Lee Greene Richards

Self-Portrait

Lee Greene Richards (July 27, 1878 – February 20, 1950)[1] is a famous Utah portrait artist. Many of his works can be found at the City and County Building in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Biography

Richards was the son of Levi W. and Lula Greene Richards. He was actually named Levi after his father but went by Lee. Levi W. Richards was the son of Levi Richards who was Joseph Smith's physician in Nauvoo, Illinois.

Levi W. Richards, and his mother Sarah Griffith Richards had been painters.

Lee Richards was raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and in 1895 he served as an LDS missionary in England.

Richards went to Paris in 1901 where he studied at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1904 he returned to Utah where he started an art studio.

In 1908 Richards married Mary Jane Eldredge, whose father was a wealthy banker. They spent over a year on their honeymoon in Paris.

Richards painted portraits of many presidents and leaders of the LDS Church, many of which now displayed in the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. Richards also painted murals for the Cardston Alberta Temple.[2] He also did a mural for the Mesa Arizona Temple.[3] Richards also received a WPA commission to do the murals on the Utah Capitol Rotunda.

In 1921 Richards was the only American to serve as a judge at the Salon d'Automne.

From 1938–1947 Richards was an art professor at the University of Utah.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Certificate of Death". Federal Security Agency, Public Health Service. February 21, 1950. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
  2. ↑ Church News, June 22, 1991
  3. ↑ Garrett, H. Dean, ed. Regional Studies in LDS History: Arizona p. 57

References