Gallery

Emily Harris Selinger was born in Wilmington, NC, on February 22, 1848. She was the daughter of James and Elizabeth Otis Lewis (Keller) McGary and graduated from the Providence (Rhode Island) High School. She attended the Cooper Institute of Design in New York City and later studied with Amalia Rocchi in Florence and Margaret Roosenboom in Holland. Selinger also studied art privately under Paul de Longpre.

Emily married the painter, Jean Paul Selinger, on October 9, 1882. She held an exhibition of her works at her Providence Studio (Room #1, 5th Floor, Butler Exchange) in December of that year. During the winter of 1882-1883, she offered painting and drawing classes from her Butler Exchange studio. Selinger was an enterprising painter, author, and poet. She also created seasonal holiday cards and folding fans decorated on silk and satin.

In the spring of 1883, she and her husband went to Europe for the better part of two years, traveling in Germany, Florence, and Venice. Leading up to, and during that period, she was the special European art correspondent for the Boston Evening Transcript. Mrs. Selinger became well known for painting Venetian scenes and still life paintings, most notably with roses and chrysanthemums.

On returning to the United States in December of 1884, she soon settled in a studio and apartment in one of the towers of Boston’s Vendome Hotel. In October of 1886, she gave up her “Rose Room” at the Vendome to share space with her husband at Studio 93, Phillips Building, 3 Hamilton Place, Boston, MA. During the winter of 1889-1890, Emily maintained a studio adjacent to Central Park, at 226 West Fifty-Ninth Street in New York City.

By 1894, the couple had moved to occupy a studio at the Stone Building, 711 Boylston Street in Boston. That same year, the Selingers took over the summer studio at the Crawford House, in Crawford Notch, as successors to Frank Shapleigh. Even after the death of her husband in 1909, Emily continued painting at the Crawford House each summer, until a long illness prevented her from returning for the 1913 season. Prior to their association with the Crawford House, the Selingers had spent their summers as artists-in-residence at the Glen House in Pinkham Notch.

When Jean Paul died in 1909, he left all of his property to Emily.

Emily painted watercolors and oils of flowers and fruits. She also painted portraits and was instrumental in establishing the Normal Art School in Louisville, Kentucky. She was a prolific writer of monologues, articles on art, short stories, poems, and greeting cards. Selinger was an honorary artist member of the Women’s Club of Boston, poet-laureate of the New England Woman’s Press Association, and a member of the Rhode Island Short Story Club.

Mrs. Selinger exhibited at the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association in Boston where she was awarded two silver medals. She exhibited at the Providence and Boston Art Clubs and won first prize at several local and state art shows. She also exhibited at the Jordan Galleries, the Unity Art Club, the Poland Spring Galleries, the Newton Club, the South Boston Art Club, and participated in the Boston Artists’ Loan Exhibitions. In the spring of 1922, she closed her Boston Studio on Boylston Street and returned to Providence, RI.

Emily Selinger died on Tuesday, July 19, 1927 and is buried at Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, RI.

Images of Emily Harris Selinger

Gravestone

Image Credits
Top Right: Courtesy of the New Hampshire Historical Society
Botton Right: Courtesy of Charles O. Vogel

Signature

 

References
Independent research by the authors
Independent research by Charles Vogel and Allen Vogel
John Paul and Emily Selinger