Adeline Albright Wigand (1852-1944) American, Portrait of Loran W. Reynolds. Signed in the upper left. Adeline Wigand is known for Portrait and figure painting. Adeline Albright was born in Madison, New Jersey and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The third of six children born to James and Mary Albright, the Albrights were a family that moved west to Iowa in the 1850s to farm, before James found relative prosperity as a furniture dealer. Although some family documents indicate she was born on June 26, 1855, Adeline's birth certificate reveals that she was born on June 24, 1852. It appears that she may have concealed her age, since she was five years older than her husband. Her actual age is cited in none of the standard references nor in any of her obituaries. She was from a family of comfortable means who sent her to New York to study at Cooper Union and the Art Students' League in Manhattan, and from there to Paris to study at the Academie Julian, an institution known for its receptive attitudes towards female artists. The role of artist that Adeline chose for herself was a challenging one, since female artists in the late nineteenth century were not widely accepted in either the United States or France. She would not have been permitted to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the most prominent academy in France. Even at the comparatively liberal Academie Julian, women artists paid double the fees of men. This travel abroad to study was an opportunity that had only recently become available to American women in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. And Adeline, in Paris during the mid-1880s, may well have taken inspiration from such American female artists abroad as Mary Cassatt, who had arrived in Paris in 1874, and was the only American fully accepted into the Impressionist circle. Although over thirty, and probably considered beyond the age of needing a chaperone, it is uncertain if Adeline traveled with any other members of her family or perhaps with another female artist. Her specialization in portraiture may have contributed to her success, as portraits were the genre most likely to attract commissions. Documentation in the Staten Island Museum archives suggests that Adeline continued to return to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to visit relations and undertake commissions as late as 1916. Among the various portraits she painted there were those of Dr. Henry Ristine and Mr. and Mrs. W.O. Wyman and their daughter, Katherine. Overall Size: 46 x 38 in. Sight Size: 38 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. #1674 Location S HIGH