Elmer Livingston MacRae

Elmer MacRae
Elmer L. Mac Rae, ca. 1893, from the Archives of American Art
Born	(1875-07-16)July 16, 1875 New York, New York
Died	April 2, 1953(1953-04-02) (aged 77) Greenwich, Connecticut
Nationality	American
Movement	Impressionism, Modernism
Spouse(s)	Emma Constant (neé Holley) MacRae

Elmer Livingston MacRae (1875–1953) was an American visual artist known for his paintings, pastels, and sketches, and for his role as a leading member of the Cos Cob Art Colony, in Greenwich, Connecticut. MacRae was one of the organizers of the influential 1913 Armory Show in New York; he was also instrumental in founding the American Pastel Society (serving as its first secretary-treasurer), as well as the Greenwich Society of Artists.

Elmer MacRae was born in New York City in 1875. He studied at the Art Students League of New York with Robert Blum, John Henry Twachtman, H. Siddons Mowbray and James Carroll Beckwith.

In the summer of 1896, when he was 20 years old, he visited Cos Cob for a class in outdoor painting. While there, he fell in love with Emma Constant Holley, the daughter of the owner of the Holley House, where artists usually stayed during their summer seasons at the community. MacRae continued living in New York City and coming to Cos Cob to take classes from co-founder John Henry Twachtman. He moved to the Holley House in 1899, and married Emma on October 17, 1900. She gave birth to twin girls, Constant and Clarissa, on October 31, 1904.

MacRae lived at Holley House for the duration of his career. He succeeded Twachtman as head the Cos Cob colony, and for two decades Elmer and Emma continued to run the boardinghouse, which served to host artists and writers while also serving as a studio and showcase for MacRae’s works. He died on April 2, 1953 in Cos Cob.

MacRae was primarily a realist painter influenced by impressionism and Japonism in his early work. His wife and two daughters were frequent subjects for his works, as well as floral studies and landscapes inspired by the Cos Cob area.