Katherine Barker Fussell

Born Katharine Marie Barker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1891 as the artist didn’t take her eventual last name until 1922, when she became the wife of Howard Fussell. Katharine grew up living with her widowed mother in Europe and spending her summers with relatives of her father in New York. At age 16, Katharine enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, but wasn’t a full time student until four years later. At PAFA, she studied under Philip Hale, Thomas Anshutz, Emil Carlsen, Robert Vonnoh, and Cecilia Beaux. She and several other women participated together in the Philadelphia Ten’s inaugural exhibition in 1917. The majority of Katharine’s art work included still-lifes, landscapes, and commissioned portraits. She was a painter and art educator with a passion for her craft until the day she died.