Marcella Comès Winslow

Marcella Comès Winslow (1905 – July 6, 2000) (also known as Marcella Rodange Comès) was an American photographer and portrait painter. She was the official portrait painter of the United States Poet Laureate.

Life and education

Marcella Comès was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of architect John T. Comès. She attended the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts. She also trained in Europe. She lived in Washington, D.C. and was active in the art scene. She was married to William Randolph Winslow who was a Colonel in the United States Military. He served in World War II and Comès raised their two children in Washington while he was stationed in England. Their home in Georgetown was a salon space frequented by literary figures of the time. Colonel Winslow died of pneumonia while serving in 1945. Comès died on July 6, 2000. She is buried in Arlington National Cemetery alongside her husband.

Career

Comès was the official portrait painter of the United States Poet Laureate. As official portrait painter, she painted portraits of Allen Tate, Elizabeth Bishop, Karl Shapiro, and Léonie Adams. She also painted portraits of Robert Lowell, Katherine Garrison Chapin, Ezra Pound, Saint-John Perse, Caroline Gordon, Walter de la Mare, John Rothenstein, Denis Devlin, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Richard Eberhart, Robert Frost, Katherine Anne Porter, Anne Goodwin Winslow, Mark Van Doren, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Walter Jackson Bate, John Huston Finley, Harry Tuchman Levin, and Cornelius Weygandt.

She served as president of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Artists Equity Association and was vice president for the organizations' national association. She was involved as a member of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's Women's Commission.

Legacy

Her work is held in the collections of the Harvard Art Museums and the National Portrait Gallery. Her papers are held in the Archives of American Art.