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Villanova University Art Gallery
Life As It Could Be: The Red Rose Girls
Preview Reception: March 27, 2025 from 4-5:15 PM
Opening Reception: April 10, 2025 from 4-6PM
Curators' Walkthrough: April 22 from 5:30-6:30PM
On view from: March 27 - May 17, 2025
At the turn of the turn of the twentieth century, the nation witnessed the Golden Age of American Illustration. The work of Philadelphia artists Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley, and Jessie Willcox Smith—known as the Red Rose Girls—had far-reaching impacts on society during this period as it circulated through print publications and public spaces. The trio, joined by their companion Henrietta Cozens, relocated to the former Red Rose Inn in Villanova in 1902. The women embraced an alternative lifestyle: they achieved artistic and financial success, lived communally, developed intimate relationships, and vowed never to marry. The artworks and archival materials presented in Life As It Could Be offer a fresh view into the Red Rose Girls’ visionary approaches to art and life, which both illustrated and subverted the conventions of Victorian womanhood.
Curated by Ilyssa Abbott, Joseph Blaney, Dan Brought, Kyle Chipman, Weronika Grajdura, Caitlyn Graulau, Deanna Hagman, Amanda Laule, James Lingman, Anthony McDonnell, Riley Nelson, Alex Shehigian, Isaac Smith, Soumya Swain, and Kelly White (students in Curatorial Practice graduate seminar, Department of History) and Dr. Leah Pires (Assistant Professor of Art History).
Related Events
The Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership presents
Living History: Women and Public Art in Philadelphia
Public Conversation with artists Maia Chao, Karyn Olivier and Michelle Angela Ortiz moderated by curator Katie Lee
March 27, 2025 from 5:30-7PM
Villanova Room, Connelly Center
A Legacies of Leadership event presented by the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women’s Leadership
Free, open to the public, and ACS approved. All are welcome.
Lead sponsor: Tigress Financial Partners. Co-sponsored by the Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest, the Department of History, the Art History Program, Gender and Women’s Studies, and the Villanova University Art Gallery.
