Claude Raguet Hirst
Birth Date: November 2, 1855
Death Date: May 2, 1942
Artist Gallery
Born in 1855 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Claudine Hirst would become the only known woman artist to paint trompe l’oeil scenes, which at the time were a male pursuit, in a career that would span seventy years. At the age of seven her family settled in Clifton, a suburb of Cincinnati, where many art patrons and collectors lived. Her foray into the arts began when she was ten years old, receiving her first drawing and painting lessons from a clergyman’s daughter. In 1869, Hirst was enrolled at the Mount Auburn Young Ladies’ Institute, where women’s education and independence were stressed and where art was part of the curriculum. In 1872, after making significant advancements in her academic studies to the Classical Department, Hirst began exclusively studying art and music. This same year she exhibited for the first time — three oils of classroom copy exercises at the annual Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, where artists from around the world exhibited, including Thomas Moran, Winslow Homer, Agnes Dean Abbatt, and George Smillie. Most women exhibitors used only their initials before their surnames, including Hirst, who also began to use “Claude” instead of “Claudine” in an attempt to be taken seriously as a professional artist rather than an amateur because of her gender. This name change allowed her work to be evaluated on its own merits and not by her gender. Hirst didn’t return to Mount Auburn in the fall of 1873, perhaps due to her family’s sudden lack of income from her father losing his job, but she did exhibit again at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition. In 1874, Hirst enrolled at The McMicken School, the mecca of Cincinnati’s art scene, which focused on the industrial arts. At McMicken, Hirst studied drawing, watercolor, decorative design, and woodcarving until around 1878, when she began teaching woodcarving in Clifton and participated in the carving of the massive Cincinnati Organ Screen for the Cincinnati Music Hall. In 1879, Hirst left Cincinnati for New York City in pursuit of better opportunities for women artists. A year later, she studied with George Smillie and Agnes Dean Abbatt, whose work she had seen at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, as well as Charles Curran. By 1882, Hirst had opened her own studio in Greenwich Village alongside many rising and leading artists, establishing herself as an art teacher. Well aware of the gender norms that deemed fruit and floral still lifes “appropriate” subject matter for women, Hirst began specializing in this genre, abandoning woodcarving for oil and watercolor. Over the next seven years, she exhibited at the National Academy of Design, Brooklyn Art Association, Southern Exposition, Boston Art Club, American Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, as well as in Manhattan and Cincinnati. Between 1887 and 1889, Hirst began to reconsider her artistic subject matter and progress as an artist, and rarely exhibited, eventually completely withdrawing from the exhibit circuit. She re-emerged abruptly in 1890 at the National Academy of Design, but her compositions had changed dramatically. Her still lifes were no longer of the fruit and floral variety, but of objects associated with male pastimes painted in the illusionistic technique of trompe-l’oeil (French for “deceives the eye”), which until then had only been practiced by male artists. This sudden change was inspired by fellow artist William C. Fitler, who would borrow Hirst’s studio to paint in and leave his things laying around. Hirst was specifically drawn to an arrangement of Fitler’s pipe and tobacco pouch that he left behind one day, and she immediately sat down to paint it. Thus began her new direction that would last throughout the remainder of her career. Hirst worked on a small scale, typically around 8 x 10 in., with meticulous attention to detail and realism. This attention to detail meant that her work was incredibly time consuming, requiring four to five hours a day over a span of up to two months for one painting. She once said, “I love to lose myself in details.” She used watercolor densely, proving it could mimic oil and giving credence to the medium as a professional pursuit rather than just an amateur one as it had been viewed in the past. In addition to items typically associated with masculinity, Hirst included elements like ceramics, sewing supplies, and books in her compositions to address the female viewer, differentiating herself from her male trompe l’oeil contemporaries. She would spend significant time in the curiosity shops of her neighborhood, rummaging for rare volumes of books to paint, and her studio was crammed with bric-a-brac for her still lifes. The books Hirst chose to depict were either written by progressive female authors or included feminist themes, such as Lionel and Clarissa and Paul and Virginia. At first Hirst painted books closed, but she later opened them to show both text and illustrations, emphasizing the writings and messages on the pages. Her inclusion of texts written by female authors encouraged women’s education and literacy. By the mid-1890s, the open book had become the focal point in Hirst’s work. She stated, “Some women like to sew to calm their nerves, but I paint books.” In 1901, Hirst married Fitler, yet still exhibited under her established maiden name. She shared a studio with him until 1910, when tuberculosis stopped him from painting, and he died a year later. After his death, pipes and smoking paraphernalia could no longer be found in Hirst’s work, but her allusions to feminism became more apparent. Hirst received critical acclaim in her later years, evidenced by the many times she was featured in the press, exhibited her work, and won prizes at juried exhibitions. She also won an award from the National Academy of Design in 1931 and earned significant esteem from her colleagues. Hirst only stopped painting around 1940, at the age of 85, when her fingers began to get stiff. She died in 1942, outliving everyone in her immediate family except a grandnephew. Her burial expenses were covered by the New York Water Color Club, the Artist’s Fellowship, and the Artists’ Fund Society. It was Hirst’s extraordinary technical proficiency in watercolor that challenged long-held beliefs that women lacked artistic merit and that the watercolor medium was only an amateur’s pursuit. She imbued her work with personal meaning and significance, intentionally addressing female viewers through a narrative that elevated still life beyond mere imitation. She applied the trompe l'oeil technique painted by and for men, yet often utilized the watercolor medium associated with women. She supported the newly emerging rise of the educated, independent, and self-driven woman. Hirst had a very successful career as a still-life painter. She exhibited regularly at the National Academy of Design, American Watercolor Society, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and she was an active exhibiting member of the National Association of Women Artists. Her work is included in many museum collections, including those of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D. C.; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; and the Montclair Museum of Art, New Jersey.