This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| When Mary Shepard Greene married Ernest Blumenschein in 1905, she was a celebrated artist who had studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City and then had gone to Paris in the 1890s to study with Raphael Collin. In 1900 and 1902, she won medals for her painting at the Paris Salon, the second American woman to earn such an honor. (The first was Mary Cassatt). She also received medals at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.
While studying in Paris, she met Ernest Blumenschein, a prominent illustrator who worked with prominent writers such as Willa Cather, Stephen Crane and Jack Londond. The couple married in 1905, to the consternation of her friends, who thought that a prominent painter should not be marrying an illustrator, and that it would damage Greene’s career. In fact, both of their careers went on fine. Even after their move to New York in 1909, Greene continued to exhibit widely in Europe, as well as the United States.
Back in New York, the Blumenscheins both taught at the Pratt Institute. Ernest worked tirelessly at his paintings and as an illustrator during the fall and winter, and spent every summer in Taos. Mary would not accompany him on these sojourns, as she was genuinely terrified of the American Indians. Her fears were obviously unfounded, as her husband returned safely from his summer trips, year after year. They remained in New York, and Ernest Blumenschein began to have great success exhibiting his paintings.
In 1917, Mary Blumenschein received an inheritance that included a nice house in Brooklyn, the sale of which two years later left the Blumenscheins financially independent. At that time, Mary finally acquiesced to moving the family to Taos, in no small part because their daughter was in fragile health, and it was hoped that the dry Western air would be good for her. The whole family settled quite comfortably at Taos in 1919, their money enabling them to buy a large property, and Ernest Blumenschein went to work at painting.
In New York City, she had been working as an illustrator for American Magazine, Colliers and Town and Country but from the time of their move, she made her career secondary to that of her husband's and to the raising of a daughter, and eventually she focused more on jewelry design and architectural work than painting.
Source:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
Mark Sublette, Medicine Man Gallery
| |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Shepard Blumenschein is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
San Francisco Panama-Pacific Exhibition 1915
Taos Pre 1940
|
|
|