Paulette Van Roekens (1896 – 1988)
Paulette Van Roekens was born in France in 1896. She studied at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Graphic Sketch Club, and also with Henry Snell, Joseph Pierson and Leopold Seyffert. Painting in oils and pastels, her technique is colorful and impressionistic.
The artist’s works are at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Reading Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, the School of Design for Women Alumnae in Philadelphia (Moore College of Art and Design), and the Allentown Art Museum.
Her paintings have been exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, and the National Academy of Design in New York. She has also had numerous solo shows.
Ms. Van Roekens was an instructor at the Graphic Sketch Club, 1920 – 27 and assistant professor of painting and drawing at Moore College of Art, 1923-61. She was married to noted painter Arthur Meltzer.
Among her awards are the Bronze Medal First Prize at the Philadelphia Sketch Club; gold Medal First Prize from the Plastic Club, and the Mary T. Mason Prize at the Woodmere Art Museum in 1965.
Style: impressionism. Typical subject matter: Country Fairs, beaches, picnics, circus scenes, ballet scenes, still lifes and women marching for Voting rights. Her canvases were quickly executed and are filled with bold color. Throughout her artistic career she fought to inform the public of the importance of American female painter’s work.
The artist died in 1988.
