Olivia

Lydia Field Emmet (1866-1952) was an American painter known for the elegantly composed portraits of women and children that make her one of the most accomplished portrait painters of the American tradition. Olivia from 1911 depicts a woman in the elegantly composed, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Emmet's best work from the more general portrait painting of her contemporaries. Emmet was one of the most accomplished female portrait painters of the early 20th century, and the 1911 date places this in her most productive period, when she was producing the elegantly composed portraits that are her most accomplished works.

Olivia is important in the history of American painting because it demonstrates the elegantly composed, precisely observed manner that Emmet brought to portraiture as one of the most accomplished female portrait painters of the American tradition. Emmet's elegantly composed portraits—combining the precise observation of the American portrait tradition with the elegant composition that is her most distinctive contribution—represent one of the most accomplished traditions in American portrait painting by a woman, and the 1911 portrait shows this tradition at its most elegantly composed.

Olivia is Emmet's elegantly composed American portrait: a woman rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished female portrait painters of the American tradition. The 1911 portrait shows the combination of precise observation with elegant composition that makes Emmet one of the most accomplished portrait painters of the early 20th century.