Woods near the Kaw, Rosemary Ketcham

Archive Label 1999:
This landscape may represent the wooded bank of the Kansas River near the current Burcham Park, a popular sketching and painting area for KU students and faculty. The loose brushwork and portable size suggest Ketcham painted on site, working out of doors to capture natural effects of color and light, as had the French Impressionists.

Educated at Ohio Wesleyan and Columbia University, Ketcham established one of the first design departments in the United States at Syracuse, New York, in 1908. She initiated a separate design department at the University of Kansas in 1920 and served as its chair until her death in 1940. She taught textiles, printing, bookbinding, and jewelry classes, and lectured on such diverse topics as fashion history, Japanese prints, and Czechoslovakian folk art.