Bronxville Artist Spotlight: Ann Brainerd Crane and Mary Fairchild Low
As members of an emerging generation of professional women artists, Ann Brainerd Crane and Mary Fairchild Low exemplified the artistic talent present in Bronxville, New York, during the early twentieth century.
Mary Fairchild Low (American, 1858–1946). Children’s Regatta at Bronxville Lake, 1924. Oil on board. Purchased in memory of Jean S. Bartlett, Village Historian from 1966–1987. Courtesy of the Bronxville Historical Conservancy.
In 1890, entrepreneur William Van Duzer Lawrence began developing a notable artist colony in Bronxville. Unlike other such creative communities, which tended to operate seasonally, the village provided a year-round home for the arts. With its easy access to pastoral landscapes and New York City, Bronxville afforded a space for its residents to not only make art but to raise families and join a wider community.
In the early 1900s, Bronxville gained two important residents: Ann Brainerd Crane and Mary Fairchild Low. Part of an emerging generation of professional women artists, Crane and Low had trained as painters in France before returning stateside to raise their families in New York. Here, Low’s particular flair for boat scenes is on full display. Sailboats glide across multihued waters, while fishing schooners float under bright skies. Crane’s work also spotlights the local landscape, although her painting brings us into a quiet winter’s day. A solitary farmhouse completes her snowy composition, its red and orange facade peeking out from between barren trees to warm up the river’s surface.
While the Bronxville Artists Colony itself had dissolved by the 1940s, Bronxville continues to serve as a thriving center for the arts. The Bronxville Historical Conservancy, in particular, has preserved the work of artists such as Low and Crane, ensuring that their contributions to twentieth-century American art are not forgotten.
The exhibition is supported by the Bronxville Historical Conservancy.
Additional support has been provided by Sarah Lawrence College and the Mellon Foundation.
To see additional works by artists from the Bronxville Artists Colony, mark your calendars for Neighboring Visions: Westchester Artists Then and Now, opening in the Community and Partnership Gallery in June 2024.
