Instead, Hazard presents women with an intelligence which cannot be denied, dismissed, or ignored. These are women with opinions, purpose, and presence—women fully aware of themselves and their place in the world. Whether Hazard consciously intended his portraits to reflect the growing demand for women’s equality is impossible to know. Yet, viewed today against the backdrop of the suffrage movement, one cannot help but see in Hazard's remarkable portraits women who were, in every sense, worthy of equal respect, dignity, and a voice in the world around them.

Unlike most of Arthur Merton Hazard's portrait-painting colleagues such as John Singer Sargent, Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, and Joseph DeCamp, comparatively little is known of Hazard. There is no self portrait to be found, nor even a photo of him anywhere online. Continuing our search, we hope to find one, hiding in some forgotten file in an undigitized archive.

But from his few paintings that are known and what information is available, we can begin to get a glimpse of his approach to portraiture, and his rather fascinating career. He trained in Boston with Joseph DeCamp, in Cincinnati with DeCamp's teacher Frank Duveneck. He followed up by studying in Paris with René-Xavier Prinet and Henri Blanc-Fontaine at Academie Julian. When it came to painting his portraits, he blended East Coast academic rigor with soft, luminous qualities of American Impressionism. His subjects appear vibrant, illuminated with natural light. They all are in comfortable and natural poses, all dignified with no hint of puffed up grandeur. He captures their approachable humanity and character.

I have found no stated documentary evidence that Hazard either supported or opposed the right of women to vote, so I offer this only as an intriguing possibility based solely on his portraits of women. When viewed as a group, Arthur Hazard's portraits of women suggest a deep respect for their intelligence, character, and independence. At the time he was painting these portraits, the issue of women's suffrage was controversial, but it was advancing. Six years after the portrait below was painted, women's right to vote was made a reality with the 19th Amendment to the Constitution in 1920.

Sisters c1914: This painting was done six years before the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1920. It has been in our personal collection for nearly twenty years.

For most of that time, Linda and I knew nothing of the story behind this painting. We were struck by the visual story being told. In shaded light, the seated woman in pink is holding a book, looking straight at the viewers with strikingly clear and confident eyes, while her sister, standing behind, is lighted in a beam of sunlight from the side. Her eyes appear closed, and her posture is bowed and demure.

My personal interpretation of the painting is that the woman standing in the light appears depicted as the ideal of what women were expected to be at the time. But in front of her is her sister, but depicted with a quite contrary attitude, still yet powerful. Dressed in pink, she is holding a red book, she's alert, about to express ideas with a willingness to share them.

The painting reminds me of a cutaway diagram of a volcano before an eruption. Like the rising magma of a volcano, the woman in pink is about to erupt, express her ideas, like unstoppable lava flows that will advance and change the world.

About two months ago, our gallery was contacted by Randy Hazard (now 80 years old). Randy is Arthur Merton Hazard's grandson. He added what he knew about this painting.

Randy Hazard identified the two women! He knew them by their family pet names. "Munga" (in pink) was his grandmother and "Faith" (the woman in white) was his great aunt. Research has since revealed their formal names as Julia Hazard Closterhouse Hazard (b. October 19, 1889 - d. July 6, 1960). Julia had two younger sisters named Emma Emel Closterhouse and Lois Elizabeth Closterhouse. One of these two sisters is "Faith," the woman standing in white in Sisters.

Randy Hazard was born in 1946, and he put us in touch with his younger sister Brooke, born in 1951. Both of them never knew Arthur Merton Hazard. Before Randy and Brooke were born, Arthur Merton Hazard died at the age of 58 while vacationing in Paris on December 26, 1930. But both Randy and Brooke knew their Grandmother "Munga." Brooke told us of her early childhood memories visiting her grandmother in Los Angeles. She remembers "Munga" as being bright, opinionated and precise, and sharp as a tack."

About Arthur Merton Hazard

Arthur Merton Hazard was born in Boston in 1872. As a lad, he showed artistic promise. He studied with Joseph DeCamp, a founding member of the Group of Ten, a group of American Impressionists headed by Childe Hassam. At DeCamp's urging, Hazard continued his studies with Frank Duveneck in Cincinnati. Duveneck had been DeCamp's teacher and was a highly respected artist and teacher who had studied in Munich and was influenced greatly by the paintings of the great Dutch portraitist, Franz Hals.

