Ada Gilmore was born in Kalamazoo, one of four children. Following
the death of theirmother (1891) and father (1895) (he founded a
large department store in Kalamazoo),the children moved near Belfast,
Ireland, to live with their aunt, Jane Gilmore. While inIreland,
Ada Gilmore studied design at the Belfast School of Art. The children
returnedwith their aunt to Kalamazoo in 1900 where Gilmore gave
drawing lessons. From 1903-1907 she attended the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, one of the top art schoolsin the country at
that time. There she met friend and fellow artist Mildren McMillen;together
they would continue to travel and study, both in the US and abroad
from 1903through the end of World War I. Prior to 1912, Gilmore
exhibited drawings (that weknow of), participating in group exhibitions
such as the 1910 Independent Artists show,NYC, organized by Robert
Henri, John Sloan and Walt Kuhn, all members of theinfamous ‘Eight’.
Gilmore studied with Robert Henri prior to this exhibition. In the
springof 1912 she again enrolled at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago, movingafterwards to Long Island with McMillen. Later
in 1912-1913, they traveled in Europeand settled in Paris. There
they admired a woodblock show by renowned artist, EthelMars, and
asked her to teach them. Apparently Mars taught them the woodcut
process.
Like many Americans, Gilmore left Paris at the outset of World
War I, accompanied byMcMillen, and moved to Provincetown, MA, a
heady time for American artists, writers,and actors in this burgeoning
artist’s colony. Gilmore was 32 years old. She capturedthis exuberance
of Provincetown almost immediately upon her arrival with a series
ofglorious painted postcards. Part American Impressionism and American
Modernism,they bring to mind artists as varied as Henri, Hassam,
Vuillard and Prendergast.
As one of the original six artists credited with the genesis of
the Provincetown white-linewoodblock print, Gilmore can be appreciated
for her role in a grass roots movementwhich contributed to the flowering
of American printmaking in the early twentiethcentury. The Provincetown
Printers sought to express an American modernist visionthrough the
ancient medium of the woodblock print. The Provincetown grouptransformed
the woodblock with the white-line technique, now known as theProvincetown
print, which allowed the artist to use a single block in printing
apolychrome image (rather than a different block for each color
as usual with woodblockprints). Gilmore’s concentration on the white-line
woodblock process lasted fromc.1916-1923, but during this short
time she created prints with a distinctive style. Sherendered many
of her subjects in a silvery palette and with soft contours produced
by her particular wet printing method. Her charming woodcuts are
infused with a quiet,pensive quality that allude to more profound
subjects. She exhibited the woodcutsfrequently all across the US,
but ceased making woodblocks by 1923, and resumed drawing, mostly
watercolor.
In 1923 she visited Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire in Vence along
the FrenchRiviera. Gilmore’s sister eventually owned a house in
Vence and we believe Gilmorevisited there often. In 1925 she married
artist, Oliver Chaffee, in Vence, returning to Provincetown in 1928.
Chaffee studied with Henri (like Gilmore) and with William MerrittChase,
and had exhibited in the infamous Armory show of 1913. Gilmore had
knownChaffee in Provincetown as he was one of the artists drawn
to the influence of theProvincetown Printers. (Chaffee referred
to Vence as “a faraway Provincetown suburb.”) From the late 1920s
on, Gilmore’s subject matter changed from focusing onthe representation
of village life and people toward a greater interest in depicting
exoticand garden floral forms. She made watercolor studies of the
indigenous plants andflowers of the various places she visited.
Besides brief visits to Europe and Maine,Gilmore and Chaffee lived
in Provincetown during summers and Ormond Beach, FLA,in the winter.
They exhibited work annually, often in the same shows and similarsubjects.
Chaffee died in 1944 on route to Provincetown. Gilmore maintained
an activedialogue with the local art community until her death in
Provincetown in 1955.
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