Lucy May Stanton [1875-1931] earned her living as an artist, painting miniature portraits on ivory. For herself, she chose to paint oils, pastels and watercolors –portraits, landscapes and flowers. Recently, her work has been included in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, A Studio of her Own [2001], the Guild of Boston Artists, A Woman’s Perspective [2001] and the Georgia Museum of Art, The Art of Lucy May Stanton [2002].

The Concord Art Association is pleased to include in this exhibit work owned by Stanton’s extended family, some of which has never been shown. Stanton represents an important part of the Art Association’s history, having won the 1923 Medal of Honor for the miniature Uncle George, and having participated in many exhibits throughout the 1920’s. She joined many prominent artists, including Elizabeth Wentworth Roberts, Daniel Chester French and Gretchen Rogers, in providing the artistic vision for the Art Association in its early years.

The New York Times, January 25, 1933, wrote that Stanton is “a brilliant spokesman for the anti-academic camp. With an emphasis on looser, freer values, she helped modern miniature painting out of its long bondage to the hard, immaculate smoothness that once seemed a veritable sine qua non.” She influenced many painters of her day, capturing the personality of her sitters and experimenting with techniques that revolutionized miniature painting. The Boston Evening Transcript considered Stanton the only Southern member of The Boston Group. William Howe Downes wrote, “[h]er drawing is extraordinary for its expressiveness and significance, her color is delightful and though not so deliberately decorative as Miss Laura C. Hills’s, yet it has more variety and refinement of nuance, more subtle harmony in the sober schemes, more rarity in tone.”