Wilhelmina Weber Furlong

Biography

Weber Furlong's long and active artistic career spanned 1892 to 1962, during which time she thrived as a modernist artist working in St. Louis, Mexico City, New York City, and Paris. Beginning in 1892, Weber Furlong was instructed by artists including Emil Carlsen, William Merritt Chase, and Edmund H. Wuerpel of the St. Louis School of Fine Arts.

She was in Paris from 1897 to 1906, where she attended the Salon d'Automne for three years and became acquainted with Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, and others who exhibited at the Paris Salon.

From 1906 to 1913, Weber Furlong painted in Mexico City before moving to New York City where she lived and worked until 1947. While residing in New York, Weber Furlong worked in the rural retreats of Glens Falls, New York, and Bolton Landing, New York, where she hosted fellow artists at her Golden Heart Farm from 1952 to 1962.

In America, Weber Furlong's significant circle of friends and acquaintances includes John Graham, Willem de Kooning, David Smith, Dorothy Dehner, Jean Charlot, Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, Rockwell and Sally Kent, Thomas Hart Benton, Allen Tucker, Max Weber, Kimon Nicolaides, and many others. As a student, she was associated with the Art Students League as a young woman prior to 1900 and in 1913 began a serious role in the New York art scene at the Art Students League as a Secretary Treasurer and member of the Board of Control along with her husband, the artist Tomás Furlong (artist). She taught art for over 56 years in New York and she was active with the Whitney Studio Club during the formative years of the organization in New York City a fact revealed in the Studio Club archives. In 1923 Weber Furlong was exhibiting at the architectural league of New York.

Legacy and honors

Weber Furlongs' close association in Bolton Landing, New York with the sculptor David Smith has had a lasting influence on the hamlet to this very day and she is known to be responsible for bringing him to the farm he purchased there with his wife sculptor and painter Dorothy Dehner. Weber Furlong's works are on permanent display at the Bolton Landing Museum.

The Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York has displayed the works of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong since 1966 where they hosted a major solo retrospective of the artist's work after her death in 1962. The Tang Museum at Skidmore College holds a work by Weber Furlong which has been exhibited regionally since 1952. In the early 1950s Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York held solo exhibitions of the works of Weber Furlong for several years and she exhibited alongside the artist David Smith at the State Capital in Albany, New York. The Ft. Edward Art Center hosted a solo exhibition in May 1994.

Starting in late September 2012 through early April 2013, The International Woman's Foundation in Marfa, Texas held a major retrospective of the works of Weber Furlong featuring over 75 unseen works and private belongings of the artist including her Victorian easel. The one woman show was held at the Iconic Building 98 studio galleries along with a lecture by Professor Emeritus James K. Kettlewell, retired curator of the Hyde Collection.[[File:Marfa Texas Weber Furlong Banner.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Marfa, Texas Chinati Weekend, 2012, [[Marfa, Texas]]]]

In Spring of 2012, Wilhelmina Weber Furlong became the subject of a documentary film based on the biography on the life of the popular early American woman modernist. A permanent display of the work of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong is at the Bolton Landing, New York town history museum.

On August 7, 2012 the Crandall Public Library in Glens Falls, New York hosted a documentary film crew and lecture on Wilhelmina Weber Furlong featuring James K. Kettlewell, Professor Emeritus at Skidmore College and retired curator of the Hyde Collection, where they displayed one of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong's lost works.

On July 23, 2013 the City Glens Falls, New York Common Council approved a resolution to place a New York State historical marker in downtown Glens Falls near City Hall. The resolution stated: "Weber Furlong (1878–1962) One of America's great and influential artists of the twentieth century, Weber Furlong was among the first to champion the Modern art movement. The final years of her life were spent in Glens Falls, where she lived and taught near this site at her Ridge Street studio until her death in 1962. Placed for the Warren County Bicentennial."

2019 Lake George, New York "Two Centuries of Art from Bolton Landing" Bolton Historical Society Museum. Landscapes Lost and Found.

2019 Dublin, Ireland Weber Furlong Her Life. Her Art. Her Legacy. The exhibition presented by Clint Weber, Director and Curator of The Weber Furlong Collection of Modern Art; Mona Blocker Garcia of the International Woman’s Foundation and artist Martin De Porres Wright, in association with the Irish Georgian Society. Knight of Glin Exhibition Room, City Assembly House, South William Street. Dublin, Ireland.

