Emily Muir

Emily Muir (February 10, 1904 – March 19, 2003) was an American painter, architect and philanthropist. After attending Vassar College and the Art Students League of New York, she and her husband moved to Maine in 1939. Mostly known as a portrait painter, Muir painted the official portrait of Senator Margaret Chase Smith for the Maine State House, but early in her career, she and her husband toured throughout Europe and South America painting dioramas for a steamship company. Her watercolor painting, Orchard Street, is part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and she has works in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Portland Museum of Art. Self-taught as an architect, Muir designed over 45 homes in or around Crockett Cove near Stonington, Maine. As a philanthropist, she was involved in finding a permanent home for the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle and donated the Crockett Cove Woods Preserve and Wreck Island to The Nature Conservancy.

Emily Muir
1924
Born
Emily Stewart Lansingh

(1904-02-10)February 10, 1904
Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, U.S.
DiedMarch 19, 2003(2003-03-19) (aged 99)
Stonington, Hancock County, Maine, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesEmily Lansingh Muir
OccupationArtist, architect
Years active1928–2003

Early life

Emily Stewart Lansingh was born on February 10, 1904 in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois to Marian Lore (née Minor) and Van Rensselaer Lansingh.[1][2] By her first birthday, her family had moved back to New York, where her father originated and where he worked as lighting engineer first in Yonkers[3] and later in Brooklyn.[4] She began studying art in high school and after graduating attended one year at Vassar College, before entering the Art Students League of New York,[5][6] where she studied with Richard Lahey and Leo Lentelli.[7] During her time at the Art League, she met William H. Muir, who would become a nationally known sculptor[8] and whom she married in 1928.[5][6]

Career

Muir began her career as a portraitist[5] and the couple often worked together. Early in their careers, they traveled throughout Europe and Latin America designing dioramas for a cruise line company, the Moore-McCormick steamship line.[8][9] Her parents bought 85 acres of land at Deer Isle, Maine and asked Muir to design a home for them there. Without any official training in architecture, she designed Mainstay, which was built by Pop Joyce, a local builder. Liking the area, in 1939, they moved to Stonington, Maine and built a studio and their own home there in the 1940s.[5] Later, they exhibited[10] and toured together giving art classes on the Lyceum Circuit throughout the east coast.[11][12][13][14] Muir primarily worked in oils, but occasionally produced sculpture, and many works in watercolor.[15][16] In her later career, she produced many landscapes and views of the Maine coastline, reflecting her own interpretation of cubism, using space and light to create the faceting effects.[16] Two of her most known works are a watercolor, Orchard Street, in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and an official portrait of Senator Margaret Chase Smith which was painted for the Maine State House and is now in the private collection of Senator Smith.[17][6]

Muir's connection with Senator Smith garnered her an appointment to the United States Commission of Fine Arts in 1955.[6] She served on the board through 1959,[18] simultaneously serving as a trustee at the Portland Museum of Fine Art.[7] That same year, her husband, who was a trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts,[14] which at the time was located in Lincoln, Maine and had no permanent location, suggested the school move to the Stonington area.[6][19] Muir helped them locate property and reestablish the school in Deer Isle.[19][20] Searching for the school property, she discovered a lot on Crockett Cove and decided to buy it and build a house on it, starting a second career in architecture. She eventually designed 46 homes in the Stonington/Deer Isle area, focusing on building modern structures which worked as showcases for the landscape, rather than the dwelling.[6] Her sensitivity to environmental concerns were recognized by a Design International award[5][6] and she was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Maine in 1969.[21]

Care of the environment was a primary concern for Muir, and when a friend asked her what she planned to do with the three islands she owned, Muir decided to donate the properties to The Nature Conservancy as a means of preserving them[5] and preventing overdevelopment.[19] In 1970, she sold Russ Island[22] discounting the price, to the Island Institute. In 1975, she donated nearly 100 acres of woods to the Conservancy, now known as the Crocket Cove Woods Preserve, and donated Wreck Island to the organization, which in turn deeded the property to the Island Heritage Trust.[19] The Island Institute founded the Emily and Willam Muir Fund to develop programs to preserve the area, provide educational opportunities, and spur community growth.[5]

Death and legacy

Muir died on March 19, 2003 in Stonington, Maine.[19][23] In addition to the piece at the Smithsonian, Muir has artworks in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and the Portland Museum of Art.[24] Muir also published two books, Small Potatoes (1940)[25] and The Time of My Life (2002), her autobiography.[9] Her papers, as well as those of her husband, form part of the collection of the Archives of American Art and the Smithsonian.[25]

