Taylor, Bertha Fanning, 1883 or 1888-1980 | Sargeant Memorial Collection

Bertha Fanning Taylor was born on July 30, 1883 in New York City, New York. She married Norman Taylor on June 2, 1908 in Westchester, New York and later divorced him in 1928. Taylor was an artist and art historian. She moved to France in 1924 and attended Ecole des Beaux Arts in Montpellier and later Sorbonne. Taylor was a member of the Lecture Staff of The Louvre from 1929-1939. She was also an art critic for the Paris edition of the New York Herald-Tribune and later for The Virginian-Pilot.

In 1945, Taylor moved to Norfolk, Virginia and helped run the Hermitage Museum. She also became an art instructor at the Norfolk Division, College of William and Mary. From 1950-1960, she instructed adult painting at the Norfolk Museum. Taylor published two books: Form and Feeling in Painting in 1959 and My 15 Years in France in 1968. She died on July 3, 1980 in Norfolk, Virginia and was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.