The Lathrop sisters


The sisters Clara Welles Lathrop, Bessie Stebbins Lathrop and Susanne Lathrop were artists and teachers in Northampton, Massachusetts, who exhibited and traveled widely. Clara was a painter, Bessie was a leather worker and woodcarver, and Susie illustrated publications. In addition to exhibiting in the U.S. and Europe, they organized intellectual salons at their Northampton studio and taught art at schools including Smith College.

Biographies

The sisters were daughters of Henry Lathrop, a dry-goods merchant, and Clara Stebbins Lathrop, a philanthropist who founded a home for aged and invalid women in Northampton. The girls’ grandfather Daniel Stebbins was a physician and entrepreneur who raised silkworms in Northampton mulberry groves. The sisters spent early years in Savannah, where Henry ran a store and briefly manufactured Confederate uniforms. During the Civil War, the family fled to Montreal but remained financially comfortable; they studied at Bute House, and portraits of them by the society photographer William Notman survive at the McCord Museum in Montreal. The girls’ brother Dwight, who became a railroad cashier in New York, stole from the company and ended up in Sing Sing prison. The sisters all studied at Smith College. Clara and Susie also trained at the Académie Julian in Paris, Susie studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Bessie attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art and Karl von Rydingsvard's woodcarving classes. The sisters traveled and painted along Cape Cod and eastern Canada and, in Europe, from Norway to Venice. They gave private art lessons and taught at Smith, the Clarke School for the Deaf and nearby girls’ schools including Mary A. Burnham School, Miss Howard's and the MacDuffie School.

Achievements

Clara, a member of the Woman's Art Club of New York, worked in oil, watercolor and pastel and was known for portraits, studies of flowers and views of Cape Cod, Holland, Cornwall, Brittany and Venice. She exhibited at venues including the Paris Salon, 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, Boston Art Club, American Water Color Society, Art Association of Indianapolis, Gill's Art Galleries in Springfield, Woman's Art Club, National Academy of Design, the Art Club of Philadelphia and the New York Water Color Club. Critics lauded her work in publications including The Art Amateur, Quarterly Illustrator and the New York Times. The Springfield Republican praised her skill at rendering “every delicate shade imaginable” and observed that Susie “has a genius for figure drawing and character.” Susie worked mainly in watercolor and pen and ink, specializing in scenes of Greek mythology and rural Massachusetts. She exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, American Water Color Society, Boston Art Club and Art Club of Philadelphia. She illustrated M. Helen Beckwith's children's book, In Mythland, and published sketches of local scenery in Picturesque Hampshire and The History of Florence, Massachusetts. Bessie, a member of the Society of Arts and Crafts of Boston, tooled leather and wood for furniture and panels in medieval and Renaissance styles. She showed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Detroit Architectural Club and Smith College. The Springfield Republican described her furniture as evidence that her “hand is sure and her eye true." The sisters held group shows and intellectual salons at their studio in downtown Northampton, which was draped with fishnets and packed with paintings, prints, embroideries, woodcarvings and ceramics.

Later years

In 1906, Clara was appointed successor to Smith College art teacher Mary Rogers Williams. In June 1907, Clara died suddenly of meningitis. After her death, Bessie and Susie continued teaching but largely stopped exhibiting artwork. Institutions that own Lathrop pieces include the Smith College Museum of Art, Harvard's Houghton Library and the Emily Dickinson Museum. Susie is portrayed at her easel outdoors in the Hestia Art Collective's 1980 mural, The History of Women in Northampton.
Speaking during the Hestia Mural 35th Anniversary Lecture on November 7, 2015, The New York Times columnist Eve Kahn said the Lathrop sisters operated an artistic salon in Northampton which attracted speakers like the celebrated art historian Bernard Berenson. They traveled to places such as Venice, Norway and Nova Scotia. They exhibited their masterpieces from Paris in France to Indiana in the U.S. The sisters also taught art at various Western Massachusetts institutions which included Clarke School for the Deaf. They were laid to rest next to each other at the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton.

Papers

Historic Northampton owns Lathrop family letters, paintings, sketches, Bessie's tooled leather strip, and photos including images of Bessie's carvings. Northampton's Forbes Library has Lathrop family documents.