Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Cheever, Walter L. |
Dates & places of birth and death |
b. 1880 Massachusetts d. 1951 California |
Nationality |
American |
Notes |
Walter Lewis Cheever, Art: Santa Barbara WALTER LEWIS CHEEVER was born in Malden, Massachusetts, on August 11, 1880. After a long illness he died at his home in Santa Paula, California, on April 11, 1951. His parents were Lilburn H. and Mary A. Cheever. Mr. Cheever's early training was at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he won many prizes and scholarships. His study with some of the most distinguished teachers in the field of American art, men such as Frank Benson, William Paxton, Phillip Hale, and Edmond Tarbell, prepared him for an illustrious career. When he first came to California in 1912, he lived in Glendale for a number of years before settling in Santa Barbara, the city he came to love so well. It was in Glendale he first met and later married Bertha Olive Fuller, formerly of Lynn, Massachusetts. Three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cheever: Connie (Mrs. Paul Julian), and the twins, Peggy (Mrs. D. MacKenzie Brown), and Polly (Mrs. Gordon Woods), each daughter a graduate in art. Mr. Cheever first taught part time in Santa Barbara College in 1926, and subsequently from 1929 to 1932. In 1932 he was appointed Associate Professor of Art serving in this capacity until the fall of 1944; after which he taught part time until his retirement in 1947. When Mr. Cheever left Boston to live in Glendale, he continued his painting and also was designer and artist for the Oarpity-Hertzel-Martin Scenic Studios in Los Angeles, and Flagg Interior Decorators. He was active in many art circles in southern California, and was one of the founders, and for many years a member, of the Glendale Art Association. He was a member, and at one time president, of the Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles. His professional memberships also included the Los Angeles Foundation of Western Art, and California Art Club. Mr. Cheever's warm and lovable nature, fused with a keen wit and humor, endeared him to all whom he met, and he shall remain always a living part of the art circles of California to which he contributed so much during his many years of association. Mr. Cheever was always active, constantly painting and exhibiting in virtually every important gallery in the state of California; among them the San Diego Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum, the Palos Verdes and Oakland Galleries, The Crocker Gallery, and many others. He was an art student of determined calibre and his years of study in the Boston school developed that quiet tenacity and perseverance that are so necessary for success in the fine arts. In 1937, the Leisser-Farham Prize at the San Diego Art Museum Exhibition was awarded him for a portrait of one of his daughters. He was one of the representative California artists to win a prize at the World's Fair in San Francisco in 1939. Mr. Cheever's work was suffused with his own quiet personality. Whether he painted the lyric peace of the California hillsides, the misty greys of the sea which he loved, the rich beauty of textures and forms of a still life, or the sensitivity of a human face, there was never a passage but what revealed his fundamental goodness and understanding; an objective manifestation of his gentle spirit. There was something both intimate and monumental in his canvases, and he was able to transmute to his students everywhere that quality of patience that was his. Mr. Cheever always gave unstintingly of his time and energy to furthering the aims and ideals of artistic realization. He served for several years on various committees of the Faulkner Art Gallery of Santa Barbara. He was a member of the Community Arts Association, and served on the faculty of the school conducted by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. In 1941 Mr. Cheever spent many months in Mexico visiting such places as Taxco, Mexico City, and Acapulco. His keen appreciation of the country, the people and their customs was elegantly expressed in his drawings, watercolors, and oils, culminating in a Santa Barbara exhibition in 1942. His last one-man exhibition was held at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in 1946. During Mr. Cheever's two decades of teaching at Santa Barbara, the College and University were most fortunate in having a man so nobly enriched. Indeed, a man of Mr. Cheever's calibre is rare in the teaching profession. His many students soon learned to admire and respect him for his greatness of spirit. His genuineness and pains-taking efforts, his fairmindedness, and patient understanding of their problems, the encouragement and the inspiration he gave to them combined with his exceptional powers of good teaching make him forever a living symbol of all that is good, and beautiful, and real in life. He endeared himself to them all. Mr. Cheever will long be remembered by his colleagues, students, and friends, whose memory of him will always be a fine example of a scholar, a teacher, and a friend. Ruth M. Doolittle J. Fred Halterman Kurt Baer |
Role |
Artist |
