Ethel Mars

Art Brokerage: Ethel Mars American Artist: b. 1878-1956. Ethel Mars was a painter and printmaker who exhibited regularly as part of the avant garde art world of Paris in the early 20th Century and with Provincetown artists during WWI. Born in Springfield, IL, Mars left home at a young age to attend the Cincinnati Art Academy, where she studied with Frank Duveneck and L.H. Meakin. There, she met fellow artists Hopkins, who taught Mars how to make woodcuts, and Squire, who would become her lifelong companion. Although Mars was a top student at the Cincinnati Art Academy, as a woman in the late 19th Century she was unable to find work as an art teacher in the United States. Mars, along with Squire, moved to Paris in 1905-06 in search of artistic and lifestyle freedom. Mars received international attention prior to 1910, exhibiting paintings, jurying major Salon shows in Paris, and garnering honors alongside artists such as Cecelia Beaux and Mary Cassatt. Mars and Squire were part of Gertrude Stein’s circle and were present the evening in 1907 that Alice B. Toklas met Matisse for the first time. In 1907, Gertrude Stein immortalized Mars and Squire in her early word portrait, Miss Furr and Miss Skeene (1908-11). Mars was initially known for her painting and drawing, primarily watercolor, and for her avant-garde and belle epoque color woodblock prints. By 1908-10, Mars had reduced the number of blocks she carved for an image to just a few. She was aware of the inventive woodcuts of Edward Munch as well as the Japanese-influenced color etchings of Cassatt, as she owned one. Mars’ own fauve woodcuts stand out as extraordinary contributions to the modern color print. Listings wanted.