Who Were the Ernsts?
arrived in Newport in 1909 and opened his photography studio, placing this advertisement in the City Directory: WILLIAM W. ERNST
Photographer The Finest Grade of Work
Portraits a Specialty
126 Bellevue Avenue Newport, Rhode Island
The next year the advertisement was amended to read “Oil Paintings and Miniatures,” referring to the work done by his wife Alphonsine. William Ernst left Newport in 1929. The Ernst Studio remained open under the direction of Alphonsine. She continued to paint portrait miniatures and focused her attention on photographic work, which was initially a secondary interest. was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1873 and was raised in Fall River, Massachusetts. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Zeherin Thuot, were French Canadian immigrants. According to the AskART archive, Alphonsine began her artistic training in 1892 when she studied with a Mr. Dunning of Fall River, Massachusetts. Around 1900 she began her career as a professional artist in New York City. The same source also states, “She worked in the photographic studio of Ira Hill and Walter Pach as a re-toucher and while there she continued with her self-taught painting, receiving guidance from George DeForest Bush and William Chase...” We also know that Alphonsine worked with her brother in a studio on New York’s Fifth Avenue before moving to Newport in 1909.
Alphonsine Ernst’s body of work includes portraits, miniatures, and seascapes which often depicted views of the Ocean Drive and Cliff Walk. She also painted a large mural in St. Anne’s Church, Fall River, MA. In 1912 Alphonsine became a charter member of the Art Association of Newport, now the Newport Art Museum and Art Association. Beginning in 1922 and for thirty years following, the Newport Art Association exhibited her work. An article in the Herald (October 4, 1940) critiques a portrait by Alphonsine on view at the Newport Art Association stating: the “painting has much quality in its subdued coloring, simple composition, and the fine relaxation obtained in the painting of the sitter. There is a charm and atmosphere that grows on one as one studies the painting for any length of time. Perhaps of more interest are her miniatures on ivory. They employ a much tighter technique, yet have charm in their directness and spirit as exemplified in the studies of Mrs. John Jacob Astor...” A later exhibit at the Newport Art Association was reviewed in the Newport Daily News (June 4, 1942). “Mrs. Ernst is showing a portrait of Mrs. John R. Drexel, 3rd, daughter of Lady Camoys...Her marines are of the vicinity and she is showing a painting of the cup defenders, Endeavor II owned by T.O.M. Sopwith and Ranger owned by Harold Vanderbilt.” Alphonsine Thuot Ernst died in Newport Hospital on April 29, 1952. She left three family members still living in Newport at that time: her daughter Marie-Jeanne, her sister Caroline Thuot, and a nephew, Herman Boivin. daughter of William and Alphonsine, was born in 1909. After her graduation from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1931 she worked in the Ernst Studio as an assistant and took over the studio’s management in 1947. Like her mother, Marie-Jeanne was an artist and photographer. Throughout her life, Marie-Jeanne often exhibited her work at the Newport Art Association. She specialized in pastels of babies and oils depicting flowers and other still life. She taught art at Miss Collin’s School in Newport from 1931 to 1963. After the Ernst Studio closed in 1965, she worked at the D.D. Gunning Studio in Providence, RI until 1967. She died at Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, on April 29, 1986. , sister of Alphonsine, was also an artist, painting watercolors of ships, landscapes, water views, and Newport city scenes. Her works were occasionally shown at the Newport Art Association. She died in Middletown, RI in 1963. , William’s sister, arrived in Newport in 1913 and boarded with her brother and his family for a year. In 1914 she moved to Chicago, only to return to Newport in 1916. For the next twenty-five years she resided in Newport, first at 75 John Street and then later at 26 Old Beach Road. Francia had her own camera and photographic supplies store at 111, and later at 158, Bellevue Avenue. In 1940 she opened a photo finish shop at 140 Bellevue Avenue.
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