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“Le Five O’Clock (Tea)” by Susan Watkins (American) - Oil on canvas / c. 1903 - Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Virginia) #WomenInArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #SusanWatkins #ChryslerMuseumOfArt #ChryslerMuseum #AmericanArt #art #artText #arte #teatime #WomenPaintingWomen #WomensArt #1900sArt
Artist Susan Watkins turns a familiar tea scene into something quietly modern. The title itself (part French, part English) suggests cosmopolitan play, fitting for an American painter who trained in New York and Paris and built an international career at the turn of the century. Around 1903, she was already earning praise for her technical control and elegant interiors, even as women artists were often steered toward “acceptable” domestic subjects. Two young women sit at a small tea table beside doors with windows, their figures emerging from a dim, softly brown interior into cool afternoon light. The woman at left, in a pale rose dress with a dark sash, leans forward with one hand near her chin, listening intently. Across from her, a woman in a white blouse lifts a delicate blue-and-white teacup, her face and shoulders haloed by the brightness behind her. Between them are a teapot, cups, saucers, and small plates. At right, a green vase holds pink flowers, while glass bottles and serving pieces recede into shadow on a shelf. Outside the open doorway, blurred greenery glows in loose strokes. Their skin is fair in the filtered light, their hair swept up in softly structured early-20th-century styles. No sitter is identified here, and the painting’s intimacy comes partly from that uncertainty as we seem to enter not a formal portrait, but a private moment. The domesticity is not trivial. Conversation, attention, and mood are the real subject. One woman speaks. The other measures the moment before replying. The white tablecloth and porcelain catch the light like stage props, but the emotional drama stays restrained, almost whispered. Watkins’s gift lies in that restraint. She makes the room feel lived-in and intelligent, a space where women’s interior lives matter. Later, she would say that meaningful work brought “the most lasting and most perfect happiness.” This painting feels shaped by that conviction to be disciplined, observant, and full of quiet self worth.
April 19, 2026 at 10:43 PM
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The 1830 Girl (Portrait of Miss M. P. in Louis Philippe Costume) by Susan Watkins (American) - Oil on canvas / 1900 - Chrysler Museum of Art (Norfolk, Virginia) #womeninart #art #portrait #artwork #SusanWatkins #womanartist #womensart #oilpainting #portraitofawoman #americanart #ChryslerMuseumofArt
This oil painting by American artist Susan Watkins depicts a seated young woman with very fair skin wearing a historical outfit intended to convey the year 1830. It features an elaborate white bonnet with large black feathers, which ties underneath her chin with a teal-green bow. Her pinkish-white dress is covered by a gauzy wrap; around her right wrist a red and black handbag hangs next to the chair. She holds a parasol (only the handle is visible) with her left hand. Watkins emerged from her study with Raphael Collin as a gifted interpreter of the human form, and in 1899 she began to exhibit figure pieces-both portraits and scenes of everyday life-at the Paris Salon. Among the most successful of these early works was “The 1830 Girl,” which won a third-class gold medal at the 1901 Salon. Wearing the elaborately feathered bonnet and gauzy evening wrap fashionable during the 1830-1848 reign of King Louis Philippe, the subject here reflects Watkins' early interest in "historical portraiture" with romantic, fancy-dress images that nostalgically evoke an earlier age. The painting also reveals her gifts as a colorist. The sitter's pale flesh and gown — a medley of cream and ivory hues brushed with pink and green — are dramatically set against a dark background. “The 1830 Girl” secured Watkins' reputation in Paris and the United States, where it went on to win a silver medal in Saint Louis at the 1904 Universal Exposition Commemorating the Acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase.
February 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM