Minerva J. Chapman

{{Short description|American painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Minerva J. Chapman | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Minerva Chapman.jpeg | image_size = 170px | alt = | caption = Minerva J. Chapman, ''Self-portrait'', undated | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1858|12|6}} | birth_place = Sand Bank, now [[Altmar, New York]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1947|6|14|1858|12|6}} | death_place = [[Palo Alto, California]] | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | spouse = | known_for = Painter | training = [[The School of the Art Institute of Chicago]], [[Académie Julian]] | alma_mater = | movement = Impressionist | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = | memorials = | elected = First woman president of the International Art Union | website =  | module = }} [[File:Brooklyn Museum - Woman Polishing a Kettle - Minerva Josephine Chapman - overall.jpg|thumb|Minerva J. Chapman, ''Woman Polishing a Kettle'']] '''Minerva Josephine Chapman''' (1858–1947) was an [[Americans|American]] [[Painting|painter]]. She was known for her work in miniature portraiture, landscape, and still life.

==Early life== Minerva Josephine Chapman was born December 6, 1858,<ref name="IWA">[http://iwa.bradley.edu/artists/MinervaChapman Minerva J. Chapman.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221190117/http://iwa.bradley.edu/artists/MinervaChapman |date=2014-02-21 }} Illinois Women Artists Project. Bradley University. Retrieved February 9, 2014.</ref> in Sand Bank, now called [[Altmar, New York]].<ref name="Chicago1898">Art Institute of Chicago. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4dEqAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA9 Annual American Exhibition [of] Paintings and Sculpture]''. 1898. p. 17.</ref><ref name="Smithsonian" /> Her parents were Josephine and James L. Chapman.<ref name="1919 passport" /> Nicknamed Minnie, she grew up on Vernon Avenue in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]]. She had younger brothers Wilbert, Irving and James and a younger sister, Blanche.<ref>1880 Census Chicago, Cook, Illinois; Roll: 186; Family History Film: 1254186; Page: 191C; Enumeration District: 027; Image: 0383. 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>

==Education== Chapman was financially able to live an independent life and pursue college and art education due to her father's success as a banker and tannery owner.<ref name="Schwartz">[http://schwartzcollection.com/artists/c/minerva-chapman Minerva Chapman.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222063221/http://schwartzcollection.com/artists/c/minerva-chapman |date=2014-02-22 }} Christine Schwartz Collection. Retrieved February 9, 2014.</ref> At the same time, women were allowed entry into prestigious art academies in the United States and in France.<ref name="Schwartz" /><ref name="CLARA" />

She studied at the [[Mount Holyoke College]] where she was in the junior class in 1867<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ECI4AAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA13 The Catalogue Number]''. s.n.; 1867. p. 13.</ref> and in the graduating class of 1878<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="College1889">Mount Holyoke College. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uHs7AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA129 General Catalogue of Officers and Students of Mount Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass., 1837–1887]''. Springfield Printing and Binding Company; 1889. p. 129, 199.</ref> In 1875 she attended the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name="IWA" /> Between 1880 and 1886 she studied privately with [[Annie C. Shaw]] and then with [[John Vanderpoel]] at [[The School of the Art Institute of Chicago]].<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="Chicago1898" /> During that time she also traveled and was educated in the eastern United States.<ref name="Schwartz" />

Chapman went to Switzerland, Holland, Belgium and Paris in 1886<ref name="Schwartz" /> and studied with Georg Jocobedis in [[Munich]], Germany.<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="CLARA" >[http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail_print&entity_id=1627 Minerva J. Chapman.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120302022109/http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail_print&entity_id=1627 |date=2012-03-02 }} CLARA Database of Women Artists. National Museum of Women in the Arts. Retrieved February 9, 2014.</ref> She and her sister Blanche moved to Paris and Chapman attended [[Académie Julian]] before deciding to take private lessons from Charles Augustus Lasar,<ref name="Artist">[https://www.bedfordfineartgallery.com/charles_augustus_lasar.html Artwork by Charles Augustus Lasar]</ref> who encouraged [[Impressionism|Impressionist]] painting of still lifes and ''plein air'' landscapes.<ref name="Chicago1898" /><ref name="Schwartz" /> While in Paris, Chapman also studied between 1887 and 1897 with [[Raphaël Collin]], [[Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois]],<ref name="Chicago1898" /> [[Tony Robert-Fleury]], and [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]].<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="CLARA" />

==Career== Chapman made portraits, miniatures on ivory and canvas, landscapes and genre paintings.<ref name="IWA" /> She resided for much of her career in Paris with interspersed travel to Chicago,<ref name="Schwartz" /> such as in 1893 when she [[List of women artists exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition|exhibited]] ''The Village Church'' at [[The Woman's Building (Chicago)|the Woman's 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#chapman| access-date=25 December 2018}}</ref><ref name="IWA" /><ref>John Moses; Paul Selby. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ixQVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA72 The White City: The Historical, Biographical and Philanthropical Record of Illinois]''. Chicago World Book Company; 1893. p. 72.</ref><ref>Kurt Shaw, [https://www.questia.com/read/1P2-1126350 "From Tiffany to Tiny, Galleries Get Glamorous,"]{{dead link|date=July 2021}}''Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,'' September 21, 2006, p. 3.</ref> Three of her oil paintings were shown at a Chicago Institute of Art exhibition in 1898. Two were portraits of women and the other was an interior painting of a studio.<ref name="Chicago1898" />

