Henrietta Shore was born in Toronto, Canada on Jan. 22, 1880 and began painting at age 13. She studied at St. Mary’s College in Toronto and later in NYC at the Art Students League with Chase, Dumond, and Henri. While in London, she continued at the Heatherly Art School and was the only private pupil of John Singer Sargent. After arriving in Los Angeles in 1913, she became active in the local art scene and was a founder of the Modern Art Society. She maintained a studio in Los Angeles until 1920 and then led a peripatetic existence: Newfoundland (1920), Maine (1921), NYC (1920-23), Mexico (1927-28), and San Francisco (1928-29). Shore was internationally known when an invitation to exhibit brought her to Carmel in 1930. There, she had a close friendship and working relationship with the photographer Edward Weston. After establishing a studio in Carmel, she remained and continued painting. Penniless, her last few years were spent in the State Mental Hospital in San Jose, CA, where she died on May 17, 1963. Her early works were realistic but matured into impressionist and semi-abstract forms. Her visual repertoire includes landscapes, figure studies, portraiture, and floral still lifes. Henrietta Shore and her Work by Merle Armitage was published in 1963 and a chapter was devoted to her in the 1939 book titled Art from the Mayans to Walt Disney by Jean Charlot.
