Of Presidential Advisers, Bearcats, and the Vacant Chair, Vol. VII
By David "Chet" Williamson Sneade Impressionist painter Ellen Day Hale was born in Worcester in 1855. O ften tagged with the left-handed compl iment of “She paints like a man, ” a Hale self-portrait was once criticized by a teacher who said that she needed to mak e the hands “smaller and prettier.” An unidentified writer on the New England Historical site said, “ Ellen refused. When she brought the painting back to show in Boston, o ne critic said it demonstrated ‘ a man's strength in the treatmen t and handling of her subjects.’ The painting, which she began in 1884 at the age of 29, tells us a lot about the bold and unconventional Ellen Day Hale. Her bangs, for example, could have connoted promiscuity – or androgyny. Her bold gaze and her fashionable outfit suggest her willingness to push traditional boundaries. ” Hale was a product of strong, independent women and people of note. One of her great aunts was Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the ...