2022 Manhattan New York, The Art Students League of New York. Proudly presented To Live is to Paint: Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, Dorothy Dehner and American Modernism July 21 – August 23, 2022 Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery. Wilhelmina Weber Furlong, Dorothy Dehner and American Modernism, curated by the League’s 2022 guest curator, Jillian Russo PhD. To Live is to Paint follows Furlong’s and Dehner’s artistic influences from their extensive travels to their close friendships throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

2022 Austin, Texas Prizer arts and Letters community organization and gallery. Wilhelmina Weber Furlong. Struggled to be taken seriously as an artist, both because of her gender and because of resistance to the modernist movement. She persisted, stating that, “To live is to paint.

References

References

1. The Biography of Wilhelmina Weber Furlong: The Treasured Collection of Golden Heart Farm by Clint B. Weber, {{ISBN. 978-0-9851601-0-4
2. Professor Emeritus James K. Kettlewell: Harvard, Skidmore College, Curator The Hyde Collection. Foreword to The Treasured Collection of Golden Heart Farm: {{ISBN. 978-0-9851601-0-4
3. (July 19, 2012). "America's First Female Modern Artists Local The Biography & Catalogue, August 7, 2012". The Weber Furlong Press, New York.
4. (June 8, 1913). "Weber Furlong Retrospective Catalogue The Biography & Catalogue, June 7, 2013". The Weber Furlong Press, New York.
5. "About Weber Furlong Weber Furlong website 2014". The Weber Furlong Collection, New York.
6. The Hyde Collection Museum Glens Falls, New York on Permanent display
7. (July 12, 2013). "Artist Honored in Glens Falls, Woman Painter Was at Forefront of Modern Change July 12, 2013". Post Star Glens Falls, New York.
8. Smithsonian Archives of American Art Oral history interviews with Dorothy Dehner, 1965 Oct.-1966
9. (October 2025). "Biographer Seeking Local Information on Artist June 27, 2013". Press Republican Plattsburgh, New York.
10. The Whitney Museum Library archival items number 15405
11. Smithsonian Archives of American Art Detailed description of the Ben Benn papers, 1905–1993
12. "Bolton Historical Museum".
13. (March 31, 2021). "Documenting the Life and Times of Bolton Artist Weber Furlong July 24, 2012". Lake George Mirror.
14. "Marfa City Council onboard for American Modernism 2012-08-14". Big Bend Sentinel.
15. "Weber Furlong retrospective extended at Building 98 May 14, 2013". Big Bend Sentinel.
16. "Weber Furlong Retrospective Begins September 27, 2102". The Alpine Avalanche Alpine, Texas.
17. "Weber Furlong Retrospective Held Over Tuesday, Thursday, January 3, 2013 9:23 am". The Alpine Avalanche Alpine, Texas.
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21. The Chronicle Glens Falls, New York
22. "Get to know the artist Weber Furlong Glens Falls, NY, August 07, 2012". Adirondack Chamber of Commerce.
23. "Family heirlooms as treasured art Bolton, NY, Aug 03, 2012". NPR New York.
24. "The Treasured Collection Talk at Ten, July 19, 2012". NPR Marfa, Texas.
25. "Weber Furlong and the Origins of Modern Art October 6, 2013". The Hyde Collection Glens Falls NY.
26. "Weber Furlong Historic marker dedication". Time Warner Cable Albany NY.
27. (June 5, 2019). "Bolton Historical Society Landscapes lost and Found". Lake George Mirror Bolton Landing, New York.
28. (June 18, 2019). "Two Centuries of Lake George landscapes". The New York Times Union.
29. "Wilhelmina Weber-Furlong: pioneering American modernist painter". The Irish Times Aidan Dunne.
30. (August 11, 2019). "Search on for Irish family of pioneering American artist". The Journal.ie Aoife Barry.
31. (August 19, 2019). "What Lies Beneath". The Independent Ireland Niall MacMonagle.
32. "Dublin Artist:painter and sculptor". Martin De Porres Wright.
33. "To Live is to Paint". The Art Students League of New York Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery.
34. "Wilhelmina Weber Furlong curated by Carrie Kenny and Jean-Pierre Verdijo". Prizer Gallery.