Marion Campbell Hawthorne was an accomplished artist in her own right, though she is often remembered as the wife of Charles Webster Hawthorne. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, and, like her husband, studied under William Merritt Chase. Hawthorne earned acclaim for her watercolor and gouache paintings, which have an impressionistic quality achieved through layered washes of translucent color. She often painted flowers—such as in her work Canterbury Bells—because she was an avid gardener. Hawthorne was a member of the Pen and Brush Club, an organization that showcased the work of women artists, and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.
