Douglas Arthur Teed
Encyclopedia
Douglas Arthur Teed was an American
painter. He was the only son of the founder of Estero, FL
and self-proclaimed messiah, Dr. Cyrus Teed
.
. At age nine, his father left the family to develop a religious sect called 'Koreshanity
' after experiencing what he claimed was a divine vision. While sitting in the laboratory where he practiced medicine and Alchemy
, Cyrus reported "a relaxation at the... back part of the brain, and a peculiar buzzing tension at the forehead." He claimed his soul left his body and witnessed a woman whom he perceived as "His Mother and Bride." Cyrus Teed claimed this was a calling to spread the word on the true nature of our cellular cosmogony
, and to bridge the gap between science and religion. Cyrus described the messenger as:
"Gracefully pendant from the head, and falling in golden tresses of profusely luxuriant growth over her shoulders, her hair added to the adornment of her personal attractiveness. Supported by the shoulders and falling into a long train was a gold and purple colored robe. Her feet rested upon a silvery crescent; in her hand, and resting upon this crescent, was Mercury's
Caduceus
..."
There was an awakening in the Teed household hinging on dogmatic opinions, mysticism, and the exotic. The family did not buy into the new lifestyle, however, and eventually the family lost Cyrus to the religious fervor which consumed him. Dr. Teed persisted in his beliefs, neglecting his duties at home, and eventually settled a communal colony called 'The Koreshan Unity
'. He later incorporated the colony as Estero, FL.
The American Eagle of August 1973 reports that letters from Cyrus Teed indicated affection for his wife and child, and in spite of criticism, Delia accepted him as the messiannic personality of the age. However, Douglas and his mother never converted. Due to ill health, she and Douglas moved in with her sister in Binghamton, New York
. They remained there until Delia's death in 1885.
having opened his own study by the age of fourteen. In his youth, Teed spent many hours in the studio of George Inness
, whose tonalist
landscapes
greatly impressed the growing artist. Teed lived in New York
as a billboard
painter until 1890.
Later that year he opened a studio in Rome. This would serve as the home base for his five year study in Europe. Teed found, "a land in which art had a tradition of hundreds of years of immense imaginative achievements, a lovely and dramatically varied countryside, great paintings of the past to inspire him, the accumulated magic and splendor of the past." The popular trends in European art at that time are mirrored in his paintings.
Teed returned to his New York studio in 1895. He earned his living by paintings portrait
s and landscapes. Most of his work was sold to private collectors; often painting in trade of other services. During World War I
, the bulk of Teed's income was supported by painting the portraits of such men as Senator O'Gorman
of New York, Governor Whitman
of New York, Judge Williams R. Day
of the United States Supreme Court, and steel mogul Andrew Carnegie
. Although highly praised at the time, portraits held little interest for Teed; when interviewed in 1925, he stated being "...off portraits for life."
Through the years, his works adorned the walls of the Scranton Club, the Arlington Hotel, the Art Hall of the Koreshan Unity, the Arnot Art Museum, the 1911 International Exhibition in Rome
, the Annual Exhibitions of Paintings by American Artists at the Detroit Institute of the Arts
, the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery
, the Oriental Theatre in Detroit, the Binghamton Public Library, and found a healthy market within the homes of the nouveau-riche
Detroit industrialists. He's exhibited in Italy
, Munich
, London
, Boston
, Philadelphia, and the Royal Academy of Canada
. Three canvases were purchased to decorate the reception chamber of the executive mansion in Albany
during the governship of Charles S. Whitman. Three others were purchased for the state armory.
The first major retrospective of Islamic art
had taken place in 1893 at the Palais de l'Industrie, while Teed was touring Europe
. This was the first popular exposure of Islamic Art to a newly industrialized Western world
. Teed's oriental paintings dating prior to 1908 are likely to be studies of the works of popular European Orientalists
such as Jean-Léon Gérôme
, whose colorful and romantic
portraits of the Eastern world fascinated him. In pursuit of first hand inspiration, Douglas Teed left to the Middle East
in 1907.
Douglas Teed returned to the United States four years later. He reentered into an art world that was in a state of transition, where artists began publicly rebelling against the foreign domination of American art tastes. When Teed left to the Middle East, impressionism
was still very popular in the markets. However, displays such as The Armory Show of 1913 presented the work of a new emerging culture; the European Modernists, along with the new the American Realists
, (particularly the work of Arthur B. Davies
and the other members of his movement, The Eight
). Due to the isolation of his journey, Douglas Arthur Teed shared no involvement in the progression of the contemporary market's taste. He returned to the United States as a romantic painter of Oriental scenes still utilizing impressionist technique.
