Theresa Ferber Bernstein (1890-2002)
Gloucester, oil on canvas, 15 x 20, painted circa 1920, signed lower right by the artist in 1998.
Sold at auction.
The only child of Isidore Bernstein and Anne Ferber, Theresa was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College of Art) and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art with Daniel Garber, Henry B. Snell and Eliot Dangerfield before moving with her parents to New York City (1911) to study with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League. In 1919 she married a fellow artist William Myerowitz and together they met and exhibited with many of the wonderful realists of that exciting era including Robert Henri, John Sloan, Edward Hopper, William Zorach, Milton Avery and John Marin.
She was a member of the National Association of Women Artists; North Shore Art Association (last surviving Charter member); Society of American Etchers; Audubon Artists of America; Allied Artists of America; Plastic Club, Philadelphia; Rockport Art Association; Connecticut Academy of Fine Art; The Philadelphia Ten Painters; Society of Independent Artists; Whitney Studio Club; Cape Cod Society of Artists. Awards include Shilliard Gold Medal, Plastic Club, Philadelphia (1928); National Arts Club Prize and Clereci Prize, NAWA; Jeanne D’Arc Medal, French Instititue of Arts and Letters (1938); Pennell Prize, Library of Congress (1945); Peterson Award, NAWA (1955); Matson Memorial Award, Rockport AA (1967); Horgan Award, AA, NYC (`975); Clark Memorial Award, NSAA (1977) and the World Culture Prize, Italian Academy of Art (1983).
Bernstein was a tireless exhibitor. One-woman shows include Syracuse Univ. (1921), Albright-Knox Gallery (1922); Grand Central Gallery (1930); Dayton Art Institute (1945); Smithsonian Institution (1948); Columbus Museum of Fine Art, GA (1966); Rockport Art Association (1972); Pierce Galleries, Inc., Hingham, MA, (1984); N.Y. Historical Society (1984);Driscoll & Walsh F.A., Boston (1986); Simmons College (1990); The Crane Collection, Boston (1990); Sragow Gallery, So Ho (1991); The Philadelphia Museum of Judaic, PA (1995) Joan Whalen F.A., NYC (1998) She is said to have had over fifty solo shows.
Her work is in the permanent collections of the Chicago Art Institute; Butler Institute of American Art; Dallas Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Harvard University; Whitney Museum of Amer. Art; Boston Public Library; Museum of the City of New York; Brooklyn Museum; Library of Congress; The Smithsonian; the Tel Aviv National Museum in Israel and N.Y. Historical Society.
A superb colorist and dynamic draftsman, Bernstein captured the energy of the urban scene and the humanity of its diverse population. "The important thing is to maintain the vivacity of your first impression, " she explained. Decade after decade, she chronicled life around her. Her work was frequently cited as masculine by the critics and sometimes distinguished artists who chose paintings for exhibits were surprised to learn that the work they had admired had been painted or etched by a woman. Bernstein may have added to the confusion by sometimes signing her work with her last name only.
Of modernist art, she said: "I couldn't warm up to cubes and triangles-they didn't have enough life for me". (Sternberg 21) In April, 2000, the Joan Whalen Fine Art Gallery in New York City held a well-received exhibition titled "Theresa Bernstein: An Early Modernist." This exhibitions feature at the opening reception was Bernstein's book titled "Rabbitville," a collection of drawings and stories the artist started in the 1930s to entertain children who posed for her.
Theresa Bernstein died on February 12, 2002 at the age of 112. She was possibly the oldest living artist in America. Her career spanned 80 years.
*The above biography was extracted from numerous biographies found on Askart.com
If you have any works by Theresa Bernstein please contact
Rachel McKay Laskowski at info@griffinsgallery.com