Susan Greenough Hinckley was born in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts on May 15th 1851. Her father was Samuel Lyman Hinckley, of the well-known family of Northampton Lymans, and her mother was Anne Cutler Parker whom he married in 1849, nine years after his first wife had died. Susan had three siblings, an older brother Samuel Lyman Hinckley and a younger brother, Robert Cutler Hinckley. She had a younger sister, Anna who died when she was eight years old. She also had a half-brother Henry Rose Hinckley who was the son of Samuel Hinckley and his first wife Henrietta who died at the age of twenty in 1838.
Oriental Still Life by Susan Bradley
From a young age Susan and her brother Robert showed an interest in, and a talent for, sketching and painting. She attended Miss Wilby’s local school, where she was taught the history of painting. In 1871, aged twenty, Susan made her first trip to Europe and this ignited her love of art. Sadly, that December, while the family were in Paris her father died. When the family returned to America, Susan decided to learn about watercolour painting and read the books written by John Ruskin.
Eagle Lake, Acadia, Maine by Susan Bradley
Four years later in 1875 she returned to Europe with her mother and visited Rome where she studied under Edward Darley Boit, a fellow Bostonian who at the time was living and teaching in the Italian capital. On returning to Boston she enrolled at the Museum of Fine Arts’ School of Drawing and Painting, in Boston where one of her tutors was the Bostonian artist, Frederic Crowninshield. Here, she was in the first life class for women under his tutelage. In 1878 she began to exhibit her work at the American Watercolor Society and a year later, she enrolled in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ School of Drawing.
Reverend Leverett Bradley
A young man came into Susan’s life in 1878. He was Reverend Leverett Bradley a theology student at Hartford Theological Institute. Leverett Bradley was born in 1846 and was brought up on the family farm in Methuen, Massachusetts. In April 1861 the American Civil War began and aged only fourteen, Leverett left home and enlisted as a soldier in the Fourteenth Regiment of the Infantry which was under the command of his father. Leverett would write numerous letters to his family whilst away at war and they were later collated into a book, A Soldier Boy’s Letters (1862-1865). At the end of the war, Leverett returned to his family in Massachusetts and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to the church. In 1867, he enrolled at the Phillips Academy Andover to complete his education which had been cut short by the war. Two years later he attended the prestigious Amherst College where he studied for a theology degree. Having completed his degree, he studied at the Hartford Theological Institute and in the Spring of 1878 he was ordained and went to work at Boston’s Trinity Church, a church where Susan often went to worship.
The couple had much in common as they both loved art and music. Susan and Leverett became engaged in the summer 1879 and the couple married on December 3rd that year. Soon after the marriage Leverett was assigned a new post and he and Susan relocated to Maine where Leverett took on the role of rector at Christ Church Episcopal in the town of Gardiner. He was remembered there for the passion and enthusiasm he gave to his role.
Leverett and Susan with their four children
In 1880, Susan gave birth to their first child, a son, Leverett Jnr., and two years later a second son, Walter, was born. Susan and Leverett’s remained in Maine until the Autumn of 1884 when he accepted the position of rector of Christ Church in Andover, a town in Essex County, Massachusetts. Leverett and his wife Susan, now pregnant with their third child, a daughter Margaret, and their two young boys moved into the rectory of Christ Church.
Italian Landscape by Susan Bradley
Susan Hinckley Bradley faced, like so many female artists at the time, the fact that they did not have equal rights with male artists. In the 1880’s, the best-known art societies such as the Boston Water Color Society, which was organized in 1885 by Childe Hassam, refused membership to women until 1918. Other societies with similar discriminatory rules were the Art Club of Boston and St. Botolph Club, a dining club which was popular with many artists but which would not relax the all-male membership rule until 1988. However, Susan had a very supportive husband who was equally horrified by the fewer opportunities for women artists to meet and exhibit their work, and together they decided to rectify the situation.
Rome by Susan Bradley (1899)
In 1887, Susan together with fifteen other women such as Sarah Wyman Whitman, Sarah Choate Sears, Martha Silsbee, and Helen Bigelow Merriman came together to form the Boston Water Color Club in response to the exclusive membership rules of the all-male Boston Water-Color Society. The inaugural exhibition of the Water Color Club included forty-seven works by sixteen women artists; and ten years on, the membership had doubled. Ironically it was not until nine years later that men were allowed to join the club.
Concord River by Susan Bradley (c.1928)
In the Autumn of 1889 Susan and her husband were once again on the move, relocating to Philadelphia, when he was offered the rectorship at St. Luke’s Church. This church had a large, urban congregation and Leverett set to work and soon made a positive impact on the local community. He kept up the role of army chaplain of the Third Regiment for many years and during the miner’s strike of 1902 was called into active duty. Leverett’s health had been deteriorating for some time and on December 31st 1902 he died of heart complications, aged 56.
Evening near the Red Village, Algeria by Susan Bradley (c.1907)
Susan Bradley had to reduce her painting time when she was bringing up her four children and looking after her husband and their home. She did get back to it eventually studying with William Merritt Chase, and spent time once again in Rome being tutored by Boit. She travelled extensively to Egypt, Greece, Tunisia, Italy, Switzerland, France and Ireland, as well as exploring her own country and was known for not only the wilderness locations in Western Canada and Arizona but her depictions of the New York streets and the seascapes of the Maine and Massachusetts coasts. Her work was shown at many exhibitions including the Panama Pacific International Exposition in 1915, Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, and the American Watercolor Society in 1902 and her works form part of many of the collections of the major American museums. Susan was a prolific painter whose career spanned five decades.
A Rose by Susan Bradley {1928)
She died on 11 June 1929, in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States, at the age of 78, and was buried in Andover, Essex, Massachusetts, United States.