Maria a'Becket (American, 1839-1904), Woman in the Woods

Oil on canvas, signed at lower right, presented in an ornate giltwood frame.

Stretcher size 30 x 20 in.; Frame dimensions 37 x 29 1/4 in.

Purchased by the consignor from the Granville County Historical Society & Museum Collection in May 2000


Maria J. C. a’Becket, born Maria Graves Beckett in Portland, Maine, was a professional American landscape painter whose career reflected an early embrace of Barbizon and Impressionist styles. The daughter of an apothecary and amateur landscape artist, she received early encouragement from her father before the Great Fire of Portland in 1866 destroyed the family home and much of their artwork; her father died shortly thereafter. She relocated to Boston to pursue formal training, studying with William Morris Hunt and later working closely in France with Charles François Daubigny, painting alongside him on the River Oise. A’Becket became known for her expressive landscapes and marine scenes, characterized by loose brushwork, heavy impasto, and at times unconventional color. She exhibited widely, including at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Boston Art Club, and prominent New York galleries.

Deeply devoted to painting from nature, a’Becket worked en plein air in France, New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, and later in St. Augustine, Florida, within Henry Flagler’s developing art colony. Her favored subjects were woods and rugged trees marked by age and struggle, themes she described in an 1884 letter now preserved in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Good estate condition, light age cracking. The frame with age cracks and repairs.