DOI issue:
Nr. 196 (Juni 1913)
DOI article:Ruthrauff, Florence Barlow: Susan Ricker Knox, portrait painter
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0431
Susan Ricker Knox, Portrait Painter
THE AUTOCRAT BY SUSAN RICKER KNOX
Susan ricker knox, portrait
PAINTER
I BY FLORENCE B. RUTHRAUFF
The demand for good portraits is
being supplied more and more from the ranks of
our women painters, who are proving themselves
quite equal to the task of holding their own in
competition with the sterner sex.
Susan Ricker Knox is one of the most sincere
and earnest workers among our women painters.
A solidly painted canvas where characterization
is the first consideration, backed up by technical
knowledge, will hold its own wherever placed.
Miss Knox was born in the aristocratic little
city of Portsmouth, N. H., where early in life her
artistic proclivities began to assert themselves.
Her fundamental training was acquired at the Art
Schools of New York and Philadelphia. Later
she went abroad to study, spending considerable
time in the art galleries of the old world. It was
in Spain that she felt she had found a personal
message to her in the master-realist, Velasquez,
and the modern Zuloaga.
The potentiality of these influences led the
artist to adopt for her artistic trilogy—simplicity,
breadth and characterization. To these attri-
butes she has remained true.
Miss Knox first became known through her
silhouettes, and may be said to have instigated
the revival of this unique form of portraiture,
which spread through the East a few years ago.
The result was obtained in a new and original way
as the little likenesses were in reality pen-and-ink
drawings and not the cut and pasted paper of
olden times. They demanded a rapid summary
of the individuality of the sitter and accurate ren-
dition, each of which qualities has since proved
invaluable. Her fame became wide-spread along
the Maine coast and especially in Boston, where
numerous commissions rewarded her thoughtful
work.
LXXVIH
THE AUTOCRAT BY SUSAN RICKER KNOX
Susan ricker knox, portrait
PAINTER
I BY FLORENCE B. RUTHRAUFF
The demand for good portraits is
being supplied more and more from the ranks of
our women painters, who are proving themselves
quite equal to the task of holding their own in
competition with the sterner sex.
Susan Ricker Knox is one of the most sincere
and earnest workers among our women painters.
A solidly painted canvas where characterization
is the first consideration, backed up by technical
knowledge, will hold its own wherever placed.
Miss Knox was born in the aristocratic little
city of Portsmouth, N. H., where early in life her
artistic proclivities began to assert themselves.
Her fundamental training was acquired at the Art
Schools of New York and Philadelphia. Later
she went abroad to study, spending considerable
time in the art galleries of the old world. It was
in Spain that she felt she had found a personal
message to her in the master-realist, Velasquez,
and the modern Zuloaga.
The potentiality of these influences led the
artist to adopt for her artistic trilogy—simplicity,
breadth and characterization. To these attri-
butes she has remained true.
Miss Knox first became known through her
silhouettes, and may be said to have instigated
the revival of this unique form of portraiture,
which spread through the East a few years ago.
The result was obtained in a new and original way
as the little likenesses were in reality pen-and-ink
drawings and not the cut and pasted paper of
olden times. They demanded a rapid summary
of the individuality of the sitter and accurate ren-
dition, each of which qualities has since proved
invaluable. Her fame became wide-spread along
the Maine coast and especially in Boston, where
numerous commissions rewarded her thoughtful
work.
LXXVIH