Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855–1942), Ernesta (Child with Nurse), 1894. Oil on canvas, 50 1/2 x 38 1/8 in. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1965, 65.49. Courtesy American Federation of Arts

Cecilia Beaux enjoyed a successful career as a portraitist. Having trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, she moved to Paris in 1888 to further her career. She studied at both the Académie Colarossi and the Académie Julian, and exhibited at the Salon. She later returned to the United States and in 1895 became the first female professor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she taught portraiture and drawing for twenty years.

A fully illustrated catalogue, Women Artists in Paris, 1850–1900, has been published by the American Federation of Arts and Yale University Press. Along with an art-historical overview by curator Laurence Madeline, the catalogue includes essays by Jane R. Becker, collections management associate, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard Kendall, former curator at large, Clark Art Institute; Bridget Alsdorf, associate professor, History of Art, Princeton University; and Vibeke Hansen, curator, Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo.