Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
Desert Landscape
oil on board
12 x 14.5 inches
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
Desert Lanscape with Mountains
oil on canvas
30.5 x 35.5 inches
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
landscape
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
sketch of house
graphite on paper
19 x 20 inches
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
Superstition Mountain
oil on board
15.25 x 13.75 inches
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
illustration from Guilietta and Romeo, circa 1935
signature of Jesse Benton Evans
Jessie Benton Evans (1866-1954)
Artist Details
Jessie
Benton
Steese
Evans
Denver Eugene Evans (1860-1920) , fruit importer living in Chicago; married August 12, 1886
Robert Thomas Evans (Chicago, Illinois June 24, 1888-October 1962 Arizona)
married Mary Eleanore Frysinger (1887-1911) on November 18, 1908 in La Porte, indiana
March 24, 1866
Uniontown, Ohio
September 1954
Scottsdale, Arizona
254 E. 61st Street, Chicago
1909: 1517 W. 61st St., Chicago, Illinois
1911-1954: Scottsdale, Arizona
Chicago, Illinois
Scottsdale, Arizona
until at least 1920: 1517 E. 61st St., Chicago, Illinois
Etcher, Painter-Oil, Tempera, Watercolorist
Oberlin College, Ohio
1904: graduated School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois [started in 1890s]
student of Charles Hawthorne, Lawton Parker, William Chase, Frederick Freerer and such European notables as Roberto Rascovich and Professor Zila Zanetti of Venice, Italy
5 trips to Europe prior to World War I
especially Italy: Venice, Florence, Verona, Naples and Rome
Paris
Array
January 31-February 26, 1905: Ninth Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Sorrento
January 29-February 24, 1907: Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Sketch
May 7-June 16, 1907: Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of Water-Colors, Pastels and Miniatures by American Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Gloucester Harbor, watercolor
February 2-28, 1909: An Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Evening, Giardini, tempera; Gray Evening, oil; Old Houses, oil; Door, Rio del Seiocannini, oil; Rio del Olio, oil; Rio di Mendicanti, tempera; Evening, oil
May 11-June 13, 1909: Twenty-First Annual Exhibition of Water-Colors, Pastels, and Miniatures by American Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Late Afternoon, oil; On the Guidecca, oil; San Daniele, oil
October 19-Novemer 28, 1909: Twenty-Second Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: La Vignuole, oil
November 14-December 27, 1910: Twenty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: The Procession, oil; Ponte de Pietro, oil; The Old Olive Tree, oil; A Walk on the Riviera, oil
November 14-December 25, 1911: Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Superstition Mountain
1911, 1912: Paris Salon, Paris, France
February 1-28, 1912: An Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: On the Adige, Verona, oil; Little Lace Makers, oil; Castle of the Capuletti, oil
May 7-June 5, 1912: Twenty-Fourth Annual Exhibition of Watercolors, Pastels, and Miniatures by American Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Canal, Venice, watercolor; Afternoon, watercolor; On the Shore, etching; Rio S. Christoforo, watercolor
November 5-December 8, 1912: The Twenty-Fifth Annual Exhibition of American Sculpture and Oil Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Church of San Marco, oil
January 28-February 21, 1913: The Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: The Market, Verona, oil; San Giorgio, Verona, oil; Paragi, oil; Portofino, oil
February 3-March 1, 1914: Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Echo Canyon, oil; The Buttes, oil; Camels Back, oil; Old Curiosity Shop, oil; Entrance to Canyon, oil
November 3-December 6, 1914: The Twenty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings and Sculptures, The Art institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Bright Angel Canyon, oil; The Four Peaks, oil
Paris Internationale
Société des Artistes Français
Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts
Pan-Am Exposition, San Francisco
1917, 1920, 1925, 1928, 1929: Arizona State Fairs
January 8-February 7, 1918: First Exhibition of Work by the Alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Porto Fino; Lake Winnebago
November 7, 1918-January 1, 1919: Thirty-First Annual Exhibition of American Oil Paintings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: On Way to McDowel
December 15, 1922-?: Exhibition of Work by the Alumni of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Field Columbian Museum
January 30-March 10, 1925: Twenty-Ninth Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Old Adobes, oil
1929-1933: Arizona Artists Arts and Crafts exhibits, Museum of Northern Arizona,
1929: Fourth Annual Circuit Exhibition by Ohio Born Women Painters, Akron Art Institute, Akron, Ohio
