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Ad Code: 4
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from Auction House Records.
A view of Yosemite Valley, circa 1855
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Mary Park Benton established a reputation in New York state for
painting and art education, and in California, for landscapes,
portraits, still lifes and mission subjects. Benton, and Abby
Tyler Oakes (1823-1898), was the state's first two professional women
artists.
She was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 10, 1815. She
grew up in New York and began her art education at the age of eight
with drawing classes. At fourteen she was painting. After
completing her studies, she opened a studio and began teaching classes
as well as exhibiting her work. Mrs. Benton also became involved
in prison reform and helping the poor and delinquent children of slum
areas.
In 1855 she joined her husband, Reverend John Eliot
Benton, in San Francisco. She continued to paint as well as teach
art in the public schools. In 1860 the family moved to Sacramento
County, and in 1869 they relocated to Oakland.
Her studio in
Oakland became the first home of the Ebell Society of Oakland of which
she was a founding member. While in California she continued to
exhibit and many of her paintings were on display at state fairs.
Mary Benton worked with oils, pastels, watercolors and pencil drawings.
In 2006, Benton's painting Yosemite Valley, completed around 1855 when
she first joined her husband in the Bay Area was stolen from the
Pioneer Congregational Church in Sacramento, where John Eliot Benton
had served. The oil painting, 5 feet by 4 feet, had been
exhibited in the church since 1899.
Sources include:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
Scott Shields, Chief Curator, Crocker Museum: source for "Taken From Sanctuary", Art in America, October 2006, p. 52
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 10, 1815, Mary Benton
registered in a drawing school in 1823, and continued painting for the
rest of her life. After arriving in San Francisco in 1855 to join
her husband, the Reverend John Elliott Benton, Mary soon became active
as a painter and as an art teacher in the public schools of Oakland and
San Francisco.
In 1869 Mrs. Benton settled in Oakland where her art activity centered
around the Ebell Society of which she was a founder. She lived a
quiet, sedate life as a minister’s wife until her death in Oakland on
Dec. 6, 1910.
Exhibitions:
Mechanics' Institute Fair (San Francisco), 1857-71
California State Fair, 1859 (Yosemite Falls), 1866
Arriola Relief Fund (SF), 1872
Collections:
California Historical Society | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
California Historical Society; City Directory; Women Artists of the American West; New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (Groce, George C. and David H. Wallace); First 100 Years of Painting in California (J. Van Nostrand); Oakland Tribune, 12-8-1910 (obituary). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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