HILDRETH MEIERE COMMISSIONS, 1915-1961

Hildreth Meière Commissions, 1915-1961

Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) was a mural artist of some renown during her lifetime. She was a distinguished Art Deco muralist, mosaicist, painter and decorative artist, and ranks with the very small number of women artists - such as Violet Oakley, Bernice Abbot, Isabel Bishop and Georgia O'Keefe - whose achievements gained the recognition of the established art world during the first half of the twentieth century. Educated at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in Florence, Italy, she became a leading practitioner of the art of mosaic, and one of America's most gifted embellishers of architectural environments.
A large body of her work remains in public view on and in buildings such as Rockefeller Center, the Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln, the St. Louis Cathedral, and St. Bartholomew's Church in Manhattan. Hildreth Meière's designs, ranging from traditional historical realism to Art Deco, reflected many of the tensions that surface in mid-twentieth century American culture, as a modernism accommodated the wishes of Americans in positions of power. Issues of class, patronage, religion, and partitions provided the framework for Meière's life and art, as well as a specific picture of public art in mid-twentieth century America.
Designing for mosaic, ceramics, metal, stained glass, and frescos, she was commissioned by mainstream architects for projects on buildings associated with the East Coast upper-middle class. At the same time she worked in harmony with artisans and craftspeople to see her designs through to execution. Practical and efficient, neither avant-garde nor consistently conservative, Meière's murals, numbering well over a hundred, often represented the middle ground of American modern style in architectural projects, from churches to World's Fairs to public buildings to skyscrapers.
Meière believed that being labeled a woman artist trivialized her work, a view shared by her contemporary Georgia O'Keeffe. She disliked political feminism, yet lived an independent life as a successful artist and single parent. Meière's relationship to her clients represents less familiar areas of women's cultural and social history. Her career fleshes out the story of American women in art and the broader history of upper middle class, conservative American society during the mid-twentieth century. Meière served as President of the National Society of Mural Painters and the Liturgical Arts Society (the latter founded in her studio), was first Vice-President of the Architectural League of New York (one of the first women members, she received its Gold Medal in Mural Painting in 1928), was a director of the Municipal Arts Society, an Associate of the National Academy of Design, and was appointed the first woman on the New York City Art Commission.
Hildreth Meière as an artist was a significant figure in several important areas of American visual culture:
- First - She was most famous as an Art deco muralist and decorator whose work stands among the most distinguished of her era
- Second - She is an important figure in the history of American Liturgical Art, and one of its most ecumenical practitioners
- Third - She is one of the preeminent mosaicists in the history of American art
- And Finally - She is a woman artist who was able to gain the respect of the greatest muralists and architects of her day.
  
  * In 1928, she received a Gold Medal from the Architectural League of New York.
  * In 1956, she was the first woman honored with the Fine Arts Medal of the American Institute of Architects.

