,000 to $130,000. She was most prolific in watercolors and gouache works that can be found between $4,00o to $60,000.
• Jane Peterson was an American artist born in the year 1876 in the city of
  Elgin, Illinois. She loved to draw as a child. Despite having no formal art training Peterson
  was able to take and pass an aptitude exam for Pratt.For her collegiate studies Peterson attended the Pratt Institute in New York city.After college she visited Europe and studied with artists like Frank Brangwyn,
  A well respected painter of the landscape and also portraits who spent much of his career based out of London. Below is an example of Brangwyn’s work. He was a long tenured professor at the London School of Art.
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• To support herself and pay for school Peterson sold works of her own and also
  gave lessons to fellow students.After finishing college the artist took a job as drawing supervisor of public schools.
• Peterson also supported herself as a teacher in Massachusetts and Maryland.

On her many trips to Europe she was able to study with a large number of well known artists like Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Charles Cottet, and the most influential was Joaquin Sorolla.

• Peterson was a student and also a teacher at the Art Students League of New York city. She taught watercolors at the League from 1913 until 1919. She became quite gifted with watermedia and enjoyed using gouache for some of her plein air works. Peterson was introduced to the well known designer Louis Comfort Tiffany and was taken to his estate at Oyster Bay, Long Island. It was here she fell in love with painting gardens. Tiffany had the most exquisite gardens she had seen in a long while, and this gave her the idea to use gouache rather than oils for her quick garden sketches. They are remarkable for their quality and “freshness.”

In 1925 Peterson was married to an attorney. The couple moved into a five story house right across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The couple added a sixth floor that was used as her studio.

Her husband passed away in 1929, but this didn’t stop her from travelling the globe. She would winter in Florida and then spend the other seasons in Europe and New York. She was very adventurous and this regard reminds me of the great Georgia OKeefe, both were fiercely independent and didn’t mind travelling alone. OKeefe even taught herself to drive a car!

After her husband passed away she was able to study with a more modern painter that helped bring more color to her floral works, Andres Lhote. Lhote was a French painter very modern in his approach with a very colorful and bright palette. Here is an example of Lhote’s work.

Jane Peterson passed away in 1965 at the age of 89 years old. She had developed arthritis so this prevented her from painting as much as she would have liked, but she still managed to paint until her death. 

• Peterson is included in the collection of the Met in New York city, the
  Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Boston Museum of Art.

I feel Peterson is not given the recognition, as many women of her time period, not only due to the fact that they were female in a male dominated game. This was also due to the fact that she discovered and participated in many art movements over her career. Her style was a great mixture of color combined with a high level of draughtsmanship. Very inspiring indeed!

Of her many works I enjoy Peterson’s beach scenes the most.  Another artist painting lively beach scenes would be Sally Swatland. Swatland has painted many works featuring young children at play at the beach. Below is an example of her work.

Get out there and paint or draw!

D