Ellen Day Hale was an American painter and printmaker.

Biography

She was educated under the supervision of her aunt, Susan Hale

Susan Hale

Susan Hale was an American author, traveler and artist.-Biography:She was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Nathan Hale and Sarah Preston Everett who had a total of eleven children...

. She received her first instructions in art from William Rimmer

William Rimmer

William Rimmer was an American artist born in Liverpool, England. He was the son of a French refugee, who emigrated to Nova Scotia, where he was joined by his wife and child in 1818, and who in 1826 moved to Boston, where he earned a living as a shoemaker...

, and afterward studied under Boston painter William Morris Hunt

William Morris Hunt

William Morris Hunt , American painter, was born at Brattleboro, Vermont to Jane Maria Hunt and Hon. Jonathan Hunt, who raised one of the preeminent families in American art...

 and Helen M. Knowlton while helping raise her seven brothers and sisters. Later she studied in at the Academie Julien in Paris.

In 1883, she met Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements who became a life-long companion and taught her etching. Together they pioneered color etching in the United States in the late 1880's. Hale was very active in exhibiting her work, but only achieved marginal recognition of her art.

She exhibited Un Hiver Americain and An Old Retainer in the Paris Salon

Paris Salon

The Salon , or rarely Paris Salon , beginning in 1725 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. Between 1748–1890 it was the greatest annual or biannual art event in the Western world...

, and A New England Girl in the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

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Family

Hale's family was involved in the arts. Her father, Edward Everett Hale

Edward Everett Hale

Edward Everett Hale was an American author, historian and Unitarian clergyman. He was a child prodigy who exhibited extraordinary literary skills and at age thirteen was enrolled at Harvard University where he graduated second in his class...

, was an author. Her great aunt Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist and author. Her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was a depiction of life for African-Americans under slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential in the United States and United Kingdom...

 wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....

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Writings

• History of Art: A Study of the Lives of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and Albrecht Dürer (Boston and Chicago, 1888)