Maud Hunt Squire


Maud Hunt Squire was an American painter and printmaker. She had a lifelong relationship with artist Ethel Mars, with whom she traveled and lived in the United States and France.

Early life and education

Squire was born on January 20, 1873 in Milford, Ohio to her mother and Alfred Squire, who was a violinist and musician. Alfred gave music lessons and owned a music store. Her mother gave lessons in drawing. Squire was a talented musician and artist and was gifted in other languages.
Squire studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1894 to 1898; her instructors were Lewis Henry Meakin and Frank Duveneck. The second in her class, she received the Alumnal Gold Medal for excellence in mathematics and Latin and the Sinton Gold Medal, which was awarded by the board.

Career

Squire gained notice for her color intaglio prints and her work in colored pastels, and was active as a book illustrator beginning while she was still a student; much of her work in the field was published jointly with Mars. She became a member of the Société Salon d'Automne, the Société des Dessinateurs et d'Humoristes, and the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and exhibited work widely, including at the Pan Pacific International Exposition of 1915. A joint exhibit of works by Squire and Mars was held at the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York in 2000.

Gallery

Personal life

She met Ethel Mars, with whom she would remain for the rest of her life, at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. The couple went to Paris in 1903, remaining there until the outbreak of World War I forced them to return to the United States in 1915. They went to Provincetown, Massachusetts, both becoming active in the local art scene. Some years later they returned to France, living in Vence for the rest of their lives while traveling throughout Europe.
Squire and Mars were great friends of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas while living in France, and the writer's poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene", believed to be the first such work to use the word "gay" to describe homosexuality, is meant to describe the couple. Edna Boies Hopkins was another friend of both Squire and Mars throughout their lives.
The couple went into hiding in Grenoble during World War II, but returned to their home, La Farigoule, afterwards. Squire died of heart failure there on October 25, 1954, and is buried with Mars, who survived her, in the town cemetery of Saint-Paul-de-Vence.