Marietta Cotton

Mariette Leslie Cotton (1866–1947) was an American artist who usually gave her name as Mrs. Leslie Cotton. A student of William Merritt Chase, Carolus-Duran, and Jean-Jacques Henner , she worked mainly in Paris but also maintained studios in London and New York. By birth and marriage she possessed a level of wealth and social prestige that, together with her artistic skill, enabled her to obtain lucrative commissions from prominent individuals. The portraits she painted were praised for their veracity, style, and fine technique. Their subjects included kings, aristocrats, celebrities, and members of wealthy families. Late in her career a critic wrote that her "popularity has a sound basis, for her portraits combine such abstract artistic qualities as effective and infinitely varied design and daringly unconventional arrangements of color, with strong characterization and a likeness that never fails to be convincing," and added, "her concern with the artistic problem never makes her obtrude her own personality or offend the sitter's susceptibilities." Early life Cotton was born on May 17, 1866, in Schenectady, New York. Her birth name was Mariette Benedict and until she was twenty she was generally known as Pansy Benedict. Her early training appears to have come from her mother, a woman who was considered to be talented both as artist and singer and she may also have received informal training from an art instructor at the college where her parents had their home. However she came by it, Cotton's talent was such that she was considered to be an accomplished amateur artist before she was twenty. In 1888, newly married and having moved to Manhattan from her parents' home, Cotton sought to become a student of William Merritt Chase. He agreed to teach her and at the same time asked whether she would sit for a portrait. In 1908 Chase described the meeting: "One morning a young lady came into my Tenth street studio, just as I was leaving for an art class in Brooklyn. She came as a pupil, but the moment she appeared before me I saw her only as a splendid model. Half way to the elevated station I stopped, hastened back, and overtook her. She consented to sit for me; and I painted that day, without an interruption, till late in the evening. The result is the Lady in Black, now hung in the Metropolitan Museum." In 1889 a second Chase portrait of her, "Lady in Pink," was shown at the Spring Exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York.