Pauline Lennards Palmer, known as “Chicago’s painter lady,” was born in McHenry, Illinois, and was one of the city’s best known Impressionist artists. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1893 to 1898, including brief sessions with William Merritt Chase, Frank Duveneck, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. Palmer first exhibited her work at the Institute in 1896. In 1898 she left for Paris, where she completed her formal training at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière and the Académie Colarossi.
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She first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1903 to some acclaim, then again in 1904, 1905, 1906, and 1911. When she returned to the U.S. in 1902, Palmer established a portrait studio and showed regularly in the Chicago Institute of Art’s Annual Exhibitions, in addition to other national and international shows. She was given a solo show at the Institute in 1913, the same year as the famous Armory Show. She was soon a household name, and between 1918 and 1921 became the first woman president of the Chicago Society of Artists. She was active with the Chicago Arts Club, the Municipal Art League, the Chicago Watercolor Club, and the Chicago Art Guild, and president of the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors from 1929-1931. She also served as president of The Art Institute Alumni Association.
Palmer and her husband began summering in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1915, where she studied with Charles Hawthorne. After her husband’s death in 1920, she spent more time in the area, working out of a private studio in Cape Cod. The Village Church is a scene of Provincetown, with the city’s historic Unitarian Universalist Meeting House at center.
She died in 1938, after contracting pneumonia while in Norway. Palmer was honored with two memorial shows, one at the Art Institute of Chicago and the other at the Union League Club. Palmer was the godmother and close family friend of the donor of this work, André Aerne.