Next, Hazard continued his education at the Académie Julian where the great French portraitist of women, WillIam-Adolphe Bouguereau taught. Hazard enjoyed his time in Paris and made some painting excursions to surrounding locales in Europe. Randy Hazard has shared a small painting from his collection, of St. Mark's Square in Venice.

Hazard returned to Boston from Paris while he was in his early twenties. He quickly established himself as a skilled and popular portrait and figure painter with growing reputation. His commissions came from the Boston upper class, a social class he soon was able to join due to his success. As his reputation grew, he established his studio in the center of Boston's art world, the Harcourt Artist Studios on Irvington Street in Boston.

And then in 1904, tragedy struck. Hazard, then just 22 years old, lost his studio and all the paintings stored in it.

Among the 30 artists who lost all the work stored in their studios were William McGregor Paxton, his famous teacher, Joseph DeCamp, Mary Lizzie Macomber and William Worcester Churchill.

According to The Boston Herald, Arthur Merton Hazard's paintings lost were valued at $10,000. Just accounting for inflation, that would be a loss of approximately $350,000 in today's dollars.

In 1904, the young Arthur Merton Hazard was able to overcome his loss. It was tough, but given his exceptional talent and youth, there was time to recover and rebuild his career. And that is exactly what he did.

By 1914, Arthur and and his new wife Julia Hazard purchased two substantial properties, one on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston for Hazard's Boston School of Painting, and one in Brookline for their residence.

Below are some of Hazard's portraits of women, photos of which are now findable online. Taken as a whole, I believe they hint at Hazard's underlying thoughts about women and their expanding role in society. They portray women as intelligent, competent and strong, equally capable to hold their own. The 19th century had been a man's world. But these are women for a new century. Their eyes communicate intelligence and competence, deeply felt convictions and resolve. Their character seems to me to be unmistakable.

Irene Dutcher (1888–1974), c. 1915–1916 Irene Anna Sweet of Milford, Massachusetts, became the wife of Warren Whitney Dutcher, Jr., a member of one of Hopedale's most prominent industrial families. The Dutcher family was closely associated with the Draper Company, whose textile machinery helped make Hopedale an important center of American industry. Painted when Irene was in her late twenties, this elegant full-length portrait gives us an understanding of Arthur Merton Hazard's Boston approach to portraiture.

Portrait of Woman in Blue The woman in this portrait remains unidentified. That said, she is possibly Mary Lily Flagler, the third wife of Standard Oil cofounder Henry Flagler, but documentation is sketchy. Her pale blue Edwardian satin gown with broad brimmed hat, lace sleeves accompanied with a folded fan and gloves was typical of commissioned portraits of the era. Her turned head peering clear eyed at the viewer shows a woman of inner strength.

These three portraits appear to be of the same woman.

Woman with Plumed Hat and Umbrella is listed in the National Portrait Gallery's Catalog of American portraits, and records this painting as "Arthur Merton Hazard — Unidentified Woman (Mrs. Kendall ?) — c. 1912 — Private collection." I've searched the period of the early 20th century Boston for society women named Kendall. My search brought up some candidates, but nothing conclusive For now, she's an stylishly dressed woman in white and lavender.

Portrait of a Woman bears a striking resemblance to the Woman with a Plumed Hat. Same woman? Mother / daughter? At this point, we have no answers. An Arthur Merton Hazard portrait in the Smoothening's Catalog of American portraits does contain a work listed as "Unidentified Woman (Mrs. Kendall?) c1912, private collection."

A Lady with her Dog again bears a striking resemblance to the two portraits above. We do not have definitive evidence that she is Mrs. Kendall, but whoever she is, Hazard treats her as an elegant, and enlightened person, a woman of ideas and strength willing to engage with others. And, he portrays her with heart, as the tender loving master of a beloved pet.

Portrait of Martha Pollard c 1910 is a vary large portrait, 60 x 36, and at a the time it was cataloged, it was still in its original Foster Brothers gilt frame. Such a framed portrait was a considerable commission for Hazard. The client would have been a person of considerable means with interest in preserving a family memory.

