Amelia Watson, Pines and Palms, watercolor, 10 3/4 by 12 3/4 inches, signed lower left.
Born in 1856 in Connecticut, Amelia Watson first studied with her mother, an amateur painter, and later with the tonalist painter, Dwight William Tryon in his Hartford, Connecticut studio. She was committed to becoming a serious artist at an early age, in an era when women were dismissed as incapable of equaling men in creative or technical achievement. By the age of twenty-three she was able to support herself with her art. She was appointed to the faculty of Temple Grove Seminary (later Skidmore College) in Saratoga, New York in 1878. Watson remained in Saratoga for several years and in 1880’s became head of the art department at Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute, a position she held for twenty years. In the 1890’s Watson achieved professional critical acclaim for her watercolors. In 1892 she was the first artist to work at the Artist’s Colony in Tryon, North Carolina. Watson built her own studio “Under the Tupelo,” in Tryon in 1910 but in 1930, with the onset of the Depression, Watson’s savings were wiped out, and she was forced to sell her Tryon home. Watson came to Florida regularly, and while traveling to an art gallery in Orlando, tragically died on the street of an apparent heart attack. Born: 1856, East Windsor, Connecticut. Died: 1934, Orlando. Education: With Dwight William Tryon. Membership: Boston Art Club; Art Institute of Chicago; New York Watercolor Club; American Watercolor Society.
Amelia Watson, Orlando, Orlando Cabin, watercolor,10 by 13 3/4 inches, signed lower left.
