Marguerite Burgess

Biographical information about Burgess is scant. She was born Anna Marguerite Northrup in Annandale, Virginia, located about fifteen miles south of the nation’s capital. Her father died in 1924 and she was subsequently adopted by her mother’s second husband, dropping Northrup for Burgess as her surname. She remained in the Washington, DC area for most of her life. She studied at the Corcoran School of Art and at The Phillips Memorial Gallery School of Art. Her mentor there was C. Law Watkins, director of education known for his development of a theory of art emphasizing linear elements. She worked in lithographs, watercolors, and oils, and was listed as an artist of “medical drawings” in a 1940 census. In some references her name includes Clawson, after her marriage in 1940 to Arthur Clawson. She was married a second time in 1963 to Barry Stuart, who sadly died that same year in a railroad accident.

Many of Burgess’s extant paintings are primarily landscapes, although she also painted animals and occasionally figures. Her technique is characterized by a thin application of oil paint which often reveals the canvas underneath.