American Social Realist Painter (1908 — 1961)
One of four sisters and two brothers, Dorothy Alden Johnson Deyrup was the eldest daughter of Alvin Saunders Johnson, founder of the New School for Social Research, and Edith Henry Alden Johnson.
Early on, Dorothy studied privately with painter and portrait artist, Robert Hallowell, whose portraits included the study of John Reed, and then she graduated from Barnard College in New York City. It is likely that Hallowell introduced his pupil to the Montross Gallery.
Growing up on the Johnson estate in Upper Nyack, New York, the young Dorothy appreciated her neighbor, Edward Hopper’s, work, however, she strove not to be influenced by other artists. She and her family knew Camilo Egas, Director of the Art Department at the New School, and Thomas Hart Benton, whom Dorothy first met in the family apartment, and whose murals were commissioned and installed at the New School along with murals by Jose Orozco.
In addition to her studies with Hallowell, Deyrup studied at the Art Students League, the Grand Central Art School and the New School for Social Research. She also studied woodcut with illustrator, etcher and teacher, Arthur Allen Lewis, and exhibited paintings at the New School for Social Research with muralist and figurative printmaker, Minna Citron.
Deyrup had solo shows at:
Montross Gallery, NYC, 1941
Argent Gallery, the exhibit space of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, NYC, 1944
Wellons Gallery, NYC, 1953
Deyrup’s mediums were oil, watercolor and woodcut. She lived and was active in New York and the Lower Hudson Valley; she visited and painted in Florida and Mobile, Alabama.
Member: National Association of Women Artists and Sculptors. |