Ellen Graham Anderson (1885 – 1970)
Research and Text by Jacqueline Yu, B.A. in Art History and East Asian Languages and Culture, Columbia University in the City of New York, 2024. Columbia Global Virtual Intern, 2023 – 2024.
Ellen Graham Anderson was born on April 9, 1885 in Lexington, Virginia to Mary Louisa “Maza” Blair and William Alexander Anderson. Growing up wealthy, white, and the fifth child of an influential family in the South, Anderson was afforded many privileges, attending private schools in the nearby city of Richmond and refining her artistic talent from a young age. From 1906 to 1907, she studied under Anne C. Fletcher at the Richmond Art Club, and in 1910, she moved her studies to New York, enrolling in classes at the Art Students League and residing in the student dormitories at the Three Arts Club on West 86th Street. Anderson achieved a moderate level of success early in her career as an artist. She received scholarships to study in both Richmond and New York and was the subject of a highly praised solo exhibition in Richmond in May 1911 (“Miss Anderson’s Exhibit”). Her work consisted largely of painted portraits of family and friends, as well as landscapes and cityscapes.

In June 1913, Anderson embarked on a “grand tour” of Europe with her father and sister Judith. For the entire summer, they traveled around the continent, notably stopping in Ireland, Scotland, and Germany. She maintained her passion for the arts, attending performances and decorating her correspondence with sketches of the foreign landscapes around her. At the end of the trip, Anderson did not want to leave Europe. In a letter to her mother dated September 3, 1913, Anderson explained that instead of returning home with her father and sister, she would stay in Paris, seizing the “opportunity of a lifetime” to complete some “much needed studying…” Less than two weeks later, she was a resident at 4 Rue de Chevreuse.

Anderson quickly felt at home in Paris, aided by her extensive connections in the robust American expat community of Montparnasse. She dined frequently with her cousin Anna Ely and she was familiar with “quite a number of famous girls” in the area whom she had originally met in her art school days or at the Three Arts Club in New York. She attended Catholic services at Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Île de la Cité and spent time in the Luxembourg Gardens. Almost immediately after her arrival, Anderson began taking art classes with Charles Guérin at the Académie Moderne, which was located in Whistler’s former studio at 86 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. In an October 1913 letter to her mother, Anderson wrote that she was “beginning to almost feel a part of the American quarter, + [sic] know faces on the nearby boulevard…” As winter came around, Anderson began to copy paintings at the Louvre, took Italian lessons with a private tutor, and drank tea with other local artists, like poet Alan Seeger and painter Patrick Henry Bruce.

Anderson was initially unsettled at the American Girls’ Art Club. She was frustrated by the difficulty of learning French while surrounded by American peers and confused by the existence of St. Luke’s Chapel in the backyard of the property, stating that “to our precise American minds it seems very unusual, but I suppose it is nothing to a European” (Letter to her father, September 14, 1913). However, by January 1914, the Art Club had become Anderson’s home base.

Although she moved out of its dormitory and into a shared home at 119 bis rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs (in order to improve her language skills through immersion), she still visited the Club every day “for mail + probably for tea to see the people I know there” (Letter to her family, January 5th, 1914). On Sundays, she would attend the Club’s “little musicals,” which featured performances from residents. Anderson was close with fellow Art Club members Bertha Coolidge and Katherine McIntire, the latter of whom not only planned an unrealized trip to Italy with Anderson, but was also in correspondence with Anderson’s father (Letter to her father, January 29th, 1914). Although it is unclear if they were personally acquainted, Anderson knew of famed American Woman’s Art Association (AWAA) member Anne Goldthwaite, mentioning the artist and her similar studies at the Académie Moderne under Charles Guérin in a letter to her family written in January 1914. In February, Anderson exhibited six works at the annual AWAA exhibition at the Girls’ Art Club: “La rue Mouffetard,” “Battersea Reach,” “London,” “Au Luxembourg,” “Fleurs et l’Escalier,” “Le Vieillard,” and “Le Modèle.”

