Olive Parker Black, (1868-1948)

Olive Parker Black is considered an American landscape painter. She was born in Cambridge, Mass. in 1868 and died in 1948. Her first formal art education was as a student of Hugh Bolton Jones and William Merritt Chase at the National academy and at the Art Students League. Black also studied with E. Blashfield. She was considered one of Chase's foremost students.

Olive Parker Black became well known for painting landscapes of the Eastern United States from Maryland to West Virginia and north to the Berkshire Mountains of Western Mass. Her landscapes reflect the dominant influence found in the romantic but pure Hudson River School combined with the looseness of impressionism. Her works also show the influence of the Barbizon school which she absorbed through the teaching and art of Hugh Bolton Jones.

Black painted American landscapes in a manner emphasizing the effects of seasonal light and time of day on her rural subjects. Olive Parker Black exhibited at the National Academy in 1897 and 1898, the Society of American Artists, the Boston Art Club, the Arts Club of Philadelphia and the Carnegie Institute. She was a member of the Women Artist in America, the Copley Society and National Academy of Design.

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