Felicia Meyer
Felicia Meyer, Self Portrait, 1940
Born
Felicia Meyer

(1912-05-14)May 14, 1912
New York City, US
DiedJanuary 11, 1978(1978-01-11) (aged 65)
Dorset, Vermont, US
Resting placeMaple Hill Cemetery, Dorset, Vermont
EducationThe Finch School, Art Students League of New York
Known forPainter of landscapes and portraits
StyleRealism
SpouseReginald Marsh

Felicia Meyer (1912–1978) was an American painter known for her landscapes, city scenes, and portraits. Her style was realist.[1] She lived part of the year in Manhattan and part in southern Vermont and her paintings depict subjects from both locales. During the 1930s and 1940s her work appeared frequently in group exhibitions and she was given solo exhibitions intermittently between 1942 and 1974.[2][3][4][5] Early in her career a New York critic called her paintings "coherent" and "deeply unified,"[6] and after her death the art historian, Lloyd Goodrich, wrote that "her landscapes, with their sense of nature's life, their freshness and delicacy, and their unostentatious skill, were pervaded with a lyrical poetry of a very personal kind."[1]

Early life and education

In the early 1930s Meyer studied in Manhattan at The Finch School and the Art Students League.[7] At the League her instructors were Kimon Nicolaïdes, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Guy Pène du Bois.[8][9]

Artistic career

Felicia Meyer, Vermont Hillside, oil on linen, 1940, 28 1/16 × 34 1/16 inches
Felicia Meyer, Cocktails on the Terrace, oil on masonite, before 1950, 30 x 22 inches
Felicia Meyer, Still Life With Flowers, oil on canvas, 1950, 24 x 20 inches

On completing her art studies she participated in shows held in both Manhattan and Manchester, Vermont. Early in 1932 she participated in a small group exhibition held at the G.R.D. Gallery in Manhattan,[10][note 1] that summer she contributed paintings to a large group exhibition held by the Southern Vermont Artists Association in Manchester,[8][note 2][note 3][note 4] and at the end of the year her work appeared in a group exhibition at the Jumble Shop gallery.[15][note 5] In the succeeding years of the 1930s Meyer regularly contributed paintings to exhibitions in Manhattan and Manchester.[note 6] Early in 1935 she showed at a gallery run by the National Association of Women Artists in a group of former League students that included Dean Fausett, Horace Day, Fairfield Porter, and Elizabeth Nottingham[24][note 7] and later that year showed again in the annual exhibition held by Southern Vermont artists.[25]

During the 1940s, critics rarely noticed her paintings in group shows,[note 8] but she received attention for solo exhibitions in 1942 (at the Wakefield Gallery)[27] and 1944 (at the Macbeth Gallery).[3] In 1957, 1969, and 1974 her paintings appeared in solo shows at the Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery.[5][28]

Over the course of her career Meyer came to be known best for her landscapes of the Vermont locale where she spent the summer months.[12] Her 1940 painting, "Vermont Hillside," (shown at left) is typical of these landscapes. She was also known for depictions of the New York locale where she spent the cooler months. Her painting, "Cocktails on the Terrace" (shown at right) is typical of these.[9] She was also known for her floral still lifes, such as the one shown at left[12] and figure studies, such as the self portrait shown at right.[19]

Artistic practice

Meyer usually painted in oil on canvas.

