Maria Oakey Dewing

Maria Oakey Dewing
Thomas Dewing, Woman in Black: Portrait of Maria Oakey Dewing, oil on panel, 1887.
Born	Maria Oakey (1845-10-27)October 27, 1845 New York
Died	December 13, 1927(1927-12-13) (aged 82) New York
Nationality	American
Education	Cooper Union, Antique School of National Academy of Fine Arts, John La Farge
Spouse(s)	Thomas Dewing
Patron(s)	Charles Lang Freer, Whitelaw Reid, John Gellatly

Maria Oakey Dewing (October 27, 1845 – December 13, 1927) was an American painter known for her depiction of flowers. Her work was inspired by John La Farge and her love of gardening. She also made figure drawings and was a founding member of the Art Students League of New York. Dewing won bronze medals for two of her works at world expositions. She was married to the artist Thomas Dewing.

Maria Richards Oakey was born in New York City, the fifth child of William Frances Oakey and Sally Sullivan Oakey, who had ten children together. William was an importer, and was also interested in the arts, Sally was a cultured woman and writer who came from an upscale family from Boston. Her younger brother, Alexander F. Oakey, was an architect with, like his sister, an interest in textiles. He wrote The Art of Life and Life of Art in 1884.

She decided at age seventeen to paint. In 1881 Maria Oakey married Thomas Dewing,whose career was less well-established. Later after that, her career held disappointment to her. As the wife of one of the most prominent figure painters of the day, she felt unable to compete with her husband. At the end of her life, Dewing, expressed doubt in her accomplishments and regret for what she had given up: “I have hardly touched any achievement”  They had a son who died while an infant. In 1885 their daughter Elizabeth was born.

She first attended the Cooper Union School of Design in 1866, studying there until 1870 with William Rimmer, Edwin Forbes, Robert Swain Gifford and George Edmund Butler. There, she took classes with her friend Helena de Kay. From 1871 to 1875 she studied at the Antique School of National Academy of Fine Arts, during which time she shared an apartment with de Kay and took painting lessons from the painter John La Farge. He specialized in Japanese aesthetics and was said by Dewing to have created paintings that were "the most beautiful in all the world" and greatly influenced her own work. As a student she had already begun to gain a reputation as a capable painter, her works attracted "much attention for its broad, vigorous brush work, and rich, glowing color" and were exhibited at the National Academy of Design. She studied with John La Farge, and her work was influenced by La Farge’s fascination with Japanese aesthetics. In 1875, Oakey and other students from the academy left to establish the now renowned Art Students League of New York. The same year her works were exhibited at a show organized in New York by La Farge and she studied with landscape artist William Morris Hunt and in 1876 with homas Couture.