TitleProposed title page for "Samuel F.B. Morse, A Dramatic Outline" Phil., 1939 from Self-Portrait painted in London, c. 1814
Artist
Violet Oakley
(1874 - 1961)
Datebefore 1939
MediumInk, colored pencil and graphite
DimensionsSheet size: 13 5/16 × 11 in.
Mat size: 22 × 18 in.
SignedSigned in graphite below portrait: "V.O."
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1982.66
Label TextViolet Oakley was born in into a family of professional and amateur artists. In 1896 she enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and later taught a special class in mural decoration there, becoming the only female instructor besides Cecilia Beaux to teach there until the 1950s. She was a popular illustrator, and between 1896 and 1906 she received commissions to illustrate magazines and books and to design covers for popular magazines. In 1902, the architect of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Joseph Huston, asked Oakley to paint thirteen murals for the Governor's Reception Room. The project was a milestone in the history of American art, for it was the largest public art commission given to a woman in the country up to that time. This portrait illustration of Samuel Morse is based on his Self-Portrait painted in London around 1814, which is now at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
Violet Oakley's book A Dramatic Outline of the Life of Samuel F.B. Morse, Father of Telegraphy and Founder of the National Academy of Design (1939) contains eight full-page drawings in sanguine and pen and ink and some smaller page decorations. Both of her grandfathers, George Oakley and William Swain, were members of the National Academy, and Oakley dedicated the second edition of her book to them, writing "Whether they knew each other well I do not know. I like to believe that they were friends." The second edition is known as the Academy Edition and has a special introduction by Oakley that is based on a reading she gave at the Academy.