The patrons of the arts at this time in Detroit were primarily wealthy industrialists who leaned toward established art forms. Teed's more conservative, impressionistic depictions of the Middle East were well received, filling the drawing rooms of the city's elite.
In a 1924 review of the Annual Exhibition for American Artists, Mr. R. Poland (then Director of Education at the Detroit Institute of Arts
) wrote, "...as to landscapes, Mr. Douglas Arthur Teed... has brought the beholder to intimate communion with nature. One looks into the very soul, radiant and smiling, of all humanity." Three paintings entered the exhibition, one voting runner up for the Floyd G. Hitchcock prize, awarded by public vote. The painting was entitled, "Awaiting a Buyer". It received 153 votes, the winner received 154 votes, and was purchased before the completion of the show. In 1925 he received the largest number of public votes for his painting, "Argument as to Value".
Teed continued to paint experimental works privately. He explored the female figure from the standpoint of her mysterious emotions, rather than emphasizing the anatomical. In another work, "The Light Worshipers" (1910), Teed attempts to combine Roman ruins with a sense of mysticism, developing forms and atmosphere inspired by the Inness
painting, "The Monk". One exhibition review from 1918 notes, "Douglas Arthur Teed, another unfamiliar exhibitor, shows four canvases. Three of them eccentricities in a pale white tone."
In January 1928, ten Detroit artists, including Teed, held an independent exhibition at the Hurley Galleries, 111 East Kirby Street, in protest of the jury selection for the annual Michigan Artists Exhibition. Four "conservative" artists who were rejected by the jury were: Percy Ives, Francis Paulus, John Morse, and Charles Waltensperger. The six joining them in this show: Julius Rolshoven
, William Greason, Alfred E. Peters, Roman Kryzonowsky, Joseph Gries, and Teed, "refrained from offering any work to the jury for much the same reason which prompted the rebellion -- a feeling that the annual Michigan show had grown less and less hospitable toward the more conservative painters." The exhibition stirred up quite a controversy in the city. Mr. Samuel Halpert
, a juror for the 1928 exhibition stated that "many of the... artists whose work was rejected by the jury have been dead for 20 years". Mr. J. W. Young responded to this remark in an essay when he defended the 10 rebels as "Guardians of the City's Artistic Ideals". Of the works represented by the ten artists at the Salon des Refusés
, he stated that "those who like the work of Douglas Arthur Teed will find his 'landscape' quite out of his usual vein, and may well conclude that it is a pretty good picture for a dead living man to have painted." Teed offered his opinion of the exhibition to the Detroit Free Press
,
, in a home Douglas built from local stone on the side of Mt. Manotonome overlooking the Susquehanna River
. This studio, called "Teed's Castle" by locals, was on the property of a wealthy diplomat in the foreign service, James T. DuBois. They spent the summers relaxing and entertaining guests in the twenty-seven room house on the mountain. Inside this house, which is still standing, the living room walls are covered by self-painted bucolic mural
s.
The Susquehanna County census for 1900 lists Teed, D. Arthur, occupation artist
, and his wife, George, as owning a mortgaged farm house in Great Bend Township, Pennsylvania
. The Teeds were devoted to one another and spent pleasant hours gathered with their friends. They were cultured yet relaxed people who entertained themselves by discussing books, art, and music. Often they would speak different languages for an evening or read. One Binghamton
resident remembers Teed as a "democratic" person. In the summer, their friends accompanied them to a country side farm house in Salt Springs, Pennsylvania
. Teed would take his easel
outdoors and the "gentle man
with the mustache" would paint, while his wife sketched in water color. Teed exhibited a charming sense of humor in an anecdote from a Binghamton woman, who was a small girl at the time, "He named the out-house at Salt Springs the 'Spider Retreat'," she recalls. She also remembered being impressed by the massive gold wedding ring which Douglas had designed for his wife, "It was adorned with beautiful cupid
s."
On October 10, 1917, his wife, George Earl Teed, died. This prompted Teed's move to Detroit that same year. It was in Detroit where Teed's work gained recognition and began receiving higher prices.
