May Alcott, the youngest of four sisters was born in Concord, Massachusetts on July 26, 1840. Like Amy in Little Women, May was a blue-eyed golden girl, who possessed from childhood an intense love of beauty and all things artistic and elegant. "She is so graceful and pretty and loves beauty so much, it is hard for her to be poor and wear other people’s ugly things," wrote Louisa to Anna in 1854. "I hope I shall live to see the dear child in silk and lace with plenty of pictures and ‘bottles of cream’, Europe, and all the things she longs for." May had a talent for drawing and painting. She studied art in Boston where her most influential teachers were Dr. William Rimmer and William Morris Hunt. She dreamed of going to Europe and it was Louisa’s success with Little Women in 1868 that provided that opportunity. She took three trips there and studied art in London, Paris and Rome. May and Louisa, although unlike each other in many respects, shared an artistic temperament which expressed itself in ambition, willfulness, and a certain competitive spirit. When the Paris Salon accepted her still life painting in 1877, May wrote: "Who would have imagined such good fortune and so strong proof that Lu does not monopolize the Alcott talent. Ha! Ha!, sister, this is the first feather plucked from your cap!" In 1878, she married a young Swiss businessman and musician, Ernest Nieriker. The couple settled in Meudon, a suburb of Paris, leading what May called "an ideal life - painting, music, and love..." In November 1879 May gave birth to a daughter, Louisa May, nicknamed "Lulu." The mother tragically died six weeks after the baby was born. May requested that her baby be sent to Louisa in Concord, feeling that her sister would love the child as she would have done herself. Archival photographs of the family and objects in the collection are available for a fee. Please contact the Curator of Collections at 978-369-4118, Monday -Wednesday 8:30 - 3:30. for further information on photo fees and policies. |
