Comprised of drawings, paintings, and sculptures, A Still Life brings together varying perceptions of the past based on three accounts: the presumed history of the overlooked American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry, my own experience working in Perry’s former studio in Giverny, and the dominant narrative of art history in which Perry is notable for her absence.
This project began during a 2011 summer residency in Giverny, France. Upon settling into my studio, I learned that it once belonged to the American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry, a successful painter who lived with her husband and three daughters in Giverny throughout the 1890’s. Despite being Monet’s neighbor and close friend, she has been largely omitted from the documented history of the American Impressionists working in France in the late 1800’s. Were it not for this chance encounter with a tangible part of Perry’s personal history, her work and life would have remained invisible to me.
Combining drawing, painting, and sculpture, A Still Life brings together varying perceptions of the past based on three accounts: the presumed history of the overlooked American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry, my own experience working in Perry’s former studio in Giverny, and the dominant narrative of art history in which Perry is notable for her absence.
This project began during a 2011 summer residency in Giverny, France. Upon settling into my studio, I learned that it once belonged to the American Impressionist Lilla Cabot Perry, a successful painter who lived with her husband and three daughters in Giverny throughout the 1890’s. Despite being Monet’s neighbor and close friend, she has been largely omitted from the documented history of the American Impressionists working in France in the late 1800’s. Were it not for this chance encounter with a tangible part of Perry’s personal history, her work and life would have remained invisible to me.