Personal life

Meyer was an only child, daughter of the artists Herbert William Meyer and Anne Norton Meyer. In 1934 she married the artist Reginald Marsh. The couple had no children.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ The G. R. D. Gallery was a nonprofit organization that opened early in 1928. Named in honor of the artist Gladys R. Dick, its founder was the philanthropist Jean S. Roosevelt (Mrs. Philip Roosevelt) and its art director was Kimon Nicolaïdes.[11]
  2. ↑ In August 1927 a group calling itself "Southern Vermont Artists" held an exhibition in Manchester, Vermont. Made up of painters and sculptors who were permanent or summer residents within a radius of about 50 miles of Manchester, the group limited the duration of its exhibition to two weeks, permitted artists to select the works they wished to exhibit and offer for sale, and charged no admission to the public.[12]
  3. ↑ A second exhibition the following year attracted the attention of Edward Alden Jewel, art critic for the New York Times, who gave it a lengthy review.[13] Over succeeding decades the exhibition became an annual tradition and the group, having incorporated itself as Southern Vermont Artists, Inc., proved durable.[12]
  4. ↑ Dorset, the town where Meyer had her summer home, was known as the town where the association had its origins.[14]
  5. ↑ Located on 8th Street in Greenwich Village the Jumble Shop was a café that hosted informal art exhibitions.[16] The proprietors, Frances E. Russell and Winifred J. Tucker, had opened the place as an antiques shop in the early 1920s.[17] After they turned it into a tea room, it became an artists' hangout, with men such as Guy Pène du Bois and Reginald Marsh, selecting paintings to be shown in exhibitions that changed every month or so.[18]
  6. ↑ News accounts of her participation in the annual exhibitions held by Southern Vermont artists appear regularly from 1932[8] to 1938[19] and her work appeared in group shows held at the Passedoit Gallery (1936),[20] the Municipal Galleries (1936),[21] and the Jumble Shop (1937, 1938).[22][23]
  7. ↑ The exhibition, which was held at the association's galleries in the Squibb Building, consisted mainly of landscapes. In addition to those named, the group included Yvonne Pène du Bois, James L. Montague, Lloyd Goff, Harriette de Sanchez, Clinton King, William Taylor, Leslie Crawford, Frances Avery, and Stuart Eldredge.[24]
  8. ↑ She was mentioned as a participant in the Whitney Annual of 1941,[26] and only a few others.

