An original antique watercolor painting by listed Texas artist Mary Aubrey Keating (1894 – 1953) measuring approximately 22 1/2 x 31 inches in a contemporary frame measuring approximately 27 x 35 inches. Signed in graphite lower left as pictured. Estimated to be painted in the early 1930s and possibly titled "Merry-Go-Round." A Dallas Museum of Fine Arts exhibition titled, "Mary Aubrey Keating: Watercolors," March 20–April 15, 1934, included 47 watercolors and is included as the second to last picture for reference only. A watercolor titled “Merry-Go-Round” was sold at this show. Painted in modernist style with WPA labor mural feel. Not examined outside of frame but appears to be professionaly mounted to backing paper/board. Ships fully insured. Thanks for looking.
A Dallas Museum of Fine Arts exhibition titled, "Mary
Aubrey Keating: Watercolors," March 20–April 15, 1934, included 47 watercolors. A watercolor titled “Merry-Go-Round” was sold
at this show.
Mary Aubrey Keating (1894 – 1953) was born in 1894 in San
Antonio, Texas, daughter of Eugenia (Speer) and William Aubrey. She attended
San Antonio public schools and Notre Dame College, Baltimore, Maryland, and
Monticello, Illinois. Mary later studied singing with Madame Ernestine
Schumann-Heineck and performed with various symphonies and the Philadelphia and
San Carlos opera companies. On June 1, 1921, Mary married Peter McCall Keating.
They had four children. Although Mary had given up her favorable opera career
for her family, she soon found an outlet for her creative abilities in
painting, a self-taught hobby. Mary's works focused on Hispanic subjects in San
Antonio, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and Guatemala. She painted several murals in
San Antonio with local or historic themes, usually in oil washes or
watercolors. Her works include murals for the San Antonio Public Library, Kelly
Air Force Base Aviation Cadet Hospital, Gunter Hotel, and Junior League Bright
Shawl Room. She additionally contributed to the San Antonio art community by
serving as chairperson and organizer of the first Open Air Art Exhibit in San
Antonio. She also worked as chairperson for the Artist's Ball in an effort to
raise finances to establish the Museum School of Art, of which she was one of
the first cochairpersons. In 1939 she was a founder of the Villita Art Gallery,
and in 1951 she played a significant role in organizing the Contemporary Art
Group. Keating continued to exhibit her work in museums and art shows. She
showed twenty of her watercolors in the Horticulture Hall at the 1933 Chicago's
World's Fair and in 1934 had a solo exhibition at the Witte Museum.
She had participated in sixteen one-woman shows by 1941,
including exhibitions in Santa Fe, Philadelphia, and New York. The extremely
active Mary Aubrey Keating pursued other interests in addition to her artistic
abilities. She published San Antonio: Interesting Places in San Antonio and
Where to Find Them in 1935. She also served as president of the King William
Area Conservation Society. On December 11, 1953, Mary Aubrey Keating died
suddenly of a heart attack at the Baptist Memorial Hospital in San Antonio.
Admirers remembered her works in a special exhibition of her work and service
on March 23, 1954, at the War Memorial Auditorium at the Witte Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Peter Haskins Falk, ed., Who Was Who in American Art
(Madison, Connecticut: Sound View, 1985). Esse Forrester-O'Brien, Art and
Artists of Texas (Dallas: Tardy, 1935). Cecilia Steinfeldt, Art for History's
Sake: The Texas Collection of the Witte Museum (Austin: Texas State Historical
Association for the Witte Museum of the San Antonio Museum Association, 1993).
Jill S. Seeber
Source: Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association
* Easel Painting
* Illustration, Illustrator
* Murals of Fresco, Mixed Media, Mosaic or Paint
* Printmaking, Graphic Arts
Media
* Fresco
* Ink
* Oil Paint
* Watercolor/Watercolour
Styles
* Abstract Figurative, Human Figure
* Modernism, Modernist (Tradition Breaking)
Subjects
* Figure, Figurative, Human Figure
* Genre, Human Activity
Geography/Places Lived and/or
Worked
* New Mexico Before 1940
* Taos, New Mexico Before 1940
* Texas Before 1940
Art Association
* California Watercolor Society
* National Association of Women Artists
* Southern States Art League
Chronology
* Early 20th Century Before 1950
Added Description
* Art Educator: School Teaching, Public Lectures, Workshops
* Figure Specialty
* Genre Specialty
* Mural Specialty
Exhibition/Expo:
Regional/National/International
* Southern States Art League Annual
Exhibition: Art Association
* American Water Color Society, Painters in Water Color-
* California Watercolor Society-
* National Association of Women Artists-
* Texas Watercolor Society-
Exhibition: Museum
* The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
On Jun-12-11 at 16:02:34 PDT, seller added the following information: