Ellen Emmet Rand

Ellen Emmet Rand (also Ellen (Bay) Gertrude Emmet (Rand); March 4, 1875 – December 18, 1941) was a painter and illustrator. She specialized in portraits, painting over 500 works during her career including portraits of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and her cousins Henry James and William James. Rand studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston and the Art Students League in New York City and produced illustrations for Vogue Magazine and Harper's Weekly before traveling to England and then France to study with sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies. The William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut owns the largest collection of her painted works and the Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut and the Archives of American Art within the Smithsonian Institution both have collections of her papers, photographs, and drawings.

Ellen Emmet Rand was the third of six children born to Ellen James Temple Emmet and Christopher Temple Emmet. Ellen was born in San Francisco but moved to New York after her father's death in 1884. Her cousins were Lydia Field Emmet (1866-1952), Rosina Emmet Sherwood (1854–1948), and Jane Emmet de Glehn (1873–1961) and the writers Henry James (1843 – 1916) and William James (1842-1910). She married William Blanchard Rand in 1911 and had three sons. Rand's primary studio was in New York City but she would also work in Salisbury, Connecticut where her family lived.

Rand studied with Dennis Miller Bunker and attended the Cowles Art School in Boston and then from 1889-93 registered for classes at the Art Students League of New York. Rand then attended the William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock summer art school. Harry McVickar, editor of Vogue Magazine, saw her work in an exhibit for the summer school and asked her to illustrate for the magazine. She also illustrated for Harper's Weekly and Harper's Bazaar. In 1896 Rand travelled to England and eventually settled in Paris to study with MacMonnies. Also in France and studying with MacMonnies was fellow American artist Mary Foote. Rand returned to New York City in 1900 and began her painting career in earnest.

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