Florence White Williams (1888 – 1953)

Iris Gardens, c. 1920 – 30s, oil on board, signed lower right, 22 x 18 inches, notations verso includes title, artist’s name, and address

$1750

Iris Garden is typical of Florence White Williams' approach to Impressionist painting. Williams was well regarded for her still life and landscape painting. Eleanor Jewett, art critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote in 1931, "Florence White Williams is a painter with decided talent. Her work is fresh, vigorous, enthusiastic and original. She has the gift of telling a straight story that is a godsend in these times of round-about fables built up on the fallacy of the importance of looking at the world up-side-down. She sees straight and paints straight; for both of which we are grateful." Several years later in 1936 in a tribute that could easily have applied to Iris Garden, Jowett again applauded Williams' flower paintings and landscapes, "These are handled in a vivid, generous fashion. Miss Williams does not bother with meticulous detail, but gets her effects with a broad stroke, a technique that is often extremely satisfying."

In addition to painting, Williams was an illustrator, commercial artist and designer of wallpaper and other domestic goods. Born in Putney, Vermont, Williams studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her instructors included Carlson, Aldrich, and Kraft. She was a member of the Deerfield Art Association, where she served as Vice President, Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors, Southside Art Association, where she served as Vice President and Chair of the Exhibitions Committee, Chicago Gallery Association, Artists Professional League, and the Illinois Academy of Fine Arts. Williams exhibited and won prizes at the Art Students League, Illinois Federation of Women's Clubs, Chicago Gallery Association, and the All Illinois Society of Fine Arts. She also exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Art, Corcoran Gallery, and Milwaukee Art Institute. One of her paintings was owned by Rufus Dawes, President of the Chicago Century of Progress Fair. She illustrated a number of children's books, including The Little Red Hen and Granny's Wonderful Chair, as well as articles for Child Life and the Christian Science Monitor. In the late 1920s, she painted in the Iberian Peninsula. Williams’s last known exhibition in Chicago was at the Chicago Women's Club in 1945, just prior to her move to Greenfield, Massachusetts, where she gave private painting lessons, presented lectures on art and design, and had a solo exhibition at the Shelburne Art Center in 1952, the year before her passing. Around this time, the Springfield Art Museum acquired one of her paintings. Williams is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.