Johanna Knowles Woodwell Hailman

1871 - 1958

BiographyBorn into a wealthy Pittsburgh family, Hailman became a noted artist with both a regional and national reputation. She grew up in an artistic family - her grandfather Joseph Woodwell worked as a New York cabinetmaker and woodcarver, but made his money in the hardware business he opened in Pittsburgh. Her father, Joseph R. Woodwell was a respected landscape painter and member of the Scalp Level Artists. He studied with George Hetzel and David Blythe and then in Paris.

Woodwell trained his daughter before she briefly attended the Pittsburgh School of Design for Women. Johanna painted alongside her father in his studio until his death. Widely traveled, she painted landscapes of the U.S., Europe, and the Bahamas, but is best known for the still life works she did of flowers and her garden. An avid gardener, Hailman became a lifelong supporter of Phipps Conservatory and an advocate of the city beautiful movement. Woodwell also painted industrial images such as this one, as well as capturing the mills and working rivers of her hometown, Pittsburgh.

In 1905, Johanna married James D. Hailman (1886-1930). An industrialist, he also dedicated time to urban progressive causes such as the building of playgrounds and serving as a founder of the Citizens Committee on City Planning in 1918 with Charles Armstrong, W.L. and R.B. Mellon, and Howard Heinz. Both James and Johanna were patrons of the arts, especially the Carnegie Museum and Phipps.

Johanna participated in 38 separate exhibits at the Carnegie, submitting works to almost every International from the first in 1896 until her death. She bequeathed her art collection to the Museum and they currently hold at least nine of her paintings, including American Beauties from 1896, My House from 1938, and the Jones and Laughlin Mill c. 1925. The Westmoreland Museum also holds her Pittsburgh River Scene from 1929. In addition Hailman exhibited at the 1893 Columbian World’s Exposition, the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Expo, and numerous other shows. Art critics acknowledged her skill with one christening her, “the dowager doyen of Pittsburgh.”