Artist Biography

Although only the barest outline of her life and accomplishments appear to have been recorded, one can expand upon these few facts by examining the details of her training as an artist. Anne Huntington Allen was born in New York City in 1858. She was accepted as a student at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art which was founded only one year after her birth by American industrialist Peter Cooper, a prolific inventor and a successful entrepreneur. A self-made millionaire, Cooper had not received a formal education and he made it his lifelong mission to provide opportunity for the poor by offering education that was as free as the air we breathe and the water we drink. Still today The Cooper Union is one of the few American institutions of higher learning to offer full-tuition scholarships to all admitted students.

Anne Huntington’s teacher at The Cooper Union was Wyatt Eaton who had just returned to the United States in 1877 after spending five years in Paris. Born to American parents living in Canada at the time of his birth, Eaton was a student of the National Academy of Design in New York City. Supported by a wealthy banker and art patron Eaton moved to Paris in 1872 and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jean-Léon Gérôme. During these years in Paris Eaton made the acquaintance of Jean-François Millet at Barbizon. He was also influenced by his friend Jules Bastien-Lepage.

At some point after leaving The Cooper Union Anne Huntington married Thomas W. Allen. Although she later married Thomas Woodruff, she was known as Anne Huntington Allen throughout her life.

The last decade of the century found the aspiring artist in Paris enrolled at the Académie Colarossi. Slightly less famous than the Académie Julian, the Colarossi school accepted female students and allowed them to draw from the nude male model. The school attracted many foreign students, including a large number from the United States.

Anne Huntington Allen studied with two important masters during her time in Paris: Carolus-Duran and Jean-Jacques Henner. Carolus-Duran was the name adopted by Charles Auguste Émile Durand who was born in Lille in 1837. He studied at the Lille Academy and then at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Carolus-Duran traveled to Italy and Spain in 1861 for further study, especially devoting himself to the works of Velázquez. Carolus-Duran’s painting Murdered or The Assassination (1866) which now hangs in Lille was one of his first successes. However, he afterwards became best known as a portrait painter and as the head of one of the principal ateliers in Paris, where some of the most brilliant artists of a later generation were his pupils.

Anne also studied with Jean-Jacques Henner who was born in Alsace in 1829. He entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1848 and took the Prix de Rome in 1858. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1863 and this was followed by the inclusion of many paintings over the years including a portrait of Carolus-Duran in 1896. (John Singer Sargent also did a portrait of Carolus-Duran.) Among other professional distinctions Henner took a Grand Prix for painting at the Paris International Exposition of 1900. He had succeeded Cabanel in the Institute de France in 1889.

Upon returning to the United States Anne Huntington Allen took lessons for a time with Frank Duveneck in Cincinnati. She was a resident of Cincinnati in the 1920’s where she resided at 230 Southern Avenue, Mt. Auburn. While living there she was also a member of the Cincinnati Woman’s Club. The artist relocated to Santa Monica, California in 1932 and resided there until her death in 1935.