Lydia Purdy Hess

Lydia Purdy Hess (April 8, 1866 – November 30, 1936) was an American artist best known for her Portrait of Miss E. H., which was exhibited at the Paris Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Early life and education Lydia Purdy Hess was born on April 8, 1866, in Newaygo, Michigan. She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating in 1886. According to School of the Art Institute records, she studied with Désiré Laugée at Académie Delécluse, and taught at the School from 1891 to 1895. Hess also served as assistant to the sculptor Lorado Taft.

Career Hess's Portrait of Miss E. H. was exhibited at the Paris Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1892; at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia early in 1893; and at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago later in 1893. The oil painting is on exhibit at Orchard Lawn, the home of the Mineral Point Historical Society. The subject of the portrait, Miss Ena Hutchison, attended school at the Art Institute of Chicago with Hess. They traveled to Paris together in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian, one of the first art schools to admit women. That year, Hess began her studies at the Académie Delécluse in France, and later she attended classes with James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

Death Hess died on November 30, 1936, in Evanston, Illinois.

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