Best known for her summer garden and beach scenes painted along the New England shore, Mabel May Woodward was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and received her initial art training at the Rhode Island School of Design. She advanced her education at the Art Students' League in New York City under Frank DuMond and William Merritt Chase, and also studied with Arthur Wesley Dow, Charles Woodbury, and Charles Hawthorne. In 1900, Woodward returned to her native city and joined the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she taught for many years.

Like most plein air painters, Woodward traveled constantly in search of subject matter. In addition to summers along the New England coast, she visited and painted in France, Italy, and Holland. She also made at least one trip to the South, stopping in Charleston, New Orleans, and St. Augustine. Though Woodward rarely dated her scenes, she usually identified their location in the titles. Flower Ladies, Charleston is one of a group of pastels, charcoals, and oils-mostly outdoor scenes of sun-struck buildings and rural cabins-that record her stay in the lowcountry. Although the pastel is devoid of background, an outdoor setting is suggested by the light spilling across the figures and by the high-keyed palette.

Woodward was likely drawn to the subject by the work of Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, whose depictions of the city's African American flower vendors were widely admired during the late 1930s and 40s. Though the women were the primary focus of Verner's paintings, they were of secondary interest to Woodward. When figures appear in her scenes, they are typically diminutive, greatly overshadowed by their environment. While this example lacks Woodward's usual attention to setting, the bold brushwork and bright palette are characteristic of her distinct style, described in 1938 as "a kind of impressionism . . . or a development of impressionism to a more descriptive painting." NRS

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston