Elizabeth Glaser (artist)


Elizabeth Glaser was an American folk artist. Glaser and her contemporaries Eunice Pinney and Mary Ann Willson are three of the earliest American artists to work in the medium of watercolor.

Life

Little is known about Glaser other than what can be gleaned from the inscriptions included on her paintings. It is likely that she lived in Baltimore or its environs since a few of her works bear inscriptions naming that city or the suburb of Fredericktown. In addition to her watercolors and drawings, she also produced needlework and poetry. As Richard B. Woodward has noted, the range of her activities reflects the education and artistic training common to upper-class American women during the early nineteenth century.

Career

Glaser's few known watercolors include still lifes and images of fashionable women. All are characterized by bright colors, an economical, almost calligraphic style of drawing, and the sophisticated use of the paper surface in modeling figures and executing details. Woodward has commented that her "captivating style depends on the combination of refined draughtsmanship and broad areas of striking color." Her watercolors have also been distinguished for their "potent sense of design." Glaser's work has been included in exhibitions mounted by the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts; the Kennedy Galleries in New York; and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.