Sold at Auction: Maria Richards Oakey Dewing

(b New York City, 1845; d New York City, 1927) American Painter. Maria Oakey Dewing grew up in a cultured environment, with a family who encouraged her interest in writing and painting. She decided at age seventeen to devote herself to painting, receiving her early training at the Cooper Union School of Design for Women in 1866 and studying under John La Farge thereafter. By 1875, Dewing had established herself as an artist and was one of the primary motivators behind the formation of the Art Student's League in New York. In 1881, Maria Oakey married Thomas Wilmer Dewing and her primary subject matter began to shift away from figure painting, a genre in which her husband was established as one of the finest talents, toward gardens and flowers painted spontaneously out of doors. From 1885 to 1903, the Dewings spent their summers in Cornish, New Hampshire, where Thomas cultivated a garden and both husband and wife devoted themselves to their work.* Maria Oakey Dewing developed into an avid amateur botanist and plein air painter. She prided herself on her careful observation of plants and her ability to capture their individual growing habits. (Credit: *Sotheby’s, New York, American Paintings, May 24, 2006, Lot 40; Sotheby’s, New York, American Paintings, May 24, 2001, Lot 10)