The First Woman Who Had a "One-Man" Show at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
A hundred years ago this month.
A hundred years ago this month, in February 1925, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, mounted the first “one-man” exhibition of art made by a woman: Emma Richardson Cherry (1859-1954).
Bestowing that honor on ER Cherry could hardly have been more appropriate for the new museum, which had opened its doors less than a year before, in April 1924. Mrs. Cherry, as she is/was known by many of her devoted fans, both then and now, had been the early driving force behind the founding of the museum, after all. Twenty-five years earlier, in 1900, it had been Mrs. Cherry who championed the Houston Public School Art League, which evolved into the art museum - the first in Texas - that honored her with an exhibition in 1925. Without her foresight and devotion to art in the city, there might well have been no MFAH at all.
For the exhibition, Cherry herself selected 46 works from among the hundreds she had created through what had already been a long career - a career in which she had studied with the likes of William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in New York, in the 1880s; painted at Giverny, in 1888/89 (the first woman documented to have painted there); exhibited the first Impressionist paintings in Texas, at an exhibition she organized in 1896, the first curated art exhibition in the state; shared a canvas with Marsden Hartley, in 1920; and joined the avant-garde Société Anonyme along the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Hartley and other luminaries of Modern Art in America at the time.
So, Congratulations, Mrs. Cherry, on the centennial of your ground-breaking show. We thank you for helping found the splendid art museum we have today - 12th largest in the WORLD! And even more for your beautiful paintings. Shown here, a selection of the pieces on show at the museum 100 years ago.
Randy, you introduced me to the work of Emma Richardson Cherry and I do so appreciate her work. I’m always happy to learn more about her. Thank you, Colleen
I love her work! What a delight to savor her light, just as I watch the first of today's snowfall outside my window. Thank you for sharing her work and telling of her leadership in creating the art museum.