Emily Heyward Drayton Taylor (14 April 1860 – June 19, 1952) was an American miniature painter.

Emily Drayton Taylor
BornApril 14, 1860 Edit this on Wikidata
Philadelphia Edit this on Wikidata
DiedJune 19, 1952 Edit this on Wikidata (aged 92)
Philadelphia Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationMiniature painter Edit this on Wikidata
Parent(s)
  • Henry Edward Drayton Edit this on Wikidata

Emily Heyward Drayton was born on 14 April 1860 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Henry Edward Drayton, a Philadelphia physician, and Mary Brady Drayton.[1] She married neurologist Dr. John Madison Taylor in 1879.[2]

Taylor studied art under Cécile Ferrère-Guérin in Paris, likely in the 1870s, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1877. She painted over 400 miniature portraits, including likenesses of US President William McKinley and First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley in 1899. One of her works, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a copy of a work by Edward Greene Malbone, a painting of the eye of Maria Miles Heyward Drayton, her paternal grandmother.[2]

Taylor was the founding president of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, serving from 1901 to 1951. She wrote the chapter "Miniature Painting as an Art" for the book Heirlooms in Miniatures (1898) by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton, the first book on the history of American miniatures.[2]

Emily Drayton Taylor died on June 19, 1952, in Philadelphia at the age of 92.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Who was who in America : a companion biographical reference work to who's who in america. Chicago, IL: Marquis-Who's Who. 1973. p. 713.
  2. ^ a b c Barratt, Carrie Rebora; Zabar, Lori (2010). American Portrait Miniatures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-1-58839-357-9.
  3. ^ "EMILY TAYLOR, 92, PORTRAIT PAINTER: Specialist in Miniatures Dies --Led Pennsylvania Society for More Than 50 Years". New York Times. 20 June 1952. p. 23.