For more detailed information, be sure to visit the

INTERNATIONAL HILDRETH MEIÈRE ASSOCIATION

YEAR(s)	DESCRIPTION OF COMMISSION (Clicking On Thumbnail Images Will Open A Window With Larger Images)	CITY	STATE
1915	Gouache sketches: Margaret Anglin	San Francisco	CA
1916	Gouache sketches: Pavlova Ballet	San Francisco	CA
1917	Costume designs: Metropolitan Opera Production of The Canterbury Pilgrims	New York	NY
1920	Alfred Lunt, Esq.: Finnish Decorations in residence	Genesee Depot	WI
1920	S.L. Fuller, Esq.: Painting decorations in residence @43 Park Ave.	New York	NY
1923	St. Mark's Church: Reredos, panel painting	Mt. Kisco	NY
1924	St. Martin's Church: Reredos panel painting	Providence	RI
1924	Christ Church Cathedral: Memorial Tablet	Lexington	KY
1924	National Academy of Sciences: Dome Pendentives, Soffit Arches	Washington	DC
1924-29	Nebraska State Capitol: Ceilings, Domes, Vaults, Mosaic Floors, Tapestry	Lincoln	NB
1926	St. John's Church: Reredos	Beverly Farms	MA
1927	Chicago University Chapel: Medallion ceramic decorations in ceiling	Chicago	IL
1927	St. Paul's Chapel: Reredos and panel painting	New Haven	CT
1927	Women's City Club: Theater curtain	San Francisco	CA
1928	St. Bartholomew's Church: Narthex mosaics	New York	NY
1928-29	St. Paul's Chapel Christ Church: Reredos panel painting	Cranbrook	MI
1929	St. Bartholomew's Church: Apse: The Transfiguration mosaics	New York	NY
1929	Convent of the Sacred Heart Church: Reredos	Overbrook	PA
1929	Temple Emanu-El: Mosaics	New York	NY
1930	Manhattanville College: Reredos side chapel	New York	NY
1930	Baltimore Trust Bank: Mosaic floor panels	Baltimore	MD
1930	Jesuit Novitiate: Mosaic apse & ceiling	Wernersville	PA
1931	Bank Of New York (Formerly Irving Trust Company): The Red Room	New York	NY
1931	St. Aloysius Church: Mosaics	Detroit	MI
1932	Walker-Lespenard Tel. Co.: Mosaic lobby ceiling, tile wall map	New York	NY
1932	RKO Building, Rockefeller Center: Metal Decoration	New York	NY
1932	Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center: Metal Decorations	New York	NY
1933	St. Mark's Church On The Hill: Reredos	Pikesville	MD
1933	Chicago World's Fair, Century of Progress Exhibit: Mural - Progress of Women	Chicago	IL
1933	Chicago World's Fair, American Tel & Tel Exhibit: Terracotta Pool Floor	Chicago	IL
1933	St. Catherine of Sienna Church: Mosaics	Baltimore	MD
1934	St. Thomas Church: Remembrance Shrine Fifth Ave.	New York	NY
1935	St. Michael's Passionist Monastery: Murals	Union City	NJ
1936	Westport Room, Union Station: Murals in restaurant & cocktail lounge	Kansas City	MO
1936-37	St. Charles Borromeo Church: Stations of the Cross	Union City	NJ
1937	Logan Square Branch Post Office: Metal Sculpture - The Post	Chicago	IL
1938	Illinois Bell Telephone Co.: The Spirit of Communication	Chicago	IL
1939	Mary Immaculate Seminary: Cartoons of apse vault & chapel	Northampton	PA
1939-40	New York World's Fair: 8 large outdoor commissions	New York	NY
1940	St. Patrick's Cathedral: Altar Lady Chapel	New York	NY
1940	Ship: America - Dining Room, Playroom, Lounge	*	*
1940	Ship: Africa Queen - Dining Room, Playroom, Lounge	*	*
1940	Ship: Brazil - Dining Room, Playroom, Lounge	*	*
1941	Ship: President Monroe - Portrait of President Monroe in lounge	*	*
1941	Municipal Center Building: Exterior Frieze, Terra Cotta	Washington	D.C.
1942	Fordham University Church: Reredos painted on canvas	New York	NY
1943	Seminary of the Immaculate Conception: Mosaic reredos	Huntington	NY
1943	St. James Church: Reredos	Upper Montclair	NJ
1944	St. John's Church: Reredos	Buffalo	NY
1945	Holy Trinity Church: Reredos painted on canvas	Rittenhouse Square	PA
1945-46	St. Louis Cathedral: Mosaics - Eastern Arch	St. Louis	MO
1946	St. Mary's High School: Terracotta reliefs on outside of building	Manhasset	NY
1946	Convent of the Sacred Heart: Wood inlay, Our Lady & St. Joseph	Greenwich	CT
1947	Hotel McAlpin: Marble mosaic and wood intarsia in cocktail lounge	New York	NY
1948	Assumption Church: Reredos panel painting	Westport	CT
1948	St. Bartholomew's Church: Stained Glass South Window (Magnificat)	New York	NY
1949	St. Bartholomew's Church: Stained Glass North Window (Gloria in Excelsis)	New York	NY
1949	Library Fordham University: Fresco - Journeys of St. Isaac Jogues, 1643	New York	NY
1951	Washington National Cathedral Mosaics: Chapel of the Resurrection	Washington	D.C.
1952	Ship: SS United States: Lounge, Mississippi map in gesso & metal-leaf	*	*
1955	St. Bartholomew's Church: Stained Glass South Window (Nunc Dimittis)	New York	NY
1956	St. Bartholomew's Church: Stained Glass North Clerestory (Benedicite)	New York	NY
1956	Travelers Insurance Company: Lobby mosaic	Hartford	CT
1958-61	St. Louis Cathedral Dome: 12 Apostles, Western Soffit, North Wall, Pendentives	St. Louis	MO
1960	Prudential Life Insurance Building: Marble mosaic design in lobby	Newark	NJ

Miscellaneous Images
Navy - 1918	Portrait - 1924	Working On A Ship Commission At Her 200 W. 57th St. Studio, New York City	At Work - 1932

Navy - 1941

Monroe Reflections

Nebraska State Capitol Mosaic

Radio and Television Encompassing The Earth
RKO Building, New York City

Washington National Cathedral Mosaic

Mural Study: Labors Of The Mind - 1935

Mural Study: Labors Of The Hand - 1935

For more detailed information, be sure to visit the

INTERNATIONAL HILDRETH MEIÈRE ASSOCIATION

* SOURCES: Bee Publishing Company - Capitol Group - G. L. Sussman Studios - International Hildreth Meière Association - Louise Meière Dunn - National Academy of Sciences
Naval Historical Center - Nebraska Information Technology Commission - Rockefeller Memorial Chapel - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
St. Louis University "Ravenna Project" - The Reverend Edward L. Mullins - Washington National Cathedral - WPA Murals (Nancy Lorance)

Last Updated on 12/08/2007 by Keith Meiere