Samantha Littlefield Huntley
“It is my belief that the few women who pursue the study of art today are painting better than the majority of men in the profession.” - Samantha Huntley to Marguerite Martyn, 1909.
Born Samantha Littlefield of Watervliet, NY, she would soon become a celebrated portraiture artist of the early 20th century. Studying first at the Art Students’ League in New York City, Samantha Huntley then made her way to the Académie Julian, one of the first schools to allow women to study painting, and later studied with Jules Lefebvre at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and with Eugene Grasset, a pioneer of Art Nouveau. She was also a member of the National Arts Club, American Federation of Arts, and the Artists Professional League.
For several years, she worked as an art teacher at Emma Willard School in Troy but due to her increasing popularity as an artist, she resigned from this post.
Her work has been exhibited several times, throughout the nation and internationally, including at: Boston Art Club; Detroit Museum of Art; Society of American Artists; National Academy of Design; Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo; Wisconsin Historical and State Library; Albany Historical and Art Society; St. Louis Women’s Club; City Art Museum of St. Louis; Rofrant Club in Cleveland; French Salon in Paris; and Royal Academy in London.
In a 1909 interview with Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Samantha Littlefield Huntley illuminates her ability as an artist and the difficulties she had faced as a woman artist.
Samantha stated, "I found it amounted to sex discrimination, such a matter of custom and a habit so fixed that it was with the greatest difficulty … to have my faults pointed out, not my perfections” in acknowledgement that women were not always taken seriously when entering any male-dominated arena.
Samantha Littlefield Huntley was born in 1865, in Watervliet to Edgar Littlefield, an ice dealer, and Abigail Fidelia Tilley. In the 1880s she married Frank Hall Huntley, a dry goods clerk, and later a druggist and together they had one son, Grant, who would later become a civil engineer.
Samantha Littlefield Huntley at the Hart Cluett Museum
The Hart Cluett Museum is home to a handful of works painted by Littlefield Huntley as well as the Littlefield Papers; an archival collection that highlights Samantha, her family, and their interactions with one another, extended family, and friends.
To the left are a few images from the collection that spotlight the variety of material relating to Samantha L. Huntley.
The Littlefield/Huntley Papers are available for research.