Samantha Littlefield Huntley (1865 – 1949) [Section 114 Lot 97]
One of the first well known female painters
Samantha Littlefield was born on May 16, 1865, in Watervliet to Edgar Littlefield, an ice dealer, and Abigail Fidelia Tilley. One of many siblings, she went by the nickname of Mantie. In the 1880s she married Frank Hall Huntley, a dry goods clerk, and later a druggist. They had one son, Grant.
Samantha showed talent as an artist and went to Studied art at the Art Students’ League in New York City and later in Europe. First at the Académie Julian, one of the first schools to allow women to study painting and later with Jules Lefebvre, at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and with Eugene Grasset, a pioneer of Art Nouveau. Striving for perfection, she initially had an issue with Lefebvre as was custom with French masters of the time, not to give negative criticism to females. Upon developing a closer friendship with him she was able to have her work critiqued like her fellow male counterparts. She also spent a year in Spain studying and copying the work of Diego Velazquez.
She worked as an art teacher at Emma Willard School in Troy for several years but eventually resigned from the position as her popularity as an artist demanded more of her time.
Throughout her career she exhibited at Boston Art Club; Detriot Museum of Art; Society of American Artists; National Academy of Design; Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo; Wisconsin Historical and State Library; Albany Historical and Art Society; St. Louis Women’s Club; City Art Museum of St. Louis; Rofrant Club in Cleveland; French Salon in Paris; and Royal Academy in London.
On November 28, 1909 the journalist Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch interviewed Samantha titles “Marguerite Martyn Finds One Woman Who Can Paint Pictures Just as Cleverly as Any Man Can.” In her interview, Samantha spoke of the sexism she had dealt with in France, but also about the fact that women were gaining more freedoms which had allowed her to become a successful painter: “You must remember that the artistic emancipation of woman is not more than 25 years old. The Julian Academies were the first established to benefit women. It is only within twelve years that women have been admitted to the Beaux-Arts to study upon equal terms with men. . . I believe that actually, the few women who pursue the study of the art today are painting better than the majority of men in the profession.”
Around 1912 she was commissioned for the sum of $1500 to paint the portrait of than Missouri Governor Herbert Hadley as his official portrait. After a tedious battle trying to paint him, she sued due to the Republican Party refusing to pay. Governor Hadley was often too busy to pose and would go weeks without sitting for a session. When he was available to sit for a session he was known to chew gum or smoke, which distorted his face, which she painted several different mouths. Hadley’s attorney is stated saying "It appears that the governor's lower lip is fuller than it believed it ought to be and he instructed the artist to remedy it. . . . When the committee charged that the mouth did not look like the governor's, Mrs. Huntley explained that the governor ordered it"
Governor Hadley initially wanted to be in a polka dot tie, but later agreed with Samantha on going with a solid tie, his portrait was rejected due to the lack of polka dots. The Missouri State Legislature refused to pay the bill and Samantha sued for $1185 and was award $900 in 1915.
Samantha had studios in Albany, Rochester, Manhattan, and Madison Wisconsin. In the early 1920s, she purchased a home in Kinderhook and made that permit residence for the rest of her life. Samantha died on June 20, 1949, in New York City at the age of 84. She is buried in section 114 lot 97 at Albany Rural Cemetery.
Throughout her career she did several portraits, some of them include: John H. Vanderpoel, Dutch-American artist who taught at Art Institute of Chicago; Governor Frank Higgins of New York; Governor Martin Glynn of New York; Mary Magrane, Mrs. Martin Glynn of Albany, NY; Governor Herbert Hadley of Missouri; A.H. Griffith, Director of Detroit Museum of Art; John J. Glennon, Catholic Archbishop of St. Louis; Daniel S. Lamont, U.S. Secretary of War; and John McElroy, husband to Mary Arthur who served as the first lady during the presidency of her brother, Chester Arthur.