Lilla Cabot Perry (1848 - 1933)

Lilla was an American poet and Impressionist painter. She travelled to Europe and lived in Paris and Japan, which greatly influenced her artistic development. After marrying a Harvard professor, she would hold parties at their home with intellectuals and writers, picking up an interest in art through the encouragement of her brother in law. Her own formal art training only began at 36 in Boston. In 1867 her and her family moved to Paris for two years where she studied at the Académie Julian and at the Académie Colarossi.  They would also regularly spend summers in France and she ended up crossing paths with Claude Monet who mentored and encouraged her in the Impressionist style. On her return to the US she promoted Monet and the Impressionist style to her circles, eventually becoming a key figure in the introduction of the Impressionist style in the US. She exhibited in the US and at the Paris Salon and since her death has had 3 retrospective exhibitions of her work in Boston and New York.