Anna Lea Merritt was worked alongside Annie at the Chicago World Fair in 1893. Anna wrote an article in 1900 on the difficulties women had accessing the art world …

The chief obstacle to a woman’s success is that she can never have a wife. Just reflect what a wife does for an artist:

• Darns the stockings;
• Keeps his house;
• Writes his letters;
• Visits for his benefit;
• Wards off intruders;
• Is personally suggestive of beautiful pictures;
• Always an encouraging and partial critic.

It is exceedingly difficult to be an artist without this time-saving help. A husband would be quite useless. He would never do any of these disagreeable things …

Another feminine defect is a tendency to over-thriftiness and over-industry. For instance, in the spring … to what does every true woman turn? To spring cleaning, of course. A man does not: he goes away.

We working women do not amuse ourselves, we are apt to be working always. Constant industry becomes plodding and monotonous. Some of us even make a dress occasionally. But this thriftiness is a great mistake, for ideas are begotten — and observaion is acute in moments of leisure — far from the tools of craft. …

Art should be really all play — all recreation.

Re-creation is the truest description of art, which shares the joy of the universe and tries to re-create little portions of it, just to show her understanding of the Creator, and in this effort knows only joy and refreshment, never toil.

Lippencott’s Magazine, v. 65 (1900), pp463-9.

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Page updated 27 May 2025.