Winifred Bosworth

Artist Details

• First Name Winifred
• Middle Name Sara
• Maiden Name Bosworth
• Alternate Name(s) Winifred Bosworth-Downes Winifred Sara Bosworth
• Surname Bosworth
• Spouse’s Full Name Jerome Downes; married 1920 after 11 years of courtship architect and amateur piano player
• Names and Birth Years of Children May 7, 1921-December 29, 2015: Cynthia Downes Lord obituary 1923-?: Alfred Downes
• Birth Date 1885
• Birth Place Elgin, Illinois
• Death Date August 6, 1972
• Death Place Ashland, Oregon
• Residence(s) 1916: Elgin, Illinois
  
  Wellesley, Massachusetts
  
  Jefferson, New Hampshire
• Categories Aquatint, Etcher, Painter-Oil, Watercolorist
• Training 1905-1907: School of. the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; student of Stanislaw Sukowski
  Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts
  Art Students’ League, New York, New York
  Academie Julian, Paris, France; student of J. Laurens
  Munich, Germany; student of Felix Eisengräber (1874-1940)
  
• Relevant Travel 1912: to Europe, where she drew and took art classes
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History 1907: Annual Exhibition of the Art Students League of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  
  March 2-31, 1915: 19^th Annual Exhibition. Artists of Chicago and Vicinity. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; St. Pierre, Senlis and Près de Senlis, aquatint
  
  April 25-May 7, 1916: 23^rd Annual Exhibition of the Works of the Art Students’ League of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Decorative Figure
  
  1927: Society of Independent Artists, Brick Oven Tavern, Boston, Massachusetts
• Publications Singer, Sandra L. Adventures Abroad: North American Women at German-speaking Universities, 1868-1915. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003.
• Memberships Chicago Society of Etchers, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Chicago Water Color Club, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Society of Independent Artists, New York, New York
• Awards 1907: Claire Stadeker Prize, Annual Exhibition of the Art Students League of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
• Biography Her father was Alfred Bosworth, the president of the Bank of Elgin. Her mother was Eleanora Wheeler Bosworth. She had five siblings: Neil, Edith, Louise, Roland and Dorothy. Her sister Louise was an important figure in sociological studies.
  
  Winifred went into the Chicago Art Institute at an early age. It is possible that she met Stanislaw Sukowski at that time, and apparently held him in high regard artistically and personally. A book of Sukowski’s work, given to Winifred by him, is in the SOU Library in Ashland, Oregon.
  
  In 1912 Winifred went to Europe, traveling, drawing and taking art classes. She kept up a regular correspondence with her family (these letters are kept by the family in Oregon).
  
  By this time she had been acquainted with Jerome Downes, also a very accomplished artist, for many years after meeting him in art school. She married Jerome in 1920, after resisting his courtship for 11 years while she tried to fulfill her career as an artist. Jerome became an architect. They traveled extensively and both enjoyed doing architectural studies and landscapes.
  
  She was constantly interrupted in her artistic work by nervous breakdowns, often spending time in sanitariums (including one in Woodstock) where she worked on other crafts such as weaving and embroidery.
  
  In the 1960s she was still painting, mainly portraits of her grandchildren and landscapes, until her eyes began to fail.
  
  Daughter-in-law of William Ireland Howe Downes, art critic, Boston Daily Times 
  
  Associated with artists Martin Lewis and Elizabeth Huntington
  
  Associated with Esther Forbes, author