Alta West Salisbury (1879-1933)
Birthplace/Origin: Darnestown, Maryland
Biography/Statement:
At one time, Alta West Salisbury was considered one of America’s leading landscape and still life painters. She was born in Darnestown, Maryland and went on to study at the Corcoran School of Art, under Cullen Yates and Leon Dabo in New York, and at the Fontainebleau School of Fine Art in France.
The artist was active in Washington, D.C. until 1904 and after that in New Rochelle, New York where she was a founding member, in 1920, of the New Rochelle Art Association. There, artists met in the studio of Alta Salisbury to create an association to “set an educational standard in the fine arts and promote interest in art in the community.” She was also a noted art educator and lecturer.
Salisbury was a member and a regular exhibitor of numerous art organizations, including the National Association of Women Artists, the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Society of Artists and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club of New York, winning numerous prizes.
Source: Written and submitted by Edward P. Bentley, Art Researcher, Greenville, Michigan