Minerva Teichert (1888-1976), Washday on the Plains, 1938, oil on canvas. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, gift of Herman and Minerva Teichert Family.
We wish you a happy Pioneer Day this week, on July 24! Heeding artist and educator Robert Henri's advice to paint her 'birthright,' Minerva Teichert produced scenes of her Mormon Pioneer heritage in the living room of her Wyoming ranch home. In Washdayon the Plains, Teichert flattened forms and bare patches of canvas signal stylistic innovation resulting from her training in Chicago and New York. At the same time, the strong, lively female personae represent a new subject – the vital role of women in the settling of the West. In this large painting, pioneer women's contribution of clean clothes to the colonizing of the West seems almost heroic.