Eda Nemoede Casterton

Eda Nemoede Casterton (April 14, 1877 – November 15, 1969) was an American painter known specifically for her portrait miniatures in watercolor, pastels and oil.

[4] Her siblings were Bertha, 16 years her senior; Agnes; Rudolph; Anna; Hattie; Herman;[2] and Alma Caroline.

[3][7] Following the death of her father March 6, 1895, in Oconto, Wisconsin, Casterton lived in Chicago with her mother and her sisters Hattie and Alma Caroline and worked as a stenographer.

[11] When she worked as a stenographer, she spent her lunch hours at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago,[3][6] where she studied with Virginia Richmond Reynolds, considered the most accomplished miniature American painter of the time.

[6] In France, Casterton studied with Henry Salem Hubbell[3][12] and exhibited her works at the Paris Salon, where she received an honorable mention in 1905.

[3][9] She began by painting watercolor on thin sheets of ivory,[13] like the portraits Miss Goss and Little Girl.

[9][14] An article in the Chicago Chronicle, dated June 21, 1903, stated, "Eda Nemoede bids fair to become one of the greatest miniature painters of America and those who have seen her work praise it unstintingly.

She began making full-size portraits in the 1920s, including having patterned a work after a U.S. Army lieutenant made during Thomas Jefferson's presidency.

[10][23] Her works are held by the Smithsonian Institution,[14] The Brooklyn Museum[8] and The John H. Vanderpoel Art Association.

Eda Nemoede Casterton, Mae Olson, watercolor on ivory, 1906, Brooklyn Museum [ 8 ]
Eda Nemoede Casterton, Miss Goss, watercolor on ivory, c. 1912 , Smithsonian American Art Museum [ 9 ]
Eda Nemoede Casterton, Elizabeth Kennedy , miniature portrait, black and white photograph, Shown at 1918 Chicago Society of Miniature Painters Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago
Eda Nemoede Casterton, Little Girl, watercolor on ivory, 1920, Smithsonian American Art Museum. This may have been the painting of a young girl in an off-the-shoulder dress entitled Mary Beth that was exhibited in Brooklyn in 1926. [ 14 ]