A Grand Vision: Violet Oakley and the American Renaissance

The most ambitious exhibition of the work of Violet Oakley (1874–1961) to date, A Grand Vision highlighted Oakley’s spirit of civic humanism and her prolific accomplishments as a muralist, portraitist, stained glass designer, and illustrator. At a time before women had the right to vote, she achieved international fame for her prestigious government commissions for the Pennsylvania State Capitol.

The exhibition documented Oakley’s extensive contributions to Philadelphia institutions and to the American Renaissance revival, following her career through the twentieth century. She fashioned herself as an artist, diplomat, promoting world peace as she created portraits of the delegates to the League of Nations and United Nations.

Guest curator Dr. Patricia Likos Ricci is an associate professor of the history of art and the director of the Fine Arts Division at Elizabethtown College. In the late 1970s, she worked with Edith Emerson, the artist’s life partner and director of Woodmere from the early 1940s through 1978. Emerson founded the Violet Oakley Memorial Foundation at Cogslea. Dr. Ricci helped her organize the artist’s remaining works and reconstruct the trajectory of her career. Dr. Ricci also worked with curators Anne d’Harnoncourt and Anne Percy in 1979, writing the essay and participating in the organization of the first major exhibition of Oakley’s work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Woodmere extends sincere appreciation to the William Penn Foundation for support of the exhibition, its programming, and catalogue. Additional support was provided by The Richard C. von Hess Foundation. The Wyeth Foundation for American Art provided a generous gift toward the catalogue. Additional donors include Sally Bellet; Bowman Properties, Ltd.; Debbie Brodsky; Glenmede; Russell Harris, MD; Susan and Burn Oberwager; Valentine and Richard Walsh, and Harriet and Larry Weiss. 

Exhibition-Related Events

10.07.17 | Lecture: The Spirit of Violet Oakley: Spiritual, Political, and Aesthetic | 3pm
10.23.17 | Lecture: A Literary Lens into the Times of Violet Oakley | 1:30pm
10.27.17 | Violet Oakley Murals Excursion: Pennsylvania State Capitol |8:30am-6pm
10.28.17 | Members' Tour | 1pm
10.28.17 | Lecture: Philadelphia's Last Victorians: Shifting Tides in Architectural Taste, 1885-1910 | 3pm
11.01.17 | Violet Oakley Murals Excursion: Presbyterian Church in Germantown | 2pm
11.13.17 | Lecture: The Pioneering Women of the Bauhaus | 1:30pm
01.20.18 | Lecture: Violet Oakley's Art and Crafts Impulse | 3pm

Catalogue Preview

Check out a previous exhibition featuring Violet Oakley!