Eugenie Fish Glaman, American Artist: The Story of Eugiene Fish Glaman, American Artist: The Life Adventures of Eugenie Fish Glaman, Artist & Feminist

Eugenie attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1895-1899. She was a dedicated honor student during these years. Her practiced knowledge of animal painting and her use of live animal models enhanced the program at the Art Institute. Eugenie assisted teachers in life class instruction. In the year 1900, Eugenie became a full-time teacher for the Art Institute until she learned about a sheep ranch in Montgomery, Illinois, where she could do some paintings. She left her class to paint what was to become one of her most celebrated paintings, The Old Sheepfold.

This painting, executed ten years after the young artist got her first glimpses of fine art at the Chicago World Fair, won the bronze medal in the St Louis World Fair Exposition in 1904.

Glaman used this painting to gain support for the establishment of the Chicago Art Commission through Chicago’s mayor, Carter Harrison. In turn, the mayor gathered commission board members, usually wealthy men and women who collected and assisted him in promoting art in public places.

For the duration of the commission, 1914-1943, Taos became an artist destination for painters and writers throughout the country. Light and inspiration, which artists need for their work, was plentiful in this region. The commission offered men with artistic promise a creative journey to Taos. The artists’ expenses were paid in exchange for the artists’ first eight paintings. Prominent American artists such as Walter Ufer, E. Martin Hennings, and Victor Higgins-who were Glaman’s contemporaries -went to Taos, and many of them settled there.

This explains why there are so many paintings of western scenes in public places of Chicago. The influence of the Grand Canyon, adobes, Taos Pueblo, and Native American subjects are alive in the work of these American artists. The art from this era is appraised at ＄250,000-＄1,000,000 and upward.