Church Museum Shows Bible Paintings

Children can look at Bible stories through artists’ eyes during a special exhibit now on display in the Museum of Church History and Art, just west of Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

The paintings, done by six early twentieth-century British artists, have been hung at a child’s eye level, with labels written for youngsters between eight and twelve. The labels retell the story depicted in the painting.

The thirty watercolor paintings, in the Art Noveau style, were painted between 1906 and 1919. They depict both Old and New Testament scenes, beginning with the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and ending with John the Revelator’s vision of the heavenly city.

The watercolors were used as illustrations in various publications, including Bible storybooks.

Artists featured in the exhibit include William Henry Margetson, Frank Adams, Simon Harmon Vedder, Innes Fripp, William George Simmonds, and Arthur A. Dixon. All were British but Vedder; he was American-born, studied in New York and Paris, then settled in London.

The exhibit will continue through January 6. Museum hours are 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. weekdays and 10:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. weekends and holidays. Admission is free.