Landscape and Life
The Rural Setting of the Latter-day Saints
Exhibit Info
This past exhibit ran from October 2003 through April 2004 at the Church History Museum. Learn more in the related content below.
The Utah rural landscape between 1920 and 1950 is revealed in the wonderful paintings of LeConte Stewart and in the sensitive photo-lithographs of J. George Midgley. These two artists, although different in their visual approaches, understood the agrarian heritage and religious foundation of the pioneer settlers. Both men had deep affection for the landscape and overlaid an interpretive vision upon the documentation of their subject. While the artwork may create nostalgia for the places and bygone era depicted, it also captures the character of the land, conveys truth and beauty, and has the power to lift one’s spirit.
This exhibit is organized into twelve groupings that reveal unique regional characteristics of the land together with the habitation and agriculture it supported.
This exhibit is organized into twelve groupings that reveal unique regional characteristics of the land together with the habitation and agriculture it supported.
LeConte Stewart (1891–1990)
Stewart was a truly great American landscape artist. A native of Glenwood, Utah, he worked in the visual language and direct impressionistic techniques he acquired from leading artist–teachers in New York and Pennsylvania. In 1938 he became head of the art department at the University of Utah. He created thousands of splendid paintings over an 80–year career. Beyond others who portrayed the regional landscape settled by the Mormon pioneers in the valleys of the Utah mountains, LeConte depicted the appearance and character of this land. He was able to grasp and render the different moods, the essence of place and seasonal weather effects, to impart an unmatched artistic sensibility, and to express his feelings and convey the meaning of those things, he said, “that are introspective, that you peer into, that you understand and feel.”
J. George Midgley (1882–1979)
Midgley was a native of Salt Lake City. He attended local schools and LDS Business College. He was an insurance executive with the Heber J. Grant and Company firm and married the daughter of the founder. After 1910 Midgely taught himself and became one of the nation’s leading practitioners of the bromoil transfer method, the medium of the prints in this exhibit. The works here show only part of his range of subject matter. His son, Grant Midgley, recounted that his father “also experimented a bit with oil painting. Of that effort, his friend Charlie Pittenger, operator of Intermountain Art Co., told him it was just a question of his being a mediocre painter or the best photographer in Utah. Whether he agreed with that assessment or not, he soon gave up attempts to paint.”
What is a bromoil print?
The years right after 1900 were the golden age of amateur art photography. Devotees formed camera clubs, launched attractive publications, and experimented with new print methods. One of these methods was the bromoil process, which reproduced altered photographic images with lithographic ink.First, an enlargement was made. It was immersed in a chemical that bleached out the silver and tanned the gelatin image. When wet, the light parts of the picture swelled, repelling greasy ink, while the dark parts absorbed it.
J. George Midgley (1882–1979), Homeward, 1950. Bromoil transfer print, 10 × 10 in., Church History Museum Collection.
J. George Midgley then gently and delicately brushed on ink. It was here that the picture left the realm of the photograph and entered that of the lithograph. Artistic tonal relationships and rich textures resulted. The artist was also able to add to or change the image. The print was left to dry, or it could be placed face down on a blank sheet of watercolor paper and run through a small press, thus making a “transfer.” Additional inking was repeated for each transfer.
Bromoil was one of several techniques favored by art photographers during the Pictorialist era from 1895 to about 1920, but J. George Midgley used this esoteric method as late as 1975, when he was age 93.
Bromoil was one of several techniques favored by art photographers during the Pictorialist era from 1895 to about 1920, but J. George Midgley used this esoteric method as late as 1975, when he was age 93.