About: Ethel V. Ashton

Ethel V. Ashton (February 9, 1896 – May 1975) was an American artist who primarily worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was both a subject of noted artist Alice Neel and a portraitist of Neel. Her early works reflect the influence of Ashcan realism focused primarily on portrait painting. She was commissioned to work on the Works Progress Administration's post office mural project and has works hanging in the permanent collections of several prominent museums. By the mid-1950s she worked with abstract concepts and through the end of the civil rights era, her works synthesize both abstract and realism. She also served as the librarian of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1957 into the early 1970s.