Lydia Field Emmet - Education

Education

Emmet was given her first art lessons as a child by her older sister Rosina. Emmet and Rosina went on to attend the Académie Julian in Paris, France in 1884-1885. The Emmet family had suffered severe economic setbacks in the aftermath of the Civil War. The sisters' were able to study abroad only after receiving an inheritance from their cousin, Bache Whitlock. However, the Emmets were disappointed with Julian's, and Rosina commented that the admission standards were "so low that it is not very inspiring. If they (instructors) critisized conscientiously they would punch holes through some of the vile paintings and make them begin from drawing casts." The Emmets did hold a high opinion of at least one of their instructors, Tony Robert-Fleury, whom Lydia found to be "so much brisker and more severe and decided, besides being very inspiring."

After returning to New York, the Emmet sisters, and their cousin Ellen, became students of notable American painter and instructor William Merritt Chase. During her tenure in New York, Emmet also studied with such artists as: Henry Siddons Mowbray, Kenyon Cox and Robert Reid. She continued her training in Paris with William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin, Tony Robert-Fleury, and the American sculptor and painter Frederick William MacMonnies. She worked mainly in the mediums of watercolor and oil.

While studying in Europe, Emmet and her cousin Ellen joined a summer colony of American artists, including John Leslie Breck and Theodore Robinson, at Hotel Baudy near Claude Monet's home in Giverny, France.