The Woman Was Lit: Artist Lilla Cabot Perry
A Portraitist Who Saw the Light
She could have been a socialite; instead she was a seeker (and seer) of light. Lilla ( Lye-la) Cabot was born in 1848 into two prestigious families, the Cabots and the Lowells. Her artistic talent and intellect, however, led her far from the parlor.
Perry’s artistic career zoomed at nearly 40. Her extraordinary portraits show people lit by inspiration, a light that matched her own blazing powers of observation.
The Light Sets Her Subjects On Fire
Her technique, influenced by Realism, is Impressionistic in its emphasis on the light that sets her subjects on fire. Where’s it coming from? Ordinary light from a lamp or window? Or inspiration made visible?
Perry’s play with light is remarkable in her portrait of poet Edwin Arlington Robinson (1916). The man’s forehead is white-hot. Its electric gleam zaps the viewer. If you cut the lights, he’d sizzle like neon.
Likewise, Perry’s portrait of her husband, Harvard scholar Thomas Sergeant Perry, trains a search light on his intellect. The glare on his high…
