Edith Hamlin

Edith Ann Hamlin (1902–1992)[1] was an American landscape and portrait painter, and muralist. She is known for her social realism murals created while working with the Public Works of Art Project, Federal Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture during the Great Depression era in the United States and for her decorative style paintings of the American desert.[1][2]

Edith A. Hamlin
Edith Hamlin
Photo by Sonya Noskowiak
BornJune 23, 1902
Oakland, California
DiedFebruary 18, 1992 (aged 89)
San Francisco, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia School of Fine Arts
Columbia University
Known forPainting, murals
MovementSocial realism
Spouse(s)Albert Barrows (1933–1936)
Maynard Dixon (1937–1946)

Biography

Born in Oakland, California, she was exposed to art by her father, Charles Hamlin, who took her on sketching trips as a small child. Hamlin won a scholarship to the California School of Fine Arts (1922-1924) and later attended the Teachers College at Columbia University from 1929 until 1932.[3][4]

She maintained a studio in San Diego throughout the 1920s. In 1933, Hamlin established a studio in San Francisco, and was briefly married to artist Albert Barrows. By 1936 they divorced.[1]

Edith Hamlin's Coit Tower mural depicted hunting
Edith Hamlin's mural at the Mission High School in San Francisco)

During the early 1930s, she traveled around New Mexico and Arizona. She was selected to paint murals for the Public Works of Art Project at the Coit Tower,[5] and completed a WPA Federal Art Project mural for Mission High School in San Francisco.[6][7] On the second floor of Coit Tower, she completed a mural named "Sports and Hunting in California". It currently has limited public access due to its location.[8][9] She worked with Maynard Dixon on the murals, whom she married in 1937, after she divorced her first husband in 1936.[3]

She also painted for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC.[10]

Hamlin completed another project for the WPA as she painted two large murals for the Mission High School (San Francisco).[1]

Maynard Dixon and Edith Hamlin's house

She and Dixon moved to Tucson in 1939 [11] and maintained a summer home in Mt. Carmel, Utah. In Tucson, she completed numerous public murals including two for the Santa Fe Railroad. After Dixon died in 1946, Hamlin had his ashes buried on a hill near their house where she also constructed a studio for herself.[12] She married the artist Frank Knight Dale[13] who did not live long and she returned to San Francisco in 1953,[3] where she died in 1992.[7]

Legacy

The Maynard and Edith Hamlin Dixon House and Studio, operated by the Thunderbird Foundation, offers guided tours by appointment of their home and studio in Mount Carmel, Utah.[12] Their house has been on the Register of Historic Places since 2002.[14]

Notable work

Arizona projects and murals
  • Grand Canyon Pueblo & Taos Pueblo, Painted in the Tucson Medical Center Old Administration Building for Santa Fe Railroad Chicago City Ticket Office, Oil and Canvas 1947. Buck Weaver and Milford Zornes assisting.
  • The Legend of Sun and Earth, Arizona Biltmore Hotel Dining Room; Phoenix, Arizona, Oil and Canvas, 1949.
  • Christ and the Children, St. Ambrose Catholic Church; Tucson, Arizona, Ethyl Silicate, 1950. (Over Painted)
  • Fray Marcos de Niza on an Exploration Trip to Arizona, Jacome's Department Store; Tucson, Arizona, Steel-Reinforced Concrete, 1951 with Jack Maul, Ettore DeGrazia and George Hardy assisting (Jacome donated the pieces to the city, and it now hang at the Tucson Convention Center, one at the west entrance and the other outside the Leo Rich Theatre).[15]
  • Tucson in the ‘70s’ Old Pueblo Club; Tucson, Arizona, Oil and Panel, 1952.

California projects and murals
  • Mission San Francisco de Asis, (painted with Jay Risling assisting), Mission High School Library, San Francisco, California[16]
  • Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts as Taught to the Neophyte Indians, (painted with Betty Willey), Mission High School Library, San Francisco, California[17]
  • Sports and Hunting in California mural, Coit Tower, San Francisco, California [9]
  • Overland Pioneers, Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California, (painting is now missing)[18]
  • Spaniards, Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California[19]
  • Days of the First Railroad, Tracy Post Office, Tracy, California[20]

See also

References
  1. "About Edith Hamlin (June 23, 1902 - February 18, 1992)". Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  2. "EDITH HAMLIN (1902-1992)". California Art Research Archive. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  3. www.gowestweb.com, GoWest Web Design. "Edith Hamlin | Thunderbird Foundation for the Arts". www.thunderbirdfoundation.com. Retrieved 2018-04-25.
  4. St. Gaudens, Maurine. Emerging from the shadows : a survey of women artists working in California, 1860-1960. ISBN 9780764348877. OCLC 1061807224.
  5. "Coit Tower: Hamlin Mural – San Francisco CA". Living New Deal. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  6. "Mission High School Murals – San Francisco CA". Living New Deal. Retrieved 2016-03-22.
  7. Trenton, Patricia; D'Emilio, Sandra (1995). Jeanne D'Andrea (ed.). Independent spirits: women painters of the American West, 1890-1945. Autry Museum of Western Heritage. p. 150.
  8. "Coit Tower & PWAP Murals on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco". inetours.com. Lee W. Nelson. Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  9. Tibbetts, John. "Coit Tower "Hunting in California" Mural – San Francisco CA". The New Living Deal. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  10. Moore, Sylvia (1989). Yesterday and tomorrow : California women artists. New York: Midmarch Arts Press. pp. 15. ISBN 0960247696.
  11. "Dixon, (Lafayette) Maynard". oxfordartonline.com. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  12. "About the Foundation". Thunderbird Foundation. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
  13. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0p3001pw/entire_text/
  14. Bingham, Paul; et al. (2001). "National Register of Historic Places Registration form" (PDF).
  15. "Photos: Jacome Family #5". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
  16. "Mission High School "Mission San Francisco de Asis" Mural – San Francisco CA". The New Living Deal. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  17. "Mission High School "Civilization Through the Arts and Crafts as Taught to the Neophyte Indians" Mural – San Francisco CA". The New Living Deal. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  18. "Tracy Post Office "Overland Pioneers" – Tracy CA". The New Living Deal. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  19. "Tracy Post Office Spaniards". The New Living Deal. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  20. "Tracy Historical Museum "Days of the First Railroad" Mural – Tracy CA". The Living New Deal. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  • Arnold, Elliott, Tucson Festival of Arts, 1951.
  • Ainsworth, Edward, Widening Horizons: Painters of the Western Desert, 1952.
  • Kovinick, Phil. The Women artist in the American West, 1976.
  • Eric Firestone Gallery, Women Artist of the West, 2004
  • DVD- Maynard Dixon Art and Spirit 2008
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