She was elected as a member of the Salon of the [[Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts]] in 1906.<ref name="st lawrence">[http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/chapman.htm Minerva Chapman, Painter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051220145323/http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/chapman.htm |date=2005-12-20 }}, Women of Courage Profiles, St Lawrence County NY Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) webpages. Retrieved 2014-02-09.</ref> In January 1908 she exhibited 34 miniatures at the Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition of 1907 to 1908.<ref name="Chicago1907">Art Institute of Chicago. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aYoZAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA41 Annual Report of the Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago]''. The Institute.; 1907. p. 41, 43.</ref> She was a member beginning in 1909 and was the first women president<ref name="IWA" /> in 1914 of the International Art Union.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=v07EmzFCkt8C&pg=PA351 American Art Directory]''. R.R. Bowker.; 1914. p. 351.</ref>

At the beginning of [[World War I]], Chapman traveled from Liverpool, England, aboard the ''SS New York'' in September 1914, ultimately bound for Arlington Heights in Illinois.<ref>''SS New York'' Passenger List, September 16 to 24 in 1914. Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957. Microfilm Publication T715, 8892 rolls. Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; National Archives at Washington, D.C.</ref> By that time she had lived for 21 years in Paris, with trips to Chicago. During the war she lived in Chicago, Illinois and San Diego, California.<ref name="1919 passport" /><ref name="Schwartz" /> She returned to Paris in 1919, intending to stay two years. She declared that year that she had never been married.<ref name="1919 passport">Passport issued August 18, 1919 to Minerva J. Chapman. Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925. NARA Microfilm Publication M1490, 2740 rolls. General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59. National Archives, Washington, D.C.</ref> She captured the 19th century independent, educated [[New Woman]] in her paintings, as described in the article ''Minerva J. Chapman's Miniatures: Costume and the New Woman''.<ref>"Minerva Chapman's Miniatures: Costume and the New Woman." ''Dress,'' January 1, 2002. '''29'''(1), pp. 75–85.</ref>

Her oil painting, ''Garden of the Tuileries, Paris'' is in the [[Smithsonian American Art Museum]] collection.<ref name="Smithsonian">[http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=4606 ''Garden of the Tuileries, Paris''.] Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved February 9, 2014.</ref> Chapman's work is also in the collections of the [[Mount Holyoke College]], [[National Museum of Women in the Arts]] in Washington, D.C., and the [[Luxembourg Museum]] in Paris.<ref name="IWA" />

Her paintings have been exhibited at the [[Art Institute of Chicago]]. In New York City, her paintings were exhibited at the [[Society of American Artists]], [[American Society of Miniature Painters]], and the [[Society of American Artists]]. In London at the [[Royal Academy of Art]] and in Paris at the [[Paris Salon|Paris Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts]], International Art Union Lodge, American Women's Art Association, American Women's Club, and the American Art Students Club.<ref name="IWA" /> In addition to her exhibition at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, she also exhibited at the [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition|San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exposition]] in 1915 and 1916, where she won gold medals. Her paintings were exhibited at the [[National Academy of Design]] in Washington, D.C., and other places in the United States.<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="Schwartz" />

In 1925 she moved to [[Palo Alto]], California, and continued to paint until 1932 when she quit due to poor eyesight.<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="Schwartz" /> Chapman died June 14<ref>Minerva Josephine Chapman, June 14, 1947 death, State of California. California Death Index, 1940–1997. Sacramento, CA, USA: State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics.</ref> or June 16, 1947 in Palo Alto at the age of 88.<ref name="IWA" /><ref name="Smithsonian" />

==Legacy== A retrospective of her works was held at the Wortsman Rowe Galleries from January 18 to February 16, 1974,<ref>Minerva J. Chapman. ''Minerva J. Chapman, 1858–1947, Oil Paintings and Drawings: January 18 Thru February 16, 1974''. Wortsman Rowe Galleries Incorporated; 1974.</ref> and in 1986 at the art museum of her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College.<ref>Paul J. Staiti; Peter Hastings Falk; Minerva J. Chapman. ''Minerva J. Chapman''. Mount Holyoke College Art Museum; 1986.</ref>

Thirty of the 181 miniatures that Chapman made were exhibited at "Off the Pedestal: New Women in the Art of Homer, Chase, and Sargent" the [[Frick Collection|Frick Art Museum]] in 2006. "[[New Woman|New Women]]" were educated, capable women following the American Civil War.<ref>Kurt Shaw, [https://archive.today/20140209194726/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-11264904 "'Off the Pedestal'".]Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2006.</ref> In 2007 her works were part of a traveling exhibition of students of [[William-Adolphe Bouguereau]], including [[Robert Henri]], [[Cecilia Beaux]], [[Anna Elizabeth Klumpke]], [[Eanger Irving Couse]], and [[Elizabeth Jane Gardner]].<ref>Kurt Shaw, [https://archive.today/20140209193059/http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-11292095 "Paris Comes to Pittsburgh,"] ''Tribune-Review/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review,'' July 5, 2007.</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== *[http://www.mtholyoke.com/dalbino/chapman/ Sketchbook of Minerva J. Chapman] *[http://www.johnpence.com/visuals/estates/chapman/ John Pence Gallery biography] *[https://www.bedfordfineartgallery.com/charles_augustus_lasar.html Artwork by Charles Augustus Lasar]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, Minerva J.}} [[Category:1858 births]] [[Category:1947 deaths]] [[Category:Mount Holyoke College alumni]] [[Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni]] [[Category:Artists from New York (state)]] [[Category:Painters from Chicago]] [[Category:19th-century American painters]] [[Category:20th-century American painters]] [[Category:19th-century American women painters]] [[Category:20th-century American women painters]] [[Category:People from Oswego County, New York]]