Broadening the Texas Perspective: Rediscovered Paintings of Emma Richardson Cherry December 7, 2012 - January 12, 2013
Table of Contents 3
Introduction
4
Foreword by Randy Tibbits
7
Exhibition Checklist
9
Plates
42 Emma Richardson Cherry: Selected Career Highlights
Cover Image: Valldemosa, 1926, oil on canvas, 19.75 x 23 inches
Emma Richardson Cherry was Houston’s first professional artist and among the most significant American women artists working west of the Mississippi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mrs. Cherry was a pillar of the Texas art community from the 1890’s until her death in 1954. Throughout her long career, Cherry provided inspiration to groups that became the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Antonio Art League, and the Elisabet Ney Museum among others. She exhibited in all of the major venues in Texas and in most of the major shows, including the Texas Centennial Exhibition of 1936, and she taught countless students who spread out across the state and the world to help make Texas a vital art center. Now, after more than 50 years in storage, William Reaves Fine Art is excited to bring to market an important cache of Mrs. Cherry’s paintings that have come to light again, among them some of her most important, most interesting and most beautiful works.
William Reaves Fine Art is pleased to announce that following the close of this exhibition, Mrs. Cherry’s work will also be the subject of an exhibition at the Houston Public Library’s Julia Ideson Building from February 1 to May 2, 2013. Broadening Texas Perspectives: Rediscovered Paintings by Emma Richardson Cherry is on view concurrently with Early Texas Selections, a virtual exhibition with works displayed in William Reaves Fine Art’s gallery alcove as well as an online catalogue. Visit www.reavesart.com for more information. Bill Reaves, Jennifer Pryor & Elizabeth O’Dowd
Broadening the Texas Perspective: Rediscovered Paintings of Emma Richardson Cherry by Randy Tibbits
Emma Richardson Cherry (1859-1954) was a pillar of
the Texas art community from the 1890s until her death in 1954. Throughout her long career, Mrs. Cherry – as almost all called her in her own time – provided inspiration to groups that became the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the San Antonio Art League, and the Elisabet Ney Museum among others. She exhibited in all of the major venues in the State and in most of the major shows, including the Texas Centennial Exhibition of 1936. Her Centennial painting is included here (plate 60). And she taught countless students who spread out across the state and the world to help make Texas a vital art center. When a cache of previously unsuspected paintings by such an influential and well known artist appears, it is an important event. Now, after more than 50 years in storage, hundreds of Mrs. Cherry’s paintings have come to light again, among them some of her most important, most interesting and most beautiful. Mrs. Cherry was a Texas artist whose eyes saw far beyond the state line. Though she lived and worked in Houston for almost 60 years, considering the scope of her artistic interests and activities – she helped found the Denver Art Museum; taught in Omaha, Kansas City, Denver and New York; studied and exhibited around the country and in Europe – it is perhaps more accurate to call her an American artist, or even simply an artist who developed her art in Texas, rather than a Texas artist.
