Violet Oakley’s Great Women of the Bible
If you would like to see the murals, please email us so we can arrange a time.
A Brief History
In the early 1940s, Mrs. W. Beatty Jennings, widow of the former pastor, approached Violet Oakley about painting a scene of the Annunciation in the reception room for the church’s Pastoral Aid Society (the women’s organization of the church). Ms. Oakley suggested a larger project, and Mrs. Jennings convinced church members to sponsor 10 murals as memorials. Ms. Oakley’s commission was undertaken in the summer of 1945 (she was then over 70 years old) and the murals, which decorate the entire room, were completed in the spring of 1949.
For this series, Great Women of the Bible, Oakley brought together scenes from the New Testament that would inspire members of the Pastoral Aid Society, including an Annunciation, a Nativity, Christ Healing Dorcas, Mary Magdalene washing Christ’s feet, and the Woman at the Well. The Woman at the Well was particularly well received, earning the Mary Smith Prize, a prestigious award for female artists, from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1948. Two additional panels tracing the genealogies of women through the Old and New Testaments were researched and painted by her assistant and life partner Edith Emerson. Panels on the East wall are inspired by Dante’s Inferno and Paradiso, notably showing Mary, mother of Christ, comforting Eve.
M: Archangel Jophiel, the “beauty of God”, guarding the way to the Tree of Life
R: Eve redeemed and sitting at the Virgin Mary’s feet
About the Artist: Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley (1874-1961) grew up in Bergen Heights, NJ and began studying art at age 18.
She studied art in Philadelphia and England. She came from a family of artists, and both of her grandfathers were members of The National Academy of Design.
From the mid 1890s until 1902, Ms. Oakley had a studio at 1523 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. For the next four years, she lived in Villanova, PA. From 1906 until her death in 1961, Ms. Oakley lived and worked at 627 St. George’s Road in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. Ms. Oakley was an Episcopalian who converted to Christian Science. She later became immersed in William Penn’s Quaker ideas of universal brotherhood, freedom of religion, and a world court of arbitration to supplant wars. Her political activity focused on international issues of world peace and disarmament. Ms. Oakley was a pacifist and a feminist.
Artistic Achievements:
Ms. Oakley began as an illustrator of books and magazines. She developed other talents: stained glass; designs for posters; work in charcoal and pastels; pencil, ink and watercolor on paper; and oil on canvas.
In 1902, Ms. Oakley was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the governor’s reception room in the new Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg. She chose as her theme: William Penn’s Founding of the Colony of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Oakley subsequently became noted for her murals/wall paintings, which were originally oils on canvas produced in her studio and later mounted on the walls of public buildings and private homes. Another mural of note was her Apocalypse Triptych for the Vassar College Alumni House in 1924.
During World War II, Ms. Oakley created beautiful portable altar pieces for the Armed Forces. It was these beautiful altar pieces that caught the attention of Mrs. W. Beatty Jennings, widow of the former pastor of The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown.