Dreamy Childhood in Lilla Cabot Perry’s Artworks

Adults say that childhood is the best phase of life. It is this time when we are freer and more sincere and sometimes our best memories come from childhood. This unique period was chosen as a dominant theme in the Lilla Cabot Perry oeuvre.

Lilla Cabot was born in 1848 in Boston, and her own childhood was very memorable. From a very young age, she was interested in literature, music, and drawing. Her caring parents allowed the girl access to libraries and museums, while her friends taught her some drawing techniques.

But the time passed, and small Lilla grew up. In 1874, she married Thomas Perry, a linguistics teacher. Two years after they had a daughter, Margareth, who would become the first girl represented in Lilla’s paintings.

In the following years, Cabot Perry gave birth to Edith (1880) and Alice (1884). The three daughters became her primary models.

In her first painting, Portrait of an Infant, Cabot Perry accentuates an evident play between light and shadow to heighten the emotional impact of the painting. We almost cannot see the face of little Margareth, who is also completely oblivious to the observer. It is a singular moment of the girl’s childhood registered with the emotion of the painter and the mother.

Almost ten years after this first portrait, Cabot Perry begins her formal education in art, still in Boston, and her first work of this period is The Beginner. Margareth is once again the model for her mother.

In 1887, the Cabot Perry family moved to France. The painter continued her studies in Paris, not only attending classes, but also constantly visiting museums. It is at this time that she met Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Mary Cassatt, with whom she soon established a deep friendship. Lilla was interested in Impressionism and began experimenting with this style.

From that moment on, Cabot Perry’s work began to focus heavily on the effects of color and light, and she took the opportunity to portray her daughters in the gardens and other open-air places.

Cabot Perry’s own technique underwent quite a transformation. Instead of the dramatic light effects of her early works, she then adopted a freer style, with less rigid brush strokes.

With time, she became an Impressionist painter. We can see this in this portrait of Alice, her youngest daughter.

Cabot Perry spent some time in Giverny learning more about the Impressionist technique with Claude Monet, whose many portraits and landscapes were produced there. We can see how Giverny affected her style: her works vibrated with colors, revealing the artist fully absorbed in the spirit of Impressionism.

Cabot Perry’s family traveled a lot, which contributed to the diversification of her work, including influences from the oriental art, since her husband was invited to teach in Japan, and Cabot Perry learn Japanese painting techniques. Yet despite such diverse experiences, Cabot Perry continued to represent childhood.

Cabot Perry continued painting until she died in 1932, aged 88. She had an intense activity as a painter, and her influence was very important for the recognition of Impressionism in the United States. She profited from all the lessons of other artists to subsequently develop a unique style.