Alice Boughton

Key facts

Lived

1866–1943, American^[1]

Movement

• pictorialism

^[1]

Works held in

1 museum

Wikipedia

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• What is Alice Boughton known for?+

  Alice Boughton is known for her portrait photography, which included portraits of Eugene O'Neill, William Butler Yeats, and Robert Louis Stevenson. She also produced female nudes in allegorical settings and studies of children. In 1928^[1], she published Photographing the Famous.
• What is Alice Boughton's most famous work?+

  It is difficult to name one single work as Alice Boughton's 'most famous'. She was a prolific photographer, and her notability rests on a few different aspects of her career. Boughton (1866^[1]-1949) was an American^[1] photographer known for her involvement in the Photo-Secession movement. She explored a range of styles, including pictorialism^[1] and portraiture. Her portraits of literary and theatrical figures, such as Ezra Pound, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Eleonora Duse, gained attention. She also produced allegorical and mythological images, often featuring female nudes in natural settings. These images explored themes of beauty, nature, and the female form. Boughton's work was exhibited in galleries and photography journals during her lifetime. She contributed to the development of artistic photography in the early 20th century.
• What should I know about Alice Boughton's prints?+

  When considering Alice Boughton's prints, bear in mind a few aspects of fine-art printmaking. Printmakers often limit the number of impressions (copies) in an edition. This decision is the artist's choice, not a technical requirement. The printmaker marks each print with a fraction, for example, 12/25. The second number (25) is the total edition size. The first number (12) is the print's individual number within that edition. Artists sometimes hold back a percentage as artist's proofs, marked AP. It is common to sign and number editions in pencil. Claims of authenticity add value, so commercial vendors must accurately describe their products. The UK's Trade Descriptions Act of 1968 requires it. An 'original print' is conceived and executed solely as a print, usually in a numbered edition, and signed by the artist. Each print in the edition is an original, printed from a plate, stone, screen or block created for that purpose. There is no one original print from which copies are made. Each print is inked and pulled individually; it is a multi-original medium.
• What style or movement did Alice Boughton belong to?+

  Alice Boughton is associated with Pictorialism, a movement that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pictorialist photographers aimed to have photography recognised as fine art, competing with painting, rather than simply serving as a tool for imitation and reproduction. Pictorialists employed various techniques to achieve painterly effects. They favoured soft focus, 'artistic' lenses to create optical effects, and hand-crafted printing processes. Gum bichromate and other pigment processes gave photographs a textured, material quality, setting them apart from mass-produced images. The lack of rigid ornamentation allowed photographers to manipulate images, giving them the quality of original artworks. Pictorialists often chose portraits and landscapes as their subjects, mirroring traditional painting genres. These subjects often avoided contemporary themes, seeking a sense of timelessness. The Association Belge de Photographie (A.B.P.) embraced Pictorialism, holding exhibitions of British art photography as early as 1892^[1].
• What techniques or materials did Alice Boughton use?+

  Alice Boughton was a photographer, active in the early 20th century. As a photographer, her techniques centred on image capture, darkroom processes, and printing choices. Understanding photographic techniques involves considering the materials used. Painters used natural and chemical pigments in fresco, egg tempera, watercolour, and oil paint. Sculptors traditionally used materials such as wood, marble, and bronze, but contemporary artists also use cardboard, plastic, and everyday household items. Techniques and processes describe the various methods used in the creative process. In painting, knowledge that oil can be applied thickly in impasto or thinly in glazes affects our understanding of the artwork. Brushwork may be fine and disguised, thickly applied with a palette knife, or stencilled. In sculpture, it is important to know the differences between carving and modelling, and about the subtractive/reductive processes (removal of stone and wood) in direct carving, the additive process (modelling in a soft medium such as clay), and casting (lost-wax process), assemblage, and the lack of process involved in readymades and found objects. In architecture, we should be able to recognise whether a building has been erected brick by brick or largely prefabricated off site and moved to the location where they are assembled.
• What was Alice Boughton known for?+

  Alice Boughton (1866^[1]-1949) was an American^[1] photographer known for her association with pictorialism^[1], a style that valued artistic effect over strict realism. Boughton began her photography career in the early 1900s. She became a member of Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession, an influential group promoting photography as a fine art. Her work often featured soft focus, evocative lighting, and posed figures, sometimes with symbolic elements. Boughton created portraits, figure studies, and allegorical scenes. Her subjects included dancers, artists, and members of New York's artistic circles. Some of her images drew inspiration from literature, mythology, and classical art. She also experimented with alternative printing processes, such as gum bichromate and platinum prints, to achieve particular tonal qualities. Although she embraced modernism later in her career, Boughton's early pictorialist work remains her most recognised.
• When did Alice Boughton live and work?+

