Hattie Saussy


Hattie Saussy was a painter from Savannah, Georgia. In her youth, she studied at the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences, where she learned about Impressionist art. She later studied for a year at Mary Baldwin Seminary, the National Academy of Design Antique School, and the New York School of Fine and Applied Art.
Saussy's work includes landscapes and portraiture. It can be found in several Southeastern museums such as the Columbus Museum, the High Museum of Art, the Telfair Museum, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Spartanburg Art Museum.

Early life

Saussy was born to Rachel Louise Shivers and Joachim Radcliffe Saussy III on March 17, 1890 and was their only child to live to advanced age. She was introduced to art and painting in her fifth grade public school, and went on to take private lessons. Saussy left Savannah after high school for college at the Mary Baldwin College in Virginia. This is where her passion for art really took off. Saussy left Baldwin after one year and moved to New York with her mother. They spent four years in New York, during this time Saussy studied art with many different professors at the National Academy of Design and at the Art Students' League under the painter Eugene Speicher. After New York she and her mother moved to Paris, where they stayed until World War 1 started in 1913.

Adult life

In Paris, Saussy studied watercolors and oils. Upon her return to the United States, she divided her time between Savannah, New York, and Washington where she worked for the government in 1915 until the end of World War I. Following the war, Saussy spent the remainder of her life in Savannah, where she became a founding member and eventual president of the Association of Georgia Artists. She was also a member of the Savannah Arts Association and the Southern States Art League.