This girl appears to be 5-7 years old. Her pose is carefully staged, with an elegant white dress adorned with a pink ribbon, a pink rose and pink ribbons in her hair. The dark atmospheric interior lets her stand out focussing on her face.

Regarding her face, it's straightforward, confident and comfortable. This is no small camera-shy kid. She's appears unafraid to put her best foot forward.

The girl might possibly be Martha Sheppard Bartlett 1905-1983. Later on in her life, she married Clarence A. Bartlett, who later became Vice President and General Manager of A.G. Pollard Company, owners and operators of Lowell, Massachusetts' Pollard's Department Store.

Martha Sheppard Bartlett's grandfather was Arthur G. Pollard, born in 1843, who was the founder of A.G. Pollard Department Store. If this is indeed her, it would have been Arthur A. G. Pollard who commissioned this portrait.

These three paintings each show a solitary woman, quietly reading or writing. Each is deep in a private moment of contemplative thought.

The Letter escaped Arthur Merton Hazard's disastrous studio fire. The portrait had been accepted for the 1904 National Academy Exhibition and was was on exhibit when the artist's studio was destroyed in the Harcourt Fire in December 1904.

In the painting, a woman appears to be reading a letter. She appears to have been engaged in a formal gathering, given her dress, plumed hat and her full length gloves draped over her dressing table. It's as if after socializing, she finally found a private moment when she could read her letter.

Reverie and Woman Reading in an Interior are not dated, but may have been done about the same time. Reverie shows a woman lost in her own thoughts, in kind of a dream-like state, exploring her deepest inner thoughts. Woman Reading in an Interior shows a woman deeply engaged with her book.

Going out onto the speculative limb, the model for these three paintings appears to me to be the same woman.

Portrait of Marian McLean Reynolds Polhill was done by Hazard when he was 28 years old. This portrait would have been done six years after he lost his studio in the Harcourt Fire. This portrait would have been painted during Hazard's hard working years when he was recovering from the loss of his studio and rebuilding his career. We have no details of who she was. Variant name searches have produced no results. Hazard's treatment of her shows a confident bright eyed rosy cheeked young woman.

Hazard's portrait Woman in a Yellow Dress has a different look and feel from his commissioned portraits. The sitter does not look straight forward, but is portrayed in profile, her face illuminated from the left against a nearly black background. Her dress is not painted in detail, with a much more atmospheric feel. The sitter could have been an acquaintance, a model or maybe a student, a member of Hazard's social circle or a private portrait that did not remain with the sitter's descendants. By 1917, Hazard was now 45 years old. His brushwork appears freer than in portraits he did around 1910. He appears less concerned with social status or elaborate costume. Here, he is more focused on the play of light across her face, neck and shoulder.

Like his portraits of women, Hazard's portraits of men show them to be well tempered and reasoned men. They appear experienced, thoughtful and confident. These men are approachable and human. They are not god-like entities to be feared. Their images do not impose a sense of power or status. These are men who would be comfortable with the rise of women's rights and participation in, what had been a male dominated world.

While Hazard was in Boston, he painted these three portraits.

Portraits of Harry Williams and Georgia Grace Watson Goddard shows Hazard's treatment of formal portraits for a married couple. Harry William Goddard was one of Worcester's leading industrialists. The window of when these portraits were painted is wide, somewhere between 1905-1915. Goddard was active politically, hosting William Howard Taft at the couple's home in 1905. The most plausible date range is 1908-1912.

William L. Douglas 1912. William L. Douglas was governor of Massachusetts from January 5, 1905, until January 4, 1906. He was the founder of the W.L. Douglas Shoe Company, one of the world's largest shoe manufacturers. He became involved in politics as a supporter of labor. If he were active in today's politics, he would be most progressive. In his day, he supported reciprocity and tariff reductions in trade with Canada. But for Douglas, one year as governor was enough. He chose not to run for reelection, preferring to return to his shoe business. Hazard painted this portrait six years after Governor Douglas left office.

