Jessie Burns Parke (December 2, 1889 – March 6, 1964), a notable American artist of the
Boston School (painting)
The Boston School was a group of Boston-based painters active in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Often classified as American Impressionists, they had their own regional style, combining the painterliness of Impressionism with ...
, has become best known for creating the art for the cards in the Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) tarot card deck. An oil painter and watercolorist, Parke created both easel paintings and miniatures as well as graphics, etchings, and illustrations. She focused on landscapes, nature scenes, and portraits.
Biography
Parke was born in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...]
’s emblem design competition winning an honorable mention in 1910.
Parke moved to Arlington, MA, in 1914. She studied at the
New York School of Applied Design for Women
The New York School of Applied Design for Women, established in 1892, was an early design school for women in New York City. The New York School of Applied Design building was built in 1908 and is now a landmarked building.
The school became the ...
(now
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...
) and the Chase School (now
Parsons School of Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
). From 1920 - 1921, she studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School (now the
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University). She also studied independently with artists
Philip Leslie Hale
Philip Leslie Hale (1865–1931) was an American Impressionism, American Impressionist artist, writer and teacher. His work was part of the Art competitions at the 1932 Summer Olympics#Painting, painting event in the Art competitions at the 1932 ...
, William James, and Frederick L. Bosley.
In 1921, Parke earned the prestigious two-year Paige Traveling Scholarship from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School for travel to Europe. This support allowed her to study in Paris and travel through Europe until 1924.
Returning to Boston at that time, she established a studio at 121 Newbury Street. Parke also worked at Warren Kay Vantine’s Boston portrait photography studio, which opened in 1922 and was active through the 1940s.
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 ...
, Parke participated in
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
(renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939) programs, creating and exhibiting art. Her work appeared in a federal art gallery space in Boston as part of a 1936 painting exhibit, which later traveled throughout the state before organizers distributed the works to various public offices and institutions.
Besides Boston, during her career Parke worked in Paterson, NJ, although she lived in
Arlington, Massachusetts
Arlington is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 census.
History ...
for 50 years before she died. She belonged to the
American Society of Miniature Painters
The American Society of Miniature Painters (ASMP) was an association of miniature painters, organized in March 1899.
The ten founding members of the ASMP included Virginia Richmond Reynolds, Isaac A. Josephi, William Jacob Baer, Alice Beckington ...
and the
Society of Independent Artists
Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York.
Background
Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...
. She exhibited at the Albright Art Gallery; Arlington, Massachusetts, Women’s Club; Boston Art Club; Federation of Women’s Clubs in Massachusetts; Ogonquit, Maine, Art Center; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Society of Independent Artists; and at the 1924 Salon d’Automne in Paris.
Parke won the Medal of Honor from the
Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters The Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters was founded in 1901 by Emily Drayton Taylor to promote the work of miniature portrait
A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, Watercolor painting, waterc ...
in 1945 for her portrait, ''Enid'', and received the Elizabeth Muhlhofer Award in 1953.
Parke's notable portrait sitters include
Roscoe Pound
Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a membe ...
, one-time dean of
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
’s law school (now
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law is the law school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university. It is located on the university's Chicago campus. Northwestern Law has been ranked among the top 14, ...
) and later dean of
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each class ...
. She also created portraits of the Baroness de Bistram of Paris; Jessie Allen Fowler, vice president of the American Institute of Phrenology; Edward C. Jeffrey (
E.C. Jeffrey), a Harvard University botanist;
Amos Emerson Dolbear, chair of the Department of Astronomy and Physics, Tufts University; and Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston.
Jessie Burns Parke operated her studio for many years. She died March 6, 1964.
Builders of the Adytum (B.O.T.A.) tarot deck
The
B.O.T.A. tarot deck The BOTA Tarot (also spelled BOTA, B.o.t.A., or BotA) was created by Paul Foster Case, founder of Builders of the Adytum (BOTA), and artist Jessie Burns Parke. Although it is based upon, and for the most part closely resembles, Arthur Edward Waite' ...
, created by Parke and
Paul Foster Case
Paul Foster Case (October 3, 1884 – March 2, 1954) was an American occultist of the early 20th century and author of numerous books on occult tarot and Qabalah. Perhaps his greatest contributions to the field of occultism were the lessons ...
