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LeConte Stewart (April 15, 1891 – June 6, 1990) was a

Latter-day Saint Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

artist primarily known for his landscapes of rural

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. His

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

included oils, watercolors, pastel and charcoal, as well as etchings, linocuts, and lithographs. His home/studio in

Kaysville, Utah Kaysville is a city in Davis County, Utah. It is part of the Ogden–Clearfield metropolitan area. The population was 27,300 at the time of the 2010 census, with an estimated population of 32,390 in 2019. History Shortly after Latter Day Sain ...

is 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 ...

Personal life

Stewart was born in

Glenwood, Utah Glenwood is a town in Sevier County, Utah, United States. The population was 464 at the 2010 census. History Glenwood was established in 1863 by Mormon pioneers. It was named for an early pioneer, Robert Wilson Glenn. The settlement's origi ...

. His art education began in 1912, at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, and included studies at the

Art Students League 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 ...

summer school at Woodstock, New York, and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

in Chester Springs. In 1917 Stewart went to Hawai'i as a missionary for

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

. After being there about 3 weeks he was given the assignment to create internal murals for the various endowment rooms of the

Laie Hawaii Temple Laie Hawaii Temple is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) located on the northeast shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The temple sits on a small hill, half a mile from the Pacific Ocean, in the town of ...

. This had already been done by Lewis A. Ramsey a few months before. However Ramsey's murals had been placed directly on the walls and were already deteriorating due to high levels of moisture. Besides creating murals Stewart also oversaw the general decorative work of the temple, overseeing the choice of and placement of furniture, carpets and drapes. While he was in Hawai'i Stewart's fiancee Zipporah Layton traveled there from Utah. They were married and Mrs. Stewart began to serve as a teacher at the school the church ran in La'ie while Stewart continued to oversee the artistic and decorative work for the temple. Stewart became the head of the Art Department at the

in 1938, and held that post until his retirement in 1956. Stewart died in

at the age of 99. He was survived by his son, Maynard Dixon Stewart, an artist and much-beloved and respected art instructor (now retired) at San Jose State University.

Work

Stewart is best known for his unidealized landscapes of rural Utah, spawning the term "LeConte Stewart Country." Stewart is quoted as saying, "It is not that I love the lyrical in nature the less, but I feel that in modern life there is no time, no inclination for it. In these pictures I'm trying to cut a slice of contemporary life as it is in the highways and biways as I have found it." Some of Stewart's paintings have a photographic quality from a distance but are actually formed with broad strokes and a thick palette. Much of his work uses direct

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

techniques to convey the meaning of what he saw around him, illustrating things "...that are introspective, that you peer into, that you understand and feel." Stewart stated: "Impressionism is the most important painting innovation of all time....I thought to myself, why not use this technique to express an idea rather than making it the end goal of a painting? I have tried to think of it as a means of interpreting landscaping rather than making it merely impressionistic." Stewart described himself as having an urgency in his work. A plaque in the Kaysville Gallery of Art reads: "I had a great urgency to work as rapidly as possible. Each Saturday I painted one large 24-by-30-inch picture in the morning and another in the afternoon. Between I painted four smaller studies. Six was an average Saturday for me." In addition to landscapes, Stewart also did portraiture and murals. He painted several murals for

(LDS Church) buildings, including works found inside the LDS temples in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, and

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, as well as murals for the

Salt Lake City International Airport Salt Lake City International Airport is a civil-military airport located about west of Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. The airport is the closest commercial airport for more than 2.5 million people and is within a 30-min ...

and the historic

Bigelow-Ben Lomond Hotel The Bigelow Hotel is a historic hotel located at 2510 Washington Blvd. in Ogden, Utah, United States. Opened in 1927, it was known from 1933-2017 as the Ben Lomond Hotel. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. It is nota ...

Legacy

In 1985, the LDS Church published a collectors item titled ''LeConte Stewart: The spirit of landscape'' by Robert Davis, which documented some of his works. 7 November 2002 was declared as "LeConte Stewart Day" in Utah by then Governor Mike Leavitt. The largest public exhibition of LeConte Stewart's work to date began in Salt Lake City on 21 July 2011 and continued until 15 January 2012. It was jointly hosted by the Utah Museum of Fine Arts and the LDS

Church History Museum The Church History Museum, formerly the Museum of Church History and Art, is the premier museum operated by the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, and ...

, with concurrent shows at those museum's individual locations. It was the first collaboration of this kind for those institutions, each of which holds a significant amount of fine art by Utah artists.

Notes

References

LeConte Stewart
Church History Department, LDS Church
LeConte Stewart: About the Artist
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
LeConte Stewart article
at the Springville Museum of Art website
LeConte LeConte Stewart
a biography by the Utah Artists Project, University of Utah * * *

External links

LeConte Stewart: Depression Era Art
Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) - one of the two web based companions to the joint UMFA-Church History Museum exhibitions from 21 July 2011 - 15 January 2012
LeConte Stewart: The Soul of Rural Utah

, LDS Church - second web based companion to the joint UMFA-Church History Museum exhibitions from 21 July 2011 - 15 January 2012
The LeConte Stewart Papers
held at the J. Willard Marriott Library,

Kaysville Gallery of Art, LeConte Stewart Collection
is part of the library in the old city hall building. * —Some examples of Stewart's work

from Christian Nielsen

located in the Church History Museum of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

Photo of Stewart later in life
from the Utah State Historical Society

- a 2nd grade lesson plan about local Kaysville heritage
Works from the Permanent Collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Leconte 1891 births 1990 deaths American Latter Day Saints Artists from Utah Latter Day Saint artists Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni People from Glenwood, Utah People from Kaysville, Utah University of Utah alumni University of Utah faculty