Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha

Description

Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha

Minerva Teichert, 1935

Teichert invites the viewer into this intimate domestic scene, showing the New Testament story from Luke 10:38-40 of the Savior teaching in the home of Mary and Martha. In Teichert’s imagination, a kind and patient Jesus expounds upon sacred scrolls of text. The glow around the head of Christ, as well as the additional light of a window directly behind him and his white clothing, emphasize his divine status. Mary is completely engrossed in the writings and his teachings, while Martha listens nearby holding a plate of food.

Both the lighting and the rounded overhead arch were influenced by Leon-Augustin Lhermitte’s painting Among The Humble which Teichert copied while studying at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1915. The thin application of paint, loose brushstrokes, and shallow space are all indicative of mural style painting, which Teichert adopted during her training in New York City. (“A Studio of Her Own” 1/24-9/12/2020)

Jesus at the Home of Mary and Martha is part of the Beholding Salvation and Pageants in Paint exhibitions.

More About Teichert

The works of western American artist, Minerva Teichert, have received increasingly popular and critical acclaim in recent years.  Today, the LDS community loves Teichert. She is a woman who successfully combined both faith and family and left an extraordinary legacy of artistic production.

Minerva Kohlhepp was born in North Ogden, but grew up homestead farming in the vicinity of American Falls, Idaho. Her father encouraged her childhood sketching. Soon, she developed an “indomitable will to succeed and excel in the field of art.” She taught school to raise enough money to go to Chicago for her art studies.

She attended the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Students League of New York in the early 1900s. There, mural paintings and theatrical pageants were dynamic components of American popular culture. Teichert embraced these art forms. Following the admonition of her art teacher – the American realist painter Robert Henri – she used the visual language these murals provided to tell the narrative of her religious heritage as well as that of the American West.