Cassiana Marie Vogt (1883 – June 21, 1944), born Martha Vogt and best known as Sister Cassiana Marie, was a Catholic nun and oil painter who was a member of the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony.

Biography

Martha Vogt, known affectionately as Mattie, was born in 1883 in

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Ste. Genevieve ( ) is a city in Ste. Genevieve Township and is the county seat of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri, United States. The population was 4,999 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1735 by French Canadian colonists and settlers from east ...

. She joined the

Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ) are a Roman Catholic congregation of Religious sister, women religious which traces its origins to a group founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, around 1650 by Jean Paul Médaille#Jean-Pierre Médaille, ...

at age 19, changing her name to Sister Cassiana Marie Vogt and taking her final vows as a nun in 1910. Sister Cassiana Marie was active as an

oil painter Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

. She studied drawing and painting at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

in 1919. Despite her austere appearance as a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

nun, she was a free thinker and sought further opportunities to pursue her art as a member of the well-known Ste. Genevieve Art Colony in her hometown. She "discreetly" taught and painted there for multiple summers in the 1930s. This experience exposed her to progressive ideas and gave her a freedom she enjoyed greatly. The colony was notable for its acceptance of female artists such as Sister Cassiana and Miriam McKinnie. Sister Cassiana Marie has been described as "an intensely serious artist" who viewed art as opening one's eyes to a natural world where "beauty was supreme to dogma." Her work was in a more classical style than some of her peers at the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony. In addition to still lives, she painted various

portraits A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better re ...

, including of Catholic leaders and prominent local figures such as Green Bay Mayor

John V. Diener John Vernon Diener (January 23, 1887 – May 29, 1937) was an American politician who served as the 35th mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin, from 1929 to 1937. Biography Diener was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, in 1887. He graduated from Notre Dame Law ...

and opera singer Lucille Meusel. She also produced multiple

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, most notably her 1938 life-size mural for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cardondelet Convent in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. She was a significant influence on her nephew Matthew E. Ziegler, whom she encouraged to pursue painting. She taught art at the St. Joseph Academy, a Catholic high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1913–1915 and 1921–1942. She also taught for a period at

Rosati-Kain High School Rosati-Kain Academy (Formerly Rosati-Kain High School) is an all-girls Catholic high school in St. Louis, Missouri. Rosati-Kain is accredited as a college preparatory school by the North Central Association, the Missouri Department of Education, ...

in St. Louis. Sister Cassiana Marie died in 1944 in

Richmond Heights, Missouri Richmond Heights is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri. It is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The United States census shows the population grew from 8,603 in 2010 to 9,286 in 2020. According to Robert L. Ramsay, th ...

. After her death, a large group of her paintings were acquired for the permanent collection of the

Neville Public Museum of Brown County The Neville Public Museum of Brown County is an accredited cultural institution that champions history, science and art, named for Green Bay's List of mayors of Green Bay, Wisconsin, 25th mayor, Arthur C. Neville. Located in downtown Green Bay, ...

. Her work has been exhibited there, including in a 1999 solo show titled "Heavenly Guidance," and at other institutions across the Midwest in the decades since.{{Cite news , date=1999-10-07 , title=At least Kox exhibit drew public attention to Neville , work=Green Bay Press Gazette

References

1883 births 1944 deaths People from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Sisters of Saint Joseph American women painters American women muralists Artists from Missouri