Docent’s Corner | Lilla Cabot Perry and Monet

Image credit: Lilla Cabot Perry (American, 1848-1933). Alice in Blue, c. 1894. On loan from the Alexander family.

When you visit the Alexander Collection on display in the Rankin West Gallery, pay attention to the portrait by Lilla Cabot Perry entitled “Alice in Blue.”  Perry was 36 when she had her first formal art instruction and she often painted her three daughters.  Alice was Perry’s youngest daughter.  In 1889, when she was 41, Perry viewed her first Impressionistic painting which changed her life.  The painting was by Claude Monet.  In her words, “I had been greatly impressed by this new painter whose work had a clearness of vision and a fidelity to nature such as I had never seen before.”

Perry sought out Monet, and that summer she and her family rented a home next to his in Giverny, France. The Perrys would spend nine summers in Giverny. Monet was not generally fond of Americans but mentored Lilla Cabot Perry. He encouraged her to paint more boldly and to focus on her plein air figures. Under his guidance, she changed her palette of colors and adopted a style very similar to his.

Image credit: Lilla Cabot Perry (American, 1848-1933). Alice in the Lane, c. 1891. Public domain.

Lilla Cabot Perry was instrumental in introducing Monet to America. From that first summer in 1889 she wrote to family and friends praising Monet and encouraging them to purchase his art. When she returned to America she brought samples of his work. The initial response was cool, but Perry persevered and continued to make important connections between Americans and Monet.

Lilla Cabot Perry and her family remained lifelong friends of the Monets. Within Monet’s bedroom in Giverny hangs a painting selected and hung by Claude Monet himself. It is a figure painted in plein air by Perry entitled “Alice in the Lane.” The Alexander Collection has its own Alice, “Alice in Blue.” Come and explore the Alexander Collection and “Alice in Blue” on display through August 1st.

This Docent’s Corner is brought to you by Eilleen Dempsey