Henrietta S. Quincy: Painter, Musician and Botanist

Relatively few women artists of any importance were active in many regions of the West during the 1850s and 1860s. Travel was long and arduous and it was not safe, nor culturally acceptable, for a woman to travel alone. As European Americans moved across the continent, the frontier line and what was the West changed from the early 1800s at the Appalachian Mountains, and in 100 years reached the Pacific Coast. 

The era of the woman artist in the American West began in 1843 with the arrival of Eliza Griffin Johnston (1821-1896) in Texas. It was not Texas, however, but California, specifically San Francisco, that became the earliest desired destination. As the completion of the Union Pacific-Central Pacific Railroad in 1869 and other transcontinental and trunk lines opened up, more women found their way to areas of interest, including Southern California with its historic missions, adobes, deserts and rugged coastlines. 

Born in Portland, ME on March 1, 1842, "Etta" Quincy was the daughter of Horatio G. Quincy, a wealthy merchant, and Mary (McAllister) Quincy.  She grew up in Portland and lived in the family residence until the great fire of 1866 virtually destroyed the home. Quincy then opened her own studio in Portland, Maine, where she painted and taught art. She studied in the art centers of Europe and spent five years in Venice during the 1870s. Returning to Portland, she had a studio where she painted and taught art. While a resident there, Quincy had works in exhibitions of the Brooklyn Art Association in 1873, '74, and '77. Her work focused on landscapes of the region.

Henrietta S. Quincy
Mountain Lakeshore Scene
1876
Oil on canvas
12 inches x 20 inches

By 1884, Etta Quincy settled in Los Angeles which would remain her home except for visits to Boston (1902) Europe (1902 and later), and Portland (1905). As well as a painter with an excellent reputation in Portland, ME, Quincy was a gifted musician and botanist. Among her pieces created in California, a large oil painting done in 1886 entitled San Pedro in 1884, belongs to the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Another piece, a watercolor of the San Diego Mission sketched in 1896, is in the collection of the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles. 

Henrietta S. Quincy
Grapevine
1882
Oil on canvas
22 1/4 inches x 18 1/4 inches
Private Collection, Danville, California

During her early years in Los Angels, Quincy did not join the city's early art organizations. She was however, a friend of the developers of the "new" city of Venice, at the coast, modeled after Venice, Italy and served as a source of information from her life spent in Italy. 

 No paintings or photographs of Henrietta S. Quincy were tracked down by this researcher. Quincy never married and she died in Los Angeles on Nov. 28, 1908. 

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Sources
An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinik, University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 1998, p. 254.
Henrietta Quincy, https://www.askart.com/artist/Henrietta_S_Quincy/127042/Henrietta_S_Quincy.aspxaskART, retrieved March 7, 2020.