Olive Parker Black
American, 1868-1948
“Returning Home”
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 inches
Signed lower right
An accomplished landscape painter, Olive Parker Black was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She studied art with Hugh Bolton Jones (1848-1927) at the Art Students League and with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) and Edwin Blashfield (1848-1936) at the New York National Academy of Design in New York. She was considered one of Chase’s best students and likely attended the Shinnecock Summer School of Art, which became known as Chase’s school and was primarily attended by women.
She combined the impressionism learned from him with Barbizon school influence from Jones. She exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1897 to 1930 and also exhibited in Boston and Philadelphia. To 1910, she lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then moved to New York City where she exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1897 to 1930. She also exhibited with the Boston Art Club, the Art Club of Philadelphia and the Carnegie Institute.