Houston Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - the 1920s
A Centennial Celebration
The Museum of Fine Arts Houston is 100! That’s right, MFAH opened it’s doors to Houstonians and the world the first time in 1924 – the first art museum in Texas, and now one of the premier art museums in the country – and the world.
Such a momentous centennial is worth celebrating. And so I invite you to join me in the celebration. I’m drawing inspiration from my Substack friend, Rainey Knudson The Impatient Reader, who has started her own celebration which she’s calling MFAH 100 (a love letter to my childhood museum). From now till the end of the year, Rainey will be posting an artwork a day from the MFAH collection, accompanied by her own delightful observations about it. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to MFAH 100 (and also The Impatient Reader) – you’ll be GLAD you did.
I’m not just going to copy Rainey, however. For one thing, I’m only going to do four posts (or maybe five), not 100. And while the works she shares with us will be from the MFAH collection, they won’t necessarily (maybe won’t even often) be by Houston artists.
The works I’ll be posting will be by Houston artists. Some will be part of the MFAH collection; many will not. But all will have been made by artists working in Houston, and shown at MFAH sometime.
I’m starting today with the 1920s, the opening decade. I’ll post works from a new decade each first Wednesday, including one work a year through each decade. Since I’m starting so late in the year, I’ll only get to the 1950s – but are you surprised, knowing that I’m particularly taken with those Earlier Houston Artworks? And besides, ending with the 1950s will be a good beginning for all the fun that will surround the exhibition now being planned for Fall 2025 in the fabulous Julia Ideson Gallery of Houston Public Library:
THE FABULOUS FIFTIES: HOUSTON ART AT THE DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE (much more about the exhibition later).
So here we go. Houston art and the Museum of Fine Arts Centennial. The 1920s.
1923 Emma Richardson Cherry, 1859-1954
Yes, that’s right, 1923. Even though the MFAH building was still under construction, the museum as an institution already existed and had already begun organizing exhibitions. Including an exhibition of the works of Emma Richardson Cherry, in which this painting hung. It seems a particularly appropriate work to begin our celebration, even though not a Texas scene, since Mrs. Cherry (as we all fondly know her, and as her contemporaries did too) struck the spark that came to full flame as MFAH when she inspired the organization of the Houston Public School Art League way back in 1900, to bring art to the citizens of Houston. Cherry painted this work while studying with American artist, Hugh Breckenridge, at his summer school in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1920.
1924 Hattie V. Palmer, 1866-1933
Palmer seems to have been the first Houston artist to have the honor of a one-artist show in the new building, when her works were shown in October 1924. Sometimes known as Houston’s “Bluebonnet Painter,” Palmer painted many subjects – but no disputing it, she did do bluebonnets splendidly. It’s not certain this painting was in the exhibition, since no title list exists, but it’s not unlikely.
1925 Emma Richardson Cherry again
In January 1925 MFAH hung yet another exhibition of the paintings of Mrs. Cherry – fitting for an artist so instrumental in its existence. In that exhibition she included what she called her “Modernist Group,” consisting of some of her most avant-garde works, these two among them. Precious Bowl is her most significant work that is currently in the collection of the museum.
1926 Frederic Browne, 1877-1966
Browne, originally from Ireland, came to Houston by way of Philadelphia and New York City to teach art in the Architecture School of The Rice Institute (now Rice University). Later he also taught at the Museum School, and University of Houston, where he founded the art department. Many of his paintings show scenes of France or North Africa, where he often traveled in the summer, with his French-born wife. This painting hung at the museum in the Second Annual Exhibition of Works by Houston Artists.
1927 Virgie Claxton, 1876-1953
Claxton showed a landscape painting (which could have been this one) in the Houston Annual Exhibition of 1927. Though she had come to painting later in life, Claxton painted with dedication, talent and a distinctive eye, producing paintings far above the ordinary.
1928 Evelyn Byers [later Bessell], 1900-1990
This painting won the first purchase prize in the Houston Annual of 1928, starting a new tradition of such prizes, and becoming part of the museum collection. The artist had studied with John Clark Tidden (see one of his later) at Rice, and then at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA), Tidden’s own alma mater, where he sent his promising artist students, since neither Rice nor Houston had an art school at the time she was his student. By the time her painting won the prize, the Museum School had been founded, and she taught in it.
1929 Emily Langham, 1894-1983
Langham was another talented artist/teacher at the Museum School, where she taught the children’s classes. She’d had her own training at Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans, and at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. She showed this lovely watercolor in the Houston Annual of 1929.
And an extra, John Clark Tidden, 1889-1957
Tidden left Houston to return to the east in 1925, so had little opportunity to show his work at MFAH. But he’d shown elsewhere in Houston for the 10 years he was here, teaching drawing to architecture students at Rice, sending the best of them for further study at PAFA. Even though this painting may not have hung at MFAH, I include Tidden because he was the first artist brought to Houston specifically to teach art – a significant step forward for Houston’s art culture, as was the opening of the museum itself.
Next month, the 1930s!
A delight to learn more about those early years. Thanks.
So great to see these works, Randy! Looking forward to the next installation.