Martha Harriet Hoke

Martha Harriet Hoke was a painter, illustrator and miniaturist who was active in St. Louis from the 1880s to the 1930s. Hoke was born in St. Louis on March 1, 1861, and studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. She began her artistic career as the first newspaper illustrator in St. Louis. Joseph W. Hoke, the artist’s father and founder of the Hoke Engraving Plate Company, patented a method of engraving on chalk plate that allowed Hoke’s illustrations to be reproduced more reliably and efficiently.

Martha Hoke's first newspaper illustration appeared in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on April 15, 1885, and rendered the scene of the famous Maxwell-Preller murder at the Southern Hotel in St. Louis. After her initial success, Hoke later opened an illustration studio in downtown St. Louis with fellow artist and St. Louis School of Fine Arts classmate Lillian M. Brown in 1892, where she produced illustrations for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. She was also invited to exhibit at the Paris Salon in 1892.

Apart from her illustrations, Hoke specialized in miniatures that were noted for their 'refinement of detail.' She exhibited frequently, and her miniatures were included in exhibitions at the St. Louis Exhibition Hall and Music Association, the City Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Noonan-Kocian Gallery in St. Louis, the St. Louis Public Library, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from the 1890s through the 1920s. One of her paintings, a portrait of a child was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1935.

Hoke traveled often and spent summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she kept a studio. She also traveled abroad, and for a period she studied with William Merritt Chase in Florence, Italy. While portraits remained Hoke’s mainstay, traveling provided opportunities to study and experiment with new media, techniques and subjects.

Hoke was a prominent figure in the St. Louis art community throughout her life, both as an artist and an educator. She taught at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts from 1889-1890 and was a member of the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, the St. Louis Art Students League, and the St. Louis Association of Painters and Sculptors.

Hoke also encouraged other women in the arts. In the 1910s, she was made an honorary member of the Twentieth Century Art Club, a St. Louis women’s art organization, and was active in the art and education of its members. In the 1930s, Hoke was a founding member of the St. Louis collective, Eight Women Artists, along with other noted St. Louis women artists such as Cornelia Maury and Helen Rathbun.

Hoke died on June 22, 1939, in St. Louis and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.