Of all the genres of art we are now familiar with, all but a very few are products of modernism and the bourgeois takeover of the art world in the 20th century. Portraiture, landscape, still life: all of these artistic staples were once considered the low, crass art of those who painted with motives no nobler than wanting to make a daily wage. In the Academic European art world, only one genre was really given much credulity, at least until the more revolutionary currents that would define the industrial world would come to power in later years. This genre was History Painting, the grand, noble task of representing not only human “history,” but philosophy, mythology and allegory. Any painter could reproduce a pretty face or a plate of fruit, but it took a master artist to capture the humanist values that defined European culture. And most of the time that artist was a man.
In 1741, however, a little girl was born to an aristocratic family in Switzerland. Angelica Kauffmann would grow, cultured and refined, to become one of Europe’s most revered history painters. In a life relatively unmatched by any other known female artist, Kauffmann earned the respect of peers and patrons alike, becoming the first woman admitted to England’s Academy. Like most history painters, she left a legacy of grand varnished canvases that aren’t so much in fashion these days, but unlike most of them, she left a uniquely female touch on the way the grand human drama is portrayed.
This painting of Kauffmann’s depicts Cornelia, mother of the Grachi. Taunted by a rich woman who scoffs at Cornelia’s appearance and asks her where her jewels are, Cornelia replies by indicating her two children – the “jewels” and crowning achievements of her life. Depicted by a male artist, the story of the Grachus brothers, who were important Roman statesmen, would probably have overlooked the more touching story of their mother. But Kauffmann brings to history an important female perspective.
Which brings me to BYU in January 2008. I was fortunate enough to finally get a chance to drive down to Utah, and though my trip was hurried, I snuck in an hour at the Museum of Art and made my younger sister, in town for a job interview with EFY, tag along. She wasn’t familiar with Minerva Teichert, and didn’t understand why I was so insistent that we go see the Pageants in Paint exhibition that’s on display until May. We are both grateful we did.
The exhibit is well put-together. The curator uses the theme of pageants – of drama and stage design and murals – to tie together Teichert’s aesthetic that most viewers usually associate with the typically Mormon didactic historical tradition. And this is done well – Teichert was involved in theater and was painting in an era where dramatic art was very influential on the plastic arts. But I read a little more into this, the biggest grouping of Teichert’s works to date. I couldn’t help but see in Teichert’s work a little of the majesty of the European Academies. These are History Paintings in the most academic sense of the word. And yet she goes one step beyond the Delacroix and ads a personal, decidedly female, touch.
Angelica Kauffman often painted friends and acquaintances in her History Paintings. Her good friend Sir Joshua Reynolds appears as a classical character in her version of Et in Arcadia Ego. Teichert also sneaks in friends and family. Her famous portrait of Queen Esther is actually a portrait of her good friend.
Also on display at the MOA is a portrait of Teichert’s daughter Laurie and her fiancé. The accompanying description intimates that when he came home to meet his future bride’s parents, he probably wasn’t expecting to end up posing as Escamillo to complete the portrait that Teichert had been painting of Laurie as Bizet’s Carmen. It is these small, personal touches that remind me of other famous women artists like Kauffmann – artists who conquer a man’s medium but manage to bring a little bit of familiarity, a little bit of female kindness.
Another reason that Teichert is vying in my opinion for Mormonism’s best artist to date is the way she handles the grand Mormon Story. She is a decidedly western artist – Indians and pioneers figure prominently in her work. She paints the people of the Book of Mormon with the same majesty. She makes of what was considered a slightly heretical religious fiction something grand, lustrous and, yes, Historical. Painting in the early 20th century, there is no way Teichert could have known the specifics of PreColumbian civilization that are common knowledge today. But her paintings don’t need them. She creates noble, lively, believable characters who live on the viewer’s plane – the less relevant cultural details fade into her muted backdrops. Especially touching is her treatment of the Lamanite maidens who gather to dance and are captured by the wicked priests of King Noah. I commend them to you – they dance right off the edge of the frame, out of history, and into your heart.
If your find yourself in Provo, please take a moment to go see what I would call the most successful presentation of Mormon art to date. The BYU Museum is no Louvre, but perhaps as future artists follow Teichert’s noble standard, someday it will be.
A Motley Vision 
I was just reading about Minerva Teichert (in Teryl Givens _People of Paradox_). Thanks for posting this.
