Dewing Woodward. Oil on canvas, Paris 1898.
*Martha Dewing Woodward was one of the pioneer artists of Florida and one of the great ladies of Florida art. The daughter of John Vanderbilt Woodward, cousin of Cornelius Vanderbilt, she studied art extensively in Paris and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1882, at the age of twenty-six, she taught art at the Female Institute of Lewisburg. In 1915 the school became part of Bucknell University. Here she was a one woman department of art, teaching drawing from patterns, sketching from nature, doing India ink and sepia drawing, oil painting, china decoration, watercolors, art criticism and studying the history of fine arts.
In 1888 Woodward moved to the Women’s College of Baltimore, which later became Gaucher College. For three years she was an instructor of painting and drawing and lectured on the history of art. She was principal of the School of Art there from 1891 to 1892. In 1892 Woodward returned to Paris for study; she worked as assistant art critic at the Academy Julian for eleven years. Returning home briefly in 1897, she started the Dewing Woodward School of Drawing And Painting, the first summer school of art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Back at the Academy Julian, Woodward had to deal with the chauvinist attitudes of males in her field; dropping her first name Martha, she signed here work with an elaboratly scrolled Dewing Woodward. Her painting, Wooden Shoemakers, was accepted with acclamation by the jury for one of the Paris salons. Such praise usually guaranteed first prize. However the jury was informed by Jule Le Febre that the artist was a woman, “the painter, whom you think a man is a woman, a student of my own: she painted the picture in Holland and who knows who might have helped her!” She was forced to withdraw the picture. Despite this setback, Woodward won the Grand Prix de Concours de Portrait and the International Grand Prix de Portrait Gold Medal, among other prizes.
Woodward spent five years painting near the American art colony of Arles. Here she was friendly with Mere Marier, who had been a cook in the household of Jean Francois Millet in her youth. Marier was one of the models for Millet’s The Angelus, and The Gleamers. In 1905 Woodward returned to the United States and with her friend Laura Johnson established a home and studio in Shady-in-the-Catskills near Woodstock, New York. Here she taught art and worked with other artists. In 1912 her studio burned to the ground. Her art, her library, and her lectures were completely destroyed. Her property carried insurance and she was able to rebuild. In 1915 Woodward, with her friend Jonas Lie (Lie was president of the National Academy of Design.), founded the Blue Dome Fellowship in Woodstock.
The January 25,1915 New York Times carried the following article. “The Blue Dome Fellowship is an association of artists and students for mutual benefit in the study of light and color under the open sky. The president is Dewing Woodward and the Board of Counselors is composed of Poutney Bigelow, Leigh Hunt, Leila Mecblin, Tait Mackenzie, and Cornelia Bentley Sage. The present exhibition shows that study of the figure out of doors is excellent drill for getting away from the studio effect of light and shade. The difficulty of gaining form under these conditions is so great that none but the most gifted and assiduous can hope to triumph, and weakness in this direction is apparent in most of the exhibits. Dewing Woodward’s ‘Rose Curtain’ is an exception, having, in addition to its charm of color and light, real vigor in handling. Depth is suggested and weight. Sophy Schuyler Dey’s self portrait is an honest, straightforward piece of work, although painted indoors, and without any very great feeling for the air that must be back of a figure, whether in a room or under the sky. Her head of an elderly woman, in a much higher key and more delicate in modeling, is a fine characterization. A.E. Champlin’s imaginative illustrations, ‘The Fairy Tailor’ and ‘While Mortals Sleep’ are carefully drawn and show a dainty fancy.”
In 1919, under some financial stress, Woodward, closed her studio and moved to Miami. The Miami Herald carried a small notice on February 16, 1920, “An exhibition of pictures by Dewing Woodward will be held in the assembly room of the Woman’s Club Building, Twelfth Street at Avenue B, Wednesday the eighteenth and the days following until further notice.” Woodward continued the Blue Dome Fellowship in Miami. The Blue Dome Fellowship was the first professional art association in Florida. The swamps of southern Florida now became her focus. The birds and the rich foliage inspired her. She reported that she and a friend would often travel by Model T Ford to the Everglades, shutting off the motor so its sound would not disturb the birds and drifting to a desired vantage point. She preferred the light at dawn so these trips were executed while the rest of the world slept.
