Elsie Lower Pomeroy (1882-1971) was an artist most closely associated with the
American Scene Painting movement and specifically California Regionalism or
California Scene Painting. She was also one of a small group of botanical illustrators who worked for the
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
(USDA) in the early 20th century.
Early life and education
Elsie E. Lower was born September 30, 1882 in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
She was the daughter of
Cyrus B. Lower, a decorated Union Army American Civil War veteran and Medal of Honor recipient.
She grew up in Washington D.C. and graduated from the
Corcoran School of Art in the early 1900s.
USDA illustrator
By 1908, she was working as an artist for the USDA, drawing botanical illustrations for the USDA yearbooks.
She was one of a select cohort of botanical illustrators working for the USDA at this time, among whom were also
Deborah Griscom Passmore
Deborah Griscom Passmore (1840–1911) was a botanical illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture who specialized in paintings of fruit. Her work is now preserved in the USDA's Pomological Watercolor Collection, and she has been called th ...
,
Ellen Isham Schutt,
Royal Charles Steadman, and
Amanda Newton. She painted over 280 watercolors for the USDA, including both common fruits such as citrus, apples, and strawberries, and less common fruits such as cherimoyas. The 1908 USDA yearbook contained two of her images, including the Augbert peach (pg. 479) and Kawakami and Lonestar persimmons (pg. 484).
The 1909 USDA yearbook contained two of her images, including an ear of corn (pg. 335) and the Diploma currant (pg. 414).
Unlike most of her USDA colleagues, she would go on to have a career as an exhibiting artist after she left the service.
In 1911, she married Carl Stone Pomeroy, a young pomologist at the USDA. By 1913, the couple had moved to Riverside, California, where Carl joined the Citrus Experiment Station and helped to develop the navel orange/citrus industry in Southern California.
California painter
While in Riverside, she began studies and friendships with
Millard Sheets
Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale bu ...
, Phil Dike, and
Eliot O'Hara
Eliot O'Hara (June 14, 1890 – July 30, 1969) was an American artist and educator known for his masterful watercolors, especially his impressionistic landscapes. The Ogunquit Museum of American Art in Maine has over 120 of his watercolors repre ...
and was a member of the Riverside Art Association.
[ During this time, she completed a series of four watercolors about the citrus industry in Riverside. These paintings were exhibited throughout the United States, won numerous awards, and are currently in the permanent collection at the University of California at Riverside. In 1935, she went to Washington, D.C., where she was employed as a botanical artist for several months by the U.S. Forestry Service.][ It was during this trip that she did studies for her painting "Melting Snow", which is now in the collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Ohio.][
In the mid 1940s Elsie and Carl moved to Mill Valley in Marin County, California.][ An ardent nature lover, Elsie traveled throughout the state capturing the California scene. Her subjects included everything from Death Valley and coastal scenes to the ]Spanish missions
The Spanish missions in the Americas were Catholic missions established by the Spanish Empire during the 16th to 19th centuries in the period of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. These missions were scattered throughout the entirety of ...
and San Francisco cityscapes. She maintained her close ties with other California Scene painters such as Sheets, Rex Brandt
Rexford Elson Brandt (August 12, 1914 – March 21, 2000) was an American artist and educator. Much of his oeuvre consists of paintings inspired by the life and geography of the West Coast of the United States, particularly California. Brandt wor ...
, Milford Zornes
James Milford Zornes (January 25, 1908 – February 24, 2008) was an American watercolor artist and teacher known as part of the California Scene Painting movement.
Biography
Milford Zornes was born in rural western Oklahoma, a few miles fro ...
, Emil Kosa, Jr. and Phil Paradise. Even in her early 80s she was painting and traveling with Sheets to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
Elsie lived in Marin County to the end of her life and was a member of the Marin Society of Artists
The Marin Society of Artists (MSA) is an arts nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1927, and located at 1515 3rd Street in San Rafael, California. It is the first and the oldest art organization in Marin County
Marin County is a cou ...
.[ She died in 1971 in Mill Valley, California leaving behind hundreds of watercolors, oils, and drawings.] Her USDA watercolors are now part of the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection.
Although not as well known as her male contemporaries, her work exemplifies the California Scene Painting movement from the 1920s-50s period. Her primary mediums were watercolor and oil, but she also did drawings and used tempera.
Special awards and exhibitions include: "Two Hundred American Watercolors," National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1941; 1st Watercolor Prize from the Butler Art Institute, Ohio, 1942; Honorable Mention, California Watercolor Society, Los Angeles Museum of Art, 1939; International Exhibition of Watercolors, Art Institute of Chicago, 1938 & 1939; Honorable Mention, San Francisco Women Artists, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1966.
References
External links
USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pomeroy, Elsie Lower
1882 births
1971 deaths
20th-century American painters
20th-century American educators
People from New Castle, Pennsylvania
Painters from Washington, D.C.
George Washington University Corcoran School alumni
American women illustrators
American illustrators
Painters from Pennsylvania
20th-century American women artists
United States Department of Agriculture people
Artists from Riverside, California
Painters from California
Educators from Pennsylvania
20th-century American women educators