Description: E. CHARLTON FORTUNE (American, 1885 - 1969).
Oil on canvas, circa 1920
24 x 20 inches, 30 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches.
Signed lower right.
Provenance: a private collection
Very good condition. Framed
Biography E. Charlton Fortune
Biography from the Archives of askART
Biography photo for E. Charlton Fortune
A pioneer female artist in a world basically reserved for men, she was an independent, dedicated professional woman in early 20th-century California. After her death, her reputation diminished, but the quality of her landscapes, interiors, figures, and murals has been rediscovered in the second half of the century.
She was born in Sausalito, across the Bay north from San Francisco to a Scottish father, William Ranken Fortune, and a mother, Helen Hersberg, who was a native of San Francisco. She did not like her given name of Euphemia, and came to be known to friends as "Effie" and usually signed her paintings "Charlton," the family name of her grandmother. From her father she inherited a cleft palette, which was a prominent deformity, and it is thought that her being told she would pass this onto her children figured prominently in her decision never to marry.
In her childhood, she was much influenced by her visits to Barnsmuir, her father's home in Scotland, where she from the age of four learned 19th century etiquette, the security of having financial resources, and Victorian sharp repartee in conversation. However, later when she struck out as an artist in "bohemia," her family had trouble understanding her desire.

good condition
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