In 1923, he married Marie Felice Ranger. Felice's sister described the couple as "cultured". They participated in cultural activities and socialized by entertaining groups of fellow artists. During that time, Teed developed friendships with other well-known, more established Detroit artists.
In 1929, Douglas had a mild heart attack and was told not to go near his studio for six weeks. On May 23, 1929, Douglas Arthur Teed suffered a second heart attack and died while with his wife, at the age of 69.
One such painting, "Tropical Dawn", was presented to a member of the Unity, Victoria Gratia, at her birthday celebration in April 1905.
It seemed the relationship between father and son was a healthy one. Douglas even dedicated a poem to his father for his birthday (known to the Unity as "The Solar Festival") on October 18, 1905, entitled, The Lost Muse. However, in 1907 Douglas sued the Koreshan Unity for overdue payment, citing the paintings which hung in the Art Hall. In 1908, a full settlement was made out of court between Douglas and the Unity. That same year his father died.
The success of Teed's work is based on compositional harmony and a powerful maintenance of color value. Early attempts at figure drawing, such as "Angel Rescue", reveal a frustration towards the articulate separation of the subject from its surroundings. Thus began his treatment of the figure as an element in space, casting subjects against the romantic landscape – a vibrant rush of environment acting as a reflection of temper.
Accurate depictions of foliage, included with the abounding beauty of the countryside, were utilized by American artists at the time to create an awe-inspiring mood in their works. These were aesthetic tenets made popular by Sir Edmund Burke's
treatise anticipating classical Romanticism, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
. As Teed refined his aesthetic, he began to approach his subjects less as strict anatomical studies, and more in the vein of the foliage of the classical American landscape—in a delicate application of paint; as the vision which guided his hand, immemorial. In a Teed painting, we are asked to witness a scene which has fallen into the atmosphere, and plays on the same brush-stroke as of the sand in the wind.
Teed successfully developed his own philosophy on the "problems of light" (concentration/diffusion), popularized by the Barbizon
artists. Many of his compositions are approached in concept of light. These techniques were first introduced to Teed by George Inness, in his own study as a disciple at the Barbizon School in Europe, starting in 1847.
The early influence of George Inness is clearly demonstrated within Teed's work; both practicing in a similar method, active in the same influences, emoting in the same key of atmospheric romanticism. Both Teed and Innes painted rapidly over wet paint. Teed was reported to have painted with a palette knife at great speed, able to produce a picture for a buyer in one night.
Unfortunately, this manner of work causes the paint layers to dry at different rates, creating extensive cracking and paint loss in a relatively short time. This is true of many of Teed's works today.
He remained a deep admirer of the arts throughout his life. Teed exhibited specific interest and influence in the works of Antoine-Jean Gros
, Henri Rousseau
, Jean-François Millet
, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
, Jean Leon Gerome, George Inness
, Claude Lorrain
, Ludwig Löfftz
, Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven
, and Jules Breton.
He studied every aesthetic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, continually searching for a successful means of conveying his passion; compelled to portray on canvas the spiritual aura. He brought himself to the reaches of the planet in search of the mystics in Nature. Teed wanted to symbolize a reverence for God and Nature; he wanted to convey allegorical messages; he wanted his paintings to become his visual poetry.
Douglas Teed lived a quiet and humble life, never exhibiting the eccentric follies of the acclaimed masters he admired. His quiet did not mark a languid heart. There is a consistent temperament throughout his work, experienced strongest when seen in succession; a disconnected world, brooding and melancholy. In an article entitled "Distinguished Artist at Estero" (1905), one reviewer noted his painting's "...gravity of presence. With Mr. Teed, each image appears captured moments before the storm."
Upon his return from Europe, Teed's canvases became highly acclaimed for their charm. The Boston Evening Transcript
calls Teed "a man of high ambitions, with a fine sense of color, a just appreciation of values and a close observer of the subtle and delicate variations of the sensitive gamut... Rather than concentrate on specific forms, the artist has developed an overall pattern of color, light, and impasto which adds cohesiveness to the compositions."
His work no longer depicted simply the local morning picturesque. His landscapes were used as mirrors of his own complexion, both an interpretation of Nature's inner-spirit and his own. He staged "worlds of atmosphere, looking forth at us through ethereal light, through shadows..." Although he never chose to alleviate realistic representation altogether, Teed's paintings were largely the product of a passionate imagination, whose emotions materialized in the works' creation. The landscape had become subordinated to the thought.
