Rose Hartwell was born in 1861. She, along with Myra Sawyer and Harriett Harwood, was one the first generation of Utah women painters to study in Paris. She died in 1914.

Hartwell studied with James Taylor Harwood and John Clawson who encouraged her to study in Europe. She pursued studies at Vitti and the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1900s. She also studied with Claudio Castelcucho, the Spanish colorist. While in Europe, she traveled extensively and visited art galleries.

Her work was debuted at the Paris salon in 1903. Nursery Corner (1910) shows Hartwell's interest in Dutch genre painting, Cassatt's influence, and Castelucho's influence as a colorist. She returned to Utah in 1913.

Biography adapted from Artists of Utah.

The debut of Hartwell in the Paris Salon occurred in 1903, just following the first departure of Mary Teasdel from the French scene. Studying first with Harwood and Clawson in Utah and then, at the Julian, Vitti, and under Castelucho in France, Hartwell developed a richer coloristic technique. An excellent composer of pictures as well, Hartwell was developed into an extremely dedicated European student and traveler long after an initial two years in France and another eighteen month sojourn in Italy, were spent in the early century. Returning to Utah upon occasion, Hartwell exhibited little within the state, in contrast to Myra Louise Sawyer her friend and Giverney painting partner.

Biography courtesy Artists of Utah.

Newspaper Article

"Independent Spirits: Women Painters Of The American West, 1890-1945." The Deseret News, December 15, 1996.

Books

Dunbier, Lonnie P. ed. North American Artists: The Artists Bluebook. Scottsdale, AZ: AskART.com, 2003.

Gerdts, William H. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Haseltine, James L. 100 Years of Utah Painting: Selected Works from the 1840s to the 1940s. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Art Center, 1965.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie Rogers. 150 Years Survey Utah Art, Utah Artists. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1991.

Trenton, Patricia, and Sandra D'Emilio. Independent spirits: women painters of the American West, 1890-1945. Berkeley, CA: Autry Museum of Western Heritage in association with the University of California Press, 1995.

Periodical

Trenton, Patricia, "Independent Spirits: Women Painters", American Art Review, December 1995.