Minerva J. Chapman

Minerva Josephine Chapman ( May 3, 1858 in Altmar, New York, † June 14, 1947 in Palo Alto, California ) was an American painter of Impressionism.

Life

Minerva Chapman was the eldest daughter of James Lincoln Chapman and his wife Agnes Barnes. Her father was a successful tanner in sandbank, a small village on the banks of the Salmon River in northern Oswego County, which was later renamed in Altmar. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Chicago - where he established their father later the First National Bank of Chicago.

Minerva Chapman attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. After graduating in 1875 she began to study art at the Art Institute of Chicago and a year later she traveled to Europe. There she studied in Munich, Rome, London and finally in Paris at the prestigious Académie Julian. Where it has been informed by the painters Jean Paul Laurens, Robert Fluery, Jules -Joseph Lefebvre and William Adolphe Bouguereau. Minerva Chapman lived from 1876 until the outbreak of World War in Paris and in this period were a literary salon. An intimate friendship she used with Mary Cassatt and Elizabeth Nourse. After the war, she lived in Paris again until for health reasons in 1925 had to return to the United States.

In addition to her watercolors, still lifes, landscapes, portraits and drawings in charcoal and chalk Minerva Chapman specialized in miniature painting. This art form of the 17th and 18th centuries, she perfected again. With exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe Chapman has won numerous awards and gold medals. Most of her images are still owned by the Chapman family.