Alice Brown Chittenden

{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Alice Brown Chittenden | image = Alice Brown Chittenden photo - oval.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1859|10|14}} | birth_place = [[Brockport, New York]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1944|10|13|1859|10|14}} | death_place = [[San Francisco]], California | resting_place = [[Cypress Lawn Memorial Park]], [[Colma, California]] | resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|37|40|12|N|122|27|28.8|W|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | spouse = Charles P. Overton | field = Painting | training = Virgil Williams at the [[San Francisco Art Institute|School of Design]] | alma_mater = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = Gold and silver medals from 1891 to 1905 | memorials = | elected = | website =  | module = }} '''Alice Brown Chittenden''' (October 14, 1859 – October 13, 1944) was an American painter based in San Francisco, California who specialized in flowers, portraits, and landscapes. Her life's work was a collection of botanicals depicting California wildflowers, for which she is renowned and received gold and silver medals at expositions. She taught at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (now the [[San Francisco Art Institute]]) from 1897 to 1941.

== Personal life == Chittenden was born in [[Brockport, New York]] on October 14, 1859<ref name="Artists in California">{{cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=Dean Milton |title=Artists in California, 1786-1940 |year=1986 |url=https://archive.org/details/artistsincalifor0000hugh |url-access=registration |publisher=Hughes Pub. Co |isbn=0961611200 |page=[https://archive.org/details/artistsincalifor0000hugh/page/89 89] |edition=1st}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lekisch |first=Barbara |title=Embracing scenes about Lakes Tahoe & Donner |year=2003|publisher=Great West Books |isbn=0-944220-14-2|pages=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fzOs0pXNXJ4C&pg=PA126}}</ref> to Joseph Gladding Chittenden and Ann Miriam Green Chittenden.<ref>[http://larribeau.com/ABC_Portraits.html ''Portraits''.] Larribeau. Retrieved March 21, 2014.</ref><ref name="1880 census" />{{#tag:ref|In 1855 they lived in Rochester, New York and had a 10-year-old boy, Alexander B. Crittenden, living with them.<ref>Joseph G. Chittenden, Rochester City, Ward 02, New York, page 3 of 28. Census of the state of New York, for 1855. Microfilm. New York State Archives, Albany, New York.</ref> Ann M. Chittenden gave birth to five children, only 2 of which reached adulthood.<ref name="1900 census" />|group="nb"}} Her parents had settled in San Francisco in 1858 from New York, but her mother returned to New York to await her birth.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} She had a sister, Carrie, who was two years younger than herself.<ref name="1880 census">1880 census, San Francisco, California. Tenth Census of the United States, 1880. (NARA microfilm publication T9, 1,454 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="200px"> File:Alice Brown Chittenden - Ann Miriam Green Chittenden - 1900.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Ann Miriam Green Chittenden'' (1826-1901), oil, 32 ½” x 38”, 1900 File:Alice Brown Chittenden - Joseph Gladding Chittenden - 1893.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Joseph Gladding Chittenden'' (1826-1897), pastels, 23 ½” x 19 ½” 1893 </gallery>

Her father worked in wood mills in San Francisco. She attended Denman Grammar School and won a silver medal for being at the top of her class when she graduated in 1876.<ref name="Larribeau SFAI"/> She studied with Virgil Williams at the School of Design (later known as the California School of Fine Arts and, today, [[San Francisco Art Institute]]) from 1880 to 1882. She received medals for both drawing and painting.<ref name="Larribeau SFAI">{{cite web|title=Biographical Sketches|url=http://larribeau.com/PDFs/SFAI_Bulletin_9-38.pdf|work=Bulletin|publisher=San Francisco Art Association|date=September 1938|access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref><ref name="Pioneer">[http://www.californiapioneers.org/collections/art/artists/alice-brown-chittenden/ ''Alice Brown Chitterden''.] California Pioneers. Received March 21, 2014.</ref>