She traveled widely, throughout the United States and Europe, once even venturing to North Africa. On some trips she was abroad for years. Everywhere she went she was painting, always painting; and when she was home she was painting, always painting. “I count the day wasted when I do not paint,” she once said. “I paint each day because I love it.” (Houston Press, April 16, 1937). Mrs. Cherry was a thorough professional from the very beginning. “… I was painting canvases to sell,” she told the Houston Press reporter. Usually she could put the proceeds from her professional activities of selling, teaching and lecturing toward the travel she loved so much. But during long periods of her life her earnings were a substantial part of the income of her family. As with many women artists who came of age in the late 19th Century, when the idea of “professional” women artists still raised some eyebrows, Mrs. Cherry found that the surest way to make money from her art was through portrait painting. The total number of her portraits probably approaches at least 200. A woefully incomplete list she made from memory in the 1930’s includes over 120. Of the portraits included here, her Mjr. Walter H. Reid is particularly important, both as a work of art, and because it was her painting in the Texas Centennial Exhibition in 1936. Mjr. Reid, second husband of Mrs. Cherry’s daughter Dorothy, was a pioneer in US mili-
tary aviation. Dorothy is here also, in two depictions, one a companion to the portrait of Mjr. Reid. In the other, her blue outfit, green jewelry and golf club transform a portrait into a delightful period piece. When Cherry painted at home she was often doing so literally. Throughout her career she painted dozens of views of the family home and garden, now known as the Nichols-Rice-Cherry House and part of the Houston Heritage Society. The Cherrys bought the 1850 Greek Revival house, built by Gen. Ebenezer Nichols and owned for some years by Rice University founder William Marsh Rice, in 1897. The fire-sale price of $25.00 came with the stipulation that the house be moved from its downtown location. The new location, 608 Fargo, was on the very edge of town, not far from the Cherryhurst subdivision which they developed shortly after the turn of the century. Mrs. Cherry took great pride in her home. Her letters over 50 years are full of her plans to decorate and furnish the house, and of her commitment to preserve the “antique atmosphere of old 608.” (Letter to Dorothy from Paris, May 20, 1926). In her paintings of the house she particularly focused on architectural details, and on her beloved garden. Among the home paintings included here are Southern Morning with the house just visible in the background (plate 26); Untitled (Column) detailing a Doric column of the front porch (plate 24); and the splendid Tropical Houston (sometimes titled Deep South), a Madonna and Child for the Gulf Coast, which can be seen as a document of social commentary on Houston in the early 20th Century (plate 52). It was,
as Cherry said in a 1940 letter to Dorothy, “… done in our house garden …” After Houston, San Antonio was the most important city in Texas for Mrs. Cherry throughout her life – and even in death, since she is buried there along with her husband and parents. Her brother Edward Richardson moved from Houston to San Antonio in the teens, moving their parents with him, so she visited often. In the 1930’s her son-in-law was stationed at Randolph Field, and for a time after the death of her husband in 1937, Cherry lived there with Walter and Dorothy. She painted many views of Randolph Field, including, time after time, the Tower. Perhaps it’s European looking architecture appealed to her. The splendid Randolph Field Tower [Beam & Fog, Randolph Field] at night included here is only the most spectacular of her many beautiful paintings of the Field (plate 55). Though small, her Alamo [oil on canvas] of 1911, and New Braunfels oil on board of 1940, showing her grandson, Walter Brook Reid swimming, and in a frame made by her father, are jewels of Texas scenes. But large as it is, even Texas was not large enough to contain Cherry’s full artistic vision. She delighted in the beauty of place and in conveying that beauty through paint on canvas, on board or on paper whatever place she happened to be in as she painted. During part of the winter of 1926 Majorca was the place; Valldemosa [sic], one of her most beautiful and most honored works, was one of the paintings. That spring she said in a letter to Dorothy written from Paris, “I
sent a canvas I did in Valldemosa [sic] to the Salon des Beaux Arts – and it has been accepted. … This is the same Salon I was hung in – in 1899 – or was it 98? You have to pass a jury – and the space is somewhat limited. … Spread the good news [in Houston] … It will make me good at the Museum and with a few who hesitate about me. That’s why I did it anyway. Just to prove I could – after all these years.” Not only was the painting juried into a Paris Salon (how many Texas paintings have that distinction?), in 1928 it also won the Birmingham Park and Recreation Board Prize for landscape at the Southern States Art League Exhibition in Birmingham, Alabama. And then there are the flowers, flowers, flowers. Flowers of all kinds, for all seasons and all occasions. Large flowers and small flowers. Single flowers and burgeoning bouquets of flowers. In discussing her preference for painting flowers she said, “I would like to paint portraits if I could paint my sitters as I see them. … No one else sees quite as clearly as the artist. But sitters don’t like that clarity in their portraits. They want to be painted as they think they should look. That is not true art. With flowers, it is different. They are things that are painted just as they are. No artist could improve on their beauty.” (Houston Press, April 16, 1937). Some of her flower portraits have the Dutch profusion of Untitled (88th Birthday Flowers) (plate 11) and Birthday Flowers (plate 6); some, the closely observed botanical detail of Untitled (Magnolia Seeds) (plate 13)w; some,
such as Iris (on Silver Plate) (plate 7), a delight in the sheer beauty of color and texture. In her spectacular Interpretation in Red (plate 15), with its lightening bolt of red going down the pot in front and its background of geometric shapes, forceful colors and scumbled brushwork, she drew on her modernist interest in color and geometry to depict, through the flowers, a vibrant explosion on canvas. It seems safe to say that this is the last large trove of Cherry paintings. Most of the major and many of the smaller paintings are now accounted for. These paintings cement her reputation as the preeminent artist of early Houston, a powerful artistic force throughout Texas, and a significant and underrated American artist. This is a rare opportunity to enjoy, to study and even to own examples of her best work from throughout her career and across her range of artistic interest. It’s an opportunity not to be missed. Voila! The rediscovered paintings of Emma Richardson Cherry! Randy Tibbits is a librarian for Rice University in Houston, Texas. His expertise in regard to Emma Richardson Cherry works of art stems from a deep love for Mrs. Cherry’s history and extensive research into her life, travels, and painting.
