39 Facts About Emily Sartain

Emily Sartain was an American painter and engraver.

Emily Sartain was the first woman in Europe and the United States to practice the art of mezzotint engraving, and the only woman to win a gold medal at the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia.

Emily Sartain helped found the New Century Club for working and professional women, and the professional women's art clubs, The Plastic Club and The Three Arts Club.

Emily Sartain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 17,1841.

Emily Sartain was the fifth of eight children of Philadelphia master printer and publisher of Sartain's Magazine John Sartain and Susannah Longmate Swaine Sartain.

In 1858, Emily Sartain graduated from the Philadelphia Normal School and then taught school until the summer of 1862.

John Emily Sartain taught his daughter art, including the mezzotint engraving technique that he revived, which was a favored process in England that created high-quality prints of paintings.

John Emily Sartain believed in equal opportunities for women and encouraged his daughter to pursue a career.

Emily Sartain mortgaged his house and gave her a "gentleman's education" in fine art by taking her on a Grand Tour of Europe beginning the summer of 1862.

Emily Sartain enjoyed the English countryside; old world cities, especially Florence and Edinburgh; the Louvre; Italian Renaissance paintings; and artists like Dante and engraver Elena Perfetti.

Emily Sartain traveled to Venice to visit William Dean Howells and his wife Elinor Mead Howells, who was a painter.

Emily Sartain decided in the course of the trip that she wanted to become an artist.

Emily Sartain sought her father's input on her work throughout her career and benefited from his support and connections.

Emily Sartain carried on the mezzotint engraving technique that he taught her.

Emily Sartain lived with her parents into adulthood, supporting and caring for them in their later years.

Emily Sartain met Thomas Eakins at the academy and entered into what biographer Henry Adams believes was Eakin's "first known romance".

In 1870, Emily Sartain met Mary Cassatt in Philadelphia and the following year they left for Paris, London, Parma, and Turin to study painting.

Emily Sartain spent the rest of the four-year stay in Paris and studied under Evariste Vital Luminais.

Emily Sartain returned to the United States that year, when she ran out of money.

Emily Sartain believed Hattie was likely to continue to help with education expenses in Philadelphia where expenses were lower and she would more likely sell her works.

Emily Sartain set up a studio in Philadelphia in 1875 where she created paintings and engravings.

Emily Sartain exhibited her works in cities along the East Coast of the United States and was the only woman to win a gold medal at the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia for The Reproof.

Emily Sartain won the Mary Smith Prize for best picture by a woman at the 1881 and 1883 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibits.

Emily Sartain worked as art editor for the paper Our Continent from 1881 to 1883.

Joseph M Pennell said that Sartain was "the only trained woman art editor I ever knew".

Emily Sartain exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and at the Pennsylvania Building of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.

Emily Sartain was a progressive New Woman, who with her sister-in-law, Hattie Judd Emily Sartain, formed the woman's organization, the New Century Club.

Emily Sartain created a professional program that was built upon technical and lengthy training and high standards.

Industrial design schools for women were often considered purveyors of lower forms of art, but Emily Sartain believed that good art was defined more by the artist's capabilities than the medium and that the same aesthetic principles used to judge fine art could be applied to commercial art.

Emily Sartain was responsible for introducing important faculty members such as Robert Henri, Samuel Murray and Daniel Garber to the school.

Emily Sartain was an established, national authority on art education and art for women by 1890.

Emily Sartain was an exhibitor, member of the Fine Arts jury, chair of the decorating committee for the Pennsylvania Building, and an art education speaker at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.

Emily Sartain was president of the club from 1899 to 1903 and again in 1904 and 1905.

Emily Sartain spoke in London in 1899 at the Professional Section of the International Congress of Women.

In 1900, Emily Sartain attended the first international conference on art education in Paris.

Emily Sartain was one of three delegates from the United States that year and again in 1904 in Berne.

Emily Sartain led the design school until 1919 or 1920.

Emily Sartain received certificates, medals, and diplomas in recognition of her service to art and education, including recognition from the London Society of Literature, Science and Art.

Emily Sartain was visiting in Philadelphia when she died on June 17,1927.