Katherine Sibley  McEwen ( 1875- 1957)

Dragoon Mountains Arizona c. 1920’s

Oil on canvas

32 1/4  x 38 1/2 inches.

Inscribe on stretcher : "Katherine McEwen Arizona Desert Landscape"

A rare and beautiful example of the work of  pioneering American  woman artist, Katherine McEwen. This colorful plein Air impressionist landscape painting is  believed to be of Rockfellow Dome, a geological feature of the Cochise Stronghold Canyon, located in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona.  In the foreground we see native plants like the  prickly pear cactus with its distinctive red buds as well as an agave plant and shrubs.  Painted during the 1920’s  while  Katherine lived on the 7 Bar Ranch near Dragoon, Arizona. We can see the influence of her teachers, William Merritt Chase, and Charles Herbert Woodbury, two important artists who were  advocates for American plein air painting.   The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian have a photograph of Katherine and her artist sister Alexandrine at the Arizona Ranch. (copy is enclosed below).

Biography

Katherine McEwen was born in England in 1875 to Robert Forrester McEwen and Mary Sibley Adam McEwen.  She was educated in England and  Germany, then emigrated, with her artist sister Alexandrine, to Wayne, Detroit, Michigan in 1895. They lived with her great aunt Sarah Alexandrine Sibley.  Katherine studied at the  Detroit Art Academy and the Chase School of art in New York, attending art classes with Chase in Spain. She also studied under Charles Herbert Woodbury at his  summer school in Ogunquit, Maine. Woodbury  and Chase were  highly  influential American artist and teachers, both advocating  plein air painting.

In 1906, Katherine  and her sister became  founding members of the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts,  the society became internationally known and was the first Arts and Crafts organization to offer an education program in the arts. Officially becoming a college in 1962, the society changed its name to the Center for Creative Studies-College of Art and Design.  In 2001 they  became the College for Creative Studies, a top automotive design college.

McEwen was a founding member of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, she was president from 1915-1918. 

From 1916-17 – she worked on set designs for DSAC’s Little Theatre with Sam Hume; 19 plays in one season.  Designed and painted “The Lost Silk Hat”, “The Constant Lover”, “The Chinese Lantern”, “Viennese Vaudeville”;  as well as costume designs for “Abraham and Isaac” and masks for “The Seven Deadly Sins”.  Not to mention the over 300 costumes she designed and made, with the help of Alexandrine and Helen Plumb, for “The Cranbrook Masque” held here in 1916.

A talented mural painter, Katherine was a member of the American National Society of Mural Painters. In the early 1930’s she  was part of a team called the “Fresco Block of Mural Painters” who helped Mexican artist  David Alfaro Sisqueiros(1896-1974), complete his first Los Angeles Mural, Street Meeting, a fresco on an exterior wall at Chouinard. She also painted a large fresco at Christ Church and the Arts and Crafts Building for Boy’s both in Cranbrook, Michigan.

She travelled throughout the west painting, often spending time painting  on her family ranch, The 7 bar ranch near Dragoon,  Arizona. ( Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary  of American Painters Sculptors and Engravers has her ranch address as Johnson, Arizona which is slightly north of Dragoon. Once a thriving copper mining town it became a ghost town in the late 1920’s due to a drop in the price of copper.

In 1942, she moved with her sister to British Columbia, where she became a member of the Arts Center of Greater Victoria and continue to paint landscapes. She passed away on December 11th, 1957.

Sources:

Artists of Early Michigan, Arthur Gibson. 1975

Mary Jo Hughes, Curator Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Canada.

Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary  of American Painters Sculptors and Engravers.

Pupil of:

William Merritt Chase, New York

Richard E. Miller, New Hampshire and Los Angeles, California.

John Palmer Wicker, Michigan

Charles Herbert Woodbury, Ogunquit, Maine

Member:

Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptures(charter member and president. (1915-18.)

National Association of Women Artists

National Society of Mural Painters. 

Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts. (founding member).

Exhibited:

Detroit Institute of Art, 1905-1907,1909-11,1914-26, 1928-29.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 1915

Annual Exhibit for Michigan Artists (Scarab Club) 1918-1921.

Architectural League in New York 1921.

Art Institute of Chicago. 1923.

Society of Independent Artists 1917-18, 1923,1928.

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. 1940’s and 1950’s.

Work:

Detroit Institute of Art (water colors)

Christ Church, Cranbrook, Michigan (Frescoes).

Stoney House , now Brookside Cottage, Cranbrook, Michigan (interior stenciling).

Brookside School, Cranbrook. (interior and exterior murals).

Cranbook School for Boys, Cranbrook, Michigan. (Lower dining hall murals)

Studio Loja Saarinen, Cranbrook, Michigan (ceiling murals)

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (watercolors in their permanent collection)

Book References:

Artists in California 1786-1940, Hughes 2002

Who was Who in American Art 1564-1975  Faulk 1999

An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West, Kovinick 1998

The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, Faulk 1990

Annual Exhibition Record, 1914-68, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Faulk 1989

Dictionary of Women Artist, Petteys. 1985

Artists of the American West, Dawdy 1985

Who Was Who in American Art: Artists Active Between 1898-1947, Faulk 1985

The Society of Independent Artist Exhibition Records 1917-1944, Marlor 1984 

Dictionary of American Artists, Opitz. 1982

The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Samuels 1976

Artist of Early Michigan, Collins 1975

History of the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, 1903-1953, Moore 1953

Index of Artist: International-Biographical, Mallett 1935

Provenance:

Estate of  the Artist

Inherited by a friend of the Artist

Additional photos of Catherine McEwen and her artwork below are courtesy of the Cranbrook Archives, please contact them at    http://www.cranbrook.edu/archives/  if you wish to use the photos credited to them below.