eXHIBITION cHECKLIST Plate 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
Broadening the Texas Perspective: rediscovered Paintings of emma richardson cherry
Title of Work Althea (Rose of Sharon) 1 Althea (Rose of Sharon) 2 California Dahlias From Walter Brook to ‘Ma Cherry, 89th B.Day Untitled (still life) Birthday Flowers Iris (on Silver Plate) Untitled (water lilies) Pond Lillies (in pool, pink, no.3) Pond Lillies in pool, pale yellow (no.2) Untitled (88th birthday flowers) Untitled (yellow hibiscus) Untitled (magnolia seeds) Untitled (magnolia) Untitled (red and blue flowers) Interpretation in Red Untitled (a single tree) Blue Bonnets & Indian Blankets Untitled (white lillies) Untitled (flower sketch) White Roses, terracotta jar (no.2) Spider Lillies & Crêpe Myrtle Crêpe Myrtle (Pink) Untitled (column) Untitled (doric column) Southern Morning Untitled (countryside house) Shadow Patterns Untitled (bridge) Country Home, New England New Braunfels-Walter Brook & Friends Untitled (bluebonnet field)
Date n.d. n.d. c.1923 1948 n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. 1947 n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. c.1925 n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. c.1931 n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. n.d. c.1929 1940 n.d.
Medium oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on canvas pastel oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on panel oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on board
Size (inches) 6.75 x 8.5 6.75 x 8.5 26 x 20 8.25 x 5.25 27.75 x 33 29.5 x 24.5 23.5 x 17.5 10 x 8 8.5 x 12.25 9 x 12.5 28.5 x 22.25 8 x 10 10.375 x 7.25 19 x 15 17 x 14 27.75 x 17.5 11.5 x 8.75 17 x 11.5 35.5 x 25.75 14 x 18 16 x 20 35.5 x 25.5 23 x 19.5 10 x 8 20 x 14 23.5 x 19.5 13.5 x 9.5 19.5 x 13 4.75 x 8 7.75 x 9.75 6.75 x 9.5 14 x 16.5
eXHIBITION cHECKLIST Plate 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
Broadening the Texas Perspective: rediscovered Paintings of emma richardson cherry
Title of Work Untitled (moonlit waterfall) Hall in Hollywood Untitled (Hollywood house) San Clemente-Rome Untitled (copy of Titian’s Madonna and Child with Saint Agnes and Saint John the Baptist - Holy Family, Louvre) City Wall (Fribourg, Suisse) Tower in Brussels Algiers (1 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) Biskra Camp (2 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) Constantine (3 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) Pouliguen Gondolas on the Canal Casa Blanché-Naples (Vesuvius) Early Morning Olives & Almonds (Island of Majorca) Majorcan Spring (Valledemosa) Valldemosa The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas Madonna d’Avignon Deep South Untitled (Randolph Field Officers’ Quarters) Randolph Field, The Crêpe Myrtle Club at Randolph Field Tower at Randolph The Administration Center, Randolph Field Untitled (Randolph Field) Beam & Fog, Randolph Field Untitled (Dorothy) Portrait, Mrs. Reid Major Reid Garden of Pan
Date n.d. c.1921 c.1921 1910
Medium oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on canvas
Size (inches) 9.75 x 5.75 20 x 16 24 x 20 20.5 x 16
n.d. c.1928 c.1911 1926 1926 1926 1925 1925 1910 n.d. 1926 1926 1926 1911 1925 c.1937 n.d. c.1938 c.1938 c.1938 c.1938 c.1930 c.1942 c.1925 c.1936 1936 c.1922
