Doris Lee

Celebrated for her folksy depictions of American life, Doris Lee was one of the most popular painters of the Depression era. She achieved national renown when she won the Logan Purchase Prize at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1935 for her painting Thanksgiving, purchased for the museum’s collection. Soon after, Lee was commissioned to create two U.S. Post Office Department murals in Washington, D.C. Lee graduated from Rockford University in 1927 and undertook further studies in painting in Paris, the Kansas City Art Institute, and the San Francisco Art Institute. She settled in Woodstock, New York, in the 1930s. During the 1940s and ’50s, Lee traveled to Cuba, Mexico, and North Africa to create illustrations for Life magazine. She developed a body of abstract work in the 1960s before retiring from painting. Lee’s work is held in collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The National Museum of Women in the Arts houses the Doris Lee Collection, comprising sketchbooks, correspondence, photographs, and press clippings.