Betsy Graves Reyneau
Betsy Graves Reyneau | |
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Artist Betsy Graves Reyneau and AACP president Thomas L. Griffith standing besides portrait of Dr. George Washington Carver, 1948
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Born | 1888 Battle Creek, Michigan |
Died | 1964 Camden County, New Jersey |
Nationality | American |
Education | School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Known for | Portrait painting |
Movement | Photorealism |
Betsy Graves Reyneau (1888–1964) was an American painter, best known for a series of portraits of prominent African Americans once owned by the Harmon Foundation. Mary McLeod Bethune, George Washington Carver, Joe Louis, and Thurgood Marshall were among her sitters.
Early life[edit]
Reyneau was raised in Detroit, and although discouraged by her father from becoming an artist on the grounds that it was inappropriate for a woman, she broke ties with the family to pursue that career, and as a young woman attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She later lived in France for a time before returning to the United States and becoming active in civil rights causes. She was later selected by the Circuit Court of Detroit, unbeknownst to her family, to paint a portrait of her grandfather, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Benjamin F. Graves. Reyneau was also a suffragette; she became, in 1917, one of the first woman to be arrested and imprisoned for protesting Woodrow Wilson's stance on women's voting rights.[1]
Legacy[edit]
Many of Reyneau's portraits are currently in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.[2][3] She was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1996.
Gallery[edit]
External links[edit]
- Biography from the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
References[edit]
- ^ Adams, Katherine H.; Keene, Michael L. (2010). After the Vote Was Won: The Later Achievements of Fifteen Suffragists. McFarland. pp. 57–67. ISBN 9780786456475.
- ^ "Aaron Douglas". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
- ^ "Richmond Barthe". National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
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