, differs most significantly from nearly all other modern decks created since the
Waite-Smith deck because the images for the
Major Arcana
The Major Arcana are the named or numbered cards in a cartomantic tarot pack, the name being originally given by occultists to the trump cards of a normal tarot pack used for playing card games. There are usually 22 such cards in a standard 78-car ...
and court cards appear as black and white line drawings rather than paintings and the “pip” or
Minor Arcana The Rider–Waite_Tarot.html"_;"title="King_of_Swords_card_from_the_Rider–Waite_Tarot">King_of_Swords_card_from_the_Rider–Waite_Tarot_
The_Minor_Arcana,_sometimes_Lesser_Arcana,_are_the_Suit_(cards).html" ;"title="Rider–Waite_Tarot_.html" ;" ...
cards (also black line drawings) have repeating suit-based images for pentacles, cups, swords, and wands rather than full “story” or scene style designs. For example, the Seven of Swords card shows a geometric arrangement of seven identical swords (three swords in an upward pointing triangle above four swords forming a square) against a white background.
Case, an American occultist, first heard about tarot in 1900 and became a lifelong devotee. From 1918 to 1922, he belonged to Chicago’s Thoth-Hermes Lodge of The Rosicrucian Order of the
Alpha et Omega
The Alpha et Omega was an occult order, initially named the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, co-founded in London, England by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers in 1888. The Alpha et Omega was one of four daughter organisations into which the ...
, an order that replaced the
Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( la, Ordo Hermeticus Aurorae Aureae), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th cen ...
. There, he would have been exposed further to the order’s teachings and the famous
Waite–Smith tarot deck created by Golden Dawn members
A.E. Waite
Arthur Edward Waite (2 October 1857 – 19 May 1942) was a British poet and scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Waite–Smith o ...
and
Pamela Colman Smith
Pamela Colman Smith (16 February 1878 – 18 September 1951), nicknamed "Pixie", was a British artist, illustrator, writer, publisher, and occultist. She is best-known for illustrating the Rider–Waite tarot deck (also called the Rider–Wait ...
.
Like the members of the Golden Dawn, Case saw tarot cards not as a method of fortune telling (which he criticized strongly) but as a means of divination for personal development to seek inner truth and higher consciousness.
Case later resigned from Alpha et Omega and moved east, spending time in his home state of New York and in Boston, where he organized his School of Ageless Wisdom (which supported work accomplished by B.O.T.A.). His teachings included tarot, and Case had written articles and books on the subject. He also wanted to create his own tarot deck, in part out of dissatisfaction with the Waite–Smith deck, especially what he saw as Waite’s deliberate obscurity, omissions, and personal biases.
To correct these errors, which he dubbed “blinds,” and have a deck he deemed acceptable for use with his students, Case, who lacked artistic skills beyond an ability to copy, engaged artist Jessie Burns Parke to create the images for a new deck, which launched in the late 1920s and remains available.
Parke created the images for this deck’s 22
Major Arcana
The Major Arcana are the named or numbered cards in a cartomantic tarot pack, the name being originally given by occultists to the trump cards of a normal tarot pack used for playing card games. There are usually 22 such cards in a standard 78-car ...
in a visual style heavily indebted to Pamela Colman Smith’s pathbreaking artistic work in developing tarot images for the Waite–Smith deck (originally known as the
Rider–Waite tarot deck). Parke also drew on other tarot decks for inspiration as well as the Golden Dawn teachings to insert Hebrew letters within images and otherwise embed esoteric wisdom visually.
Parke's drawings for the BOTA tarot deck differ most significantly from other decks in using Case's "Cube of Space" concept. This feature can be seen in Parke's drawings for the Emperor card.
Her version of the fifth trump, the Hierophant, likely is a portrait of Case. In addition, the plates in
A History of the Occult Tarot include a 1931 drawing of Case by Parke.
It is possible Parke drew the Major Arcana first, with the suit and court cards following substantially later. All the images were made as drawings, without any color, as Case strongly believed students needed to hand color their own cards as part of their personal path and inner experience of spiritual development. The Case-Parke deck continues to be available solely as a black and white deck, with B.O.T.A continuing to offer watercolors and colored pencils through its catalog to promote this point of view.
