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Philadelphia, 1901.The dawn of a new century & three brilliant women, all artists –Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green & Violet Oakley–make a courageous pact to create for themselves every single advantage which men of the time took entirely for granted. #RedRoseGirls
They had met as students of the famous illustrator & progressive Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute. All immensely talented, they decided to fight hard against the fate of most women artists whose careers were inevitably upended by marriage & domesticity. #RedRoseGirls
Named by their beloved Pyle as the #RedRoseGirls, from 1901 to 1906, they rented a picturesque former inn of the same name in Villanova, an idyllic suburb on Philadelphia's Main Line. Here, they lived and worked and supported each other in a radical new model of family life.
A fourth woman, the gifted & much loved Henrietta Cozens, joined them to do the housework, gardening, cooking, domestic maintenance & management. Together, they lifted & encouraged & tended each other - achieving remarkable success & influence. #RedRoseGirls
Violet, a trailblazer in mural decoration & stained glass, fields exclusively practiced by men, painted a series of 43 murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building. Depicting the story of William Penn, her images continue to define the state's origin myth. #RedRoseGirls
Jessie came to dominate the world of illustration & advertising, working for Scribner's, Harper's Bazaar & St. Nicholas Magazine, commanding significant fees & winning countless awards. Her depictions of children & mothers shaped Edwardian archetypes of motherhood.
Elizabeth won an exclusive contract as an illustrator with Harper's Monthly in 1901, her beautiful & slightly strange studies, with their unusual viewpoints & spatial configurations, were groundbreaking, visionary & transformed the landscape of American illustration.
Eventually, Elizabeth fell passionately in love with Huger Elliott, a professor of architecture, and her marriage led to the end of the #RedRoseGirls - "Cupid breaks up trio of artists" blazed the headlines in delight.
But their demise was organic, gentle & friendly - their experiment had been a spectacular success, the vast achievements of the “Red Rose Girls” ranging far beyond their art and city. They set something tumbling into motion that we can still draw heavily from today. #RedRoseGirls
Not least the idea that it is possible, however powerless & small you may feel, however crushed by the grinding weight of inequality, to create tangible, astonishing change through friendship, solidarity & unshakeable support. Lift up others & you yourself flourish. #RedRoseGirls
