[5] At the age of nine she spent a year at a pension in Cannes where, observing an amateur artist at work, she became infatuated with painting and afterwards convinced her reluctant father to enroll her in an art class.

[7]: 7 [8][9] Graduating in 1935, she returned to Philadelphia where she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, first under Daniel Garber, whom she found to be too authoritarian, and then under Arthur Carles whose instruction she felt to be the most useful of all her teachers and whose artistic influence remained with her for the rest of her career.

In his studio, her frequent close contact with paintings by Picasso, Braque, and Matisse made her aware of new possibilities in her own work.

[7]: 12 [note 5] Although Piper was a productive artist, fiercely devoted to her work, she had no need of income from sales and showed as frequently in non-commercial as commercial galleries.

[12]: 20 [13] Her first appearance in a public exhibition occurred in 1931 when a painting of hers was included in a children's art show at a Philadelphia women's cultural organization called the Plastic Club.

Reviewing the show, C. H. Bonte of The Philadelphia Inquirer found the work in general to be natural and spontaneous and the jealousy set in particular to be emotionally overwhelming.

[14] Piper's unnamed and unsigned painting of 1942-43, called "Composition in Red," indicates the style of her work at the beginning of her professional career.

[note 6] A traveling exhibition, "Jane Piper: Retrospective Paintings, 1940–1985," was first mounted in James Madison University in 1985.

[15] Throughout the course of her career, Piper was given thirty-four solo exhibitions in commercial and non-commercial galleries in Philadelphia, New York, and Cape Cod.

Reviewing her first show in 1943, a critic complained that the paintings were overly-abstract and decorative, "admirably adapted for the adornment of modern rooms.

"[18] At the height of her career in 1983 a reviewer found that "her abiding lyrical connection with nature and the domestic environment, and pursuit of a unique, individual perception, place her firmly within a strong American tradition, although she remains spiritually separate from any trend or movement.

"[30] A few years later she was recognized for an "original, daring approach" that was "firmly in the tradition of great American still life painting.

In 1986 a curator who had organized a retrospective exhibition of her work wrote that "she retains a sense of wonder while developing ever new complex harmonies of form and color"[31] and a reviewer, calling Piper one of Philadelphia's best artists, said her paintings "with her preference for yellow, orange and red tints and clear blues and greens, give an original picture of her domestic environment and nature's bounty and profuse growth."

Yet what is interesting and fulfilling about her work is that her original, daring approach is firmly in the tradition of great American still life painting.

[31] At the height of her career she responded to the poems of Wallace Stevens valuing the way in which they expressed emotions "in a moment's clarity of thought.

"[36] Speaking of students she had taught, she said it took more than just talent to sustain a professional career: "You must be able to tolerate yourself for long periods of time, working in the isolation of a studio.

[39] Edmund B. Piper was a well-known obstetrician and gynecologist who gained recognition for a forceps he designed (and which bears his name).

[40] Elizabeth Gibson Piper led an active social life, her name appearing frequently in the society columns of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

[46] In February 1935 Piper's father died at the age of fifty-four,[47] in May she graduated from Westover, and in November she was honored as a débutante when a Bachrach portrait appeared in the society pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Subsequently he had obtained Ivy League undergraduate and graduate degrees and, following service as a military intelligence officer in the South Pacific, had become a highly-respected professor of sociology.