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Virginia Hargraves Wood (married name: Virginia Hargraves Wood Goddard; c. 1872 – February 24, 1941) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, and teacher. She is best known for her painted portraits of women and children, and numerous book illustrations. Wood was one of the founder members of the Virginia Fine Arts Society in Alexandria.

Early life and family

Virginia Hargraves Wood was born c. 1872 in Missouri, United States, to parents Clara Forsyth Hargraves and lawyer-turned-Confederate States Army Cpt. Charles E. Wood. She had eight siblings, including noted architect Waddy Butler Wood.

In 1930, she married lawyer Charles F. Goddard (1862–1954) in New York City. After marriage she primarily used her maiden name for her art career. However her niece (and Waddy's daughter) was also named Virginia Hargraves Wood at birth (her married name was Virginia Wood Riggs; 1906–?), also worked as a painter, and worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) post office mural project in Pennsylvania.

Career

Wood attended classes in New York City, and Paris; and studied under artists John Singer Sargent, Charles Webster Hawthorne, Frank DuMond, and William Merritt Chase at the Chase School of Art (now Parsons School of Design).

While studying in Paris, she visited a friend in London and became in-demand for her portrait work. Sitters for her portraits included Lady Anglesey, various works for the Seth Barton French family, and portraits of the four daughters of George Jay Gould. Wood also painted a noted portrait of Gertrude Stein in her older age.

She maintained an art studio in New York City. Wood also worked at Hawthorne's Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown; and was a frequent guest at the Caroline M. Bell studio school in Mattituck in Long Island, New York. She was a member of the American Federation of Arts (AFA).

Death and legacy

In her later life she moved to Mattituck. She died after an extended illness on February 24, 1941, while staying at her sister-in-laws house (and her childhood home) at Spring Hill in Ablemarle County near Ivy, Virginia.

References

1. ^ "Wood, Virginia Hargraves". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford University Press. 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00198815. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
2. Faber, Harold (March 7, 1963). "Books of The Times; Rare View of Presidents The Feminine Approach". The New York Times. p. 7. ISSN 0362-4331 – via The Times Machine.
3. Arts & Decoration. Vol. 21. Adam Bunge. 1924. p. 18 – via Google Books.
4. "Entry for Charles Wood and Clara F. Wood, 1880: Virginia Wood, United States Census, 1880". FamilySearch.org. 1880.
5. "Confederate (CSA) Captain Charles Wood (1836–1930)". Antietam. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
6. Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin. Genealogical Publishing Com. 1984. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-8063-1072-5.
7. ^ "Charles F. Goddard". The New York Times. April 9, 1954. p. 23. ISSN 0362-4331 – via The Times Machine.
8. The Wood-Woods Family Magazine. Virginia Wood Alexander. 1997. p. 53 – via Google Books.
9. ^ "Mrs. C. F. Goddard". The Richmond News Leader. 1941-02-25. p. 20. Retrieved 2024-03-19 – via Newspaper.com.
10. Park, Marlene; Markowitz, Gerald E. (1984). Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. p. 226. ISBN 978-0-87722-348-1 – via Google Books.
11. ^ "Plenty of Room at Top of Ladder For Woman Who Seriously Studies Art, Says Miss Wood". The Atlanta Constitution. 1913-03-09. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-03-19 – via Newspapers.com.
12. American Art Annual. MacMillan Company. 1928. p. 744 – via Google Books.
13. The Long Island Historical Journal. Department of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook. 2006. p. 202.
14. "Artists Thrive on Appreciation and Success in Rolling Hills of Ablemarle County". Richmond Times-Dispatch. 1941-06-15. p. 52. Retrieved 2024-03-19 – via Newspapers.com.
15. Holme, Charles; Eglinton, Guy; Boswell, Peyton; Whigham, Henry James (1904). The International Studio. New York Offices of the International Studio. pp. PR5.
16. Wamback, Norman; Walden, Jeffrey M.; Matovcik, Gerard M. (2013). Mattituck and Laurel. Arcadia Publishing. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7385-9915-1.

• 1870s births
• 1941 deaths
• American portrait painters
• American women illustrators
• American women painters
• Artists from New York City
• People from Ivy, Virginia
• People from Mattituck, New York
• American engravers