Lois Wilde Hartshorne (1902 -1972)

Judy and Rita on Porch at Afton, c. 1936, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches, title inscribed on tacking margin; “Judy” and “Rita” inscribed verso, NB: purchased together with The New Road, a painting Hartshorne exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair, likely in 1936

$4,750

Lois Wilde Hartshorne was a painter who mainly worked in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The daughter of a prominent philosophy professor at the University of Minnesota, Hartshorne was a 1924 graduate of Smith College. The artist married Richard Hartshorne, a Geography professor, in 1928. She also studied art at the University of Minnesota and with Cameron Booth, Anthony Angarola, and with Lhote in Paris. During the 1930s, Hartshorne painted expressive, but spare, modernist American Scene paintings. She exhibited at the Minnesota State Fair as early as 1935. In 1936, she won second prize in the figure composition category ahead of Booth who won the third-place award. Based on the apparent ages of two of her daughters, it is likely that Hartshorne completed Judy and Rita on Porch at Afton around that time. This is is a rare work, since Hartshorne’s production was limited and she became less active as she raised a family during the late 1930s through the early 1950. In addition to exhibiting again at the State Fair in 1937, Hartshorne was elected President of the Minnesota Artis, an honor which The Minneapolis Star favorably reported. In 1938 and 1939, the Hartshorne family moved to Nazi-occupied Vienna, Austria while Professor Hartshorne was on sabbatical. While there, the Hartshornes provided money and assistance to Jewish friends to immigrate to the United States. In 1940, Hartshorne moved to Madison where her husband assumed a professorship at the University of Wisconsin. Hartshorne exhibited in the Madison Artist’s Exhibitions during the 1940s, winning an honorable mention in 1941. She was a member of the Madison Art Center, the Madison Art Guild, and the Madison Art Association which hosted a solo exhibition of her work in 1958. In connection with the solo exhibition, The Capital Times noted that Hartshorne had “returned to her field after retiring while her three daughters were growing up.” Hartshorne is listed in Who Was Who in American Art.