A Lady in Black
1880
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Allyn Cox
Accession Number
1983.31.4
Tags
About this artwork
This is a portrait of the wife of Kenyon Coxâs friend the painter Lowell Dyer. In 1880, Cox exhibited the painting in Philadelphia, and also entered it in a Paris show under the French title Dame en noir. This masterful portrait sketch focuses our eyes on Mrs. Dyerâs spirited expression and tilt of the head. Coxâs fast brushwork gives the lavish hat ribbons tied at her neck the same exuberance as his sitterâs personality.
About the Artist
Kenyon Cox · 1856–1919
Kenyon Cox (1856–1919) was born on October 27 in Warren, Ohio, to General Jacob Dolson Cox, a prominent politician and Civil War veteran, and Helen Finney Cox. Despite fragile health, young Cox pursued art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati before advancing to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1877, he traveled to Paris, studying first under Carolus-Duran, then at the Éco...