Florence Dreyfous (October 25, 1868 – September 11, 1950) was an American painter who studied and spent most of her life in New York City.Opitz, Glenn B., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Books, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1988.
Early life and education Florence Dreyfous was born in New York City on October 25, 1868 to Alida Gomez Dreyfous (1833–1907) and her husband Joseph A. Dreyfous (1832–1891), both of Sephardic Jewish ancestry.Record for artist Florence Dreyous, born in 1868. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 583830 / MLR Number A1 534; NARA Series: M1490; Roll #: 1865. The family would also include daughters—Adele (1859–1879) and Gertrude (1862–1949)—and son Walter (1861–1924). Through their mother, the family would become involved in litigation against a distant relative, Horatio Gomez, who administered a family estate beginning in 1865, but never gave other family members and accounting and also entered into various below-market long-term leases, so a court appointed a referee to investigate his administration in 1891.
Dreyfous studied at the Chase School of Art and with Robert Henri at the Henri School of Art, as well as with contemporary miniaturist Theodora W. Thayer(1868–1905).Marian Wardle. American Women Modernists: The Legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945. Rutgers University Press; 2005. . p. 193.
Career In 1903 and 1904, Dreyfous exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She also exhibited two of her watercolors, A boy and Mildred, at the landmark 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art.Brown, Milton W., The Story of the Armory Show, The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Foundation, 1963 p. 239 Between 1916 and 1932, Dreyfous exhibited at the MacDowell Club, Society of Independent Artists, Morton Gallery in New York, Salons of America and the Opportunity Gallery, all in New York. In November and December 1921, a watercolor exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art also included her work.Search: Florence Dreyfous. SIRIS. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
Death Dreyfous died September 11, 1950, and is buried with her parents and siblings at historic Beth Olom cemetery in Queens County, New York.
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