Charles Wellford Leavitt, the Artist's Cousin

Born to French parents but raised with relatives in Philadelphia, Cecilia Beaux trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and in Paris at the highly traditional Academie Julian and Academie Colarossi. In 1899, William Merritt Chase declared her "the greatest woman painter of modern times." Resisting avant-garde styles like Impressionism, she remained a strongly individual figurative artist, renowned for her portraits of East Coast, Gilded Age society. Here, she portrays her cousin Charles Leavitt, a successful engineer and pioneering city planner. Beaux depicts Leavitt next to the tools of his trade, conveying a sense of the sitter's assured confidence through his direct gaze, crossed arms, and calm demeanor.