In November 1924, Woodward began to reach out to the State of Florida when she traveled to Gainesville, to lecture and present a picture done in silver point to the Gainesville Association of Fine Arts. When the University of Miami opened in 1925, she was shocked that there was no art course in the curriculum and offered her services. She was the first director of art at the University. In March 1928 Woodward again traveled to Gainesville for the 1st Annual Convention and Exhibiton of the Florida Federation of Art; she gave one of the keynote speeches on the use of color in painting.
In 1929 Woodward was elected the third president of the Florida Federation of Art. Woodward is listed in, The Report of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to Federal Emergency Relief Administrator, December 8, 1933-June 30, 1934, as an artist working for the government. As the Depression deepened she continued working with the Florida Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In 1935 six large panels of Florida bird life, done by her as part of the art project, were given to Florida State College for Women, as decoration for residence halls. Woodward was president of the local Federal Art Center, the Community Art Center and Round Table of Southern Florida. (Auspices of Blue Dome Fellowship, Inc. with exhibition and class rooms located at 126 Avenue Alcazar, and 127 Alhambra Circle in Coral Gables.) The Center employed professional artists and offered free instruction to over 700 children. Here she worked with friend and colleague Helen Stuart Davis, the well known sculptor and mother of the famous abstract painter, Stuart Davis. During the Depression money was a problem for everyone and Woodward and Davis were no exception. Life was a daily struggle for rent and food but the WPA rescued many artists from hunger.
Woodward penned the following letter to Art Digest, which was published in the May 1, 1938 issue, “Sirs: I note in the current issue of The Art Digest, on the editorial page, this statement by Meyric R. Rogers of the City Art Museum of St. Louis: ‘It is interesting to note that the extensive employment of American artists on Government projects during the past few years has noticeably decreased the production available for exhibition purposes.’ As a worker upon the Federal Art Project since its inception, I would like to say that the workers on this project are employed to the full extent of their time, most of us are expected to work 140 hours per month, which means at least 35 hours per week. This does not leave time or freshness for creative work, not that work on the project is not creative, but that the energy of the worker is consumed in the required number of hours to work. I think the explanation lies in this consumption of our time. Incidently, I do not believe that the Government Art Project has brought anything but benefit to artists and public alike. Undoubtedly there is some poor work. Have you ever seen an exhibition which did not include some? I never have, at home or abroad. Dewing Woodward, Florida.”
In the June 17, 1945 issue of the Miami Herald, Doris Reno, art critic for the Herald recognized Woodward, “We called on one of Miami’s most charming, and eager and hard-working painters last week, in her studio surrounded by all the paraphernalia of her trade. We daren’t tell you how many years, and decades, this young spirited, white-haired lady has been wielding the brushes on canvas. She won’t let us! For years to her are only opportunities for more satisfying work with the oils and water colors and pastels that she has manipulated through a long life time. ‘It’s such fun!’ she says, taking the embroidered cover off the canvas that is occupying her these summer mornings – a decorative, colorful representation of white peacocks in a formal setting. Dewing Woodward has been active and effective in the art life of Miami since, 1919, when she came here for a brief visit and stayed to make her home because she ‘liked the colors in this part of the world.’ She organized the School of Fine Arts at University of Miami, when the eminent organization was in its infancy in 1926, ‘and before the school became a department we graduated one student with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree!’ she laughs. She organized the Blue Dome Fellowship among a group of kindred spirits when she lived and painted in the Catskills, before her Miami residence and bestowed it upon this community in the late ’20s. The distinctive art group which this name shelters has been inactive since the war began, but ‘there are now murmurs of its revival, and we hope it may function again for the good of the community quite soon.’ She had charge of the Index of American Design, a government project which had its headquarters in Miami four or five years ago, and which catalogued the earliest and finest American patterns in weaving, glass-work, silver craft and porcelain work; The completed index is now a valued historical possession of the government in Washington. Dewing Woodward was the youngest of a Pennsylvania brood of eight children, all of them educated at home by the tutorial method. She began painting practically in infancy, and at the age of 11 presented her father with a vigorous likeness of himself as a birthday gift. She has it still, one of her most cherished possessions. She studied abroad for years with Tony Robert Fleury, ‘Then the handsomest man in France!’ In Paris she met Rosa Bonheur, who was struck, as people always have been, by the younger artist’s resemblance to herself. Between periods of studying abroad she taught at University of Pennsylvania, and Ethical Culture schools in New York. She has known and worked with many of the great ones of the older school of American painting – the late Jonas Lie (president of the National Academy), Charles D. Williams and others. To the artist’s knowledge, she is the only one in this country to work in “silverpoint” which means to draw on specially prepared paper with a silver stylus. She paints every morning, has completed a couple dozen canvases during the past year.”