There is a preference for the mystic and the exotic in his work. Early in his childhood, Douglas was exposed to various beliefs and theories through the oration of his father. No doubt, the vision Cyrus experienced concerning the Mother-Bride deity created an impression on the imagination of the young man. Both Cyrus and Douglas shared a propensity for idealism and didactic pursuits. There is a strong echo of Cyrus Teed's dogma in the work of his son.
Ultimately, Teed spent his entire life searching; through an emotional expression on the canvas, for inspiration in his travels around the world, in improvement of his method and evolution of style – searching for a "frankness and simplicity", stating, "simplicity is the most difficult of all things." He stands as an example of the continuous strain of romanticism used by American artists; heirs to the deep-seated religious, cultural, and intellectual convictions of a young nation founded on visionary daring and integrity.
Teed left behind twenty unfinished paintings when he died in 1929.
The work of Douglas Arthur Teed is currently housed in the Koreshan State Historic Site
, the Arnot Art Museum, and countless private collections around the world.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
painter. He was the only son of the founder of Estero, FL
Estero, Florida
Estero is a census-designated place in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 18,176. It is the home of Germain Arena, which hosts the home games for the Florida Everblades ECHL hockey team and the Florida Firecats af2 arena football team...
and self-proclaimed messiah, Dr. Cyrus Teed
Cyrus Teed
Cyrus Reed Teed was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned religious leader and messiah. In 1869, claiming divine inspiration, Dr...
.
Early Life with Cyrus Teed
Douglas Arthur Teed was born on February 21, 1860 to Fidelia M. Rowe and Cyrus R. Teed, in New Hartford, New YorkNew Hartford, New York
New Hartford, New York may refer to:* New Hartford , New York, in Oneida County* New Hartford , New York, within the town of New Hartford...
. At age nine, his father left the family to develop a religious sect called 'Koreshanity
Koreshanity
Not to be confused with the teachings of David KoreshKoreshanity is the set of religious/scientific beliefs put forth by Cyrus Teed...
' after experiencing what he claimed was a divine vision. While sitting in the laboratory where he practiced medicine and Alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, Cyrus reported "a relaxation at the... back part of the brain, and a peculiar buzzing tension at the forehead." He claimed his soul left his body and witnessed a woman whom he perceived as "His Mother and Bride." Cyrus Teed claimed this was a calling to spread the word on the true nature of our cellular cosmogony
Cosmogony
Cosmogony, or cosmogeny, is any scientific theory concerning the coming into existence or origin of the universe, or about how reality came to be. The word comes from the Greek κοσμογονία , from κόσμος "cosmos, the world", and the root of γίνομαι / γέγονα "to be born, come about"...
, and to bridge the gap between science and religion. Cyrus described the messenger as:
"Gracefully pendant from the head, and falling in golden tresses of profusely luxuriant growth over her shoulders, her hair added to the adornment of her personal attractiveness. Supported by the shoulders and falling into a long train was a gold and purple colored robe. Her feet rested upon a silvery crescent; in her hand, and resting upon this crescent, was Mercury's
Mercury (mythology)
Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...
Caduceus
Caduceus
The caduceus is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology. The same staff was also borne by heralds in general, for example by Iris, the messenger of Hera. It is a short staff entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings...
..."
There was an awakening in the Teed household hinging on dogmatic opinions, mysticism, and the exotic. The family did not buy into the new lifestyle, however, and eventually the family lost Cyrus to the religious fervor which consumed him. Dr. Teed persisted in his beliefs, neglecting his duties at home, and eventually settled a communal colony called 'The Koreshan Unity
Koreshan Unity
The Koreshan Unity was a communal utopia formed by Cyrus Teed, who took the name "Koresh", the Hebrew version of his name Cyrus . The Koreshans followed Teed's beliefs, called Koreshanity....
'. He later incorporated the colony as Estero, FL.
The American Eagle of August 1973 reports that letters from Cyrus Teed indicated affection for his wife and child, and in spite of criticism, Delia accepted him as the messiannic personality of the age. However, Douglas and his mother never converted. Due to ill health, she and Douglas moved in with her sister in Binghamton, New York
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
. They remained there until Delia's death in 1885.
Painter
Douglas Arthur Teed began painting as a small boy in UticaUtica, New York
Utica is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 62,235 at the 2010 census, an increase of 2.6% from the 2000 census....
having opened his own study by the age of fourteen. In his youth, Teed spent many hours in the studio of George Inness
George Inness
George Inness was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism...
