Theresa Bernstein

Theresa Ferber Bernstein-Meyerowitz (March 1, 1890 – February 13, 2002) was an American artist, writer, and supercentenarian born in Kraków, in what is now Poland, and raised in Philadelphia. She received her art training in Philadelphia and New York City. Over the course of nearly a century, she produced hundreds of paintings and other artwork, plus several books and journals.

Bernstein and her husband William Meyerowitz, who was also an artist, lived and worked in Manhattan and Gloucester, Massachusetts. She painted portraits and scenes of daily life, plus reflections of the major issues of her time, in a modern style that evolved from realism to expressionism. She was active in several art associations and promoted her husband's work as well as her own. Her artworks are found in dozens of museums and private collections in the United States and abroad. She remained active all her life and was honored with a solo exhibition of 110 art works to celebrate her 110th birthday.

Bernstein also authored several books, including a biography of her husband and a journal about their many trips to Israel.

She died in 2002, just a couple of weeks short of her 112th birthday.

Biography Early life Theresa Ferber Bernstein was born in Kraków, Poland, on March 1, 1890. She was the only child of Isidore Bernstein, a Jewish textile manufacturer, and his wife Anne (née Ferber) Bernstein, an accomplished pianist. The same year, she received a scholarship to the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, now Moore College of Art & Design, where she studied with Harriet Sartain, Elliott Daingerfield, Henry B. Snell, Daniel Garber and others. She stated that she did not feel it necessary to compete with him, as she was not competitive by nature.

Death Bernstein and her husband lived for many decades in a rent-controlled loft-style studio apartment at 54 West 74th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, just one block from Central Park West. This studio was her home at the time of her death on February 12, 2002, at Mount Sinai Hospital, shortly before her 112th birthday. According to art historian Gail Levin, Bernstein was for a time more popular than well-known realist Edward Hopper, although Bernstein's style over time tended more toward expressionism. However, unlike abstract artists, Bernstein remained committed to figuration, choosing always to connect with real life and people. In the male-dominated art world of her time, Bernstein, like many women artists, was frequently overlooked. To try to avoid discrimination, she often signed her works using "T. Bernstein" or just her surname. She was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the Society of American Graphic Artists and the North Shore Art Association. which she co-founded. 1930: The Baltimore Museum of Art held simultaneous solo exhibitions for Bernstein and her husband to help them build their individual careers. 2000: Theresa Bernstein: An Early Modernist – Solo exhibition of 110 of Bernstein's art works held to celebrate her 110th birthday and attended by the artist, Jo-An Fine Art in New York City. The Readers (1914), based on her many hours spent at the New York Public Library, reading and sketching the people around her. Self-Portrait (1914), showing the influence of Fauvism yet still in the American realist tradition Girlhood (1921), a portrait typical of her 1920s work. The painting was purchased for the Phillips Collection, formerly called the Phillips Memorial Gallery, by Duncan Phillips, her first museum patron, in 1923.

An extensive gallery of Bernstein's paintings is available on the City University of New York website devoted to her life and work. See External links below.

Collections Bernstein's artwork is held by a number of museums and other permanent collections, including: The Phillips Collection The Smithsonian American Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Poetic Canvas The Journal Israeli Journal, covering her many trips to Israel and reflections on her Jewish heritage (originally published in 1994)