Songs of Other Days is dated 1925, nearly two years after Hazard's move to California. It is a most compelling painting. Here we have a musician with a weathered individualized face with a magnificent gray mustache. His clothing with turquoise collar, cuffs and red striped turquoise pants and hat (to his left) appears to be his performance costume. This portrait of a California musician helps determine that Hazard was intrigued and interested in his new California home, embracing its cultural flavor.

Portrait of Charles M. Russell, 1924 shows that Hazard got straight to work when he arrived in California in 1923. Charles Marion Russell was a major American painter, producing over 2,000 paintings of cowboys, native Americans and western landscapes, in addition to bronze sculptures. Also at this time, Arthur Merton Hazard did portraits of the famous Southern California Impressionist artist Jack Wilkerson Smith and the famous silent screen actor, Douglas Fairbanks. Although we know the portrait of Douglas Fairbanks was done, no image of it survives.

Portrait of John Wingate Weeks is a significant painting for Arthur Merton Hazard. He was a member of the House of Representatives and a one term senator from Massachusetts. In 1918, the selection of Senator was up to the voters for the first time. Weeks lost his reelection bid, primarily because he opposed the passage of the 19th Amendment, Women's Right to Vote. After losing his reelection bid for the Senate, he supported Warren G. Harding for President and was named Secretary of War in 1920. When President Harding died at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in 1923, Weeks remained in the Cabinet serving President Calvin Coolidge.

Hazard's portrait of John Weeks was within weeks of his death. We do not know the location where the portrait was done. At the time, Hazard made his home in Southern California. Weeks died at his summer home in New Hampshire. So, either the painting was done in Southern California or somewhere in the East. Given Week's status, the commission was an important one for Hazard.

When seen side by side with his portrait of William L. Douglas, some observations are unavoidable. Douglas is pictured engaged, holding a book or some papers with a book case in the background. Week's portrait has no reference to his political career and no props to tell his biographical story. It is restrained, as if he knew of his illness and impending death. The portrait focuses on him, the man of inner strength and peace.

Arthur Merton Hazard also painted landscapes. In New England, he painted harbor scenes, snow scenes of Boston, watercolors of Cape Cod and the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After his move to California in 1923, he painted coastal scenes, the Sierra Nevada, the California Desert near Palm Springs, and the lupine covered hills of Coastal California. Perhaps, I will include these in an article in the near future.

History is not equitable. Some personalities and careers are well documented and well known, others are not. For some, the story is harder to uncover, leaving gaps in the story that gets told. Some details are well preserved, while others are bent out of shape, and some fail to survive at all.

Details of Arthur Merton Hazard's life are scant. From the bits did that survive, we are able to construct an outline of his life and career, allowing his incomplete story to come into focus. I wish he had a brother Theo with whom he regularly corresponded. I wish he had a poorer upbringing so he, like Vincent Van Gogh, would have painted portraits of himself because he couldn't afford a model. I wish much more of his oeuvre still existed.

But we do have some of his paintings, and from them, we find a sensitive artist, keenly aware and able to find the dignity, character and strength of the people he painted. And during the times in which he lived, he saw the ascension of the status of women in society, and through his art, created timely images of women rising to meet the challenges of a new era.

Most everyone's life story includes some tragedy or hardship. And for some, the story about bouncing back after such hardship reveals a person's character and joy. Such is the story of Maui's Rock and Roll artist, Ruby Mazur.

Three years ago in September, 2023, we published an article about Lahaina's fearsome wildfire, and its destruction of Ruby Mazur's art gallery. The article is republished below. It was a dark time for the artist, who lost many of his original paintings.

But like Lahaina itself, Ruby rose to the challenge, took a long look at his artistic life, and started to rebuild his career. Along the way, he is yet another example of how to live after a tragedy, how to grieve, how to reassess and how to rebuild.

Today, Ruby is painting again, selling his prints and merchandise through galleries in Hawaii and beyond and through his website. In a recent profile in the LA Times, the paper reported on Ruby Mazur's work being shown at the Bill Mack Gallery in Laguna Beach.

He has also opened The Ruby Mazur Gallery in Waikiki. He continues to maintain his home on Maui, where he maintains his studio. He has also been quite active in the resurrection of Lahaina itself, directing a portion of his sales to Maui charities helping people affected by the fire.