Eulabee Dix

Place: Greenfield

Born: 1880

Death: 1961

Biography:

Eulabee Dix Becker was an American artist, who favoured the medium of watercolours on ivory to paint portrait miniatures. During the early 20th century, when the medium was at the height of fashion, she painted many prominent figures, including European nobility and famous actresses of the day.
Dix was born in Greenfield, Illinois, to Mary Bartholomew and Horace Wells Dix, She had an early interest in art, and her talents and love of reading were encouraged from an early age. Her family moved several times during her early years due to financial setbacks. During her teens, Dix went to live with wealthy family members in St. Louis, where she attended Washington University, and spent a year studying oil painting and life drawing at the St. Louis School of Fine Art. Her work there was recognised with two medals. Dix returned to her parents in 1895, when they set up home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There she taught art classes, and was inspired by the daughter of an Episcopal minister to paint portrait miniatures.
In 1899 Dix moved to New York City, where she first studied with William Merritt Chase, however she left after one week, partly due to Chase's focus on oil painting, and also because she disagreed with his philosophy of colour. She went on to continue her studies at the Art Students League with George Bridgman, of whom she did approve. She also underwent tuition with William J. Whittemore, who taught her the technique of painting on ivory. Whittlemore was a founder of the recently established American Society of Miniature Painters (ASMP), where she exhibited some of her work. She also studied under Isaac A. Josephi, who was the first president of the ASMP.
Dix took a tiny studio apartment at 152 West 57th Street, on the 15th floor of one of the Carnegie Hall towers. Here she worked on commissions for many prominent New Yorkers, including the actress Ethel Barrymore and photographer Gertrude Käsebier. By coincidence her neighbour, Frederick S. Church, was also from Grand Rapids, and he helped her make contacts within New York artistic circles. Miniaturist Theodora Thayer, whom Dix associated with and admired, also had a studio nearby.
Eulabee Dix at her work table at her Carnegie Hall Towers studio, depicted in 1903 New York Times advertisement
Carnegie Hall, 1899, showing added studio towers
Even with a limited income, Dix made a conscious effort to dress fashionably, and held regular Friday afternoon gatherings at her home, where she showed off her work to potential buyers.
In 1904 Dix met Minnie Stevens Paget, a close friend of Edward VII, and wife of Arthur Paget, a high-ranking officer in the British Army, who later reached the rank of General, and was knighted. They became close friends, and it was to be near Paget that Dix began to divide her time between New York and London. When in London, she took up residence in an up-market residential hotel near Stanhope Gardens, in Kensington. Through her connection with Paget, Dix received commissions from many prominent figures, including the Holywood actress Ethel Barrymore, whom she painted in Philadelphia in around 1905, fashion designer Countess Fabricotti, as well as several from Paget herself.
In 1906 Dix held her first exhibition, Exhibition of Portrait Miniature by Miss Eulabee Dix, at the Fine Art Society on London's New Bond Street, where she exhibited 24 works. That same year she also held shows at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
In New York Dix had the opportunity to paint writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain. In 1908 she did the last painting of him from life.
Dix herself was the subject of two portraits by renowned artist Robert Henri, to whom she was introduced in 1910 by prominent Irish artist John Butler Yeats. For one of these, she posed for a full-length portrait in her wedding dress. She was also photographed on at least four occasions by her friend Gertrude Kasebier.
On December 22, 1910 Dix married Alfred Leroy Becker, a New York lawyer, after a three-year engagement. The marriage produced two children, Philip and Joan.
Eulabee Dix, Philip Dix Becker, 1912, watercolor on ivory, 3" in diameter, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
John Butler Yeats, referring to Eulabee Dix's strong personality, wrote to his daughter Lily the day after the wedding:
The marriage ended in 1925, after 15 years. It had been a strained marriage, partly because both of them had pursued successful careers in their chosen field. The situation was made worse when Dix aborted a pregnancy against her husband's wishes. Becker ended the marriage by declaring his love for another woman.
Following her divorce in 1925, Dix sailed with her children to France, and divided her time between Europe and New York. She won a medal at the Paris Salon in 1927, and also in New York and Philadelphia in 1929.

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