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Mary H. Teasdel
(1863 - 1937)
Daughter of a wealthy merchant, Mary Teasdel was born on November 6th in Salt Lake City. She was given music lessons, the best schooling available, and lived in a large and comfortable home in the city. She began classes at the University of Deseret in 1882, studying music and art under George Ottinger, a painter. She graduated from college with high honors four years later, at the age of 23. She then continued to work on perfecting her abilities in art and persisted in convincing her father, who believed a "professional career" for an unmarried woman to be very unbecoming, to allow her to study art abroad. By 1891 she was studying with painter J.T. Harwood, and several years later was on her way to New York with her friend Cora Cooper to study drawing and painting at the National Academy of Design. She returned home in early 1898, after which her family's fortunes drastically changed. Teasdel's father, S.P. Teasdel, was a generous man. He loaned out thousands of dollars, and poor speculations turned into bad debts, bad debts turned into financial ruin, and soon creditors took almost everything from the Teasdel family. Added to this misfortune were the untimely deaths of two grown brothers and a sister, all within months of each other. All that remained were Mary, her parents, and one other brother, brought very low economically and emotionally. Henry Teasdel, one of the brothers who had passed away, left Mary a small sum of money, and around this time S.P. Teasdel accepted her decision to study abroad. The money she had inherited could be carefully used over the space of three meticulously planned years of living and art training in Paris; and so, in 1899, Mary and two close artist friends, Lara Rawlins and May Jennings, left to France. The three years in Paris continued as planned, with summers spent sketching and painting in Normandy. She was a gifted and energetic student, well treated by her instructors and peers. She generally took two periods of study during her day - four hours in the morning, and three hours in the evening. She was an interesting and talented artist of whom much was expected. A painter of landscapes and still-lifes, she demonstrated a love for the loose "painterly approach". Teasdel also became a proficient portraitist in oils, watercolor, and pastel. She exhibited in the Paris Salon, becoming "the second Utahn" and "the first woman painter of Utah" to do so. She also exhibited in the International French Exposition with Cyrus Dallin, a fellow Utahn. Upon her return to Utah in 1902, she was appointed to the governing board of the Utah Art Institute. She set up a private studio in her residence on "C" Street and found employment as an art instructor for the Salt Lake school system. After her father's death in the early 1900s, she traveled with her mother to Holland and France, where she painted and remembered events of the past. They returned home and Teasdel entered a painting into the 1908 Utah State Fair, an impressionistic autumn landscape of City Creek Canyon, which won not only the main prize but also "best landscape" and "figure watercolor" honors. She beat out even her old teacher, J.T. Harwood, who also entered in the competition. In later years Mary Teasdel served as president of the Utah Art Institute and here received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments over the years. She eventually moved to Los Angeles and devoted her years to developing her free and subtle light painting touch, as well as working to make improvements in California's art education system. She died there in retirement on November 11, 1937.
(1863 - 1937)
Daughter of a wealthy merchant, Mary Teasdel was born on November 6th in Salt Lake City. She was given music lessons, the best schooling available, and lived in a large and comfortable home in the city. She began classes at the University of Deseret in 1882, studying music and art under George Ottinger, a painter. She graduated from college with high honors four years later, at the age of 23. She then continued to work on perfecting her abilities in art and persisted in convincing her father, who believed a "professional career" for an unmarried woman to be very unbecoming, to allow her to study art abroad. By 1891 she was studying with painter J.T. Harwood, and several years later was on her way to New York with her friend Cora Cooper to study drawing and painting at the National Academy of Design. She returned home in early 1898, after which her family's fortunes drastically changed. Teasdel's father, S.P. Teasdel, was a generous man. He loaned out thousands of dollars, and poor speculations turned into bad debts, bad debts turned into financial ruin, and soon creditors took almost everything from the Teasdel family. Added to this misfortune were the untimely deaths of two grown brothers and a sister, all within months of each other. All that remained were Mary, her parents, and one other brother, brought very low economically and emotionally. Henry Teasdel, one of the brothers who had passed away, left Mary a small sum of money, and around this time S.P. Teasdel accepted her decision to study abroad. The money she had inherited could be carefully used over the space of three meticulously planned years of living and art training in Paris; and so, in 1899, Mary and two close artist friends, Lara Rawlins and May Jennings, left to France. The three years in Paris continued as planned, with summers spent sketching and painting in Normandy. She was a gifted and energetic student, well treated by her instructors and peers. She generally took two periods of study during her day - four hours in the morning, and three hours in the evening. She was an interesting and talented artist of whom much was expected. A painter of landscapes and still-lifes, she demonstrated a love for the loose "painterly approach". Teasdel also became a proficient portraitist in oils, watercolor, and pastel. She exhibited in the Paris Salon, becoming "the second Utahn" and "the first woman painter of Utah" to do so. She also exhibited in the International French Exposition with Cyrus Dallin, a fellow Utahn. Upon her return to Utah in 1902, she was appointed to the governing board of the Utah Art Institute. She set up a private studio in her residence on "C" Street and found employment as an art instructor for the Salt Lake school system. After her father's death in the early 1900s, she traveled with her mother to Holland and France, where she painted and remembered events of the past. They returned home and Teasdel entered a painting into the 1908 Utah State Fair, an impressionistic autumn landscape of City Creek Canyon, which won not only the main prize but also "best landscape" and "figure watercolor" honors. She beat out even her old teacher, J.T. Harwood, who also entered in the competition. In later years Mary Teasdel served as president of the Utah Art Institute and here received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments over the years. She eventually moved to Los Angeles and devoted her years to developing her free and subtle light painting touch, as well as working to make improvements in California's art education system. She died there in retirement on November 11, 1937.
Artist Objects
