Woman of the Century/Virginia Granbery

2277799Woman of the Century — Virginia Granbery

VIRGINIA GRANBERY. GRANBERY, Miss Virginia, artist, born in Norfolk, Va. When she was a child, her parents moved to New York, where they have resided ever since. She early showed a fondness for drawing, but, as there was no drawing taught in the schools, she did not have the benefit of instruction. She learned to copy engravings and made several drawings from casts, without a teacher. After she was grown, she went to the Cooper Institute for a short time, spending a part of each day under the instruction of A. F. Bellows in his studio, where she worked in colors. She studied in the Academy of Design school in the antique, portrait and life classes, and received honorable mention for a drawing. She began to paint fruits and flowers from nature, many of which have been chromoed by Prang, of Boston. From 1871 to 1882 she was teacher of the art department of the Packer Institute, Brooklyn. N. Y. On entering the Packer Institute she received the same salary as her predecessor, but at the end of the first year her method had doubled the number of pupils, and she had offers from other large schools that wished to secure her services. The board of trustees decided to increase her salary fifty per cent and also gave her a further substantial recognition of their appreciation of her services in a check for a handsome amount, accompanied by a very complimentary letter. The department increased so that an assistant was necessary. After eleven years of work she broke down under the constant demand on her strength, and was obliged to send in her resignation. She and her sisters were among the very few women artists whose work was accepted with that of the men to be exhibited in the Centennial of 1876, in Philadelphia. Recently she has devoted herself principally to portraits. She is very successful in painting small pictures of children. She has shown pictures in all the principal exhibitions thoughout the United States.