oil on board watercolor watercolor pastel watercolor watercolor oil on canvas watercolor pastel watercolor watercolor oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on board oil on canvas oil on board oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas
6x8 6.75 x 5 9.75 x 6.75 7.5 x 11 7.5 x 11 7.5 x 11 9.5 x 7.5 10 x 7 3 x 5.5 11 x 15.75 12 x 9 29.5 x 24.5 19.75 x 23 9 x 12 23.75 x 19.5 36 x 36 10.25 x 8 10 x 8 9x5 8.75 x 5 19 x 13 10 x 12 35.5 x 25.75 19.5 x 13.5 35.5 x 25 40 x 28 36 x 26
Plates
1. Althea (Rose of Sharon) 1, n.d., oil on board, 6.75 x 8.5 inches
10
2. Althea (Rose of Sharon) 2, n.d., oil on board, 6.75 x 8.5 inches
3. California Dahlias, c.1923, oil on canvas, 26 x 20 inches
5. Untitled (still life), n.d., oil on canvas, 27.75 x 33 inches 4. From Walter to ‘Ma Cherry, 89th B.Day, 1948, oil on canvas, 8.25 x 5.25 inches
11
6. Birthday Flowers, n.d., oil on canvas, 29.5 x 24.5 inches
12
7. Iris (on Silver Plate), n.d., oil on board, 23.5 x 17.5 inches
9. Pond Lillies (in pool, pink no.3), n.d., oil on board, 8.5 x 12.25 inches
8. Untitled (water lilies), n.d., oil on board, 10 x 8 inches
10. Pond Lillies in pool, pale yellow (no.2), n.d., oil on board, 9 x 12.5 inches 13
12. Untitled (yellow hibiscus), n.d., oil on board, 8 x 10 inches
11. Untitled (88th birthday flowers), 1947, oil on canvas, 28.5 x 22.25 inches
14
13. Untitled (magnolia seeds), n.d., oil on board, 10.375 x 7.25 inches
14. Untitled (magnolia), n.d., oil on canvas, 19 x 15 inches 15
15. Untitled (red and blue flowers), n.d., oil on board, 17 x 14 inches 16
16. Interpretation in Red, c.1925, oil on canvas, 27.75 x 17.5 inches
17. Untitled (a single tree), n.d., pastel, 11.5 x 8.75 inches
18. Blue Bonnets & Indian Blankets, n.d., oil on canvas, 17 x 11.5 inches 17
20. Untitled (flower sketch), n.d., oil on panel, 14 x 18 inches
19. Untitled (white lillies), n.d., oil on canvas, 35.5 x 25.75 inches 18
21. White Roses, terracotta jar (no.2), n.d., oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches
22. Spider Lillies & Crêpe Myrtle, c.1931, oil on canvas, 35.5 x 25.5 inches
23. Crêpe Myrtle (Pink), n.d., oil on canvas, 23 x 19.5 inches 19
24. Untitled (column), n.d., oil on board, 10 x 8 inches 20
25. Untitled (doric column), n.d., oil on board, 20 x 14 inches
26. Southern Morning, n.d., oil on canvas, 23.5 x 19.5 inches
27. Untitled (countryside house), n.d., oil on board, 13.5 x 9.5 inches 21
28. Shadow Patterns, n.d., oil on canvas, 19.5 x 13 inches 22
29. Untitled (bridge), n.d., oil on board, 4.75 x 8 inches
30. Country Home, New England, c.1929, oil on canvas, 7.75 x 9.75 inches
31. New Braunfels-Walter Brook & Friends, 1940, oil on board, 6.75 x 9.5 inches 23
32. Untitled (bluebonnet field), n.d., oil on board, 14 x 16.5 inches
24
33. Untitled (moonlit waterfall), n.d., oil on board, 9.75 x 5.75 inches
34. Hall in Hollywood, c.1921, oil on board, 20 x 16 inches
35. Untitled (Hollywood house), c.1921, oil on board, 24 x 20 inches
25
37. Untitled (copy of Titian’s Madonna and Child with St. Agnes and St. John the Baptist - Holy Family, Louvre), n.d., oil on board, 6 x 8 inches 36. San Clemente-Rome, 1910, oil on canvas, 22.5 x 16 inches
26