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References

Citations
  1. Illinois Birth Certificates 1924.
  2. U.S. Passport Applications 1924, pp. 651–652.
  3. New York State Census 1905, p. 48.
  4. U. S. Census 1910, p. 9B.
  5. Allen 2002.
  6. Conkling 2017.
  7. The Daily Times-News 1959, p. 16.
  8. The Biddeford-Sacco Journal 1963, p. 3.
  9. Liros Gallery 2003.
  10. The Biddeford Daily Journal 1954, p. 4.
  11. The Record-Argus 1954, p. 13.
  12. The Huntingdon Daily News 1954b, p. 2.
  13. The Daily Times-News 1958, p. 15.
  14. The Daily Times-News 1959, p. 9.
  15. The Huntingdon Daily News 1954a, p. 3.
  16. Little 2009, p. 10.
  17. Smithsonian 1974.
  18. Kohler 1977, p. 111.
  19. Myers 2003, p. 1.
  20. White 1974, p. 2.
  21. The Daily Kennebec Journal 1971, p. 6.
  22. McLane & McLane 1997, p. 211.
  23. Social Security Death Index 2003.
  24. Little 2009.
  25. Archives of American Art 1996.

Bibliography
  • Allen, James J. (June 27, 2002). "Inspired Islander Memoir, Art Show Honor 98-Year-Old Emily Muir". Ellsworth American. Ellsworth, Maine. Archived from the original on 29 May 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Conkling, Philip (May 2017). "A Practical Visionary". The Maine Magazine. Portland Maine: Maine Media Collective. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Kohler, Sue A. (1977). The Commission of Fine Arts: A brief history, 1910–1976. Washington, D. C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 3075667.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Little, Carl (16 August 2009). "The Muir Estate" (PDF). Courthouse Gallery. Ellsworth, Main. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • McLane, Charles B.; McLane, Carol Evarts (1997). Islands of the Mid-Maine Coast: Penobscot Bay. I: Penobscot Bay. Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House. ISBN 978-0-88448-184-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Myers, Peg (Spring 2003). "Emily Muir's Lasting Legacy Includes Crockett Cove Woods" (PDF). Island Heritage Trust Newsletter. Deer Isle, Maine: The Conservation Land Trust of Deer Isle and Stonington, Maine and Surrounding Islands. XIII (1): 1, 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2016. Retrieved 13 March 2018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • White, Maryline (September 24, 1974). "Crafts School Emphasizes Uniqueness". The Biddeford-Saco Journal. Biddeford, Maine. p. 2. Retrieved 14 March 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "1905 New York State Census, Yonkers, Westchester County, New York". FamilySearch. White Plains, New York: Westchester County Clerk. 1 June 1905. p. 48. FHL microfilm #589664, lines 15–21. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "1910 U. S. Federal Census, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 20 April 1910. p. 9B. NARA microfilm series T624, Roll #983 lines 61–67. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "Collection of Oil Paintings to Be Shown at College". The Huntingdon Daily News. Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. March 2, 1954a. p. 3. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "College's Art Exhibit Friday Open to Public". The Record-Argus. Greenville, Pennsylvania. March 25, 1954. p. 13. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Cook County, Illinois Birth Certificates, 1871–1940: Emily Stewart Lansingh". FamilySearch. Chicago, Illinois: Cook County Courthouse. 19 June 1924. certificate 15091. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "Emily and William Muir papers, [ca. 1930]-1996". Archives of American Art. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. 1996. Archived from the original on 19 April 2016. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  • "Emily Muir". Liros Gallery. Blue Hill, Maine. 2003. Archived from the original on 14 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
  • "Final Event in Lyceum Series Set (pt 1)". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. April 20, 1959. p. 9. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Newspapers.com. and "Final (pt 2)". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. April 20, 1959. p. 16. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Husband-Wife Art Team Talk to Juniata Students". The Huntingdon Daily News. Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. March 15, 1954b. p. 2. Retrieved 14 March 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Maine art gallery". The Daily Kennebec Journal. Augusta, Maine. February 6, 1971. p. 6. Retrieved 14 March 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
  • "Ogunquit Museum Plans Two One-Man Exhibitions". The Biddeford-Sacco Journal. Biddeford, Maine. June 28, 1963. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "Orchard Street". American Art. Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum. 1974. Archived from the original on 13 March 2018. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "U. S. Passport Applications, 1795–1925: Emily Stewart Lansingh". FamilySearch. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 20 June 1924. pp. 651–652. NARA Microfilm series M1490, Roll #2582, certificate #448798. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "U. S. Social Security Death Index: Emily L. Muir". FamilySearch. Alexandria, Virginia: U.S. Social Security Administration, National Technical Information Service. 19 March 2003. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  • "(untitled)". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. October 10, 1958. p. 15. Retrieved 13 March 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
  • "U. of Maine Art Gallery Presents Summer Exhibits". The Biddeford Daily Journal. Biddeford, Maine. July 8, 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 14 March 2018 – via Newspaperarchive.com.
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