She married Charles Parshall Overton<ref name="Lekisch p. 47">Barbara Lekisch. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fzOs0pXNXJ4C&pg=PA47 Embracing Scenes about Lakes Tahoe & Donner: Painters, Illustrators & Sketch Artists 1855–1915]''. Great West Books; 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-944220-14-6}}. p. 47.</ref> in 1886 but left him and returned to her parents home in 1887, a few months before her daughter Miriam Overton was born in 1887. Overton became vice president and manager of the Union Fish Company in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite news|title=Contesting Her Father's Will|url=http://larribeau.com/ABC_Exam_Contest.html|newspaper=San Francisco Examiner|date=January 30, 1917}}</ref> Alice was divorced by 1900 when she and her daughter, Miriam, lived with her mother on Octavia Street in San Francisco. Her sister, Carrie, and her family also lived with Ann M. Chittenden. Carrie's husband was William Taylor, a sea captain.<ref name="1900 census">Alice B. Chittenden, 1900 census, San Francisco, CA. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.</ref> Chitterden never remarried.<ref name="Pioneer" />

<gallery mode="packed" heights="225px"> File:Alice Brown Chittenden - Miriam Chittenden - 1893.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Miriam Chittenden'' (1887-1969), pastels, 22 3/4” x 32 3/4”, 1893 File:Alice Brown Chittenden, Garden on Octavia Street, 1900.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Garden on Octavia Street,'' 1900 </gallery>

== New Woman == As educational opportunities were made more available in the 19th century, women artists became part of professional enterprises, including founding their own art associations. Artwork made by women was considered to be inferior, and to help overcome that stereotype women became "increasingly vocal and confident" in promoting women's work, and thus became part of the emerging image of the educated, modern and freer "[[New Woman]]".<ref>Laura R. Prieto. ''[https://archive.org/details/athomeinstudiopr00prie/page/145 At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America]''. Harvard University Press; 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-674-00486-3}}. pp. 145–146.</ref> Artists then, "played crucial roles in representing the New Woman, both by drawing images of the icon and exemplyfying this emerging type through their own lives."<ref>Laura R. Prieto. ''[https://archive.org/details/athomeinstudiopr00prie/page/160 At Home in the Studio: The Professionalization of Women Artists in America]''. Harvard University Press; 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-674-00486-3}}. p. 160–161.</ref> Chittenden exemplified the "New Woman" through her activism for social reform and the suffrage movement.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y889AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA457 The New York Times Index]''. New York Times Company; 1917. p. 457.</ref>

== Career == She painted throughout her life. Although she did travel to the East Coast of the United States, Italy and France to study and exhibit during her life, her career was rooted in San Francisco<ref name="Pioneer" /><ref>{{cite book|last=Deville|first=Rebecca|title=Alice Brown Chittenden: Reconsidering the Role of San Francisco Women Artists in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.|year=2007|publisher=University of California Davis|location=Davis California|pages=12–13}}</ref> where she was considered the "Grand Dame" of Nineteenth Century San Francisco women artists,<ref>{{cite book|last=Silver|first=Mae|title=1894 California Midwinter Fair Women Artists: An Appreciation|year=1994|publisher=The San Francisco Almanac|location=San Francisco, California|pages=8|url=http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=1894_Midwinter_Fair:_WOMEN_ARTISTS,_an_appreciation}}</ref> who was said to have "evinces a powerful genius" through the "magic of her brush."<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" />

She created many paintings of flowers, especially roses, chrysanthemums, and peonies. Her life's work was a series of more than 256 botanical paintings of 350 varieties of California wildflowers executed over a period of 50 years.<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Alice Chittenden Honored|url=http://larribeau.com/PDFs/SFAI_Bulletin_10-41.pdf|work=Bulletin|publisher=San Francisco Art Association|date=October–November 1941|access-date=2015-12-19}}</ref> Chittenden was named the leading flower painter of America in ''Kate Field's Washington'' newspaper in March 1895.<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" /> She gathered many specimens herself locally in the San Francisco Bay Area but also during long trips via horseback and stagecoach to the Sierra Nevada Mountains or the deserts of Southern California. These studies were painted using oils on paper. She received assistance from her friend [[Alice Eastwood]],<ref name="Lekisch p. 46" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Concerning the Wild Flower Paintings of Alice B. Chittenden|url=http://larribeau.com/ABC_Howell_Paper.html|work=Article|publisher=Unpublished}}</ref> who was the curator of botany at the [[California Academy of Sciences]] in San Francisco.<ref>[http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=1894_Midwinter_Fair:_WOMEN_ARTISTS,_an_appreciation ''1894 Midwinter Fair: Women Artists, an appreciation''.] Found SF. Retrieved March 21, 2014.</ref>

Her works were so precise that they added not only to art, but also to the field of science.<ref name="Lekisch p. 46" />

