Chicago World's Fair & The Women's Building
In 1893, Chicago would be site of the World's Columbian Exposition, a celebration of the discovery of the New World by Columbus. It would also mark Chicago's recovery from the Chicago Fire of 1871. Women would have a large presence in the fair and the plumb position was the President of the Board of Lady Managers, which Bertha Palmer was selected to lead in 1891. While the positions were honorary, the women had a great deal of work to do, with the selection of an architect for the women's building and a designer to supervise the interior decoration. Sophia Hayden was chosen to design and building and the influential designer Candace Wheeler, the interior. The Chicago art curator Sarah Tyson Hallowell (1846-1924) worked closely with Bertha Palmer on the art exhibits and the murals which were designed into each end of the building by Bennett. Apparently, it was Palmer who chose the theme of "Primitive Woman" and "Modern Woman" for the two murals and Hallowell and Palmer's first choice for both murals was Elizabeth Jane Gardner (1837-1922), an experienced academic painter and the paramour of William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905). However, the time to paint the two huge murals (12' x 54') was short and the artist did not feel that she had the energy to tackle it. Hallowell then recommended the young academic painter Mary Fairchild Macmonnies and the Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt to do the two murals and after their initial rejection of the contracts, the women only had a number of months to complete the murals and have them shipped to Chicago. Following the opening of the Exposition, she sat for the fashionable Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920), who was commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers from the fair.
Read more about this topic: Bertha Palmer
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