Georgina Klitgaard ( Berrian; July 3, 1893 – January 12, 1977) 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 ''Arts Magazine'' was a prominent monthly magazine devoted to fine art. It was established in 1926 and last published in 1992. History Early years Launched in 1926 and originally titled ''The Art Digest,'' it was printed semi-monthly from Octobe ...

'', on November 1, 1929. Her art work has been mentioned in numerous New York Times articles. The first exhibition she held was in New York at the Whitney Studio Club from Dec. 20, 1927 to Jan. 7, 1928. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933, and her husband Kaj Klitgaard was awarded with a Guggenheim in 1937. 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 Spuyten Duyvil (, ) is a neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It is bounded on the north by Riverdale, on the east by Kingsbridge, on the south by the Harlem River, and on the west by the Hudson River,Wolfe, Gerald R. "Spuyten Duyvil neig ...

(now The Bronx, New York) in 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. She was among the List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1933. 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

Historic Track mural in Goshen post office

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

''Pelham Landscape'' (1941) at the

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 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 * https://www.gf.org/fellows/georgina-klitgaard/ * https://whitney.org/artists/708 * https://livingnewdeal.org/artists/georgina-klitgaard/ * https://www.instagram.com/georginaklitgaard/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Klitgaard, Georgina 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 painters American women muralists 1893 births People from Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx