Anne Wilson Goldthwaite: 1869 – 1944
American Painter and Printmaker, Educator, and Advocate of Women's Rights and Civil Rights
Goldthwaite was born in Montgomery, AL on June 28, 1869. She was the daughter of Capt. Richard Wallach Goldthwaite and his wife Lucy Boyd Armistead. Sometime after 1872, the family relocated to Dallas, TX. Upon the death of her parents, at the age of 15, Goldthwaite and her two sisters returned to Montgomery to be cared for by various family members. She never married, but was engaged. Legends suggest that her fiancé was killed in a duel.
While visiting her in Montgomery, her uncle Henry Goldthwaite was so impressed by her drawing and painting skills that he offered to support her financially for up to ten years if she relocated to New York City to study art. She soon enrolled at the National Academy of Design where she studied etching with Charles Mielatz and painting with Walter Shirlaw. In 1906, Anne Goldthwaite traveled to Paris to explore her interest in the early modern painting styles of Fauvism and Cubism. While sketching one day in Luxembourg Gardens she met American writer Gertrude Stein. Stein invited Goldthwaite to visit her apartment, yet she hesitated due to Stein's shabby appearance. After visiting Stien's home, Goldthwaite was immediately impressed by the extensive collection of contemporary paintings which hung on the walls of Stein's apartment. The chance meeting of one of the most influential pre-war and avant-garde persons of the time provided Goldthwaite with an opportunity to join the art circle of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Goldthwaite later said, "Fate gave me several years in Paris at the most exciting time: during the great reconstruction from art to modern art." After drifting from studio to studio in an attempt to find the right teacher, she joined a small group of young artists called Academie Moderne. They held an exhibition each spring and their work was periodically critiqued by Charles Guerin, a disciple of Cezanne. In 1913, Goldthwaite's oil painting, The House on the Hill was included in the famed Armory Show in New York, NY. At the 1913 Armory Show, her work was displayed with many of the world's most renowned artists, including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
From 1922 to 1944, Goldthwaite taught at the Art Students League and worked on private portrait commissions. During the summers, she would return to Montgomery, which remained a rich source for her works of genre scenes of the south. Goldthwaite served as president of the New York Society of Women Artists from 1937-1938. Goldthwaite passed away on January 29, 1944, in New York City, NY at the age of 74. She was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, AL.
- Born: Montgomery, AL on June 28, 1869 Death: New York City, NY on January 29, 1944
- Best Known For: Abstraction, Realism, Modernism, and Expressionism
- Methods: Printmaking, Easel and Plein Air Painting, Oils, Watercolors, Lithography, and Etching
- Secondary Education: Art Students League, New York, NY; National Academy of Design School, New York, NY; She continued her education in Paris, France.
- Books: Alabama Masters: Artists and Their Work; A Legacy of Giving: The Anna and Frank Hall Collection, 2012; The Artists Bluebook, 2005; Davenport's Art Reference: The Gold Edition, 2005; Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975, 1999; The Art Students League of New York A History, 1999; Breaking Boundaries: An Art in Embassies Program American Women Artists in France, ca. 1880-1930, 1998; Texas Art and a Wildcatter's Dream, 1998; Art in the American South: Works from the Ogden Collection, 1996; American Paintings Before 1945 in the Wadsworth Atheneum, 1996; North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century A Biographical Dictionary, 1995; Greenville County Museum of Art The Southern Collection, 1995; American Paintings at the High Museum of Art, 1994; Cartooning for Suffrage, 1994; Biennial Exhibition Record of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1991; The Salons of America, 1991; Art by American Women Collection Louise and Alan Sellars, 1991; Annual Exhibition Record, National Academy of Design: 1901-1950, 1990; The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1990; Etched, in Memory The Building and Survival of Artistic Reputation, 1990; Centennial Exhibition 1889-1989 Members National Assoc Women Artists, 1990; Annual Exhibition Record: 1876-1913, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1989; Annual Exhibition Record: 1914-68, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1989; The Advent of Modernism Post-Impressionism 1900-1918, 1986; Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, 1986; Who Was Who in American Art: Artists Active Between 1898-1947, 1985; An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900, 1985; Art and Artists of the South Robert P. Coggins Collection, 1984; American Watercolors, Pastels, Collages The Brooklyn Museum, 1984; The Society of Independent Artists Exhibition Record 1917-1944, 1984; Dictionary of American Sculptors: 18th Century to Present, 1984; Painting in the South: 1564-1980, 1983; Dictionary of American Artists, 1982; American Women Artists from Early Times to the Present, 1982; American Paintings at Yale University: An illustrated Checklist, 1982; American Art in the Newark Museum Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 1981; Catalogue of American Painting, 1981; Women Artists in Washington Collections, 1979; Anne Goldthwaite 1869-1944, 1977; American Paintings in the High Museum of Art/Bicentennial, 1975; Smithsonian Archives of American Art, 1975; Print Reference Sources Bibliography 18th-20th Centuries, 1975; Whitney Museum of American Art Catalogue of the Collection, 1974; Women Artists in America: Eighteenth Century to Present, 1973; Women Historical Survey of Works by Women Artists, 1972; American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1969; Women Artists of America 1707-1964, 1965; The Story of the Armory Show, 1963; Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute/Selective Catalogue, 1954; Through the American Landscape, 1941; Survey of American Painting, 1940; Eyes on America United States as Seen by Her Artists, 1940; American Art Today, 1939; First National Exhibition of American Art, 1936; Index of Artists: International-Biographical, 1935; A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings & Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933; Panama-Pacific Exposition: Catalogue of the Post-Exposition Exhibit, 1915
- Periodicals: We are currently researching periodicals.
- Museums: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland , OH; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, GA Dixie Art Colony Foundation, Wetumpka, AL; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Print Club of Albany, Albany, NY; Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY; Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, MA; Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, AL; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, AL; Musee du rue Spontini, Paris, France; Museum of Art, Boston, Boston, MA; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, SC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY; University of Saint Joseph Art Gallery, West Hartford, CT; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford CT; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
- Archived Files: All archived files are password protected and available upon written request. The archive includes original letters by Goldthwaite, photographs and examples of her artwork. Access Anne Wilson Goldthwaite Files (We are in the process of digitizing our archives. Additional content will be added on a regular basis as it becomes available.)
References: Alabama Heritage, Summer 1996; The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art; 1913 Armory Show 50th Anniversary Exhibition 1963; Ancestry.com; Wikipedia; AskArt.com; Private Papers for the Dixie Art Colony Archives; Private Interviews
Examples of Her Work
Colonists
- John Kelly Fitzpatrick
- Warree Carmichael LeBron
- Carlos Alpha (Shiney) Moon
- Genevieve McClure Southerland
- Arthur Walter Stewart
- Louise Smith Everton
- Karl Ferdinand Wolfe
- Mildred Nungester Wolfe
- Frank Woodberry Applebee
- Donnave Brennan Lindsey
- Anne Wilson Goldthwaite
- William Lamar Dodd
- Amanda Moon Erisman
- Doris Alexander Thompson