The MacDowell Colony

The three summers Djeneeff spent in residence at the MacDowell Colony, 1929, 1930, and 1931, were among the happiest and most productive in his career.

Marian Nevins MacDowell, a pianist and former student of Edward MacDowell, married the composer and moved with him to New York when he was invited to establish a music department at Columbia University in 1896. A founding member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, MacDowell cherished the hope of building a genuine creative community in America. A sixty acre farmstead near Peterborough, New Hampshire, where Marian MacDowell took measures to ensure the solitude her husband needed for his work, provided the setting that would grow into the MacDowell Colony. The first colonists, from 1907 through the 1930s, were friends and acquaintances of the MacDowells, though a competitive selection process was implemented later.

The Djeneeffs came to the Colony at Marian MacDowell’s invitation. The artist thrived in the peaceful setting and his portraits of his wife and daughter express a feeling of spiritual expansiveness. The portrait of Olga shows her standing in the open doorway of the Alexander Studio where Djeneeff worked one summer. His painting of Marian MacDowell is among his finest works. Because Mrs. MacDowell did not like to pose, the artist put her at ease by encouraging her to converse during sittings. Her position, turned slightly to the right as if including a visitor in the conversation, also draws the eye to the framed photograph of Edward MacDowell behind her.

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