Georgina Klitgaard ( Berrian; July 3, 1893 – January 12, 1977) was an American artist.Georgina Klitgaard profile
Smithsonian Institution (includes photograph of Georgina Klitgaard) Klitgaard was known for panoramic landscape paintings of scenic New York from a bird's-eye view perspective. Her work was reviewed in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', on April 14, 1929, and in '' The Art Digest'', on November 1, 1929. Her art work has been mentioned in numerous New York Times articles. The first exhibition she held was in New York at the Whitney Studio Club from Decenber 20, 1927 to January 7, 1928. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1933, and her husband Kaj Klitgaard was awarded with a Guggenheim in 1937. She painted three

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s in

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

s during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

Education

Born Spuyten Duyvil, New York (now

The Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

) in 1893 as Georgina Berrian, she graduated from

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. She also studied art at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

. She married Danish writer Kaj Klitgaard (1888-1954) in 1919. The couple had two sons: Peter Klitgaard (1921-1976) and Wallace Berrian Klitgaard (1937-2006). They lived in

Bearsville, New York Bearsville is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the town of Woodstock. It is located along New York State Route 212, within Catskill State Park and just to the west of the hamlet of Woodstock. Bearsville was named not for ...

, near an artist colony in

Woodstock, New York Woodstock is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston, New York, Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The popula ...

. She was among the

List of Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1933 Thirty-eight Guggenheim Fellowships were awarded in 1933. Arnold and Lucile Blanch were the first couple to both win a Guggenheim award in the same year. 1933 U.S. and Canadian Fellows 1933 Latin American and Caribbean Fellows See also * ...

. Georgina Klitgaard died in

Ulster County, New York Ulster County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is situated along the Hudson River. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 181,851. The county seat is Kingston, ...

on January 12, 1977, one month after the death of her elder son, Peter.

Career

Historic Track mural in Goshen post office

She painted the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

era

''Pelham Landscape'' (1941) at the

Pelham, Georgia Pelham is a city in Mitchell County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,507 at the 2020 census, down from 3,898 in 2010. Pelham is well known for its agriculture, with vast farming of cotton and pecans in the area. History Pelham was ...

. Klitgaard's mural ''The Running of the Hambletonian Stake'' at the

United States Post Office (Goshen, New York) The U.S. Post Office in Goshen, New York, United States, is located on Grand Street downtown in the village of Goshen. It serves ZIP Code 10924, roughly contiguous with the village and town. The brick Colonial Revival building was completed ...

(a property listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

) was controversial for featuring

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

, a subject deemed unworthy for public art. Postal murals of the era were supposed to focus on local history and contemporary life, but the Treasury Department's

Section of Painting and Sculpture Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section s ...

strongly objected to her intention to paint the track, asking her to paint a local

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

instead. The community indicated its strong support of the track, and she was allowed to paint it.Goshen Post Office National Register of Historic Places nomination form In January 1975 she became a member of the National Society of Literature and the Arts.

References

External links

Photo of Georgina Klitgaard
Archives of American Art * https://www.gf.org/fellows/georgina-klitgaard/ * https://whitney.org/artists/708 * https://livingnewdeal.org/artists/georgina-klitgaard/ * https://www.instagram.com/georginaklitgaard/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Klitgaard, Georgina American muralists 20th-century American painters Barnard College alumni National Academy of Design alumni 1977 deaths Painters from New York City Artists from the Bronx Artists from Woodstock, New York Federal Art Project artists Section of Painting and Sculpture artists 20th-century American women painters American women muralists 1893 births People from Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx