Louise Emerson Ronnebeck
Encyclopedia
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (1901–1980) was an American painter best known for her murals executed for the Works Progress Administration
(WPA). Born in Philadelphia
she married artist Arnold Ronnebeck
(1885–1947) in 1926 and they settled in Denver, Colorado
. In Denver she built a successful career documenting western American history and social issues of the 1930s and 1940s.
(on her mother’s side), was Secretary of the Treasury under Andrew Jackson
, the U.S.‘s seventh President (1829–1837). Emerson graduated from Barnard College
in 1922, followed by three years of study at the Art Students League New York. During her studies at the League, she was particularly influenced by one of her teachers, Kenneth Hayes Miller
(1876–1952). He was an outstanding American Scene artist, but also made quite a mark teaching in the 1920s and 1930s, his other students included Reginald Marsh
, Edward Hopper
and Isabel Bishop
. She spent the summers of 1923 and 1924 at the The Ecoles d'Art Américaines at Fountainebleu, France, studying fresco
painting.
and Louise Emerson met in the summer of 1925 when both were guests at Los Gallos, the Taos, New Mexico
compound of Mabel Dodge Luhan
. They were married in March 1926 at the All Angels Episcopal Church in Manhattan
. Mabel and Tony Luhan attended. Tony was dressed in formal Indian attire, i.e., ribbons braided into his waist length hair and he was wrapped in a formal blanket. Emerson had mixed emotions about Tony’s attendance. Since Mabel and Tony were instrumental in Rönnebeck and Emerson’s courtship she wanted them present on this special day. On the other hand, according to family lore, she did comment, “When everyone filed into the church, no one paid any attention to the bride because there was this American Indian sitting there with the ceremonial ribbons in his braids”. Rönnebeck and Emerson subsequently set off on what they termed an “extended wedding trip” of the West that included stops in California, New Mexico and Colorado. Rönnebeck executed commissions along the way. Emerson continued to use her maiden name professionally until approximately 1931. After that time she began to sign her paintings “Louise Emerson Ronnebeck” or “Louise Ronnebeck”.
, later renamed the Section of Fine Arts. Some people believed that during these difficult times there should be higher priorities than art. Harry Hopkins
, head of the WPA appointed by FDR, said it best [of artists] “Hell! They’ve got to eat just like other people”. Many feared that if the Depression continued for very long, a generation of artists would be lost and a fatal blow would be dealt to American culture. The Section focused on artwork for federal buildings, rather than state or municipal buildings, like the WPA/FAP. Between 1937 and 1944, Emerson entered 16 competitions for mural commissions including the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC (1936, 1941), Fort Scott, Kansas
(1937), Phoenix, Arizona
(1937), Worland, Wyoming (1938), Dallas, Texas
(1940), Grand Junction
and Littleton, Colorado
(1940), Social Security Building, Washington, D.C, (1940 and 1942), Amarillo, Texas
(1941), and Los Angeles, California
(1944). She won two commissions for post office murals, both funded by the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture.
Emerson’s first Section commissioned mural, entitled The Fertile Land Remembers, (10’ x 5’ oil on canvas) was for the Worland, Wyoming
Post Office in 1938. There was some controversy over a Colorado artist being chosen to execute a Wyoming mural, but Edward Rowan, the Superintendent of the Section of Painting & Sculpture said in a memo to the Director of Procurement, “The artists of Wyoming had an equal chance with those in Colorado to compete in the regional competition. The artists of Wyoming according to all records are very poor”. In preparation for the project, she researched Wyoming history and consulted with the Worland postmaster. The approved design depicted a determined looking pioneer farming family in a Conestoga wagon pulled by oxen heading directly toward the viewer. In the background/sky are Indians riding horses chasing buffalo, executed in a translucent cloud-like manner. The Indians and the pioneer farming family were both historically dependent on the land and they are shown being displaced by the new, thriving and growing oil industry. The mural has since been moved and installed in the downtown Casper, Wyoming Post Office in the Dick Cheney Federal Building.
Emerson’s second commission was for the post office and courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Harvest (7’x 9’ oil on crescent shaped canvas) was completed and installed in 1940. The Harvest depicts a young man and woman working together harvesting peaches, symbolizing “the richness that came to the land following the introduction of irrigation”, with a water wheel in the background. Barbara Melosh, in her book Engendering Culture: Manhood and Womanhood in New Deal Public Art and Theatre, describes this frequently used Section theme as the “comradely ideal”. She writes, “[Louise] Ronnebeck invokes the comradely ideal in the image of shared labor, and she emphasizes the physicality of work in the man’s muscled arms and the woman’s sturdy figure”. Similar to her Wyoming mural, the man and the woman are equals, working towards a common goal. The mural depicts the Ute Indians leaving the valley on the right side and the white settlers, pushing them out from the left. The theme of displacement is effective and evocative of the time and the changes that had occurred and continued to occur in the West.
The Harvest mural had a life of mystery. By 1973, the mural was dirty and dull. It was shipped to Washington DC for restoration and subsequently forgotten. Until 1991, its whereabouts were unknown. The building manager of the Aspinall Federal Building in Grand Junction had come across frequent references to the mural, but could not locate it. Through perseverance and dogged detective work, he finally located it in New York, had it restored and returned it to Grand Junction. In January 1992, Emerson’s son and daughter, who had originally posed for the mural over 50 years earlier, unveiled it in a ceremony in the Grand Junction Aspinall Federal Building, where it remains today.
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA). Born in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
she married artist Arnold Ronnebeck
Arnold Ronnebeck
Arnold Rönnebeck was a German-born American modernist artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado...
(1885–1947) in 1926 and they settled in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. In Denver she built a successful career documenting western American history and social issues of the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Mary Louise Harrington Emerson was born in 1901 in Philadelphia, the youngest of three daughters of Mary Crawford Suplee and Harrington Emerson (1853–1931). Harrington Emerson was an efficiency engineer who established the Emerson Institute in New York City in 1900. Prior to 1900, Harrington had several careers, including a frontier banker, land speculator, tax agent and troubleshooter for the Union Pacific and Burlington and Missouri railroads, lecturer, and educator. Louise Emerson’s great grandfather, Samuel D. InghamSamuel D. Ingham
Samuel Delucenna Ingham was a U.S. Congressman and U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Andrew Jackson.-Early life and education:...
(on her mother’s side), was Secretary of the Treasury under Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
, the U.S.‘s seventh President (1829–1837). Emerson graduated from Barnard College
Barnard College
Barnard College is a private women's liberal arts college and a member of the Seven Sisters. Founded in 1889, Barnard has been affiliated with Columbia University since 1900. The campus stretches along Broadway between 116th and 120th Streets in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough...
in 1922, followed by three years of study at the Art Students League New York. During her studies at the League, she was particularly influenced by one of her teachers, Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller was an American painter and teacher.Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art. He died in New York City.-Students:Miller taught at the Art...
(1876–1952). He was an outstanding American Scene artist, but also made quite a mark teaching in the 1920s and 1930s, his other students included Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh
Reginald Marsh may refer to:* Reginald Marsh , American painter most notable for his detailed depictions of life in New York City in the 1920s* Reginald Marsh , actor in many British sitcoms...
, Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching...
and Isabel Bishop
Isabel Bishop
Isabel Bishop was an American painter and graphic artist, who produced numerous paintings and prints of working women in realistic urban settings...
. She spent the summers of 1923 and 1924 at the The Ecoles d'Art Américaines at Fountainebleu, France, studying fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
painting.
Marriage to Arnold Rönnebeck
Arnold RönnebeckArnold Ronnebeck
Arnold Rönnebeck was a German-born American modernist artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado...
and Louise Emerson met in the summer of 1925 when both were guests at Los Gallos, the Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
compound of Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan , née Ganson was a wealthy American patron of the arts. She is particularly associated with the Taos art colony.-Early life:...
. They were married in March 1926 at the All Angels Episcopal Church in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Mabel and Tony Luhan attended. Tony was dressed in formal Indian attire, i.e., ribbons braided into his waist length hair and he was wrapped in a formal blanket. Emerson had mixed emotions about Tony’s attendance. Since Mabel and Tony were instrumental in Rönnebeck and Emerson’s courtship she wanted them present on this special day. On the other hand, according to family lore, she did comment, “When everyone filed into the church, no one paid any attention to the bride because there was this American Indian sitting there with the ceremonial ribbons in his braids”. Rönnebeck and Emerson subsequently set off on what they termed an “extended wedding trip” of the West that included stops in California, New Mexico and Colorado. Rönnebeck executed commissions along the way. Emerson continued to use her maiden name professionally until approximately 1931. After that time she began to sign her paintings “Louise Emerson Ronnebeck” or “Louise Ronnebeck”.
WPA Murals
Emerson actively pursued commissions through the Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and SculptureSection of Painting and Sculpture
The Treasury Section of Painting and Sculpture , commonly known as "the Section," was established in 1934 and administered by the Procurement Division of the United States Department of the Treasury....
, later renamed the Section of Fine Arts. Some people believed that during these difficult times there should be higher priorities than art. Harry Hopkins
Harry Hopkins
Harry Lloyd Hopkins was one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's closest advisers. He was one of the architects of the New Deal, especially the relief programs of the Works Progress Administration , which he directed and built into the largest employer in the country...
, head of the WPA appointed by FDR, said it best [of artists] “Hell! They’ve got to eat just like other people”. Many feared that if the Depression continued for very long, a generation of artists would be lost and a fatal blow would be dealt to American culture. The Section focused on artwork for federal buildings, rather than state or municipal buildings, like the WPA/FAP. Between 1937 and 1944, Emerson entered 16 competitions for mural commissions including the Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC (1936, 1941), Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087. It is the home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the Fort Scott National...
(1937), Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
(1937), Worland, Wyoming (1938), Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
(1940), Grand Junction
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
and Littleton, Colorado
Littleton, Colorado
Littleton is a Home Rule Municipality contained in Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. Littleton is a suburb of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area. Littleton is the county seat of Arapahoe County and the 20th most populous city in the state of...
(1940), Social Security Building, Washington, D.C, (1940 and 1942), Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo is the 14th-largest city, by population, in the state of Texas, the largest in the Texas Panhandle, and the seat of Potter County. A portion of the city extends into Randall County. The population was 190,695 at the 2010 census...
(1941), and Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
(1944). She won two commissions for post office murals, both funded by the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture.
Emerson’s first Section commissioned mural, entitled The Fertile Land Remembers, (10’ x 5’ oil on canvas) was for the Worland, Wyoming
Worland, Wyoming
Worland is a city in Washakie County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 5,250 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Washakie County. The City of Worland is served by the Worland Municipal Airport.-Geography:...
Post Office in 1938. There was some controversy over a Colorado artist being chosen to execute a Wyoming mural, but Edward Rowan, the Superintendent of the Section of Painting & Sculpture said in a memo to the Director of Procurement, “The artists of Wyoming had an equal chance with those in Colorado to compete in the regional competition. The artists of Wyoming according to all records are very poor”. In preparation for the project, she researched Wyoming history and consulted with the Worland postmaster. The approved design depicted a determined looking pioneer farming family in a Conestoga wagon pulled by oxen heading directly toward the viewer. In the background/sky are Indians riding horses chasing buffalo, executed in a translucent cloud-like manner. The Indians and the pioneer farming family were both historically dependent on the land and they are shown being displaced by the new, thriving and growing oil industry. The mural has since been moved and installed in the downtown Casper, Wyoming Post Office in the Dick Cheney Federal Building.
Emerson’s second commission was for the post office and courthouse in Grand Junction, Colorado. The Harvest (7’x 9’ oil on crescent shaped canvas) was completed and installed in 1940. The Harvest depicts a young man and woman working together harvesting peaches, symbolizing “the richness that came to the land following the introduction of irrigation”, with a water wheel in the background. Barbara Melosh, in her book Engendering Culture: Manhood and Womanhood in New Deal Public Art and Theatre, describes this frequently used Section theme as the “comradely ideal”. She writes, “[Louise] Ronnebeck invokes the comradely ideal in the image of shared labor, and she emphasizes the physicality of work in the man’s muscled arms and the woman’s sturdy figure”. Similar to her Wyoming mural, the man and the woman are equals, working towards a common goal. The mural depicts the Ute Indians leaving the valley on the right side and the white settlers, pushing them out from the left. The theme of displacement is effective and evocative of the time and the changes that had occurred and continued to occur in the West.
The Harvest mural had a life of mystery. By 1973, the mural was dirty and dull. It was shipped to Washington DC for restoration and subsequently forgotten. Until 1991, its whereabouts were unknown. The building manager of the Aspinall Federal Building in Grand Junction had come across frequent references to the mural, but could not locate it. Through perseverance and dogged detective work, he finally located it in New York, had it restored and returned it to Grand Junction. In January 1992, Emerson’s son and daughter, who had originally posed for the mural over 50 years earlier, unveiled it in a ceremony in the Grand Junction Aspinall Federal Building, where it remains today.