Bertha Mae Landers (1911–1996) was an American painter and printmaker. A native of Winnsboro, Texas, where she was raised, Landers graduated from Sul Ross State Teachers College in 1931 with a bachelor's degree in art. She studied at the

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College (FAC) is an arts center located just north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Located on the same city block are the American Numismatic Association and part of the campus of Colorado ...

and at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

, at the latter working under the tutelage of Reginald Marsh. Further lessons occurred under Olin Travis at the Dallas Art Institute and with

Henry Varnum Poor Henry Varnum Poor (December 8, 1812 – January 4, 1905) was an American financial analyst and founder of H.V. and H.W. Poor Co, which later evolved into the financial research and analysis bellwether, Standard & Poor's. Biography Born in East A ...

and

Arnold Blanch Arnold Blanch (June 4, 1896 – October 3, 1968), was born and raised in Mantorville, Minnesota. He was an American modernism, American modernist painter, etcher, illustrator, lithographer, muralist, printmaker and art teacher. Life His modern ...

. Long employed by the

Dallas Public Library The Dallas Public Library system serves as the municipal library system of the city of Dallas, Texas (USA). History In 1899, the idea to create a free public library in Dallas was conceived by the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs, led by pre ...

, she founded its audiovisual department in 1942. She began to be active in California in the 1930s, while still living in Dallas, and later settled in the state. In Escondido, in 1956, she founded Landers Film and Video Reviews; she died in San Diego. Landers belonged to a number of artistic organizations during her career, including the Southern States Art League, Southern Printmakers, and the Texas Fine Arts Association; she was a charter member of the

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

. In 1939 she was one of eight women who founded the Printmakers Guild, later called Texas Printmakers, to challenge the male-dominated Lone Star Printmakers; the others were

Lucile Land Lacy Alma Lucile Land Lacy (August 18, 1901 – October 29, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Biography A native of Temple, Texas, Lacy was a pupil of Ellen Douglas Stuart and Ella Koepke Mewhinney. She graduated from Baylor Female C ...

, Stella Lamond, Mary Lightfoot, Verda Ligon, Blanche McVeigh, Coreen Mary Spellman, and Lura Ann Taylor. During her career, she exhibited widely in Texas and California, showing work at venues elsewhere in the United States as well. In 1940 she held a one-woman show at the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

. That institution owns a

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

by her, ''Forgotten'', as well as an

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

and

aquatint Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching that produces areas of tone rather than lines. For this reason it has mostly been used in conjunction with etching, to give both lines and shaded tone. It has also been used h ...

, ''Market Day'', and nine

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

s. Four more prints, the 1946

screenprint Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

''Ad Infinitum'' and three lithographs are owned by the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

; they are part of the donation made to the museum by Reba and Dave Williams of the Print Research Foundation in 2009. The 1914 lithograph ''Mexican Funeral'' is held by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Works by Landers may also be found in the collections of the

San Antonio Museum of Art The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is an art museum in Downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. The museum spans 5,000 years of global culture. The museum is housed in the historic former Lone Star Brewery (1886) on the Museum Reach of the San Antonio ...

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , prov ...

, and the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

References

1911 births 1996 deaths American women painters American women printmakers 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists People from Winnsboro, Texas Painters from Texas Sul Ross State University alumni {{US-painter-1910s-stub