Despite her expansive social network and deep appreciation for Paris, Anderson did not want to stay in the city or anywhere else in Europe past the spring of 1914. She was plagued by homesickness and displayed letters from her friends in Lexington on her dresser as well as images of the local House Mountain and Virginia Military Institute on her wall. In a March 1914 letter to her mother, she wrote that she would remain in Europe at least until April 6 so that she could submit works for the Salon but, after some travels around France, she would return to the United States. Her submissions to the Salon were unsuccessful, and true to her word, Ellen Graham Anderson came home to Lexington, Virginia shortly thereafter, just before the outbreak of World War I in June.
For the next decade, Anderson was an active artist who split time between New York and Virginia. She produced pen-and-ink illustrations for newspapers across the country, depicting celebrities and performers for acclaimed periodicals like the New York Tribune, Post Magazine, and The International. Anderson also continued showing her paintings in fine arts exhibitions. Notably, in 1917, she submitted two works, “Study of a Scotchman” and “Tulips”, to the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, a revolutionary show in New York that was dedicated to “freedom in the arts.” Perhaps due to a knee injury and subsequent operation, Anderson moved to Virginia full-time in the mid-1920s. Using the techniques and aesthetics of German Expressionism and Paul Cézanne, Anderson frequently painted the mountainous landscape surrounding her. From 1925 to 1937, Anderson also traveled back and forth to Europe, visiting cities all across Italy and, naturally, returning to Paris.


Aside from her vibrant visual arts career, Anderson was also a writer and community organizer. She published poems in the New York Times, wrote biographical accounts of her family members for the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, and served as the president of Lexington’s Mary Custis Lee Chapter of the Colonial Dames.
Anderson died on July 23, 1970 at the age of 85. Many of her drawings are preserved at the University of Virginia, while her papers largely reside at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. In 1988, the Lexington Regional Library exhibited a collection of her work, indicating her continued influence in the area.
Sources
- “American Women Artists Show Pictures of Merit.” The New York Herald, Paris, 22 February 1914, pg. 2. Gallica.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Incomplete Letter to her Mother. 9 October 1913. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to Anna. 6 July 1913. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Family. 5 January 1914. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Family. 6 March 1914. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Father. 12-14 September 1913. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Father. 29 January 1914. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Mother. 18 January 1914. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Mother. 18 June 1913. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to her Mother. 3 September 1913. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. Letter to Ruth. 26 February 1914. Anderson Family papers. WLU-Coll-000, Box 1, Folder 4. University Library Special Collections and Archives Repository, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia. http://library.wlu.edu/specialcollections.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. “Letters from the Mailbag: Recollection of Old Paris.” The New York Herald Tribune, 28 June 1937, p. 6. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. “Magnolia Gardens.” New York Times, 16 February 1931, pg. 15. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. “Sierra Madre.” New York Times, December 23, 1932, pg. 16. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
- Anderson, Ellen Graham. “The Wounding and Hospital Care of William A. Anderson.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1954, pp. 205-207. JSTOR.
- “Archive Record: ‘Carl’ Burgundy Album.” O. Winston Link Museum: History Museum of Western Virginia, https://hswv.pastperfectonline.com/archive/D1F854EC-DDA3-4FD3-965E-646560462550.
- Benedict, Kathryn Gephart. “Ellen Graham Anderson: Rediscovery of a Lexington Painter.” Rockbridge Epilogues, no. 32, Winter 2022, pp. 1-13.
- “Ellen Graham Anderson.” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38506305/ellen-graham-anderson.
- “Fredericksburgers View Modern Paintings,” The Daily Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 27 May 1911, pg. 2. Newspapers.com.
- Gephart, Katie. “From Lexington to the Luxembourg Gardens: An Artist Rediscovered.” Washington and Lee University Senior Thesis, 2011.
- Hrabe, Margaret et al. “ABCs of Special Collections: P is for.” Notes from the Grounds: The Blog of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, 18 Nov. 2013, University of Virginia, https://smallnotes.library.virginia.edu/2013/11/18/p-is-for/.
- “Isadora Duncan Dancers,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 21 April 1929, pg. 62. Newspapers.com.
- “Miss Anderson’s Exhibit.” The Times Dispatch (Richmond, Virginia), 7 May 1911, pg. 46. Newspapers.com.
- “Miss Anderson’s Paintings,” The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Virginia), 27 May 1911, pg. 1. Newspapers.com.
- “Miss Ellen G. Anderson Exhibits Her Art Work at Lexington,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 17 March 1931, pg. 7. Newspapers.com.
- “Miss Ellen Graham Anderson Wins VFWC Fine Arts Award.” The Roanoke Times, 23 April 1953, pg. 14. Newspapers.com.
- Naumann, Francis. “The Big Show: The First Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, Part I.” ArtForum, vol. 17, no. 6, February 1979.
- “Society,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 November 1915, pg. 33. Newspapers.com.
- The Society of Independent Artists, Inc. Catalogue of the First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists. William Edwin Rudge, 1917. Internet Archive.
- “Will Show Paintings,” The Roanoke Times, 5 April 1931, pg. 10. Newspapers.com.