<gallery mode="packed" heights="175px"> File:Alice Brown Chittenden - Crysanthemums - 1888.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Crysanthemums,'' 1888 File:Roses calendar.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Roses,'' 1898 </gallery>

{{Blockquote|From the love of wildflowers, she undertook to paint the native wild flowers of the State, and so good was her success that she went in for more ambitious work and has painted some wonderful roses, peonies, pelargoniums and other flowers that have been awarded highest prizes whenever exhibited.|''What Our Artists will sent to Chicago'' article<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" />}}

She also painted many portraits,<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" /> often with pastels.<ref name="Pioneer" /> She made portraits of [[James W. Marshall]] at [[Sutter's Mill]] (1914) in the collection of the State Museum Resource Center, [[California State Parks]];<ref>Iris Wilson Engstrand; Kenneth N. Owens. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=yZfQCWIRxvAC&pg=PT104 John Sutter: Sutter's Fort and the California Gold Rush]''. The Rosen Publishing Group; 2004. {{ISBN|978-0-8239-6630-1}}. p. 104.</ref> [[Robert Gordon Sproul]], President of the University of California; and Judge [[John H. Boalt]] who donated funds to build the first Boalt Hall which houses the University of California School of Law at UC Berkeley.{{citation needed|date=March 2014}} She also painted many landscapes.<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" />

<gallery mode="packed" heights="175px"> File:Alice Brown Chittenden - Wiscasset Farm, circa 1902-1904.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''Wiscasset Farm,'' circa 1902-1904 File:Alice Brown Chittenden - La Seine at Bougival, Shown at Paris, American Exhibit, May 27, 1907.jpg|Alice Brown Chittenden, ''La Seine at Bougival,'' Shown at Paris, American Exhibit, May 27, 1907 </gallery>

[[File:Phelan Building (9154685638).jpg|thumb|125px|Phelan Building, San Francisco, where Chittenden had a studio in the 1880s.]] In the 1880s she had a studio in San Francisco on the fourth floor of the [[Phelan Building]].<ref name="Pioneer" /><ref name="Lekisch p. 45" /> Chittenden [[List of women artists exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|exhibited]] two paintings (one of chrysanthemums and another of roses) at the California State Building at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago, Illinois.<ref name="Nichols">{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893| url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt6d.html#chittenden| access-date=28 January 2019}}</ref><ref name="Lekisch p. 45" /><ref name=Larribeau /> In 1885 the San Francisco Art Association held an all-women's exhibition, thought to be the first major exhibition of that type in the United States, that included Chittenden's works.<ref name="Pioneer" /> She exhibited at the all-male Bohemian Club Winter Picture Show in 1895, although not a member of the club she was uncommonly invited to attend the show.<ref name="Lekisch p. 45" />

She taught art beginning in 1897 at the Hopkins Art School (later the [[California School of Design]]) at California University and in 1902 lectured at the Brooklyn Institute on "Wild Flowers of California".<ref name="Lekisch p. 46">Barbara Lekisch. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fzOs0pXNXJ4C&pg=PA46 Embracing Scenes about Lakes Tahoe & Donner: Painters, Illustrators & Sketch Artists 1855–1915]''. Great West Books; 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-944220-14-6}}. p. 46.</ref><ref>[http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/online_exhibits/1899/document_texts/markhopkins1902.html "The California School of Design: Supplement of the Mark Hopkins Institute Review of Art".] ''The Mark Hopkins Institute Review of Art: An Illustrated Magazine.'' San Francisco Art Association. June, 1902, Volume 1, Number 5. Online at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu</ref> In 1907<ref>University of California, Berkeley. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=hhkMAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA21 Register]''. 1907. p. 21.</ref> through at least 1918 Chittenden was an assistant professor of drawing at the California School of Design.<ref>University of California (1868–1952); University of California, Berkeley. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b6g4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA20 Register ...: With announcements]''. The University Press; 1913. p. 20.</ref><ref name="Berkeley1918">University of California, Berkeley. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=M2QtAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA106 Register – University of California]''. University of California Press; 1918. p. 106.</ref>

Chittenden was the first woman to be a juror of the San Francisco Art Association exhibitions.<ref name="Pioneer" /><ref name="Lekisch p. 46" /> In 1906, she helped organize the Women's Sketch Club.<ref name="Pioneer" /> She exhibited at [[National Academy of Design]] in New York and in 1908 at the Salon of [[Société des Artistes Français]] in Paris.<ref name="Lekisch p. 46" /><ref name=Larribeau>{{cite news|title=Mrs. Chittenden's Work|url=http://larribeau.com/ABC_Call_12-92.html|newspaper=San Francisco Call|date=December 12, 1892}}</ref>

