ROCKFORD ART MUSEUM | COLLECTION | AMERICAN MASTERS

Pauline Palmer

Pauline Palmer was born in McHenry, Illinois, in 1867 and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Palmer also studied in Paris under artists Simon, Collin, and Courtois. In 1891, she married Dr. Albert Palmer of Chicago, who encouraged her development as an artist.

Palmer painted a wide variety of subjects including landscapes, street and beach scenes, genre, and portraits in both Realist and Impressionist styles. The Palmers maintained a summer home in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Here Palmer befriended many of the Portuguese fishermen's families. Several of them, especially the children, became subjects for her later works.

Palmer exhibited widely during her lifetime at expositions in Buffalo (1901), St. Louis (1904), and San Francisco (1915). Starting in 1899, the Art Institute of Chicago held annual exhibits of her work for 27 years. She became a legend at the Art Institute by winning nearly all of the museum's major awards, purchase prizes, and honorable mention citations. Among many accomplishments, she was elected the first female President of the Chicago Society of Artists in 1918.

In 1938, Palmer died of pneumonia while traveling in Norway. Obituaries celebrating her lifetime of artistic achievement referred to her as "Chicago's Painter Lady.”