Ada Gilmore Chaffee Massachusetts, Michigan (1883-1955) floral study watercolor and pencil on paper Signed lower right. Biography from the Archives of askART: Although she focused on printmaking during much of career as an artist, Ada Gilmore Chaffee was also a painter. Gilmore was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1883. Before reaching the age of twelve, she and her three siblings became orphans. The four children moved to Ireland where they were raised by their aunt in Belfast. She first attended the Belfast School of Design, and later studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. She received instruction from Robert Henri, a painter and printmaker known for his portraits and genre pieces, in 1912. Henri was also the instructor of Oliver Newberry Chaffee, whom Gilmore later married during the 1920s. Beginning in 1913, she obtained additional instruction in France from Ethel Mars, after being exposed to Mars's color woodcut artwork at an exhibition. She returned to the United States with the start of World War I, and began living and working in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Gilmore's prints were displayed in San Francisco at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, as well as the Berlin Photographic Company and the New York Watercolor Club in New York City. She traveled to France in 1923 for a reunion with her former institutor and friend, Ethel Mars. During her time in Vence, France, she became reacquainted with Oliver Chaffee, and the two married. Profoundly inspired by the Modern style of artwork produced by Oliver Chaffee and circle of artists with whom he was associated, which included Marsden Hartley, Jules Pascin, and Albert Gleizes, Gilmore began to replace printmaking with painting. She continued painting for the remainder of her career. Submitted by Jenna Wuensche, Researcher Source: Jules Heller and Nancy G. Heller, North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century 12”H x 16”W