WOMAN IN ART
The designs for the windows from the Divine Comedy received the medal of honor from the New York Architectural League in 1916.
Violet Oakley has accomplished a series of twelve panels for the Cuyahoga County Court House at Cleveland, Ohio.
Many windows and decorations from Miss Oakley's designs have enhanced the beauty and interest of other public buildings and private homes. In the Church of All Angels, West End Avenue and Eighty-First Street, New York, is a very devotional and beautiful altar piece in mosaics from the design by Miss Oakley; she also did personally the two curved sides of the chancel wall, and designed the four small stained glass windows. The beauty and execution of her work in All Angels' Church resulted in the choice of Miss Oakley for the decoration of the frieze in the Governor's Reception Room in the Harrisburg Capitol. The work in the church was finished in 1901.
The same year Miss Oakley completed another work of deep thought and great beauty—"The Great Wonder"—a vision of the Apocalypse (Revelation XII), There are seven compositions comprising the triptych: First, the seven golden candlesticks; Second, The Book sealed with seven seals; Third, The seven angels with seven trumpets; Fourth, The Great Wonder; Fifth, The Mighty Angel with the little book; Sixth, The Rider upon the white horse; Seventh, The old Serpent cast out. This most unusual art work partakes of its veiled meaning in symbolism, and is a remarkable study—the color rich and harmonious. It was presented to the Alumnae House of Vassar College in the name of the Class of 1891, "In Loving Memory of Hester Caldwell Oakley Ward."
Miss Oakley's portraits possess the same sense of life-likeness as do her murals; there is the wealth of harmonious color as accessory to the position and face of the sitter. She is too thorough an artist to impose the background of the one for the other.
A full length portrait of Mrs. H. Houston Woodward, standing, in a luxuriously furnished library, proves again the mastery the artist has of color and harmony. It is dignified and graceful as a portrait, and abundantly satisfying as a picture.
One of her most striking portraits is of Henry Howard Houston Woodward, of the Lafayette Escadrille, winner of the Croix de Guerre with Palm. Killed in France, 1918. It is a masterful piece of work. The hair blown back from the brow, the eyes clear and penetrating, the face full of character
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