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for Fidelia Bridges
American, 1837 - 1923
Bridges was the daughter of a sea captain and his wife, but following the deaths of both parents, she was supported by an older sister, a school teacher. A few years later, Bridges began caring for the children of William Augustus Brown, a Salem ship owner. The Browns moved to Brooklyn in 1854, and the Bridges followed. Fidelia lived with her young charges and, with her sisters, opened a school. Encouraged by sculptor Anne Whitney, Bridges moved to Philadelphia for three years of study under William T. Richards, with whose family she remained close throughout her life.
Back in Brooklyn, Bridges launched her New York career with works in the 1863 NAD Annual. She continued to exhibit sporadically until 1908. She made the first of several European trips in 1867-68, spending the winter in Rome. Her specialties of carefully executed bird and flower studies had begun to receive attention, and in 1873 she was elected an Associate of the National Academy. She also became active in the American Water Color Society, her principal vehicle for exhibiting late in life. Beginning in 1881, Bridges became a designer of Christmas cards for Louis Prang, a job she held until 1899.
Moving to Connecticut in the early 1890s, she led a quiet existence until her death. In his obituary of Bridges, read into the Minutes on April 22, 1924, Edwin Blashfield admitted, '[W]e know little about her except that . . . she had quietly worn her Academic honors for half a century . . . .' He added, 'We have perhaps no right to think of her as a Mary Wilkins spinster, heroine of brush and palette bringing to us an atmosphere of old time New England but somehow I do think of her in that way.'
Lay met Bridges in 1865 through the Brown family. Their friendship was a lasting and important one. It was Bridges who introduced Lay to the pleasures of Connecticut, and she nursed him at his death when they were neighbors at Stratford, Connecticut. In subsequent years, she remained close to Lay's son, Charles. Although the portrait is dated 1873, it appears in Lay's personal record book as no. 205, painted in 1872. This seems unlikely for Bridges was not elected until spring 1873, and the portrait, which conforms to the then current Academy regulations on size, was not accepted by the Council until April 1874.
Another portrait of Bridges by Lay is in the collection of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
Back in Brooklyn, Bridges launched her New York career with works in the 1863 NAD Annual. She continued to exhibit sporadically until 1908. She made the first of several European trips in 1867-68, spending the winter in Rome. Her specialties of carefully executed bird and flower studies had begun to receive attention, and in 1873 she was elected an Associate of the National Academy. She also became active in the American Water Color Society, her principal vehicle for exhibiting late in life. Beginning in 1881, Bridges became a designer of Christmas cards for Louis Prang, a job she held until 1899.
Moving to Connecticut in the early 1890s, she led a quiet existence until her death. In his obituary of Bridges, read into the Minutes on April 22, 1924, Edwin Blashfield admitted, '[W]e know little about her except that . . . she had quietly worn her Academic honors for half a century . . . .' He added, 'We have perhaps no right to think of her as a Mary Wilkins spinster, heroine of brush and palette bringing to us an atmosphere of old time New England but somehow I do think of her in that way.'
Lay met Bridges in 1865 through the Brown family. Their friendship was a lasting and important one. It was Bridges who introduced Lay to the pleasures of Connecticut, and she nursed him at his death when they were neighbors at Stratford, Connecticut. In subsequent years, she remained close to Lay's son, Charles. Although the portrait is dated 1873, it appears in Lay's personal record book as no. 205, painted in 1872. This seems unlikely for Bridges was not elected until spring 1873, and the portrait, which conforms to the then current Academy regulations on size, was not accepted by the Council until April 1874.
Another portrait of Bridges by Lay is in the collection of the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
