Bessie Cronbach Lowenhaupt (1881-1968) was born in Mount Vernon, Indiana on November 19, 1881. With little beyond her own self training while growing up, Bessie Cronbach studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1889 through the spring of 1903. One of her instructors was the illustrator Frederick Richardson. From Richardson she learned memory drawing (the creation of a composition with out the use of a model), and spareness of line and composition. These lessons would stay with Lowenhaupt through her life.

After school she returned home to southern Indiana and eventually married the lawyer Abe Lowenhaupt, and they settled in St. Louis, MO. They raised five children and Bessie Lowenhaupt relegated her p...