biography of Theodore VAN SOELEN (1890-1964)

Birth place: St. Paul, MN

Death place: Santa Fe, NM

Addresses: Santa Fe, NM, since 1922/second studio in Cornwall, CT, by 1930s.

Profession: Landscape and portrait painter, lithographer, writer, illustrator

Studied: St. Paul AI, 1908-11; PAFA, 1911-15 (Cresson travel scholarship to Europe; visited Holland, Italy, England, and France 1913-14)

Exhibited: New Mexico Painters Soc.; Carnegie Inst.; PAFA Ann., 1915-1941; MMA; MoMA; SFMA; LACMA; San Diego FA Soc.; Corcoran Gal biennials, 1921-43 (11 times); AIC; NAD, 1927 (prize), 1930 (prize); New Mexico State Fair, 1944 (prize), 1945 (prize); Sesquicentennial Expo, Phila., PA, 1926 (medal)

Member: ANA, 1933; NA, 1940; Century Assn.; fellow, PAFA, 1931.

Work: PAFA; NAD; Everhart Mus., Scranton, PA; IBM; Mus. New Mexico, Santa Fe; Public School, Phila., PA; Public School, Denver, CO; LOC; murals, Grant County Court House (WPA project), Silver City, NM; WPA murals, USPOs Portales, (NM), Waureka (OK), Livingston (TX); Loomis Inst., CT; IBM Corp.

Comments: After studying at PAFA, Van Soelen painted snow scenes with other Pennsylvania Impressionists, including Daniel Garber. However, when he became seriously ill with pneumonia and tuberculosis during the winter of 1916, his doctor advised him to go to Albuquerque (he also visited the Utah-Nevada mountains), where he established himself as a painter-illustrator of Western landscapes, ranch scenes. In 1922 he moved to Santa Fe and in 1926 became a permanent resident of Tesuque. Contributor: Field & Stream.

Sources: WW59; P&H Samuels, 497; Eldredge, et al., Art in New Mexico, 1900-1945, 208; Danly, Light, Air, and Color, 80; Falk, Exh. Record Series.