Chester Dixon Snowden (1900–1984), was born Chester Genora Snowden in

Elgin, Texas Elgin ( ) is a city in Bastrop County in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 9,784 at the 2020 census. Elgin is also known as the Sausage Capital of Texas and the Brick Capital of the Southwest, due to the presence of three operating bri ...

. Snowden was the son of James Albert Snowden and Amelia Pearl Frazier. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin and attended the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

in New York as well as studying at the Art Students League of New York, Grand Central Galleries Art School (New York) and the Richard Art School in Los Angeles. His teachers included Harry Sternberg, Boardman Robinson and Walter Jack Duncan. Snowden worked as a painter, illustrator, educator and playwright. For decades, Snowden provided art for the publications of naturalist author,

Royal Dixon Royal Dixon (25 March 1885 – 4 June 1962) was an American animal rights activist, botanist, philosopher, and a member of the Americanization movement. He was, along with Diana Belais (1858–1944), a founder of the "First Church for Animal Righ ...

. Snowden and Dixon were life partners and since 1934 lived together at "Camellia Place", located at 1310 Truxillo Street in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. Snowden adopted the professional name, Chester Dixon Snowden, based on his relationship with Dixon. As an illustrator, his social circles overlapped with the literary personalities of his time. In 1934, he co-wrote with

Margo Jones Margo Jones (December 12, 1911 – July 24, 1955), nicknamed the "Texas Tornado", was an American Theatre director, stage director and Theatrical producer, producer, best known for launching the American regional theater movement and for introduc ...

the Texas Centennial play "Pioneer Texas". Works illustrated by Snowden include "Shafts of Gold" (1938), "Children of Hawaii" (1939), "Ape of Heaven", "Half Dark Moon" and "Wildwood Friends." By 1946, Snowden had illustrated twenty-two books. Snowden reported in Houston's ''Mirror'' in 1968 that he had counted among his friends and acquaintances Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Bernard Shaw. His works included pen and ink drawings and many experiments in different mediums and was inspired by the works of Matisse and Picasso. Snowden was always encouraging his students to try new media and new ideas in art. A group exhibition of works by former students of the Museum School, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston organized by Robert Preusser was shown in 1951. It Included work by Snowden, Lowell Collins, Frank Freed, Gertrude Levy, Leila McConnell, Stella Sullivan and George Shackelford. Since 1964, Chester Snowden and Alfred Zeller worked together in their Thirteen Ten Art Studio & Galleries, located at 1310 Truxillo Street in Houston, Texas. They offered classes in oil painting and other mediums as well as framing. Alfred Zeller Chester Snowden

Snowden exhibited regularly in Texas from the mid-1930s through 1960. His works have been exhibited at various galleries and museums including The

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

, The Contemporary Arts Museum and the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

. Snowden died in 1984 and the location of his grave is unknown.

Selected exhibitions

1935 11th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (honorable mention) 1936–37 12th–13th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1937–39 Works by Southeast Texas Artists 1st-3rd Annual Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1939, 1941 Biennial, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 1939–40 15th–16th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1941 2nd Texas-Oklahoma General Exhibition, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Philbrook Art Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma 1942–43 17th–18th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1943 5th Texas General Exhibition 1943–1944, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas 1945 20th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1945 7th Texas General Exhibition 1945–1946, circulated: Witte Museum, San Antonio; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; University of Texas at Austin, Texas 1946 21st Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (purchase prize) 1946 Annual Texas Artists Circuit Exhibition, traveled by Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas 1947 22nd Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1947 9th Texas General Exhibition 1947–1948, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas 1948 23rd Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1948 10th Texas General Exhibition 1948–1949, circulated: Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas 1949–50 24th–25th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1951 Houston Post Easter Art Contest, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1951 26th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (cash prize) 1951 13th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1951–1952, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas 1952 Annual Texas Artists Circuit Exhibition, traveled by Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, Texas 1952 27th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (honorable mention) 1952 14th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1952, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1952 Solo, Junior League of Houston, Texas 1953–54 28th–29th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas (materials prize 1954) 1955 30th-31st Annual Exhibition of Houston Artists, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (cash prize March 1955) 1956–57 Texas Fine Arts Association Exhibition, Laguna Gloria Museum, Austin, Texas 1956 D. D. Feldman Collection of Contemporary Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 1956 Gulf-Caribbean Art Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, traveled to: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg; Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado (catalogue) 1957 7th Annual Houston Post Easter Art Exhibit, Houston Art League Building, Houston, Texas 1957–60 32nd–35th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas 1960 22nd Annual Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition 1960–1961, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas 2006 Houston Art in Houston Collections: Works from 1900 to 1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas 2008 Founders of Houston Art: Thirty Artists Who Led the Way, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas 2009–10 Texas Art Seen, Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas 2011 Lone Star Modernism: A Celebration of Mid-Century Texas Art, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas 2011 Southeast Texas Art: Cross-Currents and Influences, 1925–1965, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas 2012 A Survey of Texas Modernists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas 2013 Summer Encore Exhibition, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas 2014 Houston Founders at City Hall Art Exhibition, City Hall, Houston, Texas 2014 A New Visual Vocabulary: Developments in Texas Modernism 1935–1965, One Allen Center, Lobby Gallery, Houston, Texas 2015 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in Houston, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (catalogue)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snowden, Chester Painters from Texas American male painters 20th-century American painters Artists from Houston LGBT culture in Houston 1900 births 1984 deaths People from Elgin, Texas 20th-century American male artists Cooper Union alumni