Lilian Westcott Hale

Ethereal and elegant portrait painter and illustrator of the Boston School

“Never since necromancy took up its residence on earth, were straight lines, by miracle or by witchery, made to say so much and say it so eloquently.”¹

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I. Biography

Lilian Westcott Hale, a leading American Impressionist, was known for her delicate, charming style, painting subjects typical of the Boston school, specifically portraits of women and children in light-filled interiors. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Hale first attended art classes at the Hartford Art School in 1897. She studied under William Merritt Chase at his summer school in Shinnecock, New York in 1899. Chase was so impressed with Hale’s talents that is said he was “afraid to interfere with what she was doing.”² In 1900, Hale began her training at the prestigious School of Fine Arts in Boston. There she met teacher and fellow artist, Philip Hale, whom she married in 1902.³ In 1905, Hale moved into the Fenway Studio Building on Ipswich Street, where many Boston artists worked. She left in 1906 after giving birth to her daughter, Nancy. Hale did not give up painting but rather moved her studio into her home in Dedham, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb.⁴

Hale’s child, Nancy, often featured as a model in her paintings, and Hale gained national recognition for her portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes, often portraying upper-class domestic life with women and children. A critic in the American Art News praises her versatility and execution, writing, “Her art is adapted to portraiture by her sympathetic insight and skill in arranging a setting, while the subdued light of interiors and the clear brilliance of her landscape are obtained with the ease of a specialist in each field.”⁵ Hale also excelled in charcoal and graphite drawings, bringing the same delicate touch from her paintings with subtly modulated strokes and contrasting highlights. In 1912, Hale moved to another house in Dedham, where she had her own, sunlit studio surrounded by lush gardens—the perfect setting for her portraits.⁶

During this time, Hale gained recognition in the United States and abroad. She won the Bronze Medal at the Buenos Aires Exposition in 1910 and the Gold Medal at the Pacific Exposition in 1915. She was able to contribute significantly to the family’s funds, and her portraits commanded a price of $800 to Sl,000.⁷ She continued to exhibit widely, and in the 1920s, gained the attention of Duncan Phillips, a major patron who created The Phillips Museum in Washington, D.C. She was elected to the National Association of Portrait Painters and in 1927 won the prestigious Altman Prize at the National Academy of Design–the first woman to receive it. In 1931, her husband, Philip, unexpectedly died of a ruptured appendix. Lilian was devastated and lost all her interest in painting for several years. Still, Hale remained close with Philip’s sister, Ellen Day Hale, another famous female impressionist painter. Every summer, Lilian would visit Ellen in Rockport, Massachusetts, where they would paint together.⁸ In 1955, Hale moved to Virginia to be closer to her daughter, Nancy, and her grandchildren.⁹ Hale lived to the age of 83. In her last year, she visited Italy for the first time. She passed away in 1963 of unexpected heart failure while visiting St. Paul, Minnesota.¹⁰ Hale is celebrated as one of the most successful Impressionists of the Boston School. Her work continues to be admired for its elegance, harmony, and fine execution. Hale’s work is represented in many national museums, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Phillips Collection.

II. Chronology

• 1881 Born on December 7 in Hartford, Connecticut
• 1899 Studies under William Merritt Chase at his summer school in Shinnecock, Long Island
• 1902 Marries Philip Leslie Hale, fellow artist and brother of Ellen Day Hale
• 1904 Graduates from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• 1905 Moves into Fenway Studio Building on Ipswich Street
• 1908 First solo exhibition at Rowland Galleries in Boston; Hale’s daughter, Nancy Hale, is born
• 1909 Moves her studio to her home in Dedham, Massachusetts
• 1915 Wins gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco for her figure painting, Lavender and Old Ivory
• 1919 Wins Potter Palmer Gold Medal at the Art Institute of Chicago for When she was a little girl and the gold medal for Miranda at the Philadelphia Art Club¹¹
• 1924 Portrait Celia’s Arbor acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 1927 Wins the Altman Prizeat the National Academy of Design for Portrait of Taylor Hardin, the first woman to do so
• 1931 Husband Philip Leslie Hale dies unexpectedly
• 1955 Moves to Virginia
• 1963 Wins the Rockport Art Association portrait prize; visits Italy for the first time; dies of unexpected heart failure while visiting St. Paul, MN

III. Collections

• The Columbus Museum of Art, Georgia
• Concord Center for the Visual Arts, Massachusetts
• Dedham Museum & Archive, Massachusetts
• Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine
• Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina
• Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania
• Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
• Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey
• Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts

IV. Exhibitions

• 1903, 1906–9, 1911–12, 1914–19, 1921–25, 1927–34, 1936 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, gold medal, 1923¹²
• 1907–41 Corcoran Galleries, Washington, D.C. (13 times)
• 1908 Rowland Galleries, Boston, solo exhibition
• 1912, 1915, 1919, 1921, 1923–31 Art Institute of Chicago, Potter Palmer gold medal, 1919¹³
• 1910 International Exposition, Buenos Aires, bronze medal
• 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, gold medal
• 1916–36 Guild of Boston Artists (multiple times, solo and group shows)
• 1916 Cosmopolitan Club, New York, solo exhibition¹⁴
• 1917 National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, New York¹⁵
• 1917, 1925 Concord Art Association, Concord, Massachusetts, prize, 1925¹⁶
• 1919 Philadelphia Art Club, gold medal
• 1922 Arlington Galleries, New York, solo exhibition¹⁷
• 1922, 1923 Cleveland Museum of Art¹⁸
• 1923 Sweat Memorial Museum, Portland, Maine¹⁹
• 1924 Sixteenth Annual Exhibition, Stockbridge, Massachusetts²⁰
• 1924, 1926–32, 1938, 1942–5, 1947, 1949 National Academy of Design, New York, Julia A. Shaw Memorial Prize, 1924; Altman Prize, 1927²¹
• 1926 City Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri²²
• 1927, 1936 Grand Central Galleries, New York, solo exhibition
• 1930 International Exposition, Venice, Italy²³
• 1930 Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, New York²⁴
• 1932 New England’s Women’s Club, Newton, Massachusetts²⁵
• 1941 North Shore Arts Association, prize
• 1945 Contemporary Artists New England, prize
• 1980 The Boston Tradition: American Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, no. 77. Des Moines Art Center, November 25, 1980–January 7, 1981; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 6–March 29, 1981; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 21–June 1981; and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, June 26–Aug. 16, 1981.
• 1999 The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale. Carney Gallery, Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts, April 23–May 7.
• 2018 Leaves of Beauty: Works of Art on Paper. Hawthorne Fine Art, New York.
• 2025 Body of Art: The Figure in American Painting. Avery Galleries, New York, October 9–November 3.

V. Memberships

• Copley Society
• Concord Art Association
• Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
• Grand Central Art Galleries
• Guild of Boston Artists
• National Academy of Design, associate, 1927; member, 1931
• National Association of Portrait Painters

VI. Notes

1. Rose V. S. Berry, “Lilian Westcott Hale–Her Art,” The American Magazine of Art 18, no. 2 (1927): 70.
2. Berry, “Lilian Westcott Hale–Her Art,” 61.
3. Joan Archer, “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale,” American Art Review (April 1999): 26.
4. Erica Hirschler, A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870-1940, (MFA Publications, 2001), 109.
5. “Mrs. Hale Proves Versatile.” American Art News 20, no. 21 (1922): 1, 6.
6. Archer, “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale,” 128.
7. Archer, “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale,” 129.
8. Archer, “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale,” 131.
9. Hirschler, A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870-1940, 182.
10. Archer, “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale,” 131.
11. “Philadelphia,” American Art News 17, no. 25 (1919): 5.
12. Peter Falk, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, (Sound View Press, 1989): vol. 2, 228, vol 3, 221–222.
13. Peter Falk, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1888-1950, (Sound View Press, 1990): 398.
14. “Calendar of Special New York Exhibitions,” American Art News 15, no. 9 (1916): 6.
15. “Boston Painters at the Arts,” The Art World 2, no. 2 (1917): 168.
16. Sherburne, E.C., “An Exhibition at Old Concord,” The American Magazine of Art 8, no. 7 (1917): 270.
17. “New York Exhibition Calendar,” American Art News 20, no. 22 (1922): 10.
18. W. M. M., “The Second Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 9, no. 6 (1922): 97; W. M. M., “The Third Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting,” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 10, no. 6 (1923): 105.
19. “Portland, Maine,” The Art News 21, no. 39 (1923): 10.
20. “Sixteenth Annual at Stockbridge,” The Art News 22, no. 40 (1924): 2.
21. Peter Falk, The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901-1950, (Sound View Press, 1990): 243.
22. M. P., “St. Louis Notes,” The American Magazine of Art 17, no. 11 (1926): 602.
23. “American Art in Venice,” The American Magazine of Art 21, no. 5 (1930): 283.
24. “A Well-Balanced Exhibition in Buffalo,” The American Magazine of Art 21, no. 8 (1930): 465.
25. “A New England Women’s Club Promotes Women’s Work in Art,” The American Magazine of Art 24, no. 2 (1932): 152.

VII. Suggested Resources

• Archer, Joan. “The Life and Work of Lilian Westcott Hale.” American Art Review, April 1999.
• Berry, Rose V. S. “Lilian Westcott Hale–Her Art.” The American Magazine of Art 18, no. 2 (1927): 59–70.
• Falk, Peter. Who Was Who in American Art. Vol. 2, Sound View Press, 1999, p. 1422.
• Hale, Nancy. The Life in the Studio. Little, Brown, and Co., 1957.
• Hirscler, Erica. Lilian Westcott Hale (1880–1963): A Woman Painter of the Boston School. Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1992.
• Hirschler, Erica.“Drawn With Butterfly’s Wings.” The Art of Lilian Westcott Hale. Exh., cat., Regis College, 1999.
• Hirschler, Erica. A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870-1940. MFA Publications, 2001, pp. 107–117, 181–182.
• Petteys, Chris. Dictionary of Women Artists: An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900. G. K. Hall & Co., 1985, p. 310.
• Troyen, Carol. The Boston Tradition: American Paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. American Federation of Arts, 1981, p. 199.