Broadening the Texas Perspective:Rediscovered Paintings of Emma Richardson Cherry

December 7, 2012 - January 12, 2013

Cover Image: Valldemosa, 1926, oil on canvas, 19.75 x 23 inches

Introduction

Foreword by Randy Tibbits

Exhibition Checklist

Plates

Emma Richardson Cherry: Selected Career Highlights

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Table of Contents

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Emma Richardson Cherry was Houston’s first profes-sional 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 An-tonio 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 count-less 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 fol-lowing 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

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 inspi-ration 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 im-portant, 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-

Broadening the Texas Perspective: Rediscovered Paintings of Emma Richardson Cherry by Randy Tibbits

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 Richard-son 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 in-cluded 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 what-ever place she happened to be in as she painted. Dur-ing 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

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 trans-form 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 Hous-ton 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 fur-nish 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,

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 paint-ings cement her reputation as the preeminent artist of early Houston, a powerful artistic force throughout Texas, and a significant and underrated American art-ist. This is a rare opportunity to enjoy, to study and even to own examples of her best work from through-out 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.

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 lim-ited. … 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. Flow-ers of all kinds, for all seasons and all occasions. Large flowers and small flowers. Single flowers and burgeon-ing 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.” (Hous-ton Press, April 16, 1937).

Some of her flower portraits have the Dutch profusion of Untitled (88th Birthday Flowers) (plate 11) and Birth-day Flowers (plate 6); some, the closely observed botani-cal detail of Untitled (Magnolia Seeds) (plate 13)w; some,

Plate Title of Work Date Medium Size (inches)1 Althea (Rose of Sharon) 1 n.d. oil on board 6.75 x 8.52 Althea (Rose of Sharon) 2 n.d. oil on board 6.75 x 8.53 California Dahlias c.1923 oil on canvas 26 x 204 From Walter Brook to ‘Ma Cherry, 89th B.Day 1948 oil on canvas 8.25 x 5.255 Untitled (still life) n.d. oil on canvas 27.75 x 336 Birthday Flowers n.d. oil on canvas 29.5 x 24.5 7 Iris (on Silver Plate) n.d. oil on board 23.5 x 17.58 Untitled (water lilies) n.d. oil on board 10 x 89 Pond Lillies (in pool, pink, no.3) n.d. oil on board 8.5 x 12.2510 Pond Lillies in pool, pale yellow (no.2) n.d. oil on board 9 x 12.511 Untitled (88th birthday flowers) 1947 oil on canvas 28.5 x 22.2512 Untitled (yellow hibiscus) n.d. oil on board 8 x 1013 Untitled (magnolia seeds) n.d. oil on board 10.375 x 7.2514 Untitled (magnolia) n.d. oil on canvas 19 x 1515 Untitled (red and blue flowers) n.d. oil on board 17 x 1416 Interpretation in Red c.1925 oil on canvas 27.75 x 17.517 Untitled (a single tree) n.d. pastel 11.5 x 8.7518 Blue Bonnets & Indian Blankets n.d. oil on canvas 17 x 11.519 Untitled (white lillies) n.d. oil on canvas 35.5 x 25.7520 Untitled (flower sketch) n.d. oil on panel 14 x 1821 White Roses, terracotta jar (no.2) n.d. oil on canvas 16 x 2022 Spider Lillies & Crêpe Myrtle c.1931 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25.523 Crêpe Myrtle (Pink) n.d. oil on canvas 23 x 19.524 Untitled (column) n.d. oil on board 10 x 825 Untitled (doric column) n.d. oil on board 20 x 1426 Southern Morning n.d. oil on canvas 23.5 x 19.527 Untitled (countryside house) n.d. oil on board 13.5 x 9.528 Shadow Patterns n.d. oil on canvas 19.5 x 1329 Untitled (bridge) n.d. oil on board 4.75 x 830 Country Home, New England c.1929 oil on canvas 7.75 x 9.7531 New Braunfels-Walter Brook & Friends 1940 oil on board 6.75 x 9.532 Untitled (bluebonnet field) n.d. oil on board 14 x 16.5

eXHIBITION cHECKLIST Broadening the Texas Perspective: rediscovered Paintings of emma richardson cherry

Plate Title of Work Date Medium Size (inches)33 Untitled (moonlit waterfall) n.d. oil on board 9.75 x 5.7534 Hall in Hollywood c.1921 oil on board 20 x 1635 Untitled (Hollywood house) c.1921 oil on canvas 24 x 2036 San Clemente-Rome 1910 oil on canvas 20.5 x 16

37Untitled (copy of Titian’s Madonna and Child with Saint Agnes and Saint John the Baptist - Holy Family, Louvre) n.d. oil on board 6 x 8

