Woman of the Century/Jean Harrower Gutelius

GUTELIUS, Mrs. Jean Harrower, artist and business woman, born in Perthshire, Scotland, 24th March, 1846. Her maiden name was Jean Harrower Reid, and her parents were honorable and Christian persons, whose lives were models of inspiration for their daughter. The Reid family came to the United States just before the Civil War broke out, and Jean saw her brother, Tom Chalmers Reid, and other relatives enter the Union army. Her brother died in the army at the early age of seventeen years. Connellsville, Pa., her home, was the center of great business activity and pleasant social life between the years 1865 and 1875, and Miss Reid was fitted by nature to enjoy the animated life that came to her in those years. In 1874 she became the wife of N. P. Gutelius, a son of the Rev. Samuel Gutelius. a well known clergyman of the German Reformed Church. During two years she traveled with her husband over the United States. In 1878 she found herself alone in the world, with her infant daughter to care for. For several years she managed her father's home and attended her delicate mother, and in 1884 she began to study painting with S. Kilpatrick, who had a summer class in Connellsville. She was encouraged by the praise and advice of Frank Millet, to whom she submitted specimens of her work for criticism, and who introduced her to prominent and influential New York friends. She worked and painted industriously, and in 1886, at the suggestion of her teacher, Frank Fowler, she entered into the competition for the Cassel's prize in landscape painting, and received the first prize. Her mother died in that year, and Mrs. Gutelius took her head for a model, sending a photograph of the JEAN HARROWER GUTELIUS. drawing to a magazine for illustration. The picture was seen by Marion Harland and Mrs. M. C. Hungerford, who at once wrote to secure it for an article on "Beautiful Old Age," which was published in the "Home Maker" of September. 1890. Her paintings found a ready sale in Pittsburgh, and her brush was seldom idle. She assisted her aged father in the management of his book-store, soon mastering all the details of the business. The father died on 9th April, 1891, at the age of seventy-six years, leaving Mrs. Gutelius alone in the management of the concern. She is now dividing her time between the care of her daughter, the details of her business and the delight of the successful artist at her easel.