NYSWA FOUNDERS
The New York Society of Women Artists
Marguerite Thompson Zorach (1887-1968)
Lucile Lundquist Blanch (1895-1981)
Concetta Scaravaglione (1900-1975)
Today, the New York Society of Women Artists finds itself tasked with remaking itself. We aspire to birth new schools of art and encourage new avenues of exchange and discussion. As we embrace women who work in many diverse artistic styles from abstract to realism, we dedicate ourselves with a look to the future and a respect for our past.
Research by Rachelle Weisberger, Chair of the Keystone Committee.
Ethel Myers (1881-1960)
For the realist painter and sculptor Ethel Myers, the challenges she faced during her lifetime provided opportunities to pursue additional activities as a businesswoman, designer, and educator.
Orphaned at age four, she was adopted and renamed from Lillian Cochran to Mae Ethel Klinck. Her adoptive mother had hoped she would become a concert pianist, however, Ethel had other plans.. “ I decided I wanted to be a painter. I never had any other idea. So in my second year in the Newark high school I left and went to National Academy in
New York, then on twenty-third Street.” When Ethel failed the entrance exam, she enrolled at the Chase School of Art (later the New York School of Art), and studied there for six years from 1898-1904. She was instrumental in getting Robert Henri in the school and became his pupil. Her early work, capturing life of the Lower East Side with its immigrant populations, was strongly influenced by the Ashcan School leader.
When 18-year-old Ethel decided to marry artist Jerome Myers, rather than her businessman fiancé, her enraged mother cut Ethel off from a considerable inheritance. A year later in 1907, her daughter Virginia was born, and her mother had a change of heart though it came with an ultimatum. Ethel and Virginia had to leave Jerome and live with her. Ethel never answered her mother.
After her daughter was born, Ethel’s artistic output moved in another direction as she subjugated her career to her husband’s. She gave up painting and created small, realistic sculptures. Nine of these caricature bronzes of city people were exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show. When President Theodore Roosevelt visited the show, he singled out her group sculpture, Gossip, for praise.
Myers had one-woman shows at the Folsom, Beilin and Knoelder Galleries that received critical acclaim as reported in several publications, including The New York Times. “Mrs. Jerome Myers has an exhibition of Sculptures at the Folsom Galleries that proves her a serious humorist, a Forain of Fifth Avenue.”
When three-year old Virginia displayed a talent for dancing, Myers devoted all her energies to promoting her daughter’s career. She began by scheduling private performances for friends and art collectors that was followed by organizing a series of recitals in New York City. She arranged everything from booking theaters, handling contracts, coordinating costumes, set design, publicity, and the printing of tickets and programs. All her efforts paid off. At age 16, the “child wonder” of dance appeared in her first solo performance at Carnegie Hall.
Throughout the years, financial woes followed the Myers. Their hope that a trip to Europe in 1914 would provide a lucrative market for Jerome’s work was shattered with the outbreak of World War 1. Ethel, Jerome and 8-year old Virginia quickly returned to New York.
Resourceful and energetic, Ethel Myers was determined to find a new source of income. She found success as a designer of women’s clothes and hats. From 1920 to 1940 her New York shop was a mecca for celebrities of stage, society, and opera.
After Jerome died in 1940, Myers took on the mantle of promoting his artistic reputation. From 1941-43, she lectured extensively throughout the United States on his work. She also maintained the Jerome Myers Memorial Gallery in New York for several years. Beginning in 1949 until her retirement, Ethel was Art Director of the Fine Arts and Ceramics Department at Christodora House in New York City.
Her works have been exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New York Ceramic Society.
Ethel Myers was a founding member of NYSWA and served as its first Treasurer. Shortly after moving to Cornwall, New York, Ethel Myers died in 1960, at age 79.