38 City Wall (Fribourg, Suisse) c.1928 watercolor 6.75 x 539 Tower in Brussels c.1911 watercolor 9.75 x 6.7540 Algiers (1 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) 1926 pastel 7.5 x 1141 Biskra Camp (2 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) 1926 watercolor 7.5 x 1142 Constantine (3 of 3 from Travel Notes, North Africa) 1926 watercolor 7.5 x 1143 Pouliguen 1925 oil on canvas 9.5 x 7.544 Gondolas on the Canal 1925 watercolor 10 x 745 Casa Blanché-Naples (Vesuvius) 1910 pastel 3 x 5.546 Early Morning n.d. watercolor 11 x 15.7547 Olives & Almonds (Island of Majorca) 1926 watercolor 12 x 948 Majorcan Spring (Valledemosa) 1926 oil on canvas 29.5 x 24.549 Valldemosa 1926 oil on canvas 19.75 x 2350 The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas 1911 oil on canvas 9 x 1251 Madonna d’Avignon 1925 oil on canvas 23.75 x 19.552 Deep South c.1937 oil on canvas 36 x 3653 Untitled (Randolph Field Officers’ Quarters) n.d. oil on board 10.25 x 854 Randolph Field, The Crêpe Myrtle c.1938 oil on board 10 x 855 Club at Randolph Field c.1938 oil on board 9 x 556 Tower at Randolph c.1938 oil on board 8.75 x 557 The Administration Center, Randolph Field c.1938 oil on board 19 x 1358 Untitled (Randolph Field) c.1930 oil on board 10 x 1259 Beam & Fog, Randolph Field c.1942 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25.7560 Untitled (Dorothy) c.1925 oil on board 19.5 x 13.561 Portrait, Mrs. Reid c.1936 oil on canvas 35.5 x 2562 Major Reid 1936 oil on canvas 40 x 2863 Garden of Pan c.1922 oil on canvas 36 x 26

eXHIBITION cHECKLIST Broadening the Texas Perspective: rediscovered Paintings of emma richardson cherry

Plates

1. Althea (Rose of Sharon) 1, n.d., oil on board, 6.75 x 8.5 inches

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

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4. From Walter to ‘Ma Cherry, 89th B.Day, 1948, oil on canvas, 8.25 x 5.25 inches

5. Untitled (still life), n.d., oil on canvas, 27.75 x 33 inches

6. Birthday Flowers, n.d., oil on canvas, 29.5 x 24.5 inches 7. Iris (on Silver Plate), n.d., oil on board, 23.5 x 17.5 inches

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9. Pond Lillies (in pool, pink no.3), n.d., oil on board, 8.5 x 12.25 inches

10. Pond Lillies in pool, pale yellow (no.2), n.d., oil on board, 9 x 12.5 inches

8. Untitled (water lilies), n.d., oil on board, 10 x 8 inches

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11. Untitled (88th birthday flowers), 1947, oil on canvas, 28.5 x 22.25 inches

12. Untitled (yellow hibiscus), n.d., oil on board, 8 x 10 inches

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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

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15. Untitled (red and blue flowers), n.d., oil on board, 17 x 14 inches 16. Interpretation in Red, c.1925, oil on canvas, 27.75 x 17.5 inches

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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

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20. Untitled (flower sketch), n.d., oil on panel, 14 x 18 inches

21. White Roses, terracotta jar (no.2), n.d., oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches18

19. Untitled (white lillies), n.d., oil on canvas, 35.5 x 25.75 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

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25. Untitled (doric column), n.d., oil on board, 20 x 14 inches

24. Untitled (column), n.d., oil on board, 10 x 8 inches

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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

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28. Shadow Patterns, n.d., oil on canvas, 19.5 x 13 inches

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30. Country Home, New England, c.1929, oil on canvas, 7.75 x 9.75 inches

29. Untitled (bridge), n.d., oil on board, 4.75 x 8 inches

31. New Braunfels-Walter Brook & Friends, 1940, oil on board, 6.75 x 9.5 inches

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33. Untitled (moonlit waterfall), n.d., oil on board, 9.75 x 5.75 inches

32. Untitled (bluebonnet field), n.d., oil on board, 14 x 16.5 inches

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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

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36. San Clemente-Rome, 1910, oil on canvas, 22.5 x 16 inches

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

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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

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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

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43. Pouliguen, 1925, oil on canvas, 9.5 x 7.5 inches 44. Gondolas on the Canal, 1910, watercolor, 10 x 7 inches

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46. Early Morning n.d. watercolor 11 x 15.75 inches

45. Casa Blanché-Naples (Vesuvius) 1910 pastel 3 x 5.5 inches

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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

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49. Valldemosa, 1926, oil on canvas, 19.75 x 23 inches

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50. The Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, 1911, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches

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51. Madonna d’Avignon), 1925, oil on canvas, 23.75 x 19.5 inches

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52. Deep South, c.1937, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

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53. Untitled (Randolph Field, Officers’ Quarters), n.d., oil on board, 10.25 x 8 inches

54. Randolph Field, The Crêpe Myrtle, c.1938, oil on board, 10 x 8 inches

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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

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58. Untitled (Randolph Field), c.1930, oil on board, 10 x 12 inches57. The Administration Center, Randolph Field, c.1938, oil on board, 19 x 13 inches

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59. Beam & Fog, Randolph Field c.1942 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25.75 inches

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60. Untitled (Dorothy) c.1925 oil on board 19.5 x 13.5 inches

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61. Portrait, Mrs. Reid c.1936 oil on canvas 35.5 x 25 inches

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62. Major Reid, 1936, oil on canvas,40 x 28 inches

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Emma Richardson Cherry

SelectedBiographicalandCareerHighlights

• 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

SelectedExhibitions

• 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

SelectedPublicCollections

• Elisabet Ney Museum, Austin• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston• Vanderpoel Collection, Chicago• Witte Museum, San Antonio• Denver Art Museum

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63. Garden of Pan, c.1922 oil on canvas 36 x 26 inches

William Reaves Fine Art2313 Brun Street • Houston, Texas • 77019

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