38. City Wall (Fribourg, Suisse), c.1928, watercolor, 6.75 x 5 inches
39. Tower in Brussels, c.1911, watercolor, 9.75 x 6.75 inches 27
40. Algiers (1 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa), 1926, pastel, 7.5 x 11 inches
41. Biskra Camp (2 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa), 1926, pastel, 7.5 x 11 inches
42. Constantine (3 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) 1926 watercolor 7.5 x 11 inches
28
43. Pouliguen, 1925, oil on canvas, 9.5 x 7.5 inches
44. Gondolas on the Canal, 1910, watercolor, 10 x 7 inches 29
45. Casa BlanchĂŠ-Naples (Vesuvius) 1910 pastel 3 x 5.5 inches
46. Early Morning n.d. watercolor 11 x 15.75 inches
30
47. Olives & Almonds (Island of Majorca), 1926, watercolor, 12 x 9 inches
48. Majorcan Spring (Valledemosa), 1926, oil on canvas, 29.5 x 24.5 inches 31
49. Valldemosa, 1926, oil on canvas, 19.75 x 23 inches
32
50. The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, 1911, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches
33
51. Madonna d’Avignon), 1925, oil on canvas, 23.75 x 19.5 inches 34
52. Deep South, c.1937, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches 35
53. Untitled (Randolph Field, Officers’ Quarters), n.d., oil on board, 10.25 x 8 inches
36
54. Randolph Field, The Crêpe Myrtle, c.1938, oil on board, 10 x 8 inches
55. Club at Randolph Field, c.1938, oil on board, 9 x 5 inches
56. Tower at Randolph, c.1938, oil on board, 8.75 x 5 inches
37
57. The Administration Center, Randolph Field, c.1938, oil on board, 19 x 13 inches
38
58. Untitled (Randolph Field), c.1930, oil on board, 10 x 12 inches
59. Beam & Fog, Randolph Field c.1942 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25.75 inches
39
60. Untitled (Dorothy) c.1925 oil on board 19.5 x 13.5 inches
40
61. Portrait, Mrs. Reid c.1936 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25 inches
41
62. Major Reid, 1936, oil on canvas, 40 x 28 inches 42
Emma Richardson Cherry
Selected Biographical and Career Highlights • • • • • •
1859, Born in Aurora, Illinois 1879-c.1886, Studies at Art Students League, New York 1888-89, Attends Academie Julian 1896, Relocates to Houston 1900, Co-organizes Houston Public School Art League (forerunner of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) 1954, Dies in Houston
Selected Exhibitions • • • • • • •
1893, World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago 1923, 1925, 1931, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 1926, Salon des Beaux-Arts, Paris 1926, 1938, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio 1927-28, Edgar B. Davis Competition, San Antonio 1936, Texas Centennial Exhibition, Dallas 1937, National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York • 1938, Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio • 1993, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon • 1997, Museum of the Big Bend, Alpine Selected Public Collections • • • • •
Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Vanderpoel Collection, Chicago Witte Museum, San Antonio Denver Art Museum
63. Garden of Pan, c.1922 oil on canvas 36 x 26 inches
43
William Reaves Fine Art 2313 Brun Street • Houston, Texas • 77019 Tel: 713.521.7500 Fax: 713.521.7504 www.reavesart.com Email: info@reavesart.com