In 1941 she retired from her teaching position at the California School of Fine Arts and was made a lifetime member of the San Francisco Art Association for her distinguished career.<ref name="Lekisch p. 46" />

Alice Brown Chittenden died on October 13, 1944<ref name="Artists in California"/><ref name="Lekisch p. 46" /> in San Francisco and funeral services were held in the city at the N. Gray and Company funeral home.<ref name="Funeral">Alice Brown Chittenden, died October 13, 1944. San Francisco Area Funeral Home Records, 1895–1985. Microfilm publication, 1129 rolls. Researchity. San Francisco, California.</ref>{{#tag:ref|Overton was listed as her husband on Chittenden's funeral records,<ref name="Funeral" /> but she identified herself as divorced in the 1940 federal census. At that time her widowed sister, Carrie, lived with her.<ref>Alice B. Chittenden, sheet 11 A, 1940 San Francisco, CA census. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.</ref>|group="nb"}}

In 1965, 261 oil paintings of wildflowers were exhibited at the California Historical Society. The studies had been in storage at the California Academy of Sciences. A limited publication of 1,000 copies of four of her wildflower paintings was printed and issued in 1968 by Lawton and Alfred Kennedy. From the Elizabeth Hay Bechtel Collection at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], the paintings included ''Chamomile, Mayweed''; ''Thimbleberry''; ''Fairy Lantern, Globe Lily''; and ''Common Evening Primrose.'' An exhibit entitled "California Native Trees" was held in 1992 at the Helen Crocker Russell Library, [[San Francisco Botanical Garden]], [[Golden Gate Park]].<ref name="Lekisch p. 46" /><ref>John D. Olmsted; Alice Brown Chittenden; Lawton Kennedy. ''Thimbleberry, Rubus Parviflorus''. J.D. Olmsted; 1968.</ref> The Society of California Pioneers has a portrait and two paintings of historic buildings.<ref name="Pioneer" />

Her papers were donated to the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] by Elizabeth Baldwin in 1974, which was transferred to microfilm and a copy of which is held at the [[De Young (museum)|de Young Museum]], Archives of American Art in San Francisco.<ref name="Lekisch p. 47" />

== Awards == Some of the awards she received include:

* Gold medal for Flower Painting: San Francisco Exposition of Arts and Industries, 1891<ref name="Larribeau SFAI"/><ref name="Lekisch p. 45">Barbara Lekisch. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fzOs0pXNXJ4C&pg=PA45 Embracing Scenes about Lakes Tahoe & Donner: Painters, Illustrators & Sketch Artists 1855–1915]''. Great West Books; 2003. {{ISBN|978-0-944220-14-6}}. p. 45.</ref> * Two Silver Medals: California State Fair, 1891–92<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" /> * Silver Medal: San Francisco Industrial Exposition, 1893<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" /> * Silver Medal: California Mid Winter International Exposition, 1894<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" /> * Silver Medal: [[World Columbian Exposition]], Chicago, 1902–03<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" /> * Silver Medal: [[Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition]] of Seattle, 1909<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" /> * Silver Medal: [[Lewis and Clark Expedition|Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition]] of Portland, 1905<ref name="Larribeau SFAI" />

== Notes == {{Reflist|group="nb"}}

== References == {{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == * Rebecca Deville. ''Alice Brown Chittenden: Reconsidering the Role of San Francisco Women Artists in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries''. University of California, Davis; 2007. * Alice Eastwood; Edward Hohfeld; May Treat Morrison. ''Alice Eastwood Collection''. 1942. * ''Who Was Who in American Art.'' Compiled from the original thirty-four volumes of American Art Annual: Who's Who in Art, Biographies of American Artists Active from 1898 to 1947. Edited by Peter Hastings Falk. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1985.

==External links== {{Commons category-inline}} * [http://larribeau.com/ABC_index.html Alice Brown Chittenden web site]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chittenden, Alice Brown}} [[Category:Painters from San Francisco]] [[Category:American flower artists]] [[Category:San Francisco Art Institute alumni]] [[Category:1859 births]] [[Category:1944 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American painters]] [[Category:19th-century American women painters]] [[Category:20th-century American painters]] [[Category:20th-century American women painters]]