Fiske (1878-1961) was a Boston School Painter, a student and colleague of American Impressionists Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank Benson, Philip Hale, and Charles Woodbury.
Fiske (1878-1961) was a Boston School Painter, a student and colleague of American Impressionists Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank Benson, Philip Hale, and Charles Woodbury.
Her paintings were composed with an eye to the selective, expressive visual organization of the whole, i. e. the impression of the whole other than its parts.
As with other American Impressionists, she has a refined sense of lost and found edges, capturing a sense of depth and mystique.
Gertrude was known for her strong depictions of women in traditional scenes, such as women in interiors, with power, instead of gentility and fragility.
Born in Boston she enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts sometime around 1904, where she studied with Edmund C. Tarbell, Frank Weston Benson, and Philip Hale. She also studied with Charles H. Woodbury in Ogunquit, Maine incorporating his recommendation to “paint in verbs, not in nouns.”
Painting during a time when conservative traditions and social roles were firmly set for women, Fiske forged her own path. She is an essential figure in the history of women painters.
She died in Weston, Massachusetts.