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Artist: Blanche McVeigh
Blanche McVeigh was recognized not only as a fine artist, but also as an excellent fine arts instructor specializing in graphic arts. McVeigh earned a national reputation for the excellence of her work.
McVeigh was born in St. Charles, Missouri and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. She taught school for a number of years before attending the School of Fine Arts at Washington University, St. Louis (1919-20). In addition, she attended study at the Art Students League of New York. She also attended summer sessions at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at Chester Springs where she studied with Daniel Garber.
McVeigh was renowned for her etchings, and particularly for her mastery of the challenging medium of aquatint. Her genre images of African Americans and so-called "Negro Angels," inspired by her love of gospel music and spirituals, were especially popular with collectors.
In 1932, McVeigh founded the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts with fellow local sculptor and fellow Washington University alumna Evaline Sellors; McVeigh taught figure drawing and etching there. McVeigh and Sellors were soon joined by Fort Worth artist Wade Jolley. The school was located in the Little Theater building behind the Fort Worth Woman's Club. Although it closed in 1941 with the advent of World War II, the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts was influential because it counted members of the future Fort Worth Circle group of artists among its students, most notably Bror Utter and Veronica Helfensteller.
From approximately 1940 to 1949, McVeigh worked in a local frame shop; she owned her own frame shop on Throckmorton Street in downtown Fort Worth from 1951 until 1962. She also operated a home studio[9] that housed her massive Sturges printing press, which is now owned by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, where it is still used in printmaking workshops. The press was so large and heavy that the floor needed to be shored up to support it. She was given the Sturges press in 1942 so she could complete a large print commissioned by the Northern Pump Company, Minneapolis.
McVeigh produced little art in the last few years of her life due to poor health.
Blanche McVeigh died in Fort Worth and was buried in the city. Affiliations for McVeigh included Allied Artists Club, Fort Worth; California Print Society; California Society of Etchers; Chicago Society of Etchers; Connecticut Fine Arts Association; Dallas Print Society; Fort Worth Art Association and the Southern States Art League. Exhibitions included the International Print Exhibition, Chicago; National Exhibition of American Art, Rockefeller Center, New York; Greater Texas and PanAmerica Exposition, Dallas, and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, New York.
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