biografía de Laura Coombs HILLS (1859-1952)

Lugar de nacimiento: Newburyport, MA

Lugar de defunción: Newburyport

Direcciones: Newburyport

Profesión: Painter, miniature painter, illustrator

Estudios: Cowles Art Sch., Boston; ASL; Helen M. Knowlton.

Exposiciones: Boston AC, 1886; J. Eastman Chase Gallery, 1889 (first solo); Boston WCC at J. Eastman Chase Gallery, 1893 (miniatures); Int. Expo., Atlanta, 1895; Art Amateur Exh., NYC, 1897 (silver med.); SNBA, 1897-98; PAFA, 1898-1904, 1916 (prize), 1920 (prize), 1934; Paris Expo, 1900 (prize); Soc. Wash. Artists, 1901 (prize); Pan.-Am. Expo., Buffalo, 1901 (med.); Charleston Expo., 1902 (med.); AIC, 1902-30; St. Louis Expo, 1904 (gold); NAD, 5 annuals, 1907-17; Worcester Art Mus., 1908 (miniatures); Copley Gallery, Boston, 1908 (miniatures), 1912, 1921 (solo); Rembrandt Gallery, London, 1908 (miniatures); 16th Annual Poland Spring, ME, Exh., 1910; Portland Mus. of Art, ME, 1912; Pan.-Pac. Expo., San Fran., 1915 (prize); Pennsylvania SMP, 1916 (med.); ASMP, 1928 (prize); Doll and Richards Gallery, Boston, MA, 1932 (solo); Guild of Boston Artists, 1941-47 (solos); Hist. Soc. of Old Newbury, 1996 (retrospective).

Asociaciones: ASMP (founding mem.); SAA, 1897; ANA, 1906; Boston WCC; Copley Soc., 1892, Boston GA; Pa. SMP; AFA.

Obra: Hist. Soc. of Old Newburyport, Mass.; Worcester Art Mus.

Comentarios: Although best known for her floral works in pastel, she was also one of the leading painters of portrait miniatures on ivory during that medium's revival period. From 1890-1933, she painted 369 miniatures on ivory and established her reputation as one of the finest miniaturists in America. Beginning in the mid-1920s, she shifted her attention to painting pastel floral still lifes. These were shown in Boston from the 1930s and she continued to exhibit them in Boston and New York until 1940, when she was over eighty years old.

Fuentes: WW47; Historical Society of Old Newburyport, Laura Coombs Hills, A Retrospective (Farmington, ME, 1996); Pisano, One Hundred Years...the National Association of Women Artists, 58; C.L. Snow, exh. cat., "Newburyport Area Artists (1981); Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 356; Art by American Women: ...the Collection of L.and A. Sellars, 130; Strickler, American Portrait Miniatures, 84; Falk, Exh. Record Series.