Alice Kent Stoddard

Alice Kent Stoddard was born in Watertown, Connecticut and was a first cousin of renowned American illustrator Rockwell Kent. She trained as an artist at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art and Design). She also took classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts studying with leading figures in American realism, including, William Merritt Chase, and Cecilia Beaux. During World War I, Stoddard served as a combat artist, living with US regiments on the European front. She depicted the bravery of soldiers and the plight of French refugees in paintings and drawings, which were published by the United States Army in order to sustain support for the war effort. During World War II, Stoddard worked as a drafting artist and instructor making airplane schematics for the the Budd Company, a leading manufacturer of airplanes and defense equipment located on Hunting Park Avenue in Philadelphia.

Known primarily a portraitist, Stoddard was commissioned to paint prominent Philadelphians throughout her long career. In 1948, Stoddard married her longtime friend and fellow artist Joseph Pearson; her first marriage and his second. A close friend of Woodmere’s director, Edith Emerson, Stoddard was an active and long-standing volunteer at Woodmere, assisting in the cataloguing of the museum’s collection.