Through Her Eyes: The Impressionist Work of Anna Stanley

Through Her Eyes: The Impressionist Work of Anna Stanley brings to the Neill-Cochran House Museum a group of watercolors, oil studies, and oil-on-canvas paintings by late 19th century American Impressionist Anna Stanley.  Stanley, who trained at The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts in Philadelphia and at the Academie Julian in Paris, exhibited at the Paris Salons, and in many public exhibitions in the United States from the late 1880s through the 1890s.  A daughter and ultimately wife of career military officers, Stanley moved frequently, always recording her impressions of her surroundings.  This exhibit features paintings produced in San Antonio, Holland, Arizona, the Philippines, and Japan, all in an Impressionist style with close attention to atmospheric detail and to the humanity of the subjects.  Through her eyes, the viewer experiences Anna Stanley's travels, and gains a sense of what it was like to experience other cultures and environments around the turn of the 20th century.

Through Her Eyes: The Impressionist Work of Anna Stanley
September 5 - December 21, 2018
Exhibit Opening, September 22, 4-6PM
Neill-Cochran House Museum

2310 San Gabriel Street
Austin, TX 78705
www.nchmuseum.org

(512) 478-2335

Press Coverage:

Austinite unearths history of her grandmother, impressionist painter Anna Huntington Stanley - Austin360.com

19th Century Painter Anna Stanley's Works On Display At The Neil-Cochran House Museum - KUT 90.5, Austin’s NPR Station

Madame Candelaria was Recovered in 2015

The painting was mentioned in a newspaper clipping from the San Antonio Express News heralding several works by Anna Stanley. 

In September 2015, a collector reached out to Jacob Fine Art, Inc. regarding a painting of an elderly woman beside a fire, while a second woman grinds corn beside her, upon receiving the work it was clear that this painting was of the notable Battle of the Alamo Survivor,  Madame Candelaria (Andrea Castañón Villanueva, 1785 - 1899). We have theorized that Anna painted these commemorative works while living in San Antonio, TX with her family in 1887, before she went to Paris for her studies in October of that year.  The work has been masterfully restored and will be included in a forthcoming exhibition. 

The Lone Fisherman (Also known as The Hopeful Fisherman) was recovered in 2014

This painting is mentioned in a newspaper clipping as being exhibited by the Society of Washington Artists at the Cosmos Club and at Veerhoff’s Gallery in 1896.

The painting was exhibited by the Society of Washington Artists at the Cosmos Club
March 2 – 7th, 1896

Anna Returns to the Netherlands

In honor of the United States Bicentennial in July 1976, U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Kingdon Gould, Jr. assembled a large collection of Anna Stanley’s works, along with her illustrated letters, for an exhibition in The Hague.  This exhibition was presented by the U.S. State Department as a tribute to U.S.  / Dutch relations, and later moved to the Museum Singer Laren.

In April of 2006, Anna’s granddaughters, Joanne Stanley Holbrook Patton and Marian Herr Holbrook Roberson were invited to present Anna’s works at George Washington University, Eckles Library, Washington, DC.  Curator Ingrid Swanson penned an article outlining Anna’s career; it was published in the March 2006 issue of American Art Review.

In October 2009, The Telfair Museum in Savannah, GA, and its Chief Curator Holly Koons McCullough opened the exhibition Dutch Utopia, American Painters in Holland 1880 – 1914.  The exhibition traveled to the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Grand Rapids Art Museum and then to the Netherlands at the Museum Singer Laren.  Annette Stott, PhD., Director of the School of Art and Art History, Denver University, is the head curator of the exhibition and the leading authority on American painters in Holland during this period.  She is a great admirer of Anna Stanley’s work and was pleased to see the artist receive the long overdue recognition by presenting her painting Girl Carrying Sheaves, circa 1895 in the tour.  Anna’s painting is among works by Gari Melchers, long regarded the leader of Americans who painted in the Netherlands.