Esther Landis
1950
Watercolor on paper
16" x 22 1/2"
Signed and dated May 30, 1950 in ink lower right
Double-Sided Seascapes, Chicago Pier
Excellent Condition - Minor wear consistent with age and history.
Esther Elinor Johnson Landis
Esther was born Aug. 16, 1916, in Franklin, to Louis O. and Grace (Griffin) Johnson.Esther was married to the painter David Landis (b.1918-1983) and they occasionally collaborated on the designs of her ceramics. After attending John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis, she studied art at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, obtaining a bachelor of arts degree in 1940 and a master’s degree in 1941. During the war years, she worked in drafting at Curtis Wright, a manufacturer of cargo planes. She began teaching art in the Chicago public school system in 1951. Esther was a prolific, talented studio ceramicist, who with her husband was active in the first art fairs in Old Town Chicago. Her artwork was exhibited at juried shows nationally and in a traveling Smithsonian display of American craft.
In 1972 Esther and David moved from Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area where they set-up the Landis Studio. Examples of Esther's ceramic work are in the permanent collection of the Johnson County Museum of History in Indiana.
