Julie Morrow DeForest (American, 1882–1979), a painter of intensely colored Impressionist landscapes, was born in New York City, but grew up in Connecticut, moving with her minister father to Bethlehem, Danbury, and Norwich during the first 20 years of her life. 

DeForest was always interested in art, but majored in literature in her college studies, which would lead her to a 20-year teaching career in high school, until a stroke of good fortune in 1929, when she was in her late 40s. She married a business executive and could afford to quit teaching and devote herself full time to painting and poetry. 

DeForest earned her BA in English from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1904, and her MA in literature from Columbia University in New York in 1906. She also took several art courses in college, as well as studying elsewhere with Charles W. Hawthorne, Jonas Lie, and John Carlson. 

She painted as much as she could during the school year, on summer vacations, and during two sabbaticals. She exhibited her work at well-known venues such as the Provincetown Art Association in Massachusetts, the National Academy of Design, and National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, both in New York City. 

DeForest first came to the western United States in 1928, spending a summer in Carmel, CA, and beginning a 20-year experience with the West, the California coast, and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. DeForest died in Glendale, OH, at the age of 97.

Studied

Wellesley College, A.B.; Columbia University, A.M.; Jonas Lie; Charles Hawthorne; John Carlson

Member

AAPL; Allied Artists Am; National Arts Club; Prof Artists of Cincinnati; MacDowell Soc, Cinci; Cincinnati Art Museum Assn; Woman’s A. Cl., Cincinnati

Exhibited

CM, 1958; Woman’s A. Cl., S. Indp. A; Cincinnati; Newhouse Gal., New York; CGA; PAFA; NAD; All. A. Am; NAC; WFNY, 1939; Prof. A. Cincinnati; BM; Kansas City AI; Stated Island Mus. A,; Ohio State Fair; Marie Sterner Gal.; Farnsworth Mus.; Jersey City Mus. Assn.; Loring Andrews Gal., Cincinnati; Newhouse Galleries, New York; Milch Galleries, New York; Closson’s Gallery, Cincinnati  

Awards:  Medallion, Women’s Theodore Roosevelt Mem. Assn.; prize, CM, 1958; award for Landscape, Cincinnati Mus Art, Women’s Art Club; citation, Dict Int Biography, London, Eng

Work

Farnsworth Mus.; Wellesley Col Collection, Mass.; Am. Fed. Women’s Col.; Cincinnati Mus Art; Univ Cincinnati Permanent Collection; Aurora Mus, IN; Nat Women’s Fedn Clubs

References

WW73; WW47; WW59; Pisano, One Hundred Years, The National Association of Women Artists