, whose tonalist
Tonalism
Tonalism was an artistic style that emerged in the 1880s when American artists began to paint landscape forms with an overall tone of colored atmosphere or mist. Between 1880 and 1915, dark, neutral hues such as gray, brown or blue, often dominated compositions by artists associated with the style...
landscapes
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
greatly impressed the growing artist. Teed lived in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as a billboard
Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
painter until 1890.
Later that year he opened a studio in Rome. This would serve as the home base for his five year study in Europe. Teed found, "a land in which art had a tradition of hundreds of years of immense imaginative achievements, a lovely and dramatically varied countryside, great paintings of the past to inspire him, the accumulated magic and splendor of the past." The popular trends in European art at that time are mirrored in his paintings.
Teed returned to his New York studio in 1895. He earned his living by paintings portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...
s and landscapes. Most of his work was sold to private collectors; often painting in trade of other services. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the bulk of Teed's income was supported by painting the portraits of such men as Senator O'Gorman
James Aloysius O'Gorman
James Aloysius O'Gorman, Sr. was a one-term United States Senator from New York.-Biography:O'Gorman was born in New York City. He attended the public schools, the College of the City of New York, and then graduated from the law department of New York University in 1882...
of New York, Governor Whitman
Charles S. Whitman
Charles Seymour Whitman served as the 41st Governor of New York from January 1915 to December 1918. He was also a delegate to Republican National Convention from New York in 1916.-Biography:...
of New York, Judge Williams R. Day
William R. Day
William Rufus Day was an American diplomat and jurist, who served for nineteen years as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.-Biography:...
of the United States Supreme Court, and steel mogul Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
. Although highly praised at the time, portraits held little interest for Teed; when interviewed in 1925, he stated being "...off portraits for life."
Through the years, his works adorned the walls of the Scranton Club, the Arlington Hotel, the Art Hall of the Koreshan Unity, the Arnot Art Museum, the 1911 International Exhibition in Rome
International Exhibition of Art (1911)
International Exhibition of Art was a world's fair held in Rome in 1911 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the unification of Italy in the same year as another world's fair in Turin . It marked the beginnings of the National Roman Museum...
, the Annual Exhibitions of Paintings by American Artists at the Detroit Institute of the Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
, the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery
San Diego Museum of Art
The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San...
, the Oriental Theatre in Detroit, the Binghamton Public Library, and found a healthy market within the homes of the nouveau-riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
Detroit industrialists. He's exhibited in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Philadelphia, and the Royal Academy of Canada
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
. Three canvases were purchased to decorate the reception chamber of the executive mansion in Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
during the governship of Charles S. Whitman. Three others were purchased for the state armory.
The first major retrospective of Islamic art
Islamic art
Islamic art encompasses the visual arts produced from the 7th century onwards by people who lived within the territory that was inhabited by or ruled by culturally Islamic populations...
had taken place in 1893 at the Palais de l'Industrie, while Teed was touring Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. This was the first popular exposure of Islamic Art to a newly industrialized Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. Teed's oriental paintings dating prior to 1908 are likely to be studies of the works of popular European Orientalists
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
such as Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
, whose colorful and romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
portraits of the Eastern world fascinated him. In pursuit of first hand inspiration, Douglas Teed left to the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
in 1907.
Douglas Teed returned to the United States four years later. He reentered into an art world that was in a state of transition, where artists began publicly rebelling against the foreign domination of American art tastes. When Teed left to the Middle East, impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
was still very popular in the markets. However, displays such as The Armory Show of 1913 presented the work of a new emerging culture; the European Modernists, along with the new the American Realists
American realism
300px|thumb|[[Ashcan School]] artists & friends at [[John French Sloan]]'s Philadelphia Studio, 1898American realism was an early 20th century idea in art, music and literature that showed through these different types of work, reflections of the time period...
, (particularly the work of Arthur B. Davies
Arthur B. Davies
Arthur Bowen Davies was an avant-garde American artist and patron.-Biography:He was born in Utica, New York and studied at the Chicago Academy of Design from 1879 to 1882...
and the other members of his movement, The Eight
The Eight
The Eight may refer to:*Ashcan School, an American school of painters*The Eight , a Hungarian art movement*The Eight ...
). Due to the isolation of his journey, Douglas Arthur Teed shared no involvement in the progression of the contemporary market's taste. He returned to the United States as a romantic painter of Oriental scenes still utilizing impressionist technique.
