Rose Cecil O’Neill

Born this day in 1874: Rose Cecil O’Neill (1874–1944), magazine illustrator, writer, and businesswoman who created the Kewpies.

O’Neill was a popular magazine illustrator. Her greatest fame, however—and most of her wealth—came from the creation of the enormously popular Kewpies. Kewpies began as illustrations in the Ladies’ Home Journal. In a blaze of merchandizing Kewpies subsequently appeared as items such as figurines, salt and pepper shakers, inkwells, and on fabric, greeting cards, stationery, and, of course, as dolls. Kewpie dolls were first manufactured in 1913 and netted O’Neill royalties of $1.5 million. The wealth from marketing Kewpies allowed O’Neill to indulge in more serious (and much darker) art, including monumental sculpture, painting, and novel and poetry writing.

Various manufacturers have been churning out Kewpie dolls almost continuously since 1913.

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Anna Claypoole Peale

Self-portrait

Born this day in 1791: Anna Claypoole Peale (1791–1878), professional miniaturist and oil painter

Peale was born into a family of accomplished minaturists, including her sister Sarah Peale; her father, James Peale; and her famous uncle, Charles Wilson Peale. Peale’s talent developed early, and she received encouragement and training from both her father and her uncle. She gave her first exhibit when she was only 20. Many famous personages and other ladies and gentlemen sat for her, so many that, her uncle reported, she was “obliged to raise her prices.” In 1824 she and Sarah become two women elected to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

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Sarah Goodridge

Self-portrait

Born this day in 1788: Sarah Goodridge (1788–1853), famous miniaturist who was able to support herself, her family, and friends on earnings from her art.

Massachusetts native Sarah Goodridge was a self-taught painter and a prolific miniaturist. She had a great natural ability and received little in the way of formal training. She chose ivory miniatures as her medium, for few other options were open to women artists of her day. From her humble beginnings scratching out pictures on birch bark with a pin to winning the admiration of such contemporaries as Gilbert Stuart, Goodridge supported several family members on earnings from her paintings. She painted such notables (in addition to Stuart) as Daniel Webster, Henry Lee, Isaiah Thomas, Henry Knox, and Theophilus Parsons. Her work was exhibited five times at the Boston Athenæum between 1827 and 1835. Her work can readily be found in museums and private collections around the nation. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has more than a dozen you can view on line.

Goodridge painted this self-portrait for Daniel Webster.

Gilbert Stuart proclaimed this miniature to be the only true likeness of himself.

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