Grace Hill Turnbull

Grace Hill Turnbull (1880-1976) - 20th Century Oil, Sunlit Lane

Unknown

Grace Hill Turnbull was born in 1880 in Baltimore, Maryland. As times and the climate of the art world changed, her work in painting varied from traditional portraits to modernist figures in landscapes. In 1914 in Paris, France, she was awarded the Whitelaw Reid First Prize. She exhibited in the annual exhibitions of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in New York City, including their 45th and 50th shows in 1936 and 1942. Her first experience as a sculptress was at age 13 when she and her brother Bayard built a miniature white marble church at the family's summer home. She was considered very avant-garde when she started painting around the beginning of the 20th-century, first portraits and then landscapes and flowers. In 1928, she moved into her house in Guilford, designed by her brother Bayard, and concentrated on creating sculptural work. Turnbull worked as a sculptor into advanced age and she also authored several books. She died in Baltimore in 1976.