Lilla Cabot Perry: First Solo Show

"Playing by Heart [Alice Perry]"
by Lilla Cabot Perry

"During the Perrys' three-year absence, Boston had undergone great transformations in an effort to maintain its cultural prestige in the face of an increasing challenge from New York. The most notable development was the completion of the new Boston Public Library, 'a splendid palace,' as Lilla's husband characterized it, which symbolized America's 'Renaissance'. Puvis de Chavanne's great mural paintings, which crowned the grand staircase, were a source of immense civic pride. Lilla was particularly enthusiastic about the central panel entitled 'The Inspired Muses,' which expressed the spiritual virtues of music. Puvis previously had evoked this theme in his painting of 1852, 'Inspiration.' It was certainly no coincidence that Lilla's own graceful portrait 'Playing by Heart [Alice Perry],' a variation on a similar theme with fresco allusions, was painted at this time.

Lilla's paintings drew high praise in Boston when the St. Botolph Club opened the winter season of 1897 with her first solo show. Although a substantial number of landscapes from Giverny were presented the conservative art critic of the 'Boston Evening Transcript,' William Downes, focused all his attention on the 'artistic verity' of her portraits. He wrote: 

'Mrs. Perry is one of the most genuine, no-nonsense, natural painters that we know of, the distinguishing trait of her work is its genuineness. The row of pictures impresses one with a sense of invaluable candor and wholesomeness, where nothing is done for effect, but every touch is inspired by an ardent conviction of artistic verity and fitness. It is only superior art which can afford to be so open, so free from artifice, and so self-forgetful. Such work must be taken seriously.'

 The St. Botolph Club exhibition was a milestone for Perry and a consecration of her art in her native Boston. It also ended an important chapter in her career as an artist. Her daughter s were past childhood and thus could no longer serve as the models upon which her reputation was established. She needed a new orientation. It came sooner than expected when her husband accepted a position as Professor of English Language and Literature at Keiogijiku University in Tokyo."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionst" by Meredith Martindale.)