Jeanne Taylor (December 1, 1912 – December 2, 1992) was an American regionalist style painter and graphic designer from Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Early life and education

Jeanne Taylor was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on December 1, 1912. She attended the University of Minnesota, the St. Paul School of Art and 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 ...

Career

Taylor was a leader of the Regionalist movement in Minnesota, painting reassuring images of the local heartlands during the Great Depression. Her work is displayed in the Minnesota Historical Center. Exhibitions include: Minnesota State Fair,

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She was a supervisor for the Index of American Design during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and a member of the Minnesota WPA Federal Art Project. In 1937, she received an honorable mention for her landscape presented at the Minnesota State Fair. She moved to

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

for work with the

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...

. Afterwards, Taylor worked in Graphic Design in New York City and was an art and shop teacher at the

Little Red School House The Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, also referred to as LREI, is a school in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Elisabeth Irwin in 1921 as the Little Red School House and is one of the city's first progressive s ...

before retiring to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Personal life

In 1944, anthropologist

Cora Du Bois Cora Alice Du Bois (October 26, 1903 – April 7, 1991) was an American cultural anthropologist and a key figure in culture and personality studies and in psychological anthropology more generally. She was Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray ...

moved to Ceylon to serve as chief of research and analysis for the Army's Southeast Asia Command. Taylor entered into a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

relationship with Du Bois and they lived together as a couple; and in the mid-1950s they visited Paul and

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

in Paris. Du Bois's obituary in '' The New York Times'' referred to Taylor as "her longtime companion", and her

Harvard Library Harvard Library is the umbrella organization for Harvard University's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world. Its collection ...

biography says Taylor was "her companion" and they "enjoyed an active social life".

Death

Jeanne Taylor, aged 80, died on December 2, 1992 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Jeanne 1912 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American women artists American women painters American lesbian artists Artists from Saint Paul, Minnesota Art Students League of New York alumni University of Minnesota alumni 20th-century American LGBT people