Nevertheless, after Case’s death B.O.T.A. revised his tarot book to present the Case-Parke Major Arcana images in color. Also, the organization frequently uses colored versions of the Major Arcana for its products and on its website, publications, and other marketing materials.
B.O.T.A., however, makes no mention of Parke anywhere on its site nor in its catalog, even for entries specifically referencing the Case-Parke tarot deck.
Education
* The Chase School (now Parsons School Of Design)
* New York School of Applied Design for Women (now Pratt Institute)
* Boston Museum of Fine Arts School (now School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University)
Exhibitions
* Albright Art Gallery
* Arlington, Massachusetts, Women’s Club
* Boston Art Club
* Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1926
* Federation of Women’s Clubs in Massachusetts
* Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers Society of Washington, D.C., 1953 - 1955
* Ogonquit, Maine, Art Center
* Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 123rd Annual Exhibition: 1927 – 1928, included Parke’s portrait, ''Rita''
* Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters Annual Exhibition of Miniatures: Parke exhibited annually and won the Medal of Honor in 1945 and the Elizabeth Muhlhofer Award in 1953
* Salon d’Automne, 1924, Paris
* Society of Independent Artists: 1925, 1927 – 1933; 1935
Collections
Parke’s work can be found in several private collections:
* Harvard Art Museums, portrait of Edward Charles Jeffrey
* Northwestern University School of Law, portrait of Roscoe Pound
* Philadelphia Museum of Art
*
Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
, portrait of Amos Emerson Dolbear, Chairman of the Department of Astronomy and Physics 1874
Sources
* Augur, Emily E. ''Cartomancy and Tarot in Film: 1940-2010''. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2016.
* ''Boston Globe'', April 5, 1939, and March 8, 1964.
* Collins, Jim L.; and Optiz, Glenn B., editors. ''Women Artists in America: 18th Century To The Present (1790-1980)''. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1980.
* Davenport, Ray. ''Davenport’s Art Reference: The Gold Edition''. Ltb Gordonsart Inc., 2005.
* Decker, Ronald; and Dummett, Michael. ''A History of the Occult Tarot''. Abrams Press, 2013 and ''A History of the Occult Tarot 1870 - 1970''. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 2002.
* Drury, Nevill; and Tillett, Gregory. Illustrated by Elizabeth Trafford Smith. ''The Occult Sourcebook''. New York: Routledge, 2020.
* Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Editor). ''The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005'', 2005.
* Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor). ''Annual Exhibition Record, 1914-68''. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (exhibition catalog), 1989.
* Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor). ''Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975''. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.
* Kaplan, Stuart R.. ''The Encyclopedia of Tarot Volume I'', Stamford, CT: U.S. Games Inc., 1978.
* Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge. ''Index of Artists: International-Biographical''. New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1935.
* Marlor, Clark S. ''The Society of Independent Artists Exhibition Record, 1917-1944'' (exhibition catalog). Madison, CT: Falk Art Reference, 1984.
* Nash, John F., "The Origins and Evolution of the Tarot." ''Esoteric Quarterly'' 12, no. 4 (2017): 67-76.
* Nelson, William; and Shriner, Charles A. ''History of Paterson and Its Environs (The Silk City)''. New York and Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1920.
* Opitz, Glenn B. ''Dictionary of American Artists'', 1982.
* Opitz, Glenn B. (Editor). ''Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers''. Apollo Books, 1986.
* Petteys, Chris, with Gustow, Hazel; Olin, Ferris; and Ritchie, Verna. ''Dictionary of Women Artists: An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900''. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1985.
* Pierce, Patricia Jobe. ''Edmund C. Tarbell and the Boston School of Painting (1889-1980)''. Hingham, MA: Pierce Galleries, Inc., 1980.
* Pollack, Rachel. ''Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom''. San Francisco: Thorsons, 1997.
* Pollack, Rachel. ''The Forest of Souls: A Walk Through the Tarot''. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2003.
* United States Work Projects Administration. ''Government Aid During the Depression to Professional, Technical and Other Service Workers''. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government, 1936.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parke, Jessie Burns
1889 births
1964 deaths
20th-century American painters
20th-century American women artists
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts alumni
American women painters
People from Paterson, New Jersey
New York School of Applied Design for Women alumni
Parsons School of Design alumni
American landscape painters
American portrait painters
Artists from Boston
Painters from Massachusetts
People from Arlington, Massachusetts