The patrons of the arts at this time in Detroit were primarily wealthy industrialists who leaned toward established art forms. Teed's more conservative, impressionistic depictions of the Middle East were well received, filling the drawing rooms of the city's elite.
In a 1924 review of the Annual Exhibition for American Artists, Mr. R. Poland (then Director of Education at the Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
) wrote, "...as to landscapes, Mr. Douglas Arthur Teed... has brought the beholder to intimate communion with nature. One looks into the very soul, radiant and smiling, of all humanity." Three paintings entered the exhibition, one voting runner up for the Floyd G. Hitchcock prize, awarded by public vote. The painting was entitled, "Awaiting a Buyer". It received 153 votes, the winner received 154 votes, and was purchased before the completion of the show. In 1925 he received the largest number of public votes for his painting, "Argument as to Value".
Teed continued to paint experimental works privately. He explored the female figure from the standpoint of her mysterious emotions, rather than emphasizing the anatomical. In another work, "The Light Worshipers" (1910), Teed attempts to combine Roman ruins with a sense of mysticism, developing forms and atmosphere inspired by the Inness
George Inness
George Inness was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism...
painting, "The Monk". One exhibition review from 1918 notes, "Douglas Arthur Teed, another unfamiliar exhibitor, shows four canvases. Three of them eccentricities in a pale white tone."
In January 1928, ten Detroit artists, including Teed, held an independent exhibition at the Hurley Galleries, 111 East Kirby Street, in protest of the jury selection for the annual Michigan Artists Exhibition. Four "conservative" artists who were rejected by the jury were: Percy Ives, Francis Paulus, John Morse, and Charles Waltensperger. The six joining them in this show: Julius Rolshoven
Julius Rolshoven
Julius Rolshoven was a well-traveled American painter, with work firmly in the academic tradition.Rolshoven was born and raised in Detroit...
, William Greason, Alfred E. Peters, Roman Kryzonowsky, Joseph Gries, and Teed, "refrained from offering any work to the jury for much the same reason which prompted the rebellion -- a feeling that the annual Michigan show had grown less and less hospitable toward the more conservative painters." The exhibition stirred up quite a controversy in the city. Mr. Samuel Halpert
Samuel Halpert
Samuel Halpert was born in 1884 in Białystok, Russia and he died in 1930 in Detroit, Michigan. He was an American painter.-Early days:Samuel Halpert was born on December 25, 1884 in Białystok, Russia, where his friend Max Weber had been born three years earlier. His family immigrated to New York...
, a juror for the 1928 exhibition stated that "many of the... artists whose work was rejected by the jury have been dead for 20 years". Mr. J. W. Young responded to this remark in an essay when he defended the 10 rebels as "Guardians of the City's Artistic Ideals". Of the works represented by the ten artists at the Salon des Refusés
Salon des Refusés
The Salon des Refusés, French for “exhibition of rejects” , is generally an exhibition of works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon, but the term is most famously used to refer to the Salon des Refusés of 1863.-Background:...
, he stated that "those who like the work of Douglas Arthur Teed will find his 'landscape' quite out of his usual vein, and may well conclude that it is a pretty good picture for a dead living man to have painted." Teed offered his opinion of the exhibition to the Detroit Free Press
Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Free Press is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The Sunday edition is entitled the Sunday Free Press. It is sometimes informally referred to as the "Freep"...
,
- "The CubistCubismCubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture...
, post-impressionists, the fellows who call themselves 'Ultimatists' and others classed as modernistsModernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
have reverted to jungle art. They are quite free from an expose of knowledge of colorColorColor or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
, form, or any of the rudimentary principles of painting. One favorable feature of these groping young minds is that sometimes a development of the new features of art in which they are delving catches the mind of some exceptional man, who is able to couple his unusual culture with their theories, and the result is genius. Such men were Claude MonetClaude MonetClaude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, and earlier, CorotJean-Baptiste-Camille CorotJean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
. So for the sake of one or two geniuses, the world must be patient with much worthless rubbish."
Private Life
Douglas Teed was married to George E.C. Earle, a tall, slender woman with dark hair, on October 27, 1897. The couple took up residence in a studio in Hallstead, PennsylvaniaHallstead, Pennsylvania
Hallstead is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,216 at the 2000 census. Hallstead was founded in 1787 and was named in honor of William F...
