Mary Lane McMillan (Texas, New York, Florida, 1883 - 1976) Painting of a woman in a garden with hollyhocks. Signed lower right. Oil on Canvas. McMillan was an American illustrator and fine artist during the early to mid 20th century. She studied at the National Academy of Design in New York from 1902 to 1904 where she won the Suydam Medal for best work in her Antiques class in the 1903 Spring competition and won Honorable Mention in her Illustration class in the 1904 Spring Competition. McMillan studied illustration and pictorial composition at the Chicago Art Institute (c. 1905-1906) under Walter Marshall Clute and studied watercolors and outdoor sketching under Frederick Oswald. She attended Walter Marshall Clute?s private school at his home in Park Ridge, IL, where she studied oil painting, interiors, landscapes, costumes, and plein air techniques. During this time, McMillan also associated with members of the art colony in Park Ridge. In 1914, many years after she had left Chicago, McMillan was invited to submit a painting titled, ?An Old Spinning Wheel,? for a watercolor exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute. McMillan taught art at the Presbyterian College for Women in Milford, TX and was later head of the Art Department at Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University) in Fort Worth, TX from 1906 to 1912. McMillan began illustrating magazine covers for Holland?s and The Etude during these years as well. In 1910, McMillan traveled to Florence to study with William Merritt Chase at his private villa. From 1910 to 1912, she was a popular exhibitor at the Fort Worth Public Library?s art exhibitions, often displaying her Italian inspired artwork. She left Texas for New York in 1912 to devote her career to book and magazine illustration. Over one hundred of her illustrations appeared in issues of Life, McCall?s, The Designer, Harper?s Bazaar, Saturday Evening Post, Pictorial Review and The American Magazine, which included various cover features. She even dabbled in the world of commercial illustration by doing a Campbell?s Soup advertisement for tomato soup in 1915. Sight Size: 20.5 x 16 in. Overall Size: 30 x 26 in.