SARA W. PEABODY

1926 - 2016

PEABODY, Sara W. Sara Weeks Peabody passed away, aged 90, on Sat. Dec 3, with her children by her side. She was pre-deceased by her husband, Francis W. Peabody. Born in Boston in 1926, she was the daughter of Frederica Watriss and Edward Weeks, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly. She grew up in Boston and took her first life-drawing class at the age of 8 in Boston, with sculptor George Demetrios. Painting was her passion, in a variety of media, favoring the watercolour and monoprint. In the 1970's she became curious about the traditions of the Japanese painted screen, and decided to learn the techniques of construction and gold leaf application in order to create her own screens. She studied with Yasuhiro Iguchi and other members of the conservation department at the MFA and developed her own approaches to this traditional art. She had shows at the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA and galleries throughout Maine, where she painted for decades. Visitors to the public library in Northeast Harbor, Maine, are greeted by her 4' x 10' painting of Mt. Desert island as seen from the water. She was also a writer, and under her maiden name Sara Weeks, was the author of the children's book "Tales of a Common Pigeon", published in 1960. She was educated at the Kingswood School Cranbrook, '44 and Sarah Lawrence College, '46 and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her professional life included teaching art at The Shady Hill School and The Bancroft School, Assistant Editor in the Houghton Mifflin Children's Book department, editor of Current Design magazine, published by The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston (1950-52), editor of the re-published "Search for the Real", by Hans Hoffman; and various projects with Bart Hayes, director of the Addison Gallery of American Art. She was married to architect Robertson Ward, and art dealer Hyman Swetzoff before her marriage to Francis W. Peabody in 1968 which lasted until his death in 2001. She leaves two children by her marriage to Hyman Swetzoff, David Swetzoff of Chestnut Hill, and Martha Swetzoff of RI; two step children, George Peabody of MA and Carey Peabody of CA, 5 grandchildren, and three great grand-children. A memorial will be held in MA in the spring and on Mt.Desert Island, ME in the summer of 2017.

View the online memorial for Sara W. PEABODY