Ellen Wetherald Ahrens Explained

Ellen Wetherald Ahrens
Birth Date:	June 5, 1859
Birth Place:	Baltimore, Maryland
Death Place:	Lansdowne, Pennsylvania
Nationality:	American
Field:	Illustration, miniature painting, stained glass

Ellen Wetherald Ahrens (June 6, 1859 – October 31, 1935) was an American artist. Best known for her book illustrations, she was also a miniature painter and stained glass artist.

Biography

Ahrens was born on June 6, 1859, in Baltimore, Maryland.^[1] She studied under Emil Otto Grundmann and Benjamin Champney at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and also under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute.^[2] Ahrens exhibited her work in national competitions. In 1884 she won the Second Toppan prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1902 she won a silver medal at the Carnegie Institute. In 1904 she received a bronze medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.^{[2] [3]}

For a time, at the turn of the century, Ahrens worked at the studio of the Red Rose Girls (Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith, and Elizabeth Shippen Green) in the Love Building in Philadelphia.^{[4] [5]}

Ahrens' best-known book illustrations are for the 1902 edition of A Maid of Bar Harbor by Henrietta G. Rowe and the 1906 edition of Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott.^{[1] [3]} Examples of her miniature painting are in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, including a 1902 portrait of Evelyn Nesbit.^[6] The Nasher Museum of Art owns a portrait of Eakins' sister.^[7] Ahrens was also known for her stained glass design.^[3]

Ahrens died on October 31, 1935, in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania.^[8]

Notes and References

1. Book: Ahrens, Ellen Wetherald . https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00001623 . Benezit Dictionary of Artists . 10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00001623 . 978-0-19-977378-7 . 6 May 2022 . en . Benezit Dictionary of Artists . 2011 .
2. Web site: Waters . Clara Erskine Clement . Women in the Fine Arts . 6 May 2022.
3. Web site: Ellen Wetherald Ahrens - Biography . AskArt . 6 May 2022.
4. Web site: 1523 Chestnut Street nomination . City of Philadelphia government . 6 May 2022.
5. Book: Cheney . Liana De Girolami . Radiance and Symbolism in Modern Stained Glass: European and American Innovations and Aesthetic Interrelations in Material Culture . 8 February 2016 . Cambridge Scholars Publishing . 978-1-4438-8859-2 . en.
6. Web site: Ellen Wetherald Ahrens . Philadelphia Museum of Art . 6 May 2022 . en.
7. Web site: Works – Ellen Wetherald Ahrens . Nasher Museum . 6 May 2022.
8. Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1968, 1935, Certificate Number Range: 097501-100500, image 44.