Paulette Van Roekens
Encyclopedia
The American artist Paulette Van Roekens was born in Château-Thierry
, France late New Year's Eve 1895. Something of a prodigy, she was awarded the John Sartain Fellowship at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design
). She also attended classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and studied sculpture at the Graphic Sketch Club of Philadelphia.
She became a professor at the Moore College of Art in drawing and painting in 1923, a position she held for almost 40 years. At Moore she earned an LHD in 1941.
In 1927 she married a colleague at Moore, Arthur Melzer, a respected artist in his own right. They had two children, Davis Paul and Joanne. She and Melzer lived in the Philadelphia area for the rest of their lives. They each had a studio in the family home, but painted subjects from New York as well as outdoor scenes from excursions to Europe
She worked in a variety of media and is well known for her oils and pastels. Still lifes are prominent in her early work, but as her career developed she turned more and more to landscapes. She called herself a “sometimes impressionist” because while she was strongly influenced by impressionism
she found it difficult to completely break with academic drawing. She exhibited throughout her career; her first solo exhibit in 1920 and her last only a few months before her death in 1988.
Her work is represented at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
, the National Academy of Design
, the Carnegie Institute
, the Art Institute of Chicago
, the Mint Museum (Charlotte, N.C.), the Albright Gallery, and the Detroit Institute of Art.
Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry is a commune in northern France about east-northeast of Paris. It is a sub-prefecture of the Aisne department in Picardy.-History:...
, France late New Year's Eve 1895. Something of a prodigy, she was awarded the John Sartain Fellowship at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design
Moore College of Art and Design
Moore College of Art & Design educates students for careers in the visual arts. Moore is an independent college of art and design. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Moore is the first and only women's visual arts college in the nation, and one of only two in the world...
). She also attended classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and studied sculpture at the Graphic Sketch Club of Philadelphia.
She became a professor at the Moore College of Art in drawing and painting in 1923, a position she held for almost 40 years. At Moore she earned an LHD in 1941.
In 1927 she married a colleague at Moore, Arthur Melzer, a respected artist in his own right. They had two children, Davis Paul and Joanne. She and Melzer lived in the Philadelphia area for the rest of their lives. They each had a studio in the family home, but painted subjects from New York as well as outdoor scenes from excursions to Europe
She worked in a variety of media and is well known for her oils and pastels. Still lifes are prominent in her early work, but as her career developed she turned more and more to landscapes. She called herself a “sometimes impressionist” because while she was strongly influenced by impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
she found it difficult to completely break with academic drawing. She exhibited throughout her career; her first solo exhibit in 1920 and her last only a few months before her death in 1988.
Her work is represented at the Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
, the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
, the Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute
Carnegie Institute can refer to:*Carnegie Institute, operator of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania*Carnegie Institution for Science , Washington, D.C....
, the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, the Mint Museum (Charlotte, N.C.), the Albright Gallery, and the Detroit Institute of Art.