Savannah artist Hattie Saussy was born in 1890. From her youth, she pursued a passion for painting, and as an adult, she studied art in New York and abroad. During Saussy’s childhood, the Savannah art scene was a changing landscape of growth and activity. Born only a few years after the 1886 opening of the South’s first art museum, the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (today, the Telfair Museums), Saussy was immersed in a vibrant artistic community. Telfair offered not only an impressive collection of paintings and plaster casts, but also artistic instruction. Saussy took private lessons with Emma Wilkins before attending Mary Baldwin Seminary in Stauton, Virginia. She then moved to New York, where she enrolled at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (today, the Parsons School of Design), the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. In 1913, Saussy traveled to Paris, where she continued her education for a year under E.A. Taylor, before her European studies were cut short by the start of World War I.

Upon her return to the United States, Saussy worked in a government office in Washington, D.C., then spent a year teaching in Virginia prior to returning to Savannah permanently. Saussy not only taught art, but frequently painted en plein air, creating light-filled landscape works. Active in the Savannah art scene, Saussy played a pivotal role in the founding of the Association of Georgia Artists. Until a 1972 injury limited her mobility, Saussy continued to paint outside, resulting in prolific painting production.