  Alice Boughton was an American^[1] photographer who lived from 1866^[1] to 1949. She is known for her association with the Photo-Secession movement, which promoted photography as a fine art. Boughton began her artistic career studying painting and drawing at the Art Students League of New York. However, she soon became interested in photography, joining the Photo-Secession in 1904^[1]. The group had been founded by Alfred Stieglitz. Boughton's work encompassed a range of subjects, including portraits, allegorical scenes, and nudes. Her portraits often featured prominent figures from the artistic and literary circles of her time. She also created photographs inspired by mythology and literature, often using soft focus and evocative lighting to create a sense of atmosphere. Throughout her career, Boughton exhibited her photographs widely, both in the United States and internationally. Her work can be found in the collections of major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the George Eastman Museum. She continued to work as a photographer until her death in 1949, leaving behind a substantial body of work that reflects her artistic vision and technical skill.
• Where can I see Alice Boughton's work?+

  Alice Boughton's photographs can be viewed in several locations. In the United States, these include the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond), the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American^[1] Art (Winter Park, Florida), and the Wolfsonian at Florida International University (Miami Beach). Outside the United States, Boughton's work can be seen at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto). Other museums that may hold her work include the Art Institute of Chicago. In the UK, the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, the Geffrye Museum (London), the Manchester Art Gallery, the National Museums of Scotland (Edinburgh), and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) may also hold her work.
• Where was Alice Boughton from?+

  Alice B. Chittenden was born in Brockport, New York, in 1859. She was raised in San Francisco, California, and studied at the California School of Design. Chittenden began teaching at the same school (renamed the California School of Fine Arts) in 1897^[1], a position she held until 1940. Chittenden resided in Pacific Heights, San Francisco. She died in San Francisco in 1944. Chittenden was known for her portraits, still lifes, and paintings of California wildflowers. In March 1918, some two hundred paintings depicting 271 varieties of flowers, produced over thirty years, were exhibited at the Hamlin School in San Francisco and at the Art Gallery in Stanford. Her 'Chrysanthemums' (1892) shows an interest in Asian art, with colourful flowers displayed in a rustic basket. She was also celebrated for her roses, which she displayed in all stages of bloom.
• Who did Alice Boughton influence?+

  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's aesthetic inspired Julia Margaret Cameron, a pioneer of art photography. Given a camera at age 48, in 1862, she was able to photograph for only 11 years. Cameron achieved a pictorial effect by using a differential, or soft-focus, lens. This suggested the spiritual gestalt more than sharply focused physical details. She also initiated close cropping to heighten the intensity. For photographs with biblical, literary, or Romantic themes, she dressed her subjects in flowing wraps. She instructed them to exude a feeling of multilayered melancholy, as did the Pre-Raphaelite models. In addition, she created portrait photographs of Tennyson, Holman Hunt, Robert Browning, and other Victorian luminaries with her radically new style. By the late nineteenth century a revival of interest in wood-engraved illustration led to the rise of artists such as Laurence Housman and Charles Ricketts. Together they took the Pre-Raphaelite illustration into new realms of invention. Today they remain leading lights in the Private Press movement which produces limited editions of poetry and literature based upon the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood models of tasteful design and restrained decoration.
• Who influenced Alice Boughton?+

  It is difficult to identify specific influences on Alice Boughton from the passages provided. The texts discuss the influences on other artists, such as Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, and Anni Albers, and movements such as English and German Romanticism, Immanuel Kant, and German Idealism. One passage mentions Paul Klee, who followed the philosophy that emerged from English and German Romanticism, Immanuel Kant, and German Idealism. Klee aimed to create his own style devoid of preconceptions. He taught Annelise Else Frieda Fleischmann (later known as Anni Albers) at the Bauhaus from 1922^[1]. She considered Klee a genius because of his ability to combine abstract and geometric elements with natural and organic ones. Another passage discusses an unnamed artist who was influenced by Matisse in the 1940s, but later became more affected by Analytic Cubist drawing. By 1950-51, Pollock, de Kooning, and Rothko, and the entire New York School had become mentors.
• Who was Alice Boughton?+

  Alice Chittenden was a California artist, born in 1859. She grew up in San Francisco and died there in 1944. Chittenden studied at the California School of Design (later the California School of Fine Arts) under Virgil Williams, beginning in 1877^[1]. She then taught at the CSFA from 1897 until 1940. She is known for her still-life paintings, particularly those depicting flowers. Chrysanthemums and peonies figured strongly in her still-life work. In March 1918, an exhibition at the Hamlin School in San Francisco and at the Art Gallery in Stanford displayed some two hundred paintings, depicting 271 varieties of flowers, which she produced over thirty years. She also painted portraits and California wildflowers. In 1886, she married Charles P. Overton. In 1908, she travelled and painted in Wales, France, and Italy. In 1915, she spent a leave of absence in New York. She resided in Pacific Heights in San Francisco.