Cora Smalley Brooks (1885-1930)

One of the founding member of the Philadelphia Ten, she was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her father Edward F. Brooks was the General Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  In 1902 her family moved to Lansdowne, PA.  She attended the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.  She was known to have traveled to Morocco, Spain, Portugal and Italy.  She died suddenly of pneumonia on March 26, 1930.

She specialized in flower still lives, but also was known paint landscapes, and do an occasional portrait.   She studied with Henry B. Snell and Elliott Daingerfield.  She studied with Snell in the summers in Gloucester, MA and Ravello, Italy, and Daingerfield in Blowing Rock, NC.  She shared a studio / apartment with Lucile Howard, Eleanor Abrams, and Constance Cochrane in Philadelphia at 524 Walnut St.  In January of 1931 the Philadelphia 10 held a memorial exhibition at the Plastic Club where it is said that an amazing 64 out of 88 paintings sold.

She won prizes from the Plastic Club (1920); National Association of Women Artists (or sometimes called the National Academy of Women Painters and Sculptors) (1922).  She was a member of the National Arts Club; National Association of Women Artists; Plastic Club; Art Alliance of Philadelphia; American Federation of Arts; Director of the Delaware County Art Association at the time of her death.  She exhibited at the place she was a member of, but also she had a solo exhibition at the Art Club of Washington, D.C. (1929). 

Source:  The Philadelphia Ten, A Women's Artist Group, 1917-1945, by Talbott & Sydney.

Information provided by GriffinsGallery.