Gladys Kelley Fitch

The field of work recorded is visual arts, painting and art of drawing. Places of work recorded in the authority are Lyme. Works named in the authority record are Flower Arrangement. Work by Gladys Kelley Fitch is recorded in the collections of Smithsonian American Art Museum and Smithsonian Institution.

• Name — Gladys Kelley Fitch (Fitsch) • Born — August 29, 1896 • Birthplace — Patchogue, New York, United States • Died — 17 January 1986 • Place of death — Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S. • Known for — Painting, art teacher

Gladys Kelley was born in Patchogue, New York and lived in Rockville Centre and Hempstead, the daughter of William Bennett Kelley and Julia Eisele Kelley. Her father was a doctor; her brother Chester Leon Kelley was a novelist and advertising executive. She won several award at the New York School of Applied Design for Women, and her paintings were considered "the most striking work" in the school's exhibition in May 1919. While she was a student she also won a cover design contest in The Touchstone magazine; her cover was published in May 1919. Her brother married one of her art school classmates, Madelon Brasher. • Illustration — Painting is about 5' x 4'

Fitsch was head of the art department at the Kimberley School in Montclair, New Jersey, and taught at the New York School of Applied Design for Women. She was a member of the New Jersey Art Association, the Connecticut Watercolor Society, and the Lyme Art Association. She was a life member of the Art Students League of New York. In 1940, she exhibited her landscapes in watercolors, pastels and oils at the Morton Galleries in New York City, and one of her watercolor paintings was purchased by the Federal Works Agency for a Marine hospital in Carville, Louisiana. • Illustration — Back of parade painting

In 1923, Gladys Kelley married fellow artist Eugene Camille Fitsch, who was born in Alsace and immigrated to the United States in 1913. The Fitsches divorced in 1936. She signed her paintings "Gladys Kelley Fitsch". She died in 1986, at the age of 89, in Waterbury, Connecticut.