Lilian Westcott Hale

Lilian Westcott Hale, a leading American Impressionist, was closely associated with the Boston School. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, she began her training in 1900 at the School of Fine Arts in Boston. Hale gained national recognition for her portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes, often portraying upper-class domestic life with women and children. Best known for her charcoal and graphite drawings, she brought the same delicate touch to her paintings through subtly modulated strokes and contrasting highlights.

In 1910, she won the Bronze Medal at the Buenos Aires Exposition and the Gold Medal at the Pacific Exposition in 1915. 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.

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 part of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Phillips Collection.