Jessie Arms Botke

A Distant Land

Circa 1915

Few artists can develop a style of their own and at the same time be accepted as part of a group of artists or art movement. Yet, Jessie Hazel Arms Botke did just that. She was a woman artist at a time when the art world was dominated by men. She was strong and outspoken, yet much of her work was gentle and demure. Today, Botke is recognized as an influential part of the California School of Impressionism, but a large body of her work doesn’t exactly fit that category. Through her paintings, she created her own unique world filled with peace, harmony, and beauty. Jessie Hazel Arms was born in Chicago on May 27, 1883. Her parents were Martha Cornell and William Aldis Arms, both of English descent. Her father’s family roots date back to 1630 Colonial America as among the earliest settlers in Massachusetts. After graduating from Lakeview High School, Jessie Arms received a scholarship to Chicago University, but at age nineteen chose to attend the Art Institute of Chicago. At the Institute, she studied under portrait, landscape, and interior scene painter John C. Johansen (1876-1964) who was trained under American academician Frank Duveneck (1848-1919). Johansen also studied in Paris at the Académie Julian and James Whistler’s Académie Carmen. Arms also took a summer class in Ogunquit, Maine where she studied with plein-air artist Charles Herbert Woodbury (1864-1940) who had the distinction of teaching more than 4,000 students, in addition to being the youngest artist ever elected to the Boston Art Club and a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In creating her art, Jessie Arms Botke was bold and original. She explored various media and materials, including working with color woodcuts, gouaches, mural paintings, watercolors, oils, and she frequently combined gold and silver leaf in her backgrounds. Her most celebrated subjects depict various exotic birds in Edenic settings. In her works, Jessie Arms Botke had the ability to convey beauty, elegance, tranquility, and a sense of her own idea of paradise.