Violet Oakley began as a magazine and book illustrator and ended up decorating three principal rooms of Pennsylvania’s State Capitol. Between those points she learned how to scale a page-sized idea up to a wall, and how to carry a single argument across dozens of panels. That makes her work a useful case study for anyone designing exhibitions, editorial series, wayfinding or long-scroll web pages.
Her murals and most of her illustrations remain in copyright or are not flagged public domain by the museums that hold them. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago both own works by her, but neither marks them as public domain, so this guide describes her work in text only and never treats it as free to use. For public-domain images to study alongside her, browse the MGD museum inspiration collection.
Who was Violet Oakley?
Oakley was born on 10 June 1874 in Bergen Heights, today part of Jersey City, New Jersey, and died in Philadelphia on 25 February 1961; the Metropolitan Museum’s artist record gives the same places and years. She spent most of her working life in Philadelphia, where she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and then joined the illustration class of Howard Pyle at the Drexel Institute.
Pyle recommended Oakley and paired her with Jessie Willcox Smith to illustrate an 1897 edition of Longfellow’s poem Evangeline, a project shown at the Drexel school’s exhibition that year. Oakley, Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green lived and worked together, first at the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, Pennsylvania, which gave them Pyle’s nickname “the Red Rose Girls”, and later at Cogslea in Philadelphia’s Mount Airy district. The house name combined the initials of its residents: Henrietta Cozens, Oakley, Green and Smith.
Her early work appeared in magazines such as The Century and Collier’s. Her later work was shaped by her commitment to pacifism and international cooperation, which also led her to Geneva in the late 1920s.
Key works by Violet Oakley
A Puritan’s Wife by Max Pemberton (1896). The Metropolitan Museum holds this relief print, with an image about 41 × 26 cm. Its title ties it to Max Pemberton’s novel of that name, and it is an early, securely dated example of her work for print.
The Canoe Undershore (c. 1903). At the Art Institute of Chicago, this 70 × 47 cm watercolour is built over graphite with gold leaf and nacre (mother-of-pearl), varnished overall, and set in a painted wooden frame inlaid with shell gold and nacre. The museum lists the decorated frame as part of the work, so picture and border are meant to be seen together.
The Founding of the State of Liberty Spiritual (1902–06). In 1902 Oakley was commissioned to paint murals for the Governor’s Reception Room of the new Pennsylvania State Capitol. Her series tells the story of William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania, and it was unveiled in 1906. Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia holds composition sketches and panel studies for the series, which show how she planned the sequence before painting.
Senate Chamber and Supreme Court room (from 1911). When the muralist Edwin Austin Abbey died in 1911, the state gave Oakley the commission to decorate the Senate Chamber and the Supreme Court room. Across the three rooms she produced 43 murals in all.
League of Nations portraits (late 1920s). Oakley set up a studio in Geneva and spent about three years drawing delegates to the League of Nations. Woodmere Art Museum records that the drawings were reproduced in the portfolio Law Triumphant, which Britannica dates to 1932 and some Woodmere records date to 1933.
Mrs. R. Tait McKenzie (1925). A portrait drawing at the Metropolitan Museum, in red and white chalk on pink laid paper, shows the economical side of her hand: a few warm and light strokes on a toned sheet.
What to look at in a Violet Oakley mural
A sequence, not a single picture. The Harrisburg rooms are designed to be read panel by panel, like chapters. Each panel holds one scene, and the order carries the argument. Look at how a viewer moves around the room and where the story starts and ends.
Clear, readable figures. Murals are seen from a distance, so figures need strong contours and simple groupings. Her style looks back to Renaissance wall painting and to the English painters covered in our guide to the Pre-Raphaelites, whose crisp outlines and decorative detail her illustrations recall.
Toned grounds and few colours. Her chalk portrait at the Met uses red and white on pink paper: the sheet itself supplies the middle tone, and two chalks do the rest. It is a compact lesson in building form with a minimal palette.
Frames and borders. The decorated frame of The Canoe Undershore shows her attention to the edge of the picture. In any series, borders separate scenes, give rhythm to a wall and help each panel read as a unit.
A decorative surface. The gold leaf and nacre in The Canoe Undershore show an interest in materials that catch the light. That sensibility links her to the craft revival and to designers of stained glass, a medium she also worked in.
Technique: from illustration board to the wall
Oakley’s training under Pyle was in illustration for print: strong composition, legible figures and storytelling that works at magazine size. She carried that discipline into mural work.
The working records at Woodmere point to a careful planning process. Composition sketches lay out the whole series, studies refine individual panels, and only then does the full-scale painting begin. Her portrait drawings, such as the chalk sketch at the Met, show the same economy: toned paper, a limited range of chalks, and only as much line as the likeness needs.
Her smaller pieces add mixed materials. The Art Institute’s record of The Canoe Undershore lists watercolour, graphite, gold leaf and nacre, with a varnish over everything, an unusual combination for a work on paper.
How designers can borrow from Violet Oakley today
Storyboard the whole sequence first. For an exhibition, annual report or long landing page, sketch every panel or section at thumbnail size before designing any one in detail. Oakley’s composition sketches are a reminder that the order is the message.
Give each panel one job. One scene, one idea, one headline. If a section tries to tell two parts of the story, split it.
Use a consistent frame. A repeated border, grid or architectural device ties a series together even when the content changes. In web terms, keep the same margins, card style and caption position from section to section.
Integrate the words. Set quotations or headlines as part of the composition, with the same care as the image. Leave them room, align them to the figures, and avoid floating text over busy areas.
Mix materials with restraint. A touch of metallic foil, pearlescent ink or a special varnish can lift printed work, as gold and nacre lift The Canoe Undershore. Use it on one element, not everywhere. When building a palette, start in the colour palette generator and treat any colours you take from reproductions of her work as your own interpretation, not measured values.
Design for a cause. Oakley used her skills for civic and peace subjects. Public-interest design still benefits from her approach: a clear story, dignified figures and words that people can read from across a room.
Where to see Violet Oakley’s work
The murals remain in the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg. Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia holds a large body of her drawings and studies, presented online as The Violet Oakley Experience, and staged the exhibition A Grand Vision: Violet Oakley and the American Renaissance in 2017–18. The Metropolitan Museum also holds a photograph by Elizabeth Buehrmann of Oakley in her Philadelphia studio, taken shortly after the Harrisburg murals were finished.
Frequently asked questions
What is Violet Oakley known for?
She is known for 43 murals in the Pennsylvania State Capitol, painted for the Governor’s Reception Room, the Senate Chamber and the Supreme Court room, and for her early illustration work as one of Howard Pyle’s students and one of the Red Rose Girls.
Who were the Red Rose Girls?
Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green, three illustrators trained by Howard Pyle who lived and worked together. Pyle named them after the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
When did Violet Oakley paint the Governor’s Reception Room murals?
She received the commission in 1902, and the series, The Founding of the State of Liberty Spiritual, was unveiled in 1906. The Senate and Supreme Court commissions followed in 1911.
Can I use Violet Oakley’s artwork in my designs?
Not from this guide. The museums cited here do not flag her works as public domain, so check each work’s status with its owner before reproducing it, and use public-domain museum images instead.