1953: Arizona State College, Tempe, Arizona
September 1-October 2, 2011: Arizona Centennial Artists – Arizona’s Early Women Artists, Herberger Theater Center, Phoenix, Arizona
November 17, 2012-May 12, 2013: Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona: Chicago Studio, circa 1915, watercolor; Artist’s Studio with Chair, circa 1918, etching; Venice Canal with Bridge, circa 1925, oil on board; Venice Waterfront with Posts, circa 1925, oil on board; Arch of Nero at Cumae, circa 1918, etching; Ponce de Leon, St. Augustine, 1925, hand-colored etching; Lakeshore, Chicago, circa 1920, oil on canvas; Grand Canyon, circa 1920, oil on board; Phoenix Area Landscape with Wash and Smoke Tree, circa 1920, oil on canvas; Arizona with Water—Salt River Canal, circa 1920, oil on canvas; Camelback Mountain with Saguaro and Wash, circa 1920, oil on board; Black Canyon, c. 1925, oil on canvas; Sedona from Oak Creek, circa 1925, oil on board; Four Peaks, c. 1930, pastel on paper; Sunshine in the Garden, circa 1935, oil on canvas; Southwest Garden Party, circa 1935, oil on canvas; Portrait of Lady in Spanish Costume, 1947, oil on canvas
Arizona Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Collection of Fran and Ed Elliott, Sedona, Arizona
College Club, Chicago, Illinois
Phoenix Art Museum
Phoenix University Club
Municipal Collection of Akron, Ohio
Municipal Collection, Phoenix, Arizona
Santa Fe Railroad Company
Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, Arizona
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
John H. Vanderpoel Art Association, Chicago, Illinois
Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin
Berryman, Florence Seville. “An Artist of the Salt River Valley,” The American Magazine of Art, vol. 20, no. 8 (August 1929).
Dvoino, Dee. “Noted Painters Arizona’s Own.” The State Magazine and the Pathfinder. (October 1922).
Fahlman, Betsy and Lonnie Pierson Dunvier. Arizona's Pioneering Women Artists. Museum of Northern Arizona. 2012.
Fudala, Joan. Scottsdale. Arcadia Publishing, 2007.
Heller, Jules and Nancy G. Heller, eds. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge, 2013. 2nd edition.
Kovinick, Phil. The Woman Artist in the American West, 1860-1960. Muckenthaler Cultural Center,
Trenton, Patricia and Sandra E’Emilio. Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945. University of California Press, 1995.
Shadows on the Mesa--Artists of the Painted Desert and Beyond. 2011.
Arts Club of Chicago
The Artists Guild, Fine Arts Building, Chicago, Illinois
Chicago Society of Artists
The Salvator Rosa Art Club, Naples, Italy
Societe des Artists, Paris
Elected to the Arizona Women's Hall of Fame
1915: First prize, Phoenix Municipal Exposition
two first landscape prizes and a second portrait prize at Arizona State Fair
1932: illustrated and published her translation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Guiletta and Romeo
Parents: Jacob (1820-September 30, 1881) and Amanda Melvina Bowers (1834-1904) Steese; he was a hardworking country doctor; he is buried in Glendale Cemetery, Akron, Ohio
Sibling: Cleveland W. Steese (June 25, 1862-April 1, 1889); physician; buried in Woods Cemetery, Uniontown, Ohio
Half-sibling: Felix D. Steese (?-1904), son of Jacob and Edith M. McCormick (1825-1860) Steese; served in infantry; musician
Artist Jessie Benton-Evans Gray is her great-granddaughter.
Considered one of the most important Arizona artists of the early 20th century, Jessie Benton Evans is known for her brightly colored desert landscapes.
Evans was born in Uniontown, Ohio and studied at Oberlin College. Having moved to Chicago to attend the Art Institute, she met and married Denver Evans, a successful Chicago businessman. After giving birth to her only child in 1888, Evans completed her course of study with John Vanderpoel, Lawton Parker, and briefly with William Merritt Chase.
Over a period of several years, Evans took her son on extended trips to Europe where she studied informally with artists in Venice, Florence, Verona, Naples, Rome, and Paris. She exhibited in the Paris Salons of 1911 and 1912 and was a member of the Societe des Artists. Between 1905 and 1925 she exhibited here landscape and genre paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago's annual exhibitions. Evans was a member of the Chicago Art Club and the Chicago Society of Artists.
In 1913 Evans moved to Scottsdale, Arizona for health reasons, although she maintained her Chicago studio at least until 1920. She quickly grew to love the Sonoran Desert, saying she found in it a "virgin freshness" not found in Europe. She expressed her delight in the desert landscape with vivid colors and an impressionist style.
As one of the cultural leaders in the Phoenix area, Evans undoubtedly sold much of her work privately, but she also sold paintings at the two resorts, Jokake Inn and Paradise Inn, built by her son, Robert. She also sold 13 canvases to the Santa Fe Railway, more than the Santa Fe purchased from any other female artist.