Abigail May Alcott Nieriker American artist, July 16, 1840- December 29, 1879, known as the original for Amy in her sister Louisa May Alcott's book Little Women. Named for her mother Abigail May, her family nickname was at first like her mother Abba, then Abby, Abbie and finally in her twenties she styled herself May.
Born in Concord, Massachusetts, she was the youngest of the four Alcott sisters. Gifted in art from an early age, she painted decorative figures and faces throughout Orchard House, the family home. May aided the meager family income by selling her art and teaching painting, drawing and modelling in clay. She studied teaching at the Bowdoin School, a Boston public school.
At the school of design in Boston she studied art with William Morris Hunt and William Rimmer, Krug, Vautier and Muller among others. She lent modelling tools to the young Daniel Chester French and encouraged him in his work.
May was the illustrator of the first edition of "Little Women", to a negative critical reception. Nevertheless, Louisa's financial success in 1868 allowed May to study art in Paris, London and Rome where she was accompanied by her sister.
In 1877, her still life was chosen over Mary Cassatt's work to be exhibited in the Paris Salon. Her paintings were exhibited worldwide. John Ruskin praised her copies of Turner. Her strength was as a copyist and as a painter of still life, in oils and watercolors.
Married in 1878 to Ernest Nieriker, some fifteen years her junior, the couple lived in Meudon, a Parisian suburb.
She published Concord Sketches with a preface by her sister (Boston, 1869).
In her book Studying Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply (Boston 1879) she advised:
"There is no art world like Paris, no painters like the French, and no incentive to good work equal to that found in a Paris atelier,"
In 1879, she died of what was probably cerebro-spinal meningitis six weeks after her daughter Lulu (Louisa May) was born. By her wish, Louisa May brought up Lulu in Concord. Louisa May's last story was a parable written about Lulu. The story is included in a modern book The Uncollected Works of Louisa May Alcott which is illustrated by May's paintings and drawings.
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