author
Elisabeth Luther Cary
1867–1936
A sharp-eyed art critic and writer, she helped shape how early 20th-century readers thought about painting, sculpture, and modern culture. Best known for her long work at The New York Times, she brought a thoughtful, independent voice to the art world.
2 Audiobooks
Artists Past and Present; Random Studies
by Elisabeth Luther Cary
William Morris: Poet, Craftsman, Socialist
by Elisabeth Luther Cary
About the author
Born in Brooklyn in 1867, she was educated at home by her father, a newspaper editor, and spent years studying art before turning to criticism and writing. That training gave her a practical feel for artists’ work, which would become a hallmark of her reviews and essays.
She is best remembered as the art critic of The New York Times during the first quarter of the 20th century. Alongside journalism, she wrote books and studies on artists and literary figures, including James McNeill Whistler, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Her career bridged studio practice, literary culture, and newspaper criticism, helping bring serious discussion of art to a broad public audience. She died in Brooklyn in 1936, leaving behind a body of work that reflects both close looking and clear, accessible judgment.