Violet Oakley
Violet Oakley (June 10, 1874 - February 25, 1961) was an American artist known for her murals and her work in stained glass. She was a student and later a faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Oakley was born in Bergen Heights, New Jersey into a family of artists. She studied with Howard Pyle at Drexel Institute and was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. Oakley painted a series of 43 murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg for the Governors Grand Reception Room, the Senate and the Supreme Court. She received many honors through her life including an honorary Doctorate of Laws Degree in 1948 from Drexel Institute. Oakley was a pacifist, feminist and socialist and strived to reflect her belief in a better world through her work.
Oakley and her two friends, the artists Elizabeth Shippen Green and Jessie Willcox Smith, were named the Red Rose girls by Pyle. They lived, along with Henrietta Cozens, in a home in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia that they named Cogslea after their four surnames (Cozens, Oakley, Green and Smith).
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