Edith Park Truesdell
"Old Timer"
1983
Acrylic on Board
32" x 40" unframed
Signed in paint, front lower left
Good condition - Minor wear consistent with age and history. Some tearing along edges and corners
Edith Park Truesdell (1888-1986) was a painter, a teacher, a writer and a poet. Her early works have were influenced by the “Boston School” of the early 20th century. Her mature works are semi-abstract and can be connected with the Bay Area Figurative style.
Treuesdell studied art at the Boston Museum School. Her instructors at the museum school were associated with the "Boston School," a group of American Impressionists noted for the elegance and refinement of their subject matter.
Treuesdell contracted tuberculosis in 1912 and left to recover in Denver. She remained there through 1913, and returned to the Boston Museum School in 1915. In 1916 Edith won a gold medal for a painting she submitted to the school's summer exhibition.
After graduation, Truesdell returned periodically to the Boston Museum School as a lecturer. She also taught art and drama to children at The Park School. In 1920 Edith exhibited her paintings at the prestigious Copley Gallery in Boston.
Edith married a successful Indian rights lawyer, Jack Truesdell and the pair moved to Los Angeles. The Truesdells were often on the road, spending several months at a time in Arizona and Colorado. Later in her life, Edith painted many desert and mountain scenes inspired by her memories of these trips.
From the moment that the Truesdells reached Los Angeles in 1924 Edith was active in the city’s burgeoning art scene executing oils, watercolors and block prints. Edith took a first place in the 1925 Laguna Art Association show, and joined the California Art Club, showing work in the Club’s annual exhibition from 1924 through 1932, and winning a gold medal in 1930.
In 1934, her husband retired and the pair moved to a secluded Colorado Ranch. Between 1940 and 1953 she did not work on her own paintings. She continued to teach and in 1948 she designed and marketed original wallpapers. After her husbands death, in 1953 Edith deeded her Colorado property to the U.S. Fish and Game Service and moved to California.
In 1963,Edith took a room at Carmel Valley Manor retirement home. There she immediately started a magazine, taught poetry, hung her paintings on the walls, and taught painting.
During the more than 20 years that Edith lived in Carmel, she worked hard to put her paintings in front of the public. She had solo shows at the Boston Museum School in 1970, and also at the Monterey Peninsula Museum in 1983. She participated in group shows with the Carmel Art League, had several shows at the Cannery in San Francisco, and had a one woman exhibition at the Pat Carey Gallery in 1979.
Truesdell died in December of 1986.
The Denver Museum holds a collection of Truesdell's paintings.
