Paris, France During her time in
Europe, Genth first settled in
Paris, France in October 1900 where she enrolled in art classes at the
Académie Carmen, an art school run by
James McNeill Whistler. Whistler became a large influence on Genth’s work and she was known to be a favorite pupil of his. During one of Whistler’s visits to the school in 1900, he was so impressed by Genth’s work that he gave her a paint palette; an honor that she used and treasured for the rest of her career. This was an incredible compliment from Whistler, who rarely accepted women painters. Genth’s style is typically attributed to Whistler because of her paintings' tonalist qualities and because he taught her to see her paintings as a whole instead of in individual parts. After the Academie Carmen closed in 1901, Genth stayed in Europe for three more years. During this time she worked on painting landscapes, genre scenes, and waterfronts; her nudes would not begin for a few more years.
New York In 1904 Genth returned to the
United States and was living in
New York City. It was at this point that her career began to flourish. In 1904 Genth showed at three exhibitions: the
National Academy of Design,
Art Club of Philadelphia, and Worcester Museum. In October of that same year she appeared in her first individual show at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Also in 1904 Genth received the Mary Shaw Prize for the best landscape in the show for her work
Peasant Houses, Normandy at an exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Critics and the general public began noticing and appreciating Genth’s work during this beneficial year. Through the next couple of years Genth continued to show at the nation’s most important art galleries, museums, and art clubs. In 1906 Genth developed her interest in the female nude. She quit drawing her European-inspired landscapes and focused on the female form. She quickly developed skills in drawing the nude female form and established her style that depicts nude females in landscape settings. When Genth was asked why she changed her form she responded, “Because to me the most beautiful thing in the world is the human figure outdoors. In Brittany, one day I took a model out and posed her in the open and I was at once filled with resentment at all the beauty I had been missing.” The conservative Victorian society was not ready to accept Genth’s nude figures and at first her paintings were often rejected by exhibitions and advisors told her to abandon her new iconography. However, Genth, known for her fierce personality, persevered through these setbacks. In 1908 her painting,
The Lark, won her the Shaw Memorial Prize at the 83rd Annual Exhibition of the
National Academy of Design.
The Lark depicts a full female nude strolling through the woods with her head turned looking toward the sky as if she just heard a lark, as the title suggests. This painting successfully demonstrates Whistler’s influence on Genth through the integration of the nude form and the landscape. The success of the painting relies on the focus of the painting as a whole to make the nude form grounded in the landscape instead of looking out of place. Also in 1908, Genth was elected into the
National Academy of Design as an Associate. She was the youngest woman ever elected to this position at the academy. From 1910 until 1929 Genth appeared in at least 164 exhibitions. During these years she experienced a lot of success, popularity, and wealth. She split her time between her two residences; one is an apartment in
New York City, and the other is a large estate in the
Berkshire Mountains in Connecticut, which she named Hermitcliff. Hermitcliff was an estate of 70 acres of woodland and it was here that Genth was able to paint her models uninterrupted. She loved coming to Hermitcliff and used it well throughout the years. She said about her beloved estate, “The things I have learned have come from the soil in the depths of my woods in Connecticut.” After overcoming preliminary obstacles and achieving success in her nude forms, Genth began exploring other art forms. ==Late career==