Ethelyn Cosby Stewart (1900 – 1972)

Wind Flowers in a Tzu Chow Vase, 1933, oil on canvas board, signed and dated lower right, 20 x 16 inches, label verso with title and original price ($185.00), exhibited 44th Annual Exhibition, National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, American Fine Arts Building, New York, NY, January 2 – 24, 1935, no. 162

$3250

Ethelyn Cosby Stewart was a painter, printmaker, designer, and craftsperson. Born in Arlington, New Jersey, Stewart was active in New York where she studied at The Cooper Union and with W. E. Cox and Emil Carlsen. She designed textiles and other decorative arts before joining the staff of a New York gallery devoted to ancient and modern art and fine lighting. Her etchings were well regarded, and she invented a process for copper plate printing on soft materials including textiles which could be used for lamp shades. For several years, the National Academy of Design invited Stewart to exhibit her work in the institution’s print room. During the 1920’s, Stewart’s batik work became highly sought after and celebrated. She was a member of the National Association of Women Artists and exhibited in their New York exhibitions. Stewart’s paintings, including Wind Flowers in a Tzu Chow Vase, were often influenced by Asian aesthetics and contained Chinese and Japanese subject matter. Examples of Stewart’s work can are in many United States museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Smithsonian Institution. The collections of the latter two institutions contain oils very similar to the present work. Moreover, Wind Flowers in a Tzu Chow Vase is housed in a period frame which bears a label for another Stewart painting titled Magnolias, which is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.  Her oil paintings were sufficiently popular during the 1930s that some were photo-mechanically reproduced as inexpensive decorator prints. She is listed in Who was Who in American Art and other standard references.