This is the 15th post in our Artist of the Week series.
Bessie Pease Gutmann was born in 1876 and died in 1960. She was born in Philadelphia and spent many years at different institutions in order to improve her artistic skills.
Bessie began her artistic career as an independent commericial artist drawing portraits and newspaper advertisements. But in 1903 she was hired by the firm Gutmann and Gutmann in order to illustrate books. Her first illustrated book was, A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1905. Throughout her employment at Gutmann and Gutmann her most notable set of book illustrations were those done for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In 1906 she married Hellmuth Gutmann one of the brothers who owned the firm.
Bessie is most known for her series of hand colored prints that expressed the innocence of children. Many of these pieces were based off of Bessie's own three children. In the 1920s her artwork was very popular, but interest declined with the start of World War II. With failing eyesight and little interest in her work, Bessie retired in 1947.
Bessie died in New York in 1960 at the age of 84.
To learn more about Bessie Pease Gutmann visit the Bessie Pease Gutmann Art Collection site.
