GLADYS ATWOOD ENNIS (May 12, 1891 – February 9, 1953)

A.K.A. “Gladys Atwood,” “G. Atwood Ennis”

Landscape and still-life painter in watercolor. Born in Natick, Massachusetts, the daughter of Nellie M. Seavey (b. 1863) and Arthur T. Atwood (b. 1858). During her youth, her father was employed as a travelling salesman and the family resided on Larned Street in Framingham,Massachusetts. The family later lived in Attleboro.

Gladys Atwood was a student of the American Impressionist painter Henry Bayley Snell (1858 –1943) and the noted American watercolorist, George Pearse Ennis (1884 – 1936). She would marry the latter on February 2, 1928 in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Among her first known exhibitions was under her maiden name in 1929 with the American Water Color Society in New York City. She and her husband became regular fixtures in the Florida art colonies in 1931, showing in Sarasota with regularity. Ennis received a number of positive reviews during her career, including at the 1934 solo with her husband in Indiana: “Not less interesting than Mr. Ennis’ work are three watercolors by his wife, Gladys Atwood Ennis, who sends her flower subjects… All are well painted and lend needed warmth of color to the whole exhibit.”

She was the founder along with her husband of both the George Pearse Ennis School of Art in New York City and the Eastport Summer School of Art in Eastport, Maine. It is fairly clear from surviving notices and advertisements that while George and his assistant, Robert Craig, served as instructors, Gladys oversaw all (or nearly all) the operations of the schools, including placing advertisements and acting as the correspondent for the prospective attendees. Among the two schools students were the Mississippi artist, Caroline Compton (1907 – 1987), the Maine painter Sheila Ann Rutherford (1914 – 2006) and the famous painter and printmaker, Stow Wengenroth (1906 – 1978).

The Bangor Daily News noted in December of 1936 that due in part to George Pearse Ennis’untimely death, Gladys Ennis was unsure of the Eastport school’s future. However, newspapers reported that she remarked: “every effort is being made to procure suitable administration for the school that will enable it to go on.”

At the 1937 American Water Color Society traveling exhibition in Indianapolis, reviewers again favorably reviewed her works, including the following watercolor of Maine: “‘Lubec, Maine,’ by Gladys Atwood Ennis, widow of the famous George Pearse Ennis, has contrasts of light-toned turbulent water, clouded sky and dark shoreline and dark foreground cottages. An almost tragic note stamps the picture.” Her last known exhibitions appear to have been in 1941. 

Ennis moved out to Missouri to be closer to her sister, Marvell. Though it is unclear what brought on her final illness, Gladys Ennis was declared insane (due to psychosis) in January of 1948 and placed under guardianship. Following the diagnosis, she was institutionalized at the Fulton State Hospital (State Hospital #1) in Sedalia, Missouri, where she spent the final five years of her life.

Gladys Atwood Ennis died on Monday, the 9 th of February 1953 at the age of sixty-one years.  Her services were organized by the Maupin Funeral Home in Fulton, Missouri with burial following in Crown Hill Cemetery in Sedalia.

As a painter, like her husband, she was well-known for her bold and expressive watercolors. She painted at various locations in in Florida, Maine, New York and in Greenfield and at Lake Pleasant, Massachusetts, where by 1930 she had a cottage on Brook Street. She was a member of the Caroline Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Studio Club of New York and was a life member of both the American Water Color Society and the New York Water Color Club.

Though there are undoubtedly other exhibitions in which Ennis participated, those presently known include the following:

American Water Color Society, New York, NY, 1929, 1931, 1938; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania, PA, 1930; Philadelphia Watercolor Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA, 1931; Florida Federation of Art at the Ringling Museum, Sarasota, FL, 1932; Public Art Galleries, Morton High School, Richmond, IN, 1934 (solo with her husband); Sarasota Art Association, Sarasota, FL, 1935; Smith Gallery, Utica, NY, 1936 (solo);  Municipal Art Committee Exhibition, New York, NY, 1936; American Water Color Society Traveling Exhibition, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, 1937; Blue Bowl Gallery, New York, NY, 1938-39 (solo); Playhouse Art Gallery, New York, NY, 1938; Attleboro Museum, Attleboro, MA, 1938; Washington Water Color Club, Washington, DC, 1938-39; National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, New York, NY, 1939; Barbizon Gallery, New York, NY, 1939; Columbia Branch of the New York Public Library, New York, NY, 1939; New York Water Color Club, New York, NY, 1940-41; New York Women Painters at the Miami Beach Art Center, Miami Beach, FL, 1941.  Gladys Ennis’ works are known to be held in the following public institutions: Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, DC. The majority of her works reside in private collections throughout the United States.