Henrietta Shore

Who was Henrietta Shore?

Henrietta Shore was a post-impressionist Canadian painter who exhibited contemporaneously with Georgia O'Keeffe and influenced the photographer Edward Weston. Her media were oils, murals, watercolors, and lithographs.

Shore was born in Toronto, Canada, where she had her initial training. Then she studied at the Art Students League of New York and the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London. Shore was the only painter privately tutored by John Singer Sargent. In 1913 she moved to California where she helped found the Society of Modern Artists in Los Angeles, but traveled extensively in North America. In 1921 she was granted American citizenship and three years later was chosen to be one of 25 women to represent American women in art in Paris. Shore was influenced by Diego Rivera and other Mexican artists.

In 1930 she took up residence on the Monterey Peninsula. It was there that she became a companion of Edward Weston. Her paintings of sea shells attracted and influenced him and he borrowed some of her shells for his photographs.

Shore's subjects included portraits, landscapes, and flowers. When she exhibited with Georgia O'Keeffe, some of Shore's paintings received greater critical praise.