Jessie Beard Rickly (1895-1975) was an American artist and co founder of the

Ste. Genevieve Art Colony The Ste. Genevieve Art Colony was an art collective in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. It was founded in 1932 by Aimee Schweig, Bernard E. Peters, and Jessie Beard Rickly. The Ste. Genevieve Summer School of Art was established in 1934. The colony ...

Biography

Rickly née Beard was born on October 5, 1895, in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. She attended the

St. Louis School of Fine Arts The St. Louis School of Fine Arts was founded as the Saint Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1879 as part of Washington University in St. Louis, and has continuously offered visual arts and sculpture education since then. Its purpose-buil ...

where her teachers included

Oscar E. Berninghaus Oscar Edmund Berninghaus (October 2, 1874 – April 27, 1952) was an American artist and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists. He is best known for his paintings of Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans, New Mexico ...

and

Edmund H. Wuerpel Edmund H. Wuerpel (May 13, 1866 - February, 1958) was an American painter, longtime educator, and second director of the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts, part of Washington University in St. Louis. In his years of training in Paris, Wue ...

. There she first met fellow artist

Aimee Schweig Aimee Gladstone Schweig (1892–1987) was an American artist known as one of the founders of the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony. Her paintings depict primarily local subjects from the Ste. Genevieve and other Missouri areas. Biography Schweig was b ...

. Rickly also studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. She was married to Francis Rickly. In the 1920s Rickly attended

plein air ''En plein air'' (; French for 'outdoors'), or ''plein air'' painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein air' painting ...

painting classes at the

Provincetown art colony The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) is located at 460 Commercial Street in Provincetown, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and is the most attended art museum on Cape Cod. The museum's permanent coll ...

, taught by

Charles Webster Hawthorne Charles Webster Hawthorne (January 8, 1872 – November 29, 1930) was an American portrait and genre painter and a noted teacher who founded the Cape Cod School of Art in 1899. He was born in Lodi, Illinois, and his parents returned to Maine ...

. In the early 1930s, 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 ...

and after the closing of Provincetown art colony, Rickly along with Aimee Schweig and Bernard E. Peters established the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony in

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Ste. Genevieve (french: Sainte-Geneviève ) is a city in Ste. Genevieve Township and is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,999 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1735 by French Canadian colonist ...

. In 1935 Rickly broke ties with the art colony. Rickly went on to organize the group of artists known as ''The New Hats'' which advocated for

Regionalism Regionalism may refer to: * Regionalism (art), an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s * Regionalism (international relations), the expression of a common sense of identity and purpose combined with the creation a ...

and other contemporary art. She was a member of the St. Louis Artists' Guild. Rickly died on August 24, 1975, in Saint Louis, Missouri. Her work is in the collection of 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 ...

, and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

References

External links

images of Rickly's work
on Invaluable {{DEFAULTSORT:Rickly, Jessie Beard 1895 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters Artists from Missouri Harvard University alumni People from Poplar Bluff, Missouri Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts alumni