19th Century Painter VIRGINIA GRANBERY (AMERICAN 1831 - 1921)

Granbery was born in Norfolk, Virginia, but she and her older sister, Henrietta were brought to New York City as children. She studied at the Cooper Institute (now The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art) and the National Academy of Design. While at “The Cooper”, Ganbery studied with landscapist, Albert Fitch Bellows. In addition to be being a gifted artist, she was also an exceptional teacher, who taught art at the Packer Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, New York from 1871 to 1882. Annie Cooper Boyd, the noted Sag Harbor artist, took painting lessons from Virginia and her sister Henrietta also an artist. Boyd a marine and plein-air landscape painter of the Sag Harbor and the Hamptons area on Long Island, New York invited both Granbery sisters to visit her there to give her lessons in 1887. Perhaps best known for her still-lifes of fruit, Virginia Granbery also painted landscapes, including the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Later in life, Granbery concentrated more on portraiture and genre. Granbery exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1859 – 1890); the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1860 to 1889); and the Brooklyn Art Association (1861 to 1886). Virginia and her sister were among a handful of women whose artwork was accepted for exhibition at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.