Section A Vignette # 2
M. Louise Stowell was a well-known artist in her time, but has since fallen out of view. Born in 1861, she moved with her family to Rochester as a baby, and lived on Atkinson Street in Corn Hill until her death in 1930. After earning a certificate in drawing at the Mechanics Institute—later RIT—in the late 1880s, she subsequently taught art classes there. She became a member of the Rochester Art Club, and by 1895 she had rented a studio in the Powers Building with her friend Ada Howe Kent. Soon after, she was sending her art to exhibitions around the country. She read widely about current art movements and clipped photos from art magazines to inspire her, and her resulting artwork combined the things she liked best into curious combinations of flattened Japanese print styles, views of the Genesee River and its industry, and literary and allegorical scenes.
She was friendly with local artists and architects including Harvey Ellis and Claude Bragdon, and with them she founded the Arts and Crafts Society, the first in the US. Her drawings and watercolors include designs for murals and stained glass—including some probably for her own family’s mausoleum at Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Kerry Schauber
Memorial Art Gallery
Note that the watercolor for these beautiful windows is held at the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester.