Hopi Pottery Maker, circa 1927
Catherine Carter Critcher (American, 1868 - 1964)
oil on canvas, 30 x 29 in. (76.2 x 73.7 cm)
Gift of Toy D. and Helen Savage, 1996
1996.1.1
Catherine Carter Critcher was born into a wealthy Westmoreland County, Virginia family. She studied art at the Copper Union School in New York and the Corcoran School of Art in Washington D.C before leaving for Paris to study at the Academie Julian. She founded her own art school in Paris before returning to the United States, where she taught at the Corcoran School. After six years at the Corcoran, she again founded her own art school, called The Critcher School of Painting and Applied Arts. In 1920, Critcher made her first trip to Taos, New Mexico, and was won over. She became the first and only woman to be inducted into the Taos Society of Artists and was unanimously approved by the group.