, in a home Douglas built from local stone on the side of Mt. Manotonome overlooking the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
. This studio, called "Teed's Castle" by locals, was on the property of a wealthy diplomat in the foreign service, James T. DuBois. They spent the summers relaxing and entertaining guests in the twenty-seven room house on the mountain. Inside this house, which is still standing, the living room walls are covered by self-painted bucolic mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s.
The Susquehanna County census for 1900 lists Teed, D. Arthur, occupation artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, and his wife, George, as owning a mortgaged farm house in Great Bend Township, Pennsylvania
Great Bend Township, Pennsylvania
Great Bend Township is a township in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,890 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
. The Teeds were devoted to one another and spent pleasant hours gathered with their friends. They were cultured yet relaxed people who entertained themselves by discussing books, art, and music. Often they would speak different languages for an evening or read. One Binghamton
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...
resident remembers Teed as a "democratic" person. In the summer, their friends accompanied them to a country side farm house in Salt Springs, Pennsylvania
Franklin Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Franklin Township is a township in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 938 at the 2000 census. Salt Springs State Park, a Pennsylvania state park, is in Franklin Township.-Geography:...
. Teed would take his easel
Easel
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it.-Etymology:The word is an old Germanic synonym for donkey...
outdoors and the "gentle man
Gentleman
The term gentleman , in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus...
with the mustache" would paint, while his wife sketched in water color. Teed exhibited a charming sense of humor in an anecdote from a Binghamton woman, who was a small girl at the time, "He named the out-house at Salt Springs the 'Spider Retreat'," she recalls. She also remembered being impressed by the massive gold wedding ring which Douglas had designed for his wife, "It was adorned with beautiful cupid
Cupid
In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of desire, affection and erotic love. He is the son of the goddess Venus and the god Mars. His Greek counterpart is Eros...
s."
On October 10, 1917, his wife, George Earl Teed, died. This prompted Teed's move to Detroit that same year. It was in Detroit where Teed's work gained recognition and began receiving higher prices.
In 1923, he married Marie Felice Ranger. Felice's sister described the couple as "cultured". They participated in cultural activities and socialized by entertaining groups of fellow artists. During that time, Teed developed friendships with other well-known, more established Detroit artists.
In 1929, Douglas had a mild heart attack and was told not to go near his studio for six weeks. On May 23, 1929, Douglas Arthur Teed suffered a second heart attack and died while with his wife, at the age of 69.
Connection to Koreshanity
Douglas did seek out his father later in life. In 1905, he visited the Koreshan Unity. An article in the Fort Myers Press expressed gratitude toward south Florida receiving such a distinguished painter, and suggested the possibility of Teed remaining in the state to paint. There are numerous accounts in the communal paper espousing the talents of the artist son of Koresh. A special hall was built to house 27 of his works, which Teed painted especially for the commune. The people of the Unity were flattered by Teed's interpretation of Estero, and the uncharted surrounding Florida land. Many of these works were painted in an egg-tempera and have faded quite badly. Only a few oil paintings retain the artist's original intent.One such painting, "Tropical Dawn", was presented to a member of the Unity, Victoria Gratia, at her birthday celebration in April 1905.
It seemed the relationship between father and son was a healthy one. Douglas even dedicated a poem to his father for his birthday (known to the Unity as "The Solar Festival") on October 18, 1905, entitled, The Lost Muse. However, in 1907 Douglas sued the Koreshan Unity for overdue payment, citing the paintings which hung in the Art Hall. In 1908, a full settlement was made out of court between Douglas and the Unity. That same year his father died.
The art of Teed
- "A picture should aim higher than to please the eye alone -- that it should be so high in its intent, so true in its treatment that all normal minds should be benefited and educated by it -- to this end has been a life of continuous study."
- -- Douglas Arthur Teed, Fort Myers Press, 1905
The success of Teed's work is based on compositional harmony and a powerful maintenance of color value. Early attempts at figure drawing, such as "Angel Rescue", reveal a frustration towards the articulate separation of the subject from its surroundings. Thus began his treatment of the figure as an element in space, casting subjects against the romantic landscape – a vibrant rush of environment acting as a reflection of temper.
Accurate depictions of foliage, included with the abounding beauty of the countryside, were utilized by American artists at the time to create an awe-inspiring mood in their works. These were aesthetic tenets made popular by Sir Edmund Burke's
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
treatise anticipating classical