Still Life of Flowers in a Marble Vase with a Butterfly

SOLD

Elizabeth Bisbee Duffey (1838-1898)
American, undated.
Signed, (l.r.) Mrs. E.B. Duffey.
23 1/2″ x 15 3/8″; 26 1/2″ x 18 3/8″ framed
Condition: Excellent condition, in a period gilt frame.
Elizabeth Bisbee Duffey was a still-life painter, newspaper printer, and writer. Duffey was born and raised in Ohio, where she got her start as a printer for the Jeffersonian Democrat. She met her husband while working as an editor in Columbus, Ohio.
By 1965, Duffey was living in Philadelphia and her paintings were exhibited for the first time at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Duffey continued to work, paint, and write throughout her lifetime. She was an ardent feminist and wrote mostly on topics related to her political views. She was a strong advocate for the sharing of domestic responsibilities by men and women and of the importance of women having interests outside of the home.
Duffy continued to have exhibitions of her work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1865, 1867, and 1868, as well as the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in New York for three years in a row during the 1860s. She eventually became an Associate Member of the Pennsylvania Academy in 1869.
Later in her life, she became interested in spiritualism and wrote a book which begins with the main character finding herself physically dead and her experiences after death.