Portrait of Ellen Emmet c. 1907 by Mary Foote (American, 1847-1938).Ellen Gertrude Emmet Rand (1876-1941) was among the first females in the United States to succeed as a professional portrait artist. She was a contemporary of Mary Foote who painted this portrait of Rand at her easel.
A superb portraitist, Rand is perhaps best known for painting Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s official presidential portrait in 1934, one of hundreds of portraits of politicians, captains of industry, socialites, artists, and scholars completed over her forty-year career…as well as foxhunters of note! You see, she was a foxhunter, too.
The list of foxhunters, staff members and Masters whose portraits Rand painted represent a sporting Who’s Who of her times, among them Mrs. Charlotte Noland, MFH, Middleburg Hunt (VA); Fletcher Harper, MFH, Orange County Hunt (VA); William Bell Watkins, MFH, Blue Ridge Hunt (VA); Miss Helen Bedford, MFH, Fairfield County Hunt (CT); Mrs. I. Tucker Burr, MFH, Norfolk Hunt (MA); Frederic H. Bontecou and Dr. Howard Collins, MFHs, Millbrook Hunt (NY). And let’s not omit her husband, William Blanchard Rand, MFH, Old Chatham Hunt (NY)!
In 1936, the Sporting Gallery and Bookshop in New York City held an exhibition titled Sporting Portraits by Ellen Emmet Rand, N.A., featuring twenty of her hunt paintings. Among these, seven were of Virginia-based sitters. I have been researching this exhibition for an essay I am contributing to a book being developed for the University of Connecticut/William Benton Museum’s upcoming retrospective exhibition, The Business of Bodies: Ellen Emmet Rand (1875-1941) and the Persuasion of Portraiture, on view in Connecticut from October 2018 through March 2019.
In exploring Ellen Emmet Rand’s densely-written diaries (years 1918 and 1926-1941) which are housed in the Ellen Emmet Rand archives held at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, I am beginning to discover entries about Rand’s travels to Middleburg and the surrounding region to paint. Some of these portraits were in the 1936 exhibition.
Ellen Gertrude Emmett Rand (1875 – 1941) portrait of Miss Charlotte Noland, Joint M.F.H., The Middleburg Hunt, 1929, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Foxcroft School, Middleburg, Virginia [Image source] Rand stayed at the Red Fox Inn in Middleburg in 1929 to paint the portrait of Miss Charlotte Noland, Foxcroft School founder (1914) and Joint-MFH of the Middleburg Hunt, #7 in the Sporting Gallery pamphlet. Rand received what would become one of her favorite mares, Gandora, in lieu of payment for the painting. She wrote on March 8, 1929, “The deal for this portrait is a very good mare of Miss Charlotte’s thoroughly broken + a fine jumper + a good size + a good horse quite nice looking. That is Miss Charlotte’s return for the portrait + I am well satisfied.” (1929 Diary, Ellen Emmet Rand Archive, Box 6, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut) Considering that Rand was making between $3,000 and $4,500 per painting that year, it must have been quite a horse!
Ellen Gertrude Emmett Rand (American, 1875-1941), Study for Portrait of Fletcher Harper (1874-1963), c. 1931, oil on canvas, 45 x 34 ½ inches. National Sporting Library & Museum, Gift of Mrs. Fletcher Harper, 1972
In April and October of 1930, Rand stayed at the Orange County Hunt Club in The Plains, Virginia to paint Mrs. Harriet Harper and her husband Mr. Fletcher Harper, MFH of the Orange County Hunt (and a founder of the National Sporting Library and Museum) respectively, #1 and 2 in the 1936 exhibition. (Click to read more about the couple by John Connolly.)
Rand only drew two sketches in her 1930 Diary; both were of Fletcher Harper. She made what she called “a fake start” of Mr. Harper’s portrait on October 1 ,1930
Sketch of Fletcher Harper, October 1-2, 1930 diary entries by Ellen Emmet Rand, 1930 Diary, Ellen Emmet Rand Archive, Box 6, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut
“I started F. this p.m. Made a fake start, the position + lights were not quite right! I will make a fresh start tomorrow. He is awfully good fun to paint.” The passage most likely refers to the incomplete painting in the NSLM’s permanent collection.
Ellen Gertrude Emmett Rand (American, 1875-1941) c.1935 portrait of William B. Rand, William Benton Museum of Art Collection © University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT.
The artist, however, did not only come to Virginia hunt country to work. She and her husband William Blanchard Rand were both accomplished equestrians and sometimes made trips to many hunts in the Northeast to ride, shop for horses, attend Point-to-Points, visit with friends and acquaintances, foxhunt, and hilltop. Rand’s portrait, completed in January 1936 of her husband, who was MFH of Old Chatham Hunt and a polo player, depicts him in his hunt attire. It was #12 in the 1936 Sporting Gallery exhibition.
Rand was formally trained, having attended classes at Cowles Art School in Boston and the Art Student League in New York City. She received instruction from some of the greats of her generation, studying at William Merritt Chase’s school in Shinnecock, New York, and with Frederick MacMonnies in Paris.
If you are willing to share information about any Ellen Emmet Rand’s works, especially the whereabouts of any of the Sporting Gallery exhibition paintings listed above, please contact me. It is an opportunity to flesh out scholarship with nine specialists who are focusing on the life and times of Ellen Emmet Rand. Not only will the research support this project, but we are developing an exhibition for the National Sporting Library & Museum as well.
Posted January 18, 2017
Claudia Pfeiffer is the George L. Ohrstrom, Jr. Curator of Art at the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia