The Red Rose Girls: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Pt. 2

"The Five Little Pigs" by
Elizabeth Shippen Green

"Elizabeth Shippen Green was an unusually ambitious and resourceful young woman. She learned the technical aspects of the illustration field from her father. At the age of seventeen she set up a studio in the corner of her bedroom, produced a series of drawings, and sold them to the 'Philadelphia Times.' These first published illustrations appeared in the 'Times' on her eighteenth birthday (one month before she began taking classes at the Academy), as an accompaniment for her own charmingly naive rhyme about a child and her doll, 'Naughty Lady Jane.'

The remuneration for these illustrations was hardly enough to earn Bessie Green financial independence (fifty cents for a one-column drawing, a dollar for two columns, and occasionally three dollars for a very large drawing), but the success of these illustrations led to other commissions for the publication, and the modest fees were enough to pay the $8-per-month tuition at the Academy. The young artist was so anxious to see her work in print that she willingly tested the stamina that would sustain her long professional life. While working diligently in the Academy's Antique class, seeking to gain her instructor's recommendation for promotion to the Women's Life class, she also produced a series of illustrations each week for the 'Philadelphia Times.'

Elizabeth also began to solicit new clients who would give her the opportunity to showcase more impressive drawings. Her first magazine cover was published in December 1890, two months into her second year at the Academy. She was nineteen years old. The drawing, executed in a sure and fluid line, appeared on the December cover of the humor magazine 'Jester' and depicted a young couple in evening dress at a holiday party. Her drawing, entitled 'Every Bud Has Its Thorn,' was captioned:

HE: I assure you, Miss Jacqueminot, I get thoroughly battled when I talk to a debutante, just lose my head completely y'know.
SHE: Indeed? What a pity. Well, Christmas is not far off, and perhaps Santa Claus will bring you some presents of mind.

She also established herself as a regular contributor to the 'Philadelphia Public Ledger.' Her assignments were all fashion illustrations: a corseted woman in a broad-shouldered gown that emphasized her tiny waist, a straw hat trimmed with Mercury wings. Although her drawings were competent, they were prosaic and virtually indistinguishable from those of the many other fashion illustrators plying their trade. She had yet to hit her stride."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)