Woodward died in Miami in 1950. Her obituary in the Miami Herald described her as, “One of Miami’s first ladies of art”. Woodward’s obituary was also carried by the New York Times, July 14, 1950. The Times called her “One of the nations leading painters.” *Some of the information here is quoted from Ralph Rees, Bucknell University, Class of 1939, and his article The Search for Dewing Woodward, published in Bucknell World, January, 1992.
Born: June 6, 1856, Wiliamsport, Pennsylvania.
Died: July 12, 1950, Miami.
Education: Harriet Hall Seminary for Young Ladies, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Julian and Colarossi Academies, Paris with Tony Robert Fleury.
Membership: L’Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs de France; Artist’s Guild of Chicago; Pen and Brush Club, New York City; MacDowell Club, New York City; American Federation of Arts; Tropical League of Fine Arts; Blue Dome Fellowship, founder; Miami Beach League of Artists; Florida Federation of Art, 3rd president, 1929-1930; Community Art Center and Round Table of Southern Florida, Auspices of Blue Dome Fellowship, President.
Exhibits: Marseilles Exposition, 1903, silver medal; Diplome d’Honneur, City of Paris, 1904; Gold Medal At Nantes, 1904; Miami Woman’s Club Exhibit, February 1920, nude figure paintings, A Good Story, Whispering Birches, The Awakening of Spring, Dancing Lesson, Paper Dolls; Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce Building, Art Exhibit, February 1923, Miami Beach League of Artists, Quahaug Fisher Coming Home; Tropical League of Fine Arts, Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, January 15, 1924, Whispering Birches, Study in Lightning, Waning Moon and Dawn, On Post Duty, Last of the Old Guard; Miami Woman’s Club, 1st Annual Artists’ Salon, February 1929; Florida Federation of Art, 1929, 2nd Annual Convention, Whispering Birches; Miami Woman’s Club, 2nd Annual Artists’ Salon, February 1930; Art Institute of Miami, 1st Annual, Biltmore Hotel, Coral Gables, 1933, Whispering Pines, Deep Woods; Blue Dome Fellowship Annual, Miami Beach Library and Art Center, January 1937; Miami Woman’s Club, 11th Annual Artists Breakfast, March 1938, watercolor head, Mere Marier, model for Millet’s, The Angelus; Florida Federation of Art, All Florida Show, Society of The Four Arts, April 1938, The Swan Pond; Housekeepers’ Club Annual, Coconut Grove, February 1942; Blue Dome Fellowship, at Housekeeper’s Clubhouse, 2985 Bayshore Drive, January-February 1948; Coco Plum Woman’s Club, South Miami, 1st Exhibit, January 1950.
Directory: Listed in the Miami City Directory from 1923 to 1925 at 156 East Flagler St. in 1923 and 218 Calumet Bldg in 1924 and 1925. Listed in the Miami Beach City Directory, 1932 to 1934 and 1938, 1939, with a studio at 142 Alcazar Avenue, Coral Gables.
