Louise Brann (1906-1982) was an American painter who worked in the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

during 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 ...

. She created large public art installations and was a prolific portrait painter in Westchester County, New York, working between 1932 and 1980.

Biography

Louise Brann was born August 18, 1906, in

Mount Vernon, New York Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, immediately to the north of the Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. As of t ...

, and attended Jefferson School and Davis High School. She studied art at the Art Students League in New York City and Cooper Union. At Cooper Union, she received a traveling scholarship to Europe for three years where she studied at Fontainebleau and created several frescoes in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and Montereau. After returning to the United States, she produced several large public art projects, most notably the

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

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 ...

at the Mount Vernon Library in Mount Vernon, NY based on a Goebelin

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

, ''

The Lady and the Unicorn ''The Lady and the Unicorn'' (french: La Dame à la licorne) is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Par ...

.'' The four panels were commissioned by the

and created between 1937 and 1938. Other works include "Vocal Music" at the Wood Auditorium in Mount Vernon; a decorative frieze in the Hotel Belvedere in New York City; and a mural at the Nichols Junior High School auditorium. In 1940, she married Wayne Amsden Soverns, a New York architect. They resided in Mount Vernon and Larchmont, New York, until her death in 1982. Her later works were painted under the name Louise Soverns.

The Mount Vernon Fresco

The Mount Vernon Public Library fresco was one of the largest ever undertaken by the Federal Art Project. It circles an entire room that is 30 feet by 34 feet. The fresco covers 1080 square feet of wall. It required 16 months to complete, with the artist completing about one square foot per day. The work was completed in time for a grand opening of a new library addition during October, 1938. The fresco is divided into four main sections, reflecting education, occupation, diversion, and recreation. The artist drew inspiration from the ''Lady and the Unicorn t''apestries in the Cluny Museum in Paris and from other fifteenth century tapestries. In 1966, with financial backing from the New York State Council on the Arts and others, the artist completed a restoration of the project, including replacing some damaged mortar and rejuvenating some of the paint, especially the reds. Img - hd - 557

Other Public Art Projects

1931 Fresco in chapel of Sacré Coeur in Montereau, France 1932-33 Frescoes in the American and Belgian Foundations of the Cite Universitaire, Paris 1934 - Four mural panels, each 14'6" x 7'8", in the auditorium of Nichols Junior High School, Mount Vernon, NY 1940 - "Vocal Music" mural, 18' high x 4' wide, honoring Theodore Von Yorx in Wood Auditorium, Mount Vernon, NY 1940 - Two murals in the Entrance Hall of Davis High School, Mount Vernon, NY 1942 - Mural painting, on wooden screen 3' high x 6' wide, for display in a United States Navy training station and winner of a competition resulting in being displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. 1948 - "Palmer" mural, 18' high by 4' wide, honoring Jasper T. Palmer, in Wood Auditorium, Mount Vernon, NY

Portraits

Louise Brann was a prolific portrait artist, although there is no record of her total output and almost all of her works were sold to private parties. She is known to have painted in 1935 a commissioned portrait of Dr. Karl Lorenz, the founder and conductor of the Philharmonic Symphony Society of Yonkers. After her marriage and the birth of her children, she worked from a studio in her home and painted many life size portraits of men, women, and children. This article includes photographs of two of her early portraits, now in a private collection. Woman in Black Lace

References

External links