Leconte Stewart-Landscape With Soul

Leconte Stewart was perhaps the best landscape painter nobody has ever heard of. At least outside of his native Utah, that is. Stewart has long been one of my favorites and I was thrilled to have the chance to see his work up close and personal in a pair of joint exhibits here in Salt Lake City.

I featured part one of the Stewart Exhibit  at the Utah Museum of Fine Art previously and I recently got to see the second half of this show titled Leconte Stewart: The Soul Of Rural Utah at the Church History Museum. If the first half of the show was impressive, I dare say the show at the Church Museum is even better.

The focus is on Stewart's landscapes exclusively and the selection shows his the range and the breadth of his artistic exploration.  You see a progression of stroke technique as the paint becomes thicker for certain periods and ranges from pointillistic at times to very bold and expressive. The rural Utah land he depicts takes on a character and personality of its own during different times of year. One section of the exhibit documents how Stewart painted the same country farm over and over in different seasons.

It was fascinating to see his approach to the same subject at various times of year and under a range of weather conditions. Given the results, it is easy to see why he was so attracted to the place. As I mentioned in the previous post, Leconte Stewart was extremely prolific, painting on location nearly every day into his nineties. As a result, there are thousands of Stewart works in existence.

With so much time under the brush, Stewart became a master of nuance. His color and temperature shifts across the surface of any give work are stunning to behold. I left in awe and respect for his vision and craft.

On a side note, I was also pleased to learn that we will finally be graced with a coffee table sized volume of Stewart's work. It will be forthcoming next year from Gibbs Smith. You can see a preview of the book here. Hopefully this book will go a long way towards placing Leconte Stewart among the greats of American landscape painting where I believe he belongs. In the meantime, Be sure to check out both of the Leconte Stewart shows:

Leconte Stewart: The Soul of Rural Utah at the Church Museum of Art through January 15th, 2012
The museum is located at 45 North West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150 and admission is free.

Leconte Stewart: Depression Era Art at the Utah Museum of Fine Art also through January 15th, 2012
The museum is located at 410 South Campus Drive on the University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City, UT 84112. Admission info here


Leconte Stewart bio and more work here

LeConte Stewart Joint Exhibits

The above painting by LeConte Stewart (1891-1990) was my first exposure to the work of this prolific and talented artist. I was a high school student and there was a retrospective show of his work at the  LDS Church History Museum in Salt Lake City in 1985. I was not as astute at deciphering the language of paint then as I am now (after an additional quarter century of artistic pursuits) but the honesty and passion he displayed for his subject matter resonated with me. I  immediately became a fan.

Utah native LeConte Stewart was born in 1891 in Glenwood, Utah. His Mormon pioneer ancestry ran deep. His grandparents crossed the American plains after joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints after meeting Church prophet Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois and settled in Utah. As a boy, Stewart spent countless hours out among the sage drawing and painting. Despite trepidation from his father about becoming an artist, he went to New York where he studied at the Art Student's League as well as landscape painting in the Catskill Mountains at the Leagues branch there.

LeConte's  passion remained in the West and the pull of desert landscape eventually brought him home to Utah. He spent the remainder of his long and productive career painting things that were familiar to him in his rural surroundings. Stewart's  affection for the desert greatly influenced his art. He would often slip a sprig of sagebrush in his pocket, a symbol of his beloved desert, referring to it as his "eau de cologne".

He documented the depression and it's impact on rural life during a five year stretch from 1931-1936. These scenes of abandoned buildings and run down urban and rural scenes are a slice of history and a stark reminder of the hard times Stewart and indeed all of America suffered through during the Depression years.

He was an avid outdoor painter and spent countless hours painting and sketching directly from nature. He was adept in many mediums including pastel, pen and ink, and watercolor, but his passion was oil painting.Stewart taught art at the University of Utah where he served as chairman of the art department for twenty years. His influence as a painter and teacher in the west and Utah in particular continues to be felt.

There are joint exhibits of Stewart's work on display in Salt Lake City and I am excited to view both parts. In a combined effort, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts is hosting LeConte Stewart: Depression Era Art and the LDS Museum of History is showing LeConte Stewart- The Soul of Rural Utah.

A wonderfully thoughtful review of the UMFA show can be found at Artwife Needs A Life

Both Shows are on display through January 15, 2012. The combined exhibits showcase over 200 of Stewart's works. The UMFA show is $7.00 per person and the Church History Museum show is free. Find additional info at the links below.

Utah Museum of Fine Arts
LDS Church History Museum
LeConte Stewart Bio on LDS.org
Deseret News article
Salt Lake Tribune article
UMFA's resources for Stewart
Film on Stewart including footage of him drawing and painting