Violet Oakley (1874-1961)
Unity (Study for International Understanding and Unity Mural, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg), 1906
Violet Oakley is considered by some to have been America’s greatest woman muralist of the early 20th century. The success of her murals that were painted in the Pennsylvania state capitol led to many commissions and international reputation as a painter of moral and idealistic subjects.
Oakley’s early works showcased her confidence and independence as a woman artist. As she traveled and studied in America and Europe, she exuberantly painted portraits and landscapes in a spontaneous, impressionistic style. Violet’s shift to illustration and mural painting was related to the onset of her father’s illness in 1896.
Forty-four feet long, International Understanding and Unity is the largest of her Capitol murals. Its scale necessitated the enlargement of her studio, and the artist painted on canvas from many studies, working on a moveable scaffold without assistants. Her idealistic and ambitious composition is replete with symbolism “in which she depicted a world free from war and oppression, united by international cooperation.” She inscribed her allegorical panel with a passage from the Apocalypse: “He carried me away to a great and high mountain and showed me the Great City and he showed me a pure river of Water of Life as crystal proceeding out of the throne. The Leaves of the Tree were for the Healing of Nations.” The monumental figure of a woman with outstretched arms serves as the “keystone” of her composition allegorically conveys the artist’s thematic vision. She symbolizes the Water of Life or Unity. Other panels portray “The End of Warfare,” “The End of Slavery” (based on Penn’s principles), includes Man removing the shackles of Woman. That she has portrayed an image of a strong female references the women’s suffrage movement of the time.
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