Description
Washday on the Plains
Minerva Teichert, 1938
In Washday on the Plains, the figures are spread across a shallow pictorial space. The depiction of industrious pioneer women performing the mundane, yet necessary, task of laundry in a spirit of friendly cooperation shows the vital role of women in the settling of the West.
The clean sheets stretched to dry on a line behind the women nearly hide a row of covered wagons, indicating that this is only a brief stop on their long journey. Even so, despite what must have been a physically, mentally, and emotionally challenging trek, Teichert has captured these women in a happy moment of sisterhood underscored by the playful patterns and colors of their dresses.
What’s Going On?
The canvas plane is dominated by four female figures with hanging laundry behind. To the far left, a woman in a large, brimmed sunhat shakes out a large sheet. To her right is a woman in a sunbonnet carrying an empty basket. The two female figures on the right use wash boards to scrub laundry inside half-barreled tubs. In the lower left corner, a man kneels at work. Behind the hanging laundry, we see wagon wheels.
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 both 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.
Washday on the Plains is part of the Pageants in Paint and The First 100 Years exhibitions.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.