Lilian Westcott Hale
1880-1963
Lilian Westcott Hale was one of America’s most successful Impressionist painters. She worked in both Realist and Impressionist manner. Hale is most closely associated with the ‘Boston School’ of American Impressionism and is best known for her sensitive portrayals of Boston society through subjects such as portraiture, genre scenes of interiors, and outdoor leisure activities. Later on Hale began sketching domestic scenes.
Lilian Westcott Hale was born in 1881 in Hartford, Connecticut, and began her art education in 1900 at the School of Fine Arts in Boston. She studied under American impressionist painters Edmund Tarbell, William Merritt Chase, and Philip Leslie Hale, whom she later married.
At the turn of the 20th century, Impressionism had made its way to America and influenced a new era of artists. Closely associated with the ‘Boston School’ of American Impressionism, Hale created a broad range of impressionist and realist style. Her paintings are appealing: she often depicts charming figures highlighted by soft lights playing over their forms and rendered in rich colors. Able to capture a delicate animation in her subjects, Hale was a master of refined impressionist technique. She was particularly noted for charcoal drawing and for her innovation of placing a still life on a window sill to reveal the landscape beyond. Often when she exhibited her work, she placed her sketch drawings next to its companion painting.
Starting in 1904, she exhibited annually in Boston, and throughout her career Hale won awards for her artistic achievement. Later in her career, Hale painted portraits, still lives and landscapes. At the age of 83 Hale won her last prize at the Rockport Art Association’s summer exhibition, passing away later that year.
