Emily Sartain

Her father, John Sartain, and three of her brothers, William, Henry and Samuel were artists. Before she entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and studied abroad, her father took her on a Grand Tour of Europe. She helped found the New Century Club for working and professional women, and the professional women's art clubs, The Plastic Club and The Three Arts Club.

• Name — Emily Sartain • Born — 17 March 1841 • Birthplace — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Died — 17 June 1927 • Place of death — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Education — * Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts • Carlo Raimondi • Évariste Vital Luminais • Known for — Mezzotint engraving, painting, art educator • Notable Works — The Reproof

Emily Sartain was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on March 17, 1841. She was the fifth of eight children of Philadelphia master printer and publisher of Sartain's Magazine John Sartain and Susannah Longmate Swaine Sartain. In 1858, Sartain graduated from the Philadelphia Normal School and then taught school until the summer of 1862. John Sartain taught his daughter art, including the mezzotint engraving technique that he revived, which was a favored process in England that created high-quality prints of paintings. John Sartain believed in equal opportunities for women and encouraged his daughter to pursue a career. He mortgaged his house and gave her a "gentleman's education" in fine art by taking her on a Grand Tour of Europe beginning the summer of 1862. They started in Montreal and Quebec and then sailed for Europe. She enjoyed the English countryside; old world cities, especially Florence and Edinburgh; the Louvre; Italian Renaissance paintings; and artists like Dante and engraver Elena Perfetti. She traveled to Venice to visit William Dean Howells and his wife Elinor Mead Howells, who was a painter. Sartain decided in the course of the trip that she wanted to become an artist. During their travels the Sartains learned that William Sartain had enlisted during the American Civil War and later hastily returned to the United States when John and Emily learned that the Confederate States Army had crossed into Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, which is 158 miles west of Philadelphia. Of John and Susannah Sartain's children, Samuel (1830–1906), Henry (1833–1895), William Sartain (1843–1925) and Emily were painters and engravers, beginning a legacy of Sartain family artists and printmakers. Sartain sought her father's input on her work throughout her career and benefited from his support and connections. She carried on the mezzotint engraving technique that he taught her. Sartain lived with her parents into adulthood, supporting and caring for them in their later years. In 1886, her parents moved into her living quarters at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women.

A portrait painter and engraver, Emily Sartain studied with Christian Schussele and her father, John Sartain, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She met Thomas Eakins at the academy and entered into what biographer Henry Adams believes was Eakin's "first known romance". Their romantic relationship ended after Eakins went to Paris to study art and Eakins succumbed to what Sartain described as "temptations of the great city" and due to her interest in women's rights. The two remained lifelong friends. In 1870, Sartain met Mary Cassatt in Philadelphia and the following year they left for Paris, London, Parma, and Turin to study painting. The women spent the first winter in Italy and studied printmaking with Carlo Raimondi, who taught engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma. Sartain spent the rest of the four-year stay in Paris and studied under Évariste Vital Luminais. She shared a studio with Jeanne Rongier. Florence Esté, Sartain's friend, also worked in the studio occasionally. The women copied each other's work and provided one another with criticism and encouragement. Two of Sartain's paintings, a genre painting Le Piece de Conviction (The Reproof) and a portrait of Mlle. Del Sarte, were accepted at the Salon of 1875. Sartain returned to the United States that year, when she ran out of money. Harriet (Hattie) Judd Sartain, who was her brother Samuel's wife and a successful homeopathic physician, had lent Emily Sartain money for her education. Emily believed Hattie was likely to continue to help with education expenses in Philadelphia where expenses were lower and she would more likely sell her works.

Sartain set up a studio in Philadelphia in 1875 where she created paintings and engravings. Over the course of her career she made copies of paintings in Spanish and Italian galleries, portraits, genre paintings, and was the first woman to practice the art of the mezzotint in the United States and Europe. Among her works were period scenes that depicted submissive women with downcast eyes as in Italian Woman and The Reproof. Sartain exhibited her works in cities along the East Coast of the United States and was the only woman to win a gold medal at the 1876 World Fair in Philadelphia for The Reproof. She won the Mary Smith Prize for best picture by a woman at the 1881 and 1883 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibits. Sartain worked as art editor for the paper Our Continent from 1881 to 1883. She was then the art editor for New England Bygones (1883) by Ellen C. H. Rollins. Joseph M. Pennell said that Sartain was "the only trained woman art editor I ever knew". Sartain exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and at the Pennsylvania Building of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Sartain was a progressive New Woman, who with her sister-in-law, Hattie Judd Sartain, formed the woman's organization, the New Century Club. Hattie is believed to have helped her attain the commissions of portraits of local physicians Constantin Hering and James Caleb Jackson. Besides having financed her education and being her ally and mentor, Hattie also modeled for Sartain.

Sartain retired to San Diego, California. During her career Sartain traveled to Europe most summers and continued to travel abroad every year during her retirement. She was visiting in Philadelphia when she died on June 17, 1927.

The following is established of the heading itself. It is also recorded that emily Sartain is recorded as United States.

The following works and productions are recorded by name or by count.

• Franklin Institute of Science, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Frederick Fraley, ca. 1891–1901, oil • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: • Christ Walking on the Sea, Emily Sartain after Henry Richter, 1865, mezzotint, etching and stipple • Christ Walking on the Water, Emily Sartain after Charles Jalabert, 1867, engraving with roulette • Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Sartain after William Henry Furness, Jr., 1871, mezzotint, etching, engraving and stipple • Untitled, 1887, oil on wood • Welcome News, 1888, etching on chine collé • I. S. Hentchin, etching, engraving, mezzotint, stipple and photomechanical texture • S. C. Huntington, etching, engraving, mezzotint and stipple • President Lincoln and Son, mezzotint, etching, engraving, stipple and photomechanical ground • His Excellency Baron Lisgar, mezzotint, etching, stipple and photomechanical ground • Samuel Partridge, mezzotint, etching, engraving and stipple • Alexander Thomson, Emily Sartain after J. C. Darley, etching, engraving, mezzotint and photomechanical ground • J. W. Weir, Etching, engraving and photomechanical ground