Cornelia Fassett

Artist Details

• First Name Cornelia
• Middle Name Adele
• Maiden Name Strong
• Surname Fassett
• Spouse’s Full Name Samuel Montague Fassett (Chicago, Illinois May 11, 1825-August 2, 1910 Washington, D.C.); from Ashtabula, Ohio, living in Beloit, Wisconsin at time of wedding; artist and photographer; came to Chicago in 1854 from New York; married August 26, 1851; opened the Fine Arts Gallery on Wabash Avenue in Chicago as his studio, she showed her works in the window; worked for government during the Civil War; Mary Todd Lincoln thought his photograph of Abe Lincoln was the “best likeness she had seen of her husband;”  in D.C. he was official photographer to the Supervising Architect of the US Treasury
• Names and Birth Years of Children Walter (?-before 1880) Wallis Flora Fassett Hodge (1858-1925); lived in Washington, D.C. Montague Fassett (1862-1920); lived in New York, New York Raphael Fassett (1863-1915); lived in Chicago, Illinois Adele Fassett Pearce (1868-1922); married Myron A. Pearce, lived in San Antonio, Texas Clara Fassett Delano (1872-1940); married W.W. Delano, lived in Washington, D.C. Violet ; possibly married Arthur Cristadoro, lived in New York, New York
• Birth Date November 9, 1831
• Birth Place Owasco, New York
• Death Date January 4, 1898
• Death Place Washington, D.C.
• Residence(s) 1839-1851: Jefferson, Ohio
  
  1852; New York, New York
  
  1855-1875: Chicago, Illinois; lived in Hyde Park, bought “Charles Botsford House” in 1863 at 5714 S. Madison Street at Dorchester Ave.; built 1860
  
  1875-1898: Washington, D.C.
  
  1888: exhibit catalog lists her in Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Active In 1855-1875: Chicago, Illinois
  
  1875-1898: Washington, D.C.
• Studio Location(s) 1875: 925 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. over Metzerott’s Music Store
• Categories Miniaturist, Painter-Oil, Photographer, Watercolorist
• Training possibly student of Mary Fuller in Ashtabula County, Ohio prior to marriage
  1852: studied watercolor miniatures with  J.B. Wandesforde in New York, New York
  1852-1955: 3 years in Paris and Rome; student of Giuseppe Castiglione, Georges de La Tour and Gabriel Mathieu
  
• Relevant Travel 1852-1855: Paris and Rome
  
  1866-1867: Europe, including the Paris International Exposition in 1867
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History 1863: Ladies’ Northwestern Fair, Chicago, Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, 1860, pastel or watercolor
  
  1868: Chicago Academy of Design, Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, Illinois: Montague Fassett; Mr. C.A. Spring; Miss Kitty Spring; Innocence; Neal Fassett, oil on canvas
  
  1873: 2^nd annual Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exhibition: some crayon drawings; Portrait of Mrs. A. E. Small
  
  1875: Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exhibition
  
  Washington, D.C. Art Club
  
  1876: Philadelphia Centennial; group portrait of Supreme Court justices or Portrait of Chief Justice Morrison Wait
  
  1879: Decorative and Fine Art, National Fair Association, Washington, D.C.: Head of Moscovite Zingana; Portrait of Mr. Justice Miller
  
  May 28-June 30, 1888: First Annual Exhibition Exhibition of American Oil Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: A Fair Woman, Study from Life
  
  1893:  World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois: still life, watercolor; study of U.S. Grant
• Collections Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Chicago Public Library, Chicago, Illinois
  
  National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
  
  New-York Historical Society, New York, New York
  
  Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D.C.
  
  US Department of the Treasury, Washington, D.C.
  
  United States Senate, Washington, D.C.
  
  Universalist National Memorial Church, Washington, D.C
• Publications Bullington, Judy. “Cornelia Adèle Fassett’s Portrait of Martha J. Lamb,” Woman’s Art Journal. vol. 23, no. 2 (Autumn 2002-Winter 2003), pp. 3-9. Schultz, Rima Lunin and Adele Hast, eds. Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. Indiana University Press, 2001. Henkes, Robert. Portraits of Famous American Women: An Analysis of Various Artists’ Renderings of 13 Admirable Figures, McFarland, 1997. Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Artists from Early times to the Present. Avon Books, 1896. United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Arts, Government Printing Office. n.d. Woods, Marianne Berger, “Fassett, Cornelia Adele Strong,’ in Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary. eds. Rima Schultz and Adele Hast. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001. Yarnall, James L. and William H. Gerdts, Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues, vol. 2, 1986 -- lists exhibitions she entered prior to 1876
• Memberships 1874: elected to Associate Membership of the Chicago Academy of Design
  
  Washington Art Club (among its first elected members)
  
  Washington Literary Society
• Other Occupation(s) touched up and tinted her husband’s photographs
• Website(s) page on Wikipedia
  
  information about the artist and her Electoral Commission painting
• Biography Parents:  Captain Walter Madison Strong (Mamakating, New York January 12, 1796-1861; hotel keeper) and Sarah Scott Devoe Strong (Wawarsing, New York March 20, 1793-1875)
  
  Siblings:  Elijah Devoe Strong (1819-1900)
  
  Melvina Amanda Strong Stratton (1821-1843)
  
  Walter Day Otis Kellog Strong (1823-1905)
  
  Sarah Elizabeth Strong Shattuck (1825-1898)
  
  Edwin Thomas Strong (1827-1900)
  
  Nancy Jane Strong Hervey (1834-1907)
  
  Isaac Madison Strong
  
  1 more
  
  at the time of her death by a sudden heart attack, she had a commission to paint ivory miniatures of the presidents’ wives for an exhibition in Washington, D.C.