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Georgina Klitgaard ( Berrian; July 3, 1889/1893 – January 12, 1976) was an American artist.Georgina Klitgaard profile
Smithsonian Institution (includes photograph of Georgina Klitgaard)
Klitgaard was known for panoramic landscape paintings of scenic New York from a bird's-eye view perspective. Her work was reviewed in the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', on April 14, 1929, and in '' The Art Digest'', on November 1, 1929. She painted three
mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
s in
United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...
s during the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.


Education

Born Spuyten Duyvil, New York (now
The Bronx, New York The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New York ...
) in 1889 or 1893 as Georgina Berrian, she graduated from
Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...
. She also studied art at the
National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
. She married Danish writer Kaj Klitgaard (1888-1954) in 1919. The couple had two sons: Peter Klitgaard (1921-1976) and Wallace Berrian Klitgaard (1937-2006). They lived in
Bearsville, New York Bearsville is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the town of Woodstock. It is located along New York State Route 212, within Catskill State Park The Catskill Park is in the Catskill Mountains in New York in the United Sta ...
, near an artist colony in
Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, NY. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 in 2000 ...
. She was among the
List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1933 List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1933. Thirty-eight fellows were elected. 1933 U.S. and Canadian Fellows 1933 Latin American and Caribbean Fellows See also * Guggenheim Fellowship * List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1932 * Li ...
. Georgina Klitgaard died in
Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston. The county is named after the Irish province of Ulster. History ...
on January 12, 1977, one month after the death of her elder son, Peter.


Career

She painted the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...
era
mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
''Pelham Landscape'' (1941) at the
United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...
at
Pelham, Georgia Pelham is a city in Mitchell County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,507 at the 2020 census, down from 3,898 in 2010. Pelham is well-known for its agriculture, with vast farming of cotton and pecans in the area. History Pelham was i ...
. Klitgaard's mural ''The Running of the Hambletonian Stake'' at the United States Post Office (Goshen, New York) (a property listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
) was controversial for featuring
harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, or spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australi ...
, a subject deemed unworthy for public art. Postal murals of the era were supposed to focus on local history and contemporary life, but the Treasury Department's
Section of Painting and Sculpture The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture was a New Deal art project established on October 16, 1934, and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury. Commonly known as the Section, it was rena ...
strongly objected to her intention to paint the track, asking her to paint a local
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
instead. The community indicated its strong support of the track, and she was allowed to paint it.Goshen Post Office National Register of Historic Places nomination form In Jan 1975 she became a member of the National Society of Literature and the Arts.


References


External links


Photo of Georgina Klitgaard
Archives of American Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Klitgaard, Georgina American women painters American muralists 20th-century American painters Barnard College alumni National Academy of Design alumni 1977 deaths Year of birth uncertain Painters from New York City Artists from the Bronx People from Woodstock, New York Federal Art Project artists Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American women artists Women muralists