Recently Acquired
The family of artist and educator Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879-1969) recently gifted five works by the California-based landscape painter to the Pasadena Museum of History, as well as several textiles, photographs and ephemera. The rediscovered works, which include three paintings and two preparatory sketches, will become part of the museum’s permanent collection due to the generosity of the Chouinard family and the efforts of art historians and curators Maurine St. Gaudens and Joseph Morsman. Recently, they were a part of the exhibition Something Revealed: California Women Artists Emerge, 1860-1960, which ended in 2019.
Chouinard played an important role in the arts community and the development of arts education in Los Angeles, her artwork lesser known than her educational efforts, which included teaching positions at California’s Polytechnic Institute (now Caltech), Pasadena’s Polytechnic Elementary School and the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles. In 1921 she founded the Chouinard Art Institute, which she oversaw until the 1960s.
“We are thrilled to add artwork by Nelbert Chouinard to the museum’s fine art collection,” says Jeannette O’malley, executive director at the Pasadena Museum of History. “As a significant contributor to the development of arts education in California, Nelbert is the epitome of what Something Revealed represents, and we look forward to sharing her art and legacy in the future.”
Calling all Western Art museums! Have a recently acquired painting or sculpture? Email the details to editor@westernartcollector.com.