Molly Williams Hand [1892-1951]
American
Earth and sky, ca.1920’s
Oil on board
12 x 14 inches
Signed and titled on back with original exhibition label

In its period arts and crafts frame

Marking type: Yellowed hand written label in ball point pen.
Location: Center verso.
Text: ‘Earth and Sky / Molly Williams Hand / 255 Marshall St / Price $25.00’.

BIOGRAPHY

A retired teacher, Miss Hand gained prominence as an artist and lecturer. She was born in Keene, N.H., and resided there for twenty four years. A graduate of Keyport High School, she attended Rutgers, Columbia and New York Universities. She studied fine arts at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and was a scholarship winter to the Art Students’ League of New York. She also studied in Provincetown with Webster.

Miss Hand was an instructor in Elizabeth, New Jersey elementary schools for twenty four years. She also taught in schools of Monmouth County for three years. She was an art instructor in private studios here and in Elizabeth, at a Vermont camp and at the Nancy Luxon School here. Her pictures were sold to many private collections and were exhibited in galleries and museums in England, Canada, Newark, New York, Montclair, Maine and Florida.

Miss Hand was a member of a number of art groups. She was founder and past president and secretary-treasurer of the Elizabeth Society of Arts. She lectured for a number of New Jersey women’s clubs and contributed articles to a number of art magazines. Her paintings were reproduced in a number of periodicals.

Active in church affairs, Miss Hand was a Sunday school teacher at the East Baptist Church in Elizabeth and had done similar work in other churches.

Sources:
Information from her obituary. Courtesy of the Provincetown Art Association Archives.
Submitted by Edward P. Bentley