Thursday, April 14, 2022 – HER WORKS WERE DISPLAYED IN THE LARGEST GALLERIES…THE U.S. POST OFFICE

April 14, 2022

FROM THE ARCHIVES

THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2022

THE 649th EDITION

Georgina Klitgaard

American Artist

http://Georgina Klitgaard, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, Smithsonian American Art Museum J0022187

Name Georgina Klitgaard Born Spuyten Duyvil, New York born Spuyten Duyvil, NY 1893-died 1976 Active in Bearsville, New York Nationalities American Linked Open Data Linked Open Data URI After graduating from Barnard College, Georgina Klitgaard studied art at the National Academy of Design. In 1919 she married the Danish writer Kay Klitgaard, and for much of her career they lived in Bearsville, New York, only two miles from Woodstock’s lively artists’ colony. Klitgaard was known for her panoramic bird’s-eye views of the rural New York landscape. A California critic wrote that her Woodstock landscapes looked like “Currier and Ives lithographs … with little clouds and precise arrangements of facts” (Millier, “New Spirit in Western Art”, Los Angeles Times, April 14, 1929). During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration commissioned her to create murals for three United States post offices. This work helped her survive and allowed her to further her career. For the next forty years she exhibited her work widely.

Description: Identification on verso (handwritten): Georgina Klitgaard. Klitgaard standing in the doorway of a rustic house. Klitgaard, Georgina, 1893-1976 Creator/Photographer: Unidentified photographer Medium: Black and white photographic print Dimensions: 9 cm x 14 cm Date: c. 1920 Persistent URL: www.aaa.si.edu/collections/images/detail/georgina-klitgaa…Repository: Archives of American ArtCollection: Forbes Watson Papers, 1900-1950 Accession number: aaa_watsforb_3599

Georgina Klitgaard, View of Poughkeepsie in 1840 (mural study, Poughkeepsie, New York Post Office), ca. 1940, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1965.18.55
Georgina Klitgaard and two other artists won a government competition to design a mural for the Poughkeepsie, New York, post office. It was an important project and a lot was at stake. President Roosevelt, a native of Dutchess County, took great interest in this particular New Deal-sponsored mural project, and even helped choose the artists. He wanted the murals to convey the history and heritage of the area, and specified that Klitgaard’s view of the Hudson River’s west shore date to 1840, when the river traffic was at its height. Klitgaard took great care to comply with the president’s demands, visiting the Poughkeepsie library on several occasions to study maps and surveys from the mid-nineteenth century. This image is a final study, showing a view of the river dotted with ships carrying cargo from Albany to Manhattan past the busy waterfront town. The Vassar Brewing Company, warehouses, and hotels line the shore, highlighting the area’s community and industry. Roosevelt approved her design only after she had added College Hill in the distance, and Klitgaard received $2000 for the finished work. (Correspondence between Georgina Klitgaard and Edward Rowan, SAAM curatorial file)

Georgina Klitgaard, Winter Afternoon, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum acquisition, 1969.194

Georgina Klitgaard (1893 – 1976) War Brides, Wash Sq NYC
30 x 40 inches Oil on canvas, c. 1942 Signed lower right
Helicline Fine Art

Mural of Historic Track in Goshen, NY, USA, post office
Wikimedia Commons

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Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c)

Sources
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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