Sarah Tyson Hallowell

Sarah Tyson Hallowell or Sara Tyson Hallowell (December 7, 1846 – July 19, 1924) was an American art curator in the years between the Civil War and World War I. She curated a number of major exhibitions in Chicago, arranged the loan exhibition of French Art at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and worked with Bertha Palmer (1849–1918) to organize the murals for the women's pavilion for the fair. She then moved to Paris, where she served as agent for the Art Institute of Chicago. During World War I she and her niece Harriet Hallowell (1873–1943) volunteered at a small hospital. She lived in France until her death in 1924.

Early life

Sarah Tyson Hallowell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 7, 1846. #tag:ref|Oxford lists her year of birth as 1947. Even though the family were Quakers, three of her brothers, Morris, Francis and Lewis, fought in the Civil War for the Union Army. Each of them sustained injuries and/or were sick during the war. During the Civil War, Mary played a leadership role in Tennessee serving Union Army soldiers

Hallowell's nephew was the American artist George Hawley Hallowell (1872-1926) of Boston, and her niece, who lived with her in France, was the painter Harriet Hallowell.

Her grandfather was Elisha Tyson, who was a Quaker active in social and political causes. Mary, her mother, and her niece Harrier were members of the Paris, France chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. John Hallowell (died 1706), a Quaker from England, was her father's ancestor.

Career

Hallowell worked in Paris and Chicago as an "influential" adviser and organizer of art exhibits.

Hallowell traveled to European art centers to arrange for works of art for the Inter-State Industrial Expositions in Chicago Alfred Sisley, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir in the 1890 Inter-State show. She was said to have been among a group of women who were students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Hallowell was responsible for collecting 19th-century European art and identifying candidates for painting of wall murals by women artists. Working predominantly from Paris and at the request of Berthe Palmer, Hallowell identified Mary MacMonnies and Mary Cassatt, who became one of her friends in the 1890s. Soap Bubbles by Elizabeth Gardner was one of the works selected by Hallowell.

Hallowell, who met Rodin in the early 1890s when arranging for art works for the exposition, was to become his "best American friend" in the 19th century.

France No woman, perhaps, is better or more happily known to the world's foremost artists than Sara Hallowell. New York Times (1905) She returned to the United States to "keep in touch with America's wonderful school of landscape painters" in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Boston and New York. Whereas, in France, American painters often concentrated on portraits and figure paintings. She also included the works of French artists, like Rodin and Robert Henri, in those she personally selected and sent to the Art Institute.

She lived in Paris with her mother and niece. Around the turn of the century they also lived in the small town of Moret-sur-Loing, which is located six miles from Fontainebleau.

She stopped working for the Art Institute of Chicago when World War I broke out.