A Mini-graphy
Lilla Cabot Perry grew up in the prestigious Boston Brahmin Cabot family and her family’s social status afforded her educational opportunities available to few other women at the time. From a very early age, Perry was inspired to paint; she writes later of her sentiment as teenager:
From our house on top of the hill, the countryside spread out all around like the large patchwork quilt on my grandmother’s bed. Already I had a longing to paint . (qtd. Martindale 17)
If Perry had such an aesthetic inspiration and also the opportunity to paint, why did she not pursue formal instruction? The reasoning can be attributed to her starting a family. In 1874, Perry married an English professor, Thomas Sergent Perry, a descendent of Benjamin Franklin and Commodore Matthew Perry (Martindale 17). Two years later their first daughter, Margaret was born and Perry as a result suffered from depression and sickness (Owen). This somber time is expressed in Perry’s first documented painting, “A Portrait of an Infant” which is a sketch of her daughter in pitch black. Furthermore, Perry’s physical impediment is a main reason why Perry spent the better part of the next decade concentrating on her poetry and translations rather than painting (Martindale 141).
In her mid thirties, Perry was healthy enough to receive a formal artistic education, but she was not the only member of the family receiving instruction in the arts. Perry writes to a friend in 1886:
Margaret flourishes and works enthusiastically at her violin. She will make a good player, I hope, eventually. Her teacher says her progress is remarkable and her ear is unusually accurate. (qtd. Martindale 141)
Perry’s analysis of her daughter’s prospects as a violin player emphasizes her priorities as a mother and her deep love for her children. Perry had to split her time between nurturing her daughters and learning to paint; the quotation demonstrates that Perry was sincerely following the progress of Margaret as a musician (eventually all three of Perry’s daughters took up an instrument, as she documents in The Trio. Even in Paris, when Perry enrolled at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian, she attended classes sporadically due to her responsibilities at home (Martindale 20).
In this early stage of her career, Perry almost exclusively portrayed her daughters. Rather than trying to send a deliberate message or explore a particular theme with these works, it is more likely that painting her daughters was simply a more practical and sensible decision. In this sense, Perry’s daughters were both her greatest limitation and her foremost inspiration as an artist. With the numerous portraits of her daughters, Perry improved her technique but was restricted in subject matter. She was too preoccupied with caring for her family to worry about gaining fame as an artist. Years later, Perry’s granddaughter Lilla Grew summarized Perry’s character in a letter to her grandmother:
How can I keep you from worrying about other people?… You are made that way and I suppose there’s nothing to do about it. (qtd. Martindale 102)
Images:
A Portrait of an Infant [Margaret Perry] 1877-88 Collection of James M.B. Holsaertt, Location Unknown.
The Trio [Alice, Edith and Margaret Perry] 1898-1900 Collection Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts.