Images(2)

Vase of Flowers

Artist Elizabeth Lansdell Hammell

Periodca. 1925 - 1935

MediumWatercolor on paper

Dimensions15 × 13.5 in. (38.1 × 34.3 cm)

SignedSigned lower right, "Elizabeth Lansdell Hammell."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Walter A. Rullman, 1981

Object number1981.12.5

DescriptionA glass vase of flowers against a black background. The flowers include petunias and nastertiums with their leaves.
Curatorial RemarksElizabeth Lansdell Hammell (1889 - 1980) was a noted artist and illustrator who moved to Red Bank, Monmouth County, in 1920 with her husband and fellow illustrator/artist William R. "Will" Hammell (1888 - 1963). She had grown up in nearby Avon-by-the-Sea and began painting as a child. Then Hammell attend the Art Student's League in New York, studying under George Bridgeman. Later, Hammell worked as a fashion illustrator for Buttericks and McCall's. But at her husband's urging, she soon gave up fashion design illustrating for flower painting, becoming one of the most successful and widely recognized artists in that specialty line. A sixty year resident of Red Bank, Hammell received a number of local awards for her contributions to fine arts in New Jersey. Her work was included in many exhibitions, including two single artist shows at the Bronx Botanical Gardens and the Present Day Club in Princeton. Two hundred of her illustrations appeared in Hammond's Encyclopedia of Pets, Plants, and Animals published in 1963.NotesAn example of flower painting that Elizabeth Lansdell Hammell produced in the late 1920s and 1930s, primarily for magazine covers. Her work appeared frequently in Woman's Home Companion, a popular magazine of the era, and also in Reader's Digest, McCall's, and the Saturday Evening Post. One of her paintings was judged the "best watercolor illustration published in the U. S. A. in 1930." She was also awarded the Beck Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for a Reader's Digest cover she painted in 1928. Hammell continued to create magazine covers of flowers into the 1960s.

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