References

  1. 1 2 Lloyd Goodrich (1979). Reginald Marsh [Art Exhibition Catalog]. Whitney Museum of American Art. She was best known for her landscapes of the Vermont country which she loved and where she spent her summers. Like her husband's pictures, they were drawn, with precision and with command of the exact character of natural forms ... Light played a leading role, playing over the whole scene, so that every inch of her paintings was alive. Her landscapes, with their sense of nature's life, their freshness and delicacy, and their unostentatious skill, were pervaded with a lyrical poetry of a very personal kind. The same qualities appeared in her cityscapes, fewer in number but among her most individual works.
  2. ↑ Edward Alden Jewell (1942-04-24). "Art Show Opened By Junior League: Judging at Annual Exhibition of Members at Clubhouse Preceded by Luncheon". New York Times. p. 22. Felicia Meyer Exhibits: A one-man show of oils by Felicia Meyer, daughter of Herbert Meyer and wife of Reginald Marsh--all three of them well-known painters—has opened in the little downstairs art gallery of the Wakefield Bookshop...
  3. 1 2 Howard Devree (1944-10-22). "Among The New Exhibitions". New York Times. p. X8. Sensitive, somewhat tentative landscapes by Felicia Meyer, at Macbeth's are interspersed among more boldly-stated New York vignettes and several still-lifes. One religious painting and a soldier's farewell border on the sentimental. Two uncatalogued landscape sketches are spirited and pleasing.
  4. ↑ "Contemporaries Lead Art Shows: Group Exhibition Listed by Allied, Brooklyn Society-- One-Man Displays Due". New York Times. 1957-10-13. p. 119. ...Felicia Meyer--Frank K.M. Rehn, Inc., 683 5th Ave, Recent paintings...
  5. 1 2 3 "Obituary: Felicia M. Marsh". New York Times. 1978-01-16. p. D7.
  6. ↑ ""American Scene" Is Far Too Nice; 5 Young Painters at Passedoit Gallery Seem Uncertain as to Objective". New York Post. New York, New York. 1936-05-23. p. 12. Felicia Meyer, the most advanced painter of the group, has been able to advance from the motley assortment of facts to the coherent, deeply unified work by working for a definite set of values in landscape art.
  7. ↑ "Artists Married In Civil Ceremony: Miss Felicia Meyer Becomes Bride of Reginald Marsh at Municipal Building". New York Times. 1934-01-03. p. 23. The bride, whose father is a painter of note, was graduated from the Finch School here and studied painting at the Art Students League and in Paris.
  8. 1 2 3 Edward Alden Jewell (1932-09-04). "The Manchester Idea: Once More the Value of "Regional" Effort Becomes Strikingly Manifest in Vermont". New York Times. p. X5. Felicia Meyer, daughter of the well-known artist Herbert Meyer, has had all the advantages of metropolitan contacts. She has studied at the League with Kenneth Hayes Miller and is now studying, one seems to have heard, with Guy Pene duBois. You would not expect Miss Meyer to produce true naive Vermont 'folk' art, nor does she; yet, such is the potency of the place, her 'Midsummer Landscape,' a delightful canvas, decidedly 'belongs.'
  9. 1 2 "Roselle Hellenberg Osk - Artist". AskART online database. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  10. ↑ "Attractions in Other Galleries". New York Sun. New York, New York. 1932-01-16. p. 6. [T]here is a promising quality in the work of Miss Meyer.
  11. ↑ "G.R.D. Studio (New York, N.Y.)". The Frick Collection; Archives Directory for the History of Collecting. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Through the Years". Southern Vermont Arts Center. Archived from the original on 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2019-02-03.
  13. ↑ Edward Alden Jewell (1928-09-02). "Green Mountain Art: Up at Manchester Another Local Exhibition Has Set the Whole Country-side Agog". New York Times. p. 92.
  14. ↑ "Then and now: Arts in southern Vermont". Bennington Banner. Bennington, Vermont. 2017-09-20. Archived from the original on 2017-10-14. Retrieved 2019-02-19. [The] artists' colony was founded by Dorset Artist Lorenzo Hatch over a century ago... By 1922 this colony became known as the "Dorset Painters," holding an exhibition at the Dorset Town Hall that same year. Only seven years later, the group began to call themselves the "Southern Vermont Artists."
  15. ↑ "At the Jumble Shop". New York Times. 1932-12-21. p. 17.
  16. ↑ Frances E. Russell (1942). The Jumble Shop: 20th Anniversary. The Jumble Shop. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  17. ↑ "A Quick One at the Jumble Shop". Grade "A" Fancy Magazine. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  18. ↑ "Jumble Shop Summer Show". New York Times. 1932-06-18. p. 11.
  19. 1 2 "Vermont's Art Is Put on View; Southern Group Opens Its Annual Display". New York Sun. New York, New York. 1938-08-27. p. 7. The figure subjects of Felicia Meyer also show a growth in creative power.
  20. ↑ "$2 per Hour Art Set by Convention of Unions". New York Post. New York, New York. 1936-05-16. p. 12.
  21. ↑ "Municipal and Federal". New York Times. 1936-07-05. p. X7.
  22. ↑ Howard Debree (1937-02-07). "A Reviewer's Notebook: Brief Comment on Nearly Thirty Shows". New York Times. p. 170.
  23. ↑ "Jumble Shop Show". New York Sun. New York, New York. 1938-08-27. p. 7. The figure subjects of Felicia Meyer also show a growth in creative power.
  24. 1 2 Edward Alden Jewell (1935-04-19). "Pennell Art Seen With Wife'S Work: Exhibition at the Grolier Club Includes His Etchings and Mrs. Pennell's Books". New York Times. p. 19.
  25. ↑ H.H. Harriss (1935-09-08). ". . . Camera". Washington Post. Washington, D.C. p. ST5.
  26. ↑ Edward Alden Jewell (1941-11-12). "Whitney Museum Opens New Show: Annual Exhibition Is Confined to Work of Artists 40 Years of Age or Younger FRESHNESS THE KEYNOTE Ganso Canvases and Papers of Water-Colors Are Put on View in Separate Display". New York Times. p. 21.
  27. ↑ Henry McBride (1942-05-01). "Felicia Meyer Exhibits". New York Sun. New York, New York. p. 29. Felicia Meyer, now exhibiting in the Wakefield Gallery, is at her clearest and most effective, in her painting of "Pink and White Lillies." The next best, always from the point of view of clarity, is the "Cafe Lafayette," and this is lucky, since this cafe is secure in the affections of New Yorkers and deserves to be immortalized. The landscapes, of which there are many, are imbued with feeling, and have passages of good painting, but are over complicated. The clouds, in particular, have a tendency to be confusing.
  28. ↑ "Display Ad: Frank Rehn; Felicia Meyer, paintings". New York Times. 1969-11-23. p. D28.
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