Queen Esther

Description

Queen Esther

Minerva Teichert, 1939

The Old Testament story of Esther relates how the young Jewish queen placed her own life in danger in order to save the lives of her people. When this was painted in 1939, Jewish people across Europe were facing terrible persecution from Nazi dictatorship during World War II. Teichert was influenced by the situation in Europe, as she painted two more paintings with Jewish subjects in this same year. She depicts Esther at the moment when the Persian king chooses her as his bride. Set apart from the other women, Queen Esther wearing a simple white dress and veil in contrast to the heavily ornamented women standing behind her.

Teichert loved stories of women in the scriptures and honored many of them in her paintings. For this painting the artist used a local Cokeville resident, Betty Curtis, as the model. Teichert painted two versions of it and presented one to Betty, for her wedding. (“A Studio of Her Own” 1/2020-9/2020)

Queen Esther is part of the Pageants in Paint exhibition.

What’s Going On?

The image depicts a portrait-like female figure dressed in a flowing white dress with a blue waist girdle and a white veil.  Two long plaits of hair, one over each shoulder, extend down to her hands.  Next to her, on the right, is a large pot with palm fronds.  Behind the palms are three female figures. There are two Roman arches in the background, behind all the figures. A painted decorative gold border with blue circled patterns throughout is broken along bottom edge by the words “Esther is chosen queen” written in gold gothic script with a blue background.

More About Teichert

One of at least three portraits of Esther, but one of the few Old Testament subjects painted by Teichert, this piece conveys a meek, confident Esther.

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.