Grace Arnold Albee (1890 – 1985)

Born in Scituate, Rhode Island, Grace Arnold completed studies at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1912 and married the muralist Percy Albee in 1913. In the mid-1920s, she began making linocuts, which were exhibited at Providence in late 1927. With the Albees' move to Paris in 1928, Grace Albee studied briefly with Paul Bornet, whose wood engravings had attracted her attention. She produced wood engravings bearing her meticulous, highly refined style beginning in 1929. Their subject matter reflected her changing surroundings, as the Albees moved from Paris to New York City, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and finally to Barrington and Bristol, Rhode Island. In 1942, Grace Albee was elected an associate of the national Academy of Design in New York, and a full member in 1946. Her work is held by many leading institutional and private collections. Though Albee is less well known than many of her contemporaries, she ranks among the greatest wood engravers of Twentieth Century America.