Julie Hart Beers (1835-1913), Fishing near a Cascade, 1869. Oil on board, 123/8 x 91/8 in., signed and dated lower left.

Women artists in the Victorian era faced many hindrances to developing their talents and professional careers. “For example, America’s most prestigious art academies did not admit female students, and Victorian etiquette prevented women from engaging in life drawing—a fundamental component of artistic education,” notes Hawthorne Fine Art on its website. “Female artists were also excluded from the prominent art clubs, which allowed their male counterparts to secure patrons. And of course, women’s domestic duties interfered with their artistic aspirations, a conflict which did not set back male artists. Finally, in the realm of landscape painting, women were restricted by their customary mode of dress: corsets, bustles, long skirts, trains, and heels made it difficult to move freely through natural settings in pursuit of the perfect vantage point.”

Beers was fortunate to have the support, guidance and encouragement of her artists brothers, without which the many obstacles facing women artists at the time may have proved too difficult to overcome. 

Julie Hart Beers (1835-1913), Forest Interior with Rivulet, 1870. Oil on canvas, 115/8 x 193/8 in., signed and dated lower right.

Long a champion of under-recognized historic women artists, Hawthorne Fine Art presents the exhibition A Family Discovery: Works from the Estates of Julie Hart Beers and Marion “Minnie” Robertson Beers Brush. The online show and sale is on view through January 1, 2025, and was inspired by the recent discovery of oil paintings by both artists tucked away in a closet in the home of third generation descendants of Beers. The exhibition will feature a dozen of these oil paintings, with four by Beers and the remainder by Brush.

Hawthorne Fine Art has numerous drawings by both artists in their holdings, works that were the subject of a recent catalog titled Capturing Nature Side By Side: Julie Hart Beers (1835-1913) and Marion Robertson Beers Brush (1853-1945), Mother and Daughter, which can be found on the gallery’s website.

Julie Hart Beers (1835-1913), Still Life with Bottle, Glass, and Pipe. Oil on board, 20 x 9 in., signed and dated lower left.

“It was while handling these drawings that we learned what a prolific artist Marion was,” says Hawthorne Fine Art research associate Megan Bongiovanni. “She often accompanied her mother on sketching trips in New York and New England. We know this because both artists often inscribed their drawings with the location and date. We were delighted, for instance, to find drawings by both Julie and Marion that were executed in Central Park on the same June day in 1874. While Marion has not received the attention of her mother and uncles, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1874 noted that Marion came from a professional family of artists, ‘and it is not strange that her works show genius.’”

Marion “Minnie” Robertson Beers Brush (1853-1945), Woodland Interior with Cascade. Oil on board, 9¼ x 61/8 in., signed with monogram (MRB) lower left.

Widowed with two children, Beers began painting at the age of 22 with the hope that sales of her landscapes would allow her to be financially independent, and spent the summers sketching around the Hudson Valley and New England. She would go on to become of the few professional women landscape painters of the 19th century, and one of few to rise to any renown. Her first documented exhibition was at the National Academy of Design in 1867, with several others before exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1868. The recently acquired oil, Fishing near a Cascade, was painted a year later. It shows a creek-side fisherman dwarfed by a towering rock wall on a calm, lazy day, while the waters rush gently downstream.

Marion “Minnie” Robertson Beers Brush (1853-1945), Wildflower Meadow Beside a Stream. Oil on canvas board, 8 x 10 in., signed with monogram (MRB) lower right.

Two other highlights by Beers include Ferns Along Water’s Edge and Forest Interior with Rivulet, 1870. Both pieces offer zoomed-in studies of a lush wood that demonstrate an almost scientific attention to detail. Another piece of note is a rare, textural still life by the artist titled Still Life with Bottle, Glass, and Pipe that shows the artist’s skillful handling of light. 

Marion “Minnie” Robertson Beers Brush (1853-1945), Garden Path. Oil on board, 8½ x 11 in., signed with monogram (MRB) and dated July 9, 1918, lower right.

Works by Brush, like Woodland Interior with Cascade, depicting a stream gently flowing over rocks flanked by lush banks, demonstrate her mother’s influence as well as their shared affinity for nature. However, Brush brings more light and color into her work, as seen in the floral scenes Wildflower Meadow Beside a Stream, Garden Path and Hollyhocks Along a Garden Path. While little-known today, Brush did get some notoriety during her day, exhibiting with the Brooklyn Art Association and the American Watercolor Society, and with many of her artist contemporaries, including her mother, at the Brooklyn Art Association (1874), the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition (1875) and the Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago (1877).

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