Gertrude Abercrombie

Gertrude Abercrombie (February 17, 1909 – July 3, 1977) was an American painter based in Chicago. Called "the queen of the Bohemian artists", Abercrombie was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and was friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work.

Early life Abercrombie was born on February 17, 1909, in Austin, Texas. Her parents, Tom and Lula Janes Abercrombie, were traveling opera singers who happened to be in Austin on the day of Gertrude's birth. The family lived in Berlin in 1913 to further her mother's career, but the beginning of World War I caused the family to move back to the United States. The following summer she made her first sale at an outdoor art fair in Chicago and received an honorable mention in the newspaper for the event. and she appeared as herself in James Purdy's Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue and as a fictional character in Purdy's Malcolm, Eustace Chisholm.

Death By the late 1950s, her health declined as a result of financial trouble, alcoholism, and arthritis, and she became reclusive. After 1959, her paintings diminished in number as well as scale. She required a wheelchair and was eventually bedridden. In the final year of her life, a major retrospective of her work was held at the Hyde Park Art Center. The 1940s and '50s have been described as her most prolific and productive period; a time when she no longer painted many portraits, but retained the themes mentioned above. Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of an Artist as a Landscape. Elmhurst Art Museum, January 20-March 4, 2018. Gertrude Abercrombie. State of Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago, March 18-May 17, 1991 and at the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, July 28-October 25, 1991. Gertrude Abercrombie: A Retrospective Exhibition. Hyde Park Art Center, January 28-March 5, 1977. Gertrude Abercrombie. Newman Brown Gallery, 1952. Gertrude Abercrombie. Leonard Linn Gallery. Winnetka, Illinois, 1952. Gertrude Abercrombie and friends: An Exhibition of the work by Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977) and her Contemporaries Donated to the Illinois State Museum by the Gertrude Abercrombie Estate. February 6-March 27, 1983, Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

Chicago Avant-Garde: Five Women Ahead of Their Time. September 10-December 30, 2021. Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.

Notable awards Prize, Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, 1936;1938, Art Institute of Chicago