I find your comments about the bougie takeover very interesting because, of course, those types of art (esp. landscape) were what the majority of Utah artists who were sent on art missions painted.
Teichert, as you note, is the major exception. I think she definitely suffers from the fact that she chose the mural as her major form. It may have been the perfect choice — and was an understandable one. But it means that her work is not quite as reproducible. I vaguely recall seeing one of her murals and the effect, the way she works with lighting and perspective, is so much better than seeing her work in a book or on a computer screen. Yes, that’s true of all art, but particularly of murals, I think.
“I find your comments about the bougie takeover very interesting because, of course, those types of art (esp. landscape) were what the majority of Utah artists who were sent on art missions painted.”
This was a product of their time – 19th century Modernism was the nail in the coffin of academic art. The art missionaries were influenced by – well, more than that, they were purposely studying – the French avant garde, and the entire point of those movements was to highlight the non-academic: landscapes, still life, paintings that looked like they were actually made of paint. The impressionists and their successors were intentionally breaking every academic rule there was.
It’s funny that the average modern viewer thinks of art like Monet as so tame and standard – the epitome of the “institution,” when the impressionist movement was meant as a radical rebellion in its time.
I love Teichert and loved this exhibit. I think she and Mahonri Young are my favorite Mormon artists. Although J. Kirk Richards is right up there with them for me.
Thank you for posting this.
That reminds me, Mahonri. Somewhere I have notes for a post on the art of J. Kirk Richards.
I have said this on a number of blogs recently and I will continue to say it until some art historian picks up on it and pulls Minerva Teichert out of obscurity.
“I would like to see Teichert and her artwork recognized on the same level as her contemporaries Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo.”
Has anyone written a book about her life?
I could only find:
Letters of Minerva Teichert
and
The Book of Mormon Paintings of Minerva Teichert
I think a biography that also included art history and criticism as well as a keen understanding of Mormon and American history and society would be fantastic. I wonder if anyone out there is really equipped to write such a book — perhaps it could be a joint project.
William – BYU published a book to go along with the exhibition. I didn’t have the money on me to get a copy while I was there, but I’d be curious to see the scholarship that went into it. It looked pretty thorough from my brief leaf-through.
That would be the one on this page by Marian E. Wardle: http://moa.byu.edu/index.php?id=81
I haven’t found any additional info about it.
“Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945” a 1995 exhibit catalogue edited by Patricia Trenton has an essay by Ericka Ross which Teichart is the lead artist. She states, “Teichart’s art-world obscurity may result from her primary attention to Mormon history and theology. Her celebration of the roles and experiences of pioneer women….did not jibe with the “how the west was won” approached by most western artists….”
It looks like my next book purchase will be “Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint” written by Minerva’s grand daughter Marian E. Wardle from the BYU Museum. Thanks for that information.
I’m sorry — the essay was written By Ericka Doss not Ross.
A listing of several books, articles, and essays on Teichert:
Teichert
Thanks, Justin.
It looks like the closest thing to a full out biography is “Minerva!: The Story of an Artist with a Mission” by Elaine Cannon.
Here is the AML List review.
Considering that it’s only 156 pages and after reading the review, I would guess that although it may be worth tracking down a copy (it’s out of print), it’s not quite the in-depth biography/cultural-art history study that Teichert deserves.
I agree. There’s work to be done.
Marian A. Johnson’s Dialogue article has some biographical information.
Doris Dant’s article on the Manti Temple murals is available here.
“Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert: With a Bold Brush,” Ensign, Apr. 1989, is here.
Also of possible interest is Wardle’s thesis on Teichert’s murals.
For a review by Tom Alder of Wardle’s book Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint go to http://www.artistsofutah.org/15bytes/08feb/page5.html
Marian Wardle’s book “Minerva Teichert: Pageants in Paint” is currently only available in the BYU Museum of Art Store. More information is available on the Museum of Art Web site (http://moa.byu.edu/index.php?id=843) or by phone at (801) 422-8214.
Marian Wardle’s book is by far the most comprehensive and scholarly account of Minerva Teichert’s work. Marian is also my aunt, and at the time that “Minerva!: The Story of an Artist with a Mission” by Elaine Cannon was published, I was working at BYU’s Museum of Art. At the risk of offending anyone, I know the book was largely panned by Teichert’s immediate family, including my grandmother, Laurie Teichert Eastwood, who was Minerva’s only daughter.