Artists

Mary Smyth Perkins

American, 1875-1931

Native Philadelphian Mary Smyth Perkins, wife of artist William Francis Taylor, was a renowned landscape and portrait painter prior to meeting her husband. She studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now Moore College) with William Sartain and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Robert Henri. She also continued her studies in Paris and in 1909 exhibited at the Paris Salon.

Perkins, a frequent visitor to the New Hope area, began private studies with William Lathrup sometime before 1910. Upon one of many visits to the Lathrup home at Phillips Mill, she met artist William F. Taylor. Around this time, Perkins was the head of the Art Department of Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and during the summers would come north to work on her painting. A courtship began and in 1913, Perkins and Taylor were married, taking up residence along the Delaware River in Lumberville near the home of Daniel Garber. Around 1920, Perkins Taylor began making hooked rugs depicting landscape and garden scenes that were made to be displayed as wall hangings.

She was a member of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1907 prize), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Paris Salon (1909), the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the National Association of Women Artists (prize), the Society of Independent Artists and at Phillips Mill near New Hope.