May Slessinger (May 4, 1872 – October 25, 1954) was an American artist specializing in miniatures, based in San Francisco, California.

Early life

May Slessinger was born on May 4, 1872, in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, the daughter of Lewis (or Louis) Slessinger and Caroline Price Slessinger. Her Bavarian-born father, a shoemaker by training, was an

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

veteran, and one of the city's first businessmen. The Slessinger family was Jewish.

Career

Slessinger was a painter who specialized in painting miniature portraits. She was a member of the

San Francisco Art Association The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequence ...

. Of her work at one of the Association's shows in 1903, one report commented that "Miss May Slessinger's work is of a high order of merit, for it shows the fire of the true artist and the technique of a careful worker. One of her miniatures is the size of a dime and every detail of the subject is carefully wrought." Slessinger made miniature portraits of several prominent San Francisco citizens, including artist William Keith, businesswoman

Mary Ann Magnin Mary Ann Magnin (1850–1943) was a Dutch-American businesswoman. She was the co-founder of I. Magnin, an upscale "specialty store" in San Francisco, California. Early life Mary Ann Cohen was born in 1850 in Scheveningen, The Hague, the Netherlan ...

and her son Grover Magnin, and Elizabeth Meyerfeld Roos, the daughter of theatrical entrepreneur Morris Meyerfeld Jr. In 1920,

Queen Marie of Romania Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I. Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parent ...

named Slessinger her court miniaturist, in appreciation of Slessinger's portrait of the queen; dancer

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American actress and dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Career Born ...

, working with the Red Cross in Rumania during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, suggested Slessinger for the portrait commission.

Personal life

Slessinger married oil executive David S. Bachman in 1922, on his deathbed and inherited half his fortune. She lived for many years at the Fairmont Hotel and died on October 25, 1954, in San Francisco. She was 82. Slessinger left a large estate to benefit her relatives and research at the Mount Zion Hospital.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slessinger, May 1872 births 1954 deaths Portrait miniaturists 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters Painters from San Francisco American portrait painters American people of German-Jewish descent