Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett

Background

Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett was born on November 9, 1831, in Owasco, New York, the daughter of Captain Walter Strong and Elizabeth Gonsales.

Education

Fassett received instruction in water-color painting from J. B. Wandesforde, an English artist, in New York City, then studied crayon drawing and painting in oil under Castiglione, La Tour, and Matthieu during a subsequent three years’ sojourn in Paris and Rome.

Career

For twenty years Fassett pursued her art career in Chicago, near the end of which time she was elected a member of the Chicago Academy of Design.

In 1875 Fassett moved to Washington, District of Columbia, where she was elected to membership in the Washington Art Club and where her studio entertainments became a notable feature of the social life of the city. Her works include numerous portraits in miniature and many in oils. Among the studies painted from life were those of Presidents Grant, Hayes, and Garfield; Vice-President Henry Wilson, said to be one of the most successful for which he ever sat; Charles Foster, then governor of Ohio (now in the State House at Columbus); Dr. Rankin, the president of Howard University, and many other prominent people of Chicago and Washington.

Unquestionably, her outstanding work is her representation, in oils, of "The Florida Case before the Electoral Commission" (February 5, 1877), painted from life sittings in the United States Supreme Court-room. It was purchased by Congress and now hangs in the eastern gallery of the Senate wing of the Capitol. It is a large canvas, showing the old Senatechamber, now the Supreme Court-room, with William M. Evarts the central figure as he addressed the Court in the opening argument. Around him are grouped some two hundred and sixty men and women, well-known figures in the political, social, and journalistic life of Washington at that period.

The picture is considered unique because each face is turned in such a way as to present an individual portrait, and the likenesses are so faithful as to be striking in so large a composition. Mrs. Fassett devoted her last years to miniature painting, at which she was very successful. She died on January 4, 1898, in Washington, District of Columbia, of heart failure.

Achievements

• Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett was a painter, perhaps best remembered for her painting of a meeting of the Electoral Commission of 1877 and her portraits of other major political figures of her day.

Works

More photos

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  • Florida Case Before Electorial Commission in Senate Chamber Cornelia A Fassett (1831-1898 American) Poster Print (24 x 36)

    (This fine art print is ready for hanging or framing and w...)

Membership

Cornelia Fassett was elected a member of the Chicago Academy of Design and a member of the Washington Art Club.

Connections

On August 26, 1851, at the age of twenty, Cornelia Adele Strong married Samuel Montague Fassett, a photographer and artist of Chicago, Illinois. The couple had eight children.

Father:

Walter Strong

Mother:

Elizabeth Strong (Gonsales)

husband:

Samuel Montague Fassett

References

• Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett Mrs. Lamb in Her Study 1878 New York Historical Society 30" x 19" Fine Art Giclee Canvas Print (Unframed) Reproduction