Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer

Who was Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer?

Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer was an American illustrator, painter, and printmaker known for her portrayals of Tennessee society women and their children. As a printmaker, she pioneered the white-line woodcut. Hergesheimer was the great-great granddaughter of Philadelphia artist Charles Willson Peale, who named one of his daughters Sophonisba after the Italian artist, Sofonisba Anguissola.

Hergesheimer was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1873. She studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women for two years, and then went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for four years. At the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, she studied with Cecilia Beaux, Hugh Breckenridge, and William Merritt Chase. She was considered by Chase to be one of his finest students, and spent the summer of 1900 studying at Chase's Shinnecock Hills Summer School on Long Island. As a senior at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, she was judged the best pupil in her class and was awarded the Cresson Traveling Scholarship. This allowed her to study abroad in Europe for three years, where she trained at the Académie Colarossi and exhibited at the Paris Salon.