Haystacks Along Connecticut River by Harriet Randall Lumis (1870-1953), oil on canvas, 23″ x 29 1/2″, signed lower right.
Medium: Oil on canvas
Unlike many female artists of the period, Harriet Randall Lumis’ career flourished after her marriage in 1893.
Born in Springfield Massachusetts, Lumis engaged in recreational painting from a young age. Little is known about her life leading up to her marriage to Fred Lumis, a local architect, but it is after this union in 1893 that she began taking night art classes with Willis S Adams. She proceeded to define and perfect her impressionist style through her adulthood, routinely employing bright colors in the shadows of her landscape scenes. It was not until 1912, when she was forty-two, that Lumis submitted her first artwork to the Albright Gallery in Buffalo, the first record of her outwardly promoting her masterpieces. From then on, Lumis continued her studies and became an indispensable member of the Impressionist movement, exhibiting in esteemed salons and galleries across the North East and even helping to found the Springfield Arts League. She continued her work right up until her death in 1953, cementing her legacy as an advocate for and embodiment of the school of American Impressionism.
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