Mary Lane McMillan (Texas, New York, Florida, 1883 - 1976)
Painting of a woman in a garden with hollyhocks. Signed lower right. Oil on Canvas. Previously exhibited at The Plains Art Museum and the Albin Polasek Museum.
McMillan was an American illustrator and fine artist during the early to mid 20th century. She studied at the National Academy of Design in New York from 1902 to 1904 where she won the Suydam Medal for best work in her antiques class in the 1903 Spring competition and won Honorable Mention in her Illustration class in the 1904 Spring Competition. McMillan studied illustration and pictorial composition at the Chicago Art Institute (c. 1905-1906) under Walter Marshall Clute and studied watercolors and outdoor sketching under Frederick Oswald. She attended Walter Marshall Clute's private school at his home in Park Ridge, IL, where she studied oil painting, interiors, landscapes, costumes, and plein air techniques. During this time, McMillan also associated with members of the art colony in Park Ridge. In 1914, many years after she had left Chicago, McMillan was invited to submit a painting titled, "An Old Spinning Wheel" for a watercolor exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute.
McMillan taught art at the Presbyterian College for Women in Milford, TX and was later head of the Art Department at Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University) in Fort Worth, TX from 1906 to 1912. McMillan began illustrating magazine covers for Holland's and The Etude during these years as well.
In 1910, McMillan traveled to Florence to study with William Merritt Chase at his private villa. From 1910 to 1912, she was a popular exhibitor at the Fort Worth Public Library's art exhibitions, often displaying her Italian inspired artwork. She left Texas for New York in 1912 to devote her career to book and magazine illustration. Over one hundred of her illustrations appeared in issues of Life, McCall's, The Designer, Harper's Bazaar, Saturday Evening Post, Pictorial Review and The American Magazine, which included various cover features. She even dabbled in the world of commercial illustration by doing a Campbell's Soup advertisement for tomato soup in 1915.
Sight Size: 20.5 x 16 in.
Overall Size: 30 x 26 in.
Condition
- By registering to bid for this auction either in-house or online and/or placing a bid in this auction the BIDDER/BUYER agrees to all the terms and conditions of Helmuth Stone Gallery Auctions.
- All silver, gold and/or jewelry lots or invoices containing said lots MUST be paid for via wire transfer or cashier’s check, no other forms of payment will be accepted.
- We recommend looking into shipping quotes prior to bidding, shipping quotes can take up to a week or more post-sale as we host our auctions through 6 online platforms and shipping can become backlogged.
- All sales are final; no refunds will be given under any circumstances.
- Helmuth Stone Gallery provides condition reports as a courtesy to our clients and assumes no liability for any error or omission. Any condition statement is given as a courtesy to a client, and is only an opinion and should not be treated as a statement of fact. Descriptions are our opinions and should in no way be construed as a guarantee of any kind as to age, condition, mater. The bidder assumes responsibility for ensuring that the condition of the item(s) meets with their satisfaction prior to bidding. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging.
- Online images can sometimes be low quality due to the uploading process, original high-resolution images can be requested via email at HelmuthStone@gmail.com