Alice Schille, 1869 — 1955

Text by art historian Tara Keny, whose family has maintained a connection with Schille for generations. Her great-grandmother lived next door to the artist in the 1880s, and her grandmother, Julianne, posed for a portrait at the age of eleven. The Keny galleries have played an important role in bringing to light numerous women artists from Columbus, Ohio who were active in Paris in the early twentieth century and who later helped shape key developments in American modernism. 

Regarding Schille specifically, see the exhibit they curated at the Columbus Museum of Art. You may also wish to consult the PBS video interview with Tara Keny and her father, gallerist and Ohio Humanities Scholar Jim Keny, and Tim Keny's catalogue devoted to Schille's artwork.

Alice Schille (1869-1955), born in Columbus, Ohio, was a leading watercolorist during the first half of the 20th century. She is primarily known for her Post-Impressionist and modern depictions of markets, landscapes, women with children, and portraits. Encouraged by her mother, she enrolled at the Columbus Art School from 1891 to 1893 and then traveled to New York where she attended the Art Students League, living in a New York boarding house with her lifelong friend, the artist Olive Rush. At the League, the American painters William Merritt Chase and Kenyon Cox were among Schille’s early mentors. Chase recognized her talent from the outset, awarding her a scholarship to attend his summer school in Shinnecock, Long Island, in 1899; years later, she continued her training with him through private lessons in Paris. Throughout her career, Schille traveled widely—to North and Central America, England, and across Europe (France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain), as well as to Africa—to paint, often exhibiting the resulting works in watercolor exhibitions throughout the United States.

In 1903, Schille studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and the following year was on the hanging committee of the 1904 AWAA exhibition, showing a study of children and one watercolor (Yanneke) which she would also exhibit at the Paris Salon (Société National des Beaux Arts) and the New York Water Color club that same year.  It was during this time that Schille met the Philadelphia bodybuilder, collector, and lifelong friend, Samuel Stockton White III, then in Paris to model for Auguste Rodin. Although she returned to Ohio in the fall of 1904 to teach at the Columbus Art School, she summered in France every year until the outbreak of World War I.  An important proponent in the Midwest of modernism, Schille brought to Ohio theories and formal studies from abroad, which she recorded in personal notebooks. Schille’s work greatly impacted the American watercolor movement throughout the 20th century. Her contributions to watercolor exhibitions across the United States were frequently noted in the press and books on the medium, often exhibiting alongside American artists Childe Hassam, John Marin, Maurice Prendergast, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer and Mary Cassatt. She maintained her teaching position at the Columbus Art School until she retired in 1948.

One of Alice Schille’s journals was published online on the occasion of the 2019 retrospective of her work at the Columbus Museum of Art and can be viewed on archive.org. This journal includes original figure drawings as well as studies of paintings she saw in museums while traveling. An avid reader, Schille took rigorous notes from art historical texts (mostly from the 1930s in this notebook) which she may have used while teaching. She also copied down quotes she found inspirational as she read on a variety of topics such as women's suffrage, art, drinking toasts, history, religion etc. Her other sketches and notes  may be consulted in the recently established Alice Schille archives at the Columbus Museum of Art.