Maud Briggs Knowlton
| Maud Briggs Knowlton | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 17, 1870 |
| Died | July 15, 1956 (aged 86) |
| Known for | Watercolor painting |
| Movement | Miniatures, watercolors |
Maud Briggs Knowlton (March 17, 1870 – July 15, 1956) was an American watercolorist, still-life painter, art instructor, craftsperson, printmaker, and museum administrator. She and her friend Alice Swett were the first two women artists in the famous Monhegan Island artists' colony. She was the first director of the Currier Museum of Art and one of the first women to be a museum administrator in the United States.
Knowlton was a pupil of Rhoda Holmes Nicholls in New York, and she studied in Holland and Paris. She was a member of the Copley Society in 1900, Boston S.A. Crafts (now the Society of Arts and Crafts), and the New Hampshire League of Arts and Crafts. As an artist her specialty was flowers and landscapes.
She was director of the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, from 1929 to 1946. At the time of its opening, the museum (then called the "Currier Art Gallery") had neither a collection large enough to fill the galleries nor an acquisition policy to guide the development of the collections. Knowlton wisely arranged a series of notable loan exhibitions from private and commercial sources until she and trustees determined how best to proceed. She is noted for saying, "One good canvas is worth a whole gallery of undistinguished paintings."
Maud Ashley Briggs, the daughter of Henry C. & Louise M. (Morgan) Briggs, was born 17 March 1870 in the village of Penacook, in Concord, Merrimack County, New Hampshire. She was the younger of two children born to her parents, and the only daughter. Maud was educated in the Manchester (NH) public schools, including graduating from Manchester's Central High School in the class of 1888. This was followed by private instruction in art in Boston, New York, and Holland. The American Art Directory of 1910 states that she was a pupil of Rhoda Holmes Nicholls in New York, and that she studied in Holland and Paris.
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