Lydia Fabian

Artist Details

• First Name Lydia
• Maiden Name Dunham
• Alternate Name(s) L. Dunham Fabian Lydia Dunham Smith
• Surname Fabian
• Spouse’s Full Name Ernst Fabian; married 1914/1915
• Previous Spouse(s) Lincoln Smith (?-1900)  m. 1889 in Toledo, Ohio; 1895 became employed as traveling salesman with the Emery, Bird, Thayer & Company, a department store out of Kansas City, Missouri
• Birth Date March 22, 1857
• Birth Place Charlotte, Michigan
• Death Date May 25, 1947
• Death Place Chicago, Illinois
• Ethnicity Caucasian
• Residence(s) 1880: census lists her as 23 years of age, living with parents in Spring Township, PA
  
  1889-1995: Toledo, Ohio [listed in city directories as portrait painter]
  
  1895-?: Eureka and Wichita, Kansas
  
  1915: 3916 Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
  
  1934: 3510 Lake Park Ave., Chicago, Illinois
• Studio Location(s) circa 1910: Chicago studio 114 Auditorium Building, Chicago, Illinois
• Categories Gouache, Muralist, Painter, Watercolorist
• Training circa 1875-?: Art Students League, New York, New York
  January 1897-September 1898: enrolled in School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois in the Antique Class; student of John H. Vanderpoel (watercolor), Charles Francis Browne, Pauline Dohn, J. Buckley, Martha Baker, Louis Wilson
  Student of Ossip Linde, Chicago, Illinois
  Student of Henry Hensche, Cape Cod School,
  Student of Isabel Ross
  Student of Ellen Baker        prominent in Parisian art circles at the time
  Studied with Lucie Honiss, Pisa, Italy
   
  
• Relevant Travel to Europe before 1880
  
  early 1900s, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  
  summers 1910s: Pox-Bow Summer School of Painting, Saugatuck, Michigan
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History January 29-February 24, 1907: Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: House, Pinner, England, watercolor
  
  November 24, 1917-?, 1918: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  
  summer 1918: Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico [solo]
  
  1921: Chicago No-Jury
  
  1922: Chicago No-Jury
  
  August 1923: Newcomb, Macklin and Company, Chicago, Illinois ["34 recent oil paintings"]
  
  1939: Navy Pier
  
  1940: Navy Pier
  
  January 16-February 14, 2014: Beautiful Things: Still Life Paintings by American Women, 1880-1940, Riethmiller Blackman Art Building, Olivet College, Olivet, Michigan
  
  March 7-22, 2014: Beautiful Things: Still Life Paintings by American Women, 1880-1940, Manistee Art Institute, Manistee, Michigan
• Collections Santa Fe Railroad
• Memberships Santa Fe Society of Arts
• Awards Honorable Mention: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• Other Occupation(s) 1904-1912: Teacher at North-Western College (now North Central College), Naperville, Illinois
• Biography Parents:  Alonzo (?-1890) and Julian Ann (Temple) Dunham, married 1851; he maintained a tanning business in Wayland, MI
  
  1875, about when she graduated high school, the family moved to Spring Township, PA
  
  Siblings:  two sisters
  
  Mrs. Fabian’s reference in the 1930 Who’s Who in American Art states that she studied at the Art Students League. Yet, according to an article from the North Central College Archives where she began teaching in 1904, the New York Metropolitan Art School was listed in her referencesl.