The Great Pageant of the West
Inspired by a movie she saw in 1937 titled “Maytime” with Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy, Minerva Teichert sat down to begin her own autobiography. Her opening sentence: “ Last night I saw ‘Maytime.’ It was very beautiful.”
When Minerva Teichert began writing, America was in the midst of the Great Depression; she was 49 years old. Teichert was at her most prolific years as an artist. She had already painted hundreds of paintings and had placed over sixty murals in buildings throughout Wyoming and Utah. She accomplished this staggering feat while mothering five children and co-running a full-working ranch with her husband. “The work was everywhere” she wrote in her journal “we only rested because we had to, but the work was never done.” While painting her art and murals she kept up with her farm duties as expected. She raised chickens, cultivated fruit trees and grew vegetables. She assisted in running the family dairy while daily preparing large hot meals for farm hands, visitors and her own family. During this time she wrote “I don’t care for bridge, afternoon teas, or clubs . . . unless I can paint a little each day on this great pageant of the west, I feel the day is lost.”
Teichert’s love and passion for the American West was the subject of her earliest painting attempts. In Mormon history she has certainly made her mark; paintings such as Rescue of the Lost Lamb and Christ in His Red Robe are hallmarks of her religious artwork. But the Rocky Mountain artist, as her friends in New York would call her, painted an entire catalog of work that captures the west in an unmatched unique way. Here are just some of her works of art from the American West:
Explore Minerva Teichert art & paintings of the American West