In 1933 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt presented Cecilia Beaux with the Chi Omega fraternity's gold medal, for "the American woman who had made the greatest contribution to the culture of the world." At 78, Beaux had enjoyed an international reputation as a distinguished portraitist for well over four decades.

Beaux was born to Cecilia Kent Leavitt, a teacher, and Jean Adolphe Beaux, a silk manufacturer from France. When her mother died 12 days after her birth, Beaux's father returned to France, leaving Cecilia and her older sister, Aimée, to be raised by relatives. Cecilia's early interest in art was encouraged at home and school; she studied with several local painters beginning in 1871.

By age 18 Beaux was earning her living through art. During the following decade she made lithographs and painted on china while studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and taking classes from several noted Philadelphia painters. She completed her first medal-winning portrait in 1884, and in 1888, after rejecting several marriage proposals, Beaux decided to devote herself to a career as a portraitist. That year she went to Europe, where she spent 19 months studying at the Académie Colarossi, the Académie Julian, and an art colony on the Brittany coast. Back in Philadelphia, Beaux soon became a sought-after painter of prominent writers, politicians, and other artists. For many years, she taught at the Pennsylvania Academy, a practice she continued after moving to New York City in 1898.

Beaux's pictures were widely exhibited in the United States, Paris, and London. Her work was favorably compared with that of John Singer Sargent and Thomas Sully, and the summer house she built in Gloucester, Massachusetts, became a popular stopping point for her increasingly distinguished clientele. Her reputation hit its peak during the 1930s, when she received several awards, had two retrospective exhibitions, and published her autobiography.