Friday Focus - Jemima Blackburn and Fidelia Bridges: Artists and Naturalists
In this talk, Holly Trostle Brigham will explore the contributions to art and natural history of 19th century artists Fidelia Bridges (American:1834-1923) and Jemima Blackburn (Scottish: 1823-1909). Bridges and Blackburn were both influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic promoted by John Ruskin in the UK, and William Trost Richards in the United States.
Date: Friday 15 November 2024
Time: 13:00 - 13:30
Venue: Online
Category: Public lectures, Hunterian
Speaker: Holly Trostle Brigham
In this talk, Holly Trostle Brigham will explore the contributions to art and natural history of 19th century artists Fidelia Bridges (American:1834-1923) and Jemima Blackburn (Scottish: 1823-1909). Bridges and Blackburn were both influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic promoted by John Ruskin in the UK, and William Trost Richards in the United States.
Whilst accomplished as artists, the role that women played in natural history and conservation in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century is still underacknowledged.
The talk will present the parallel lives that Bridges and Blackburn led as artists, illustrators, and proponents of bird conservation on either side of the Atlantic.
Holly Trostle Brigham is a painter based in Philadelphia who creates life-sized figures in watercolor that depict historical and mythological women.
In 2023, Brigham had a solo show at the Reading Public Museum in Reading, PA and in 2022, Brigham had a solo show at the Delaware Art Museum called ‘I Wake Again’: Holly Trostle Brigham on Elizabeth Siddal. She will exhibit at Muhlenberg College in 2026.
Brigham’s paintings and artist books are in the collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Beinecke Library at Yale University, Smith College Museum of Art, the Georgia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Allentown Art Museum, the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, among others.
Brigham was born in Carlisle, PA, attended Smith College where she studied Art History and studied abroad in Florence, Italy. She went on to study Art History at the graduate level at the University of Pittsburgh, fine art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and earned her MFA in Painting at the George Washington University. She has taught at Pasadena City College, Worcester State College, the Worcester Art Museum, and the Baum School of Art.
The Friday Focus talk programme features a different speaker each week, sharing a deeper insight into our exhibitions and collections, and work going on behind the scenes at The Hunterian. We hold the talks every Friday at 1pm online over Zoom. Talks are approximately 20 minutes long with time for questions afterwards.