Grace Alekhine

Biography

Grace Norton Wishaar entered the world in 1876 in Beverly, New Jersey, born to Émile Bernard Wishaar and Marie Ida Smith. Her family relocated first to San Jose, California, and later to Seattle, Washington. She studied under William Chase at the New York School of Art and launched her painting career there. In Seattle, she married Whitney Irving Eisler on September 13, 1897, and gave birth to a son the following year, who went through life as Carroll Earl Beauchamp Peeke (1898–1991).

She wed Oscar Graham Peeke in Seattle on March 5, 1902. Moving to Oakland, California, in 1903, she resumed her artistic work under the name Grace Wishaar. Her talents spanned both intimate and grand scales: she painted miniature portraits, including those of author Jack London’s young daughters, and created theatrical scenery for San Francisco’s Majestic Theatre, Oakland’s Ye Liberty Playhouse, and venues in San Jose. A newspaper noted she was the lone woman scenic artist working for Harry Bishop, having started at New York’s Herald Square Theatre after persistent effort won over skeptical male colleagues.

By spring 1914, she exhibited portraits at the Spring Salon des Beaux Arts in Paris, likely the year she left the United States. She later married Archibald C. Freeman in Ceylon; he held dual British-American citizenship and died by suicide in Bandarawella in March 1931. Through him, she kept British citizenship for the rest of her life. Her French marriage certificate to Alexandre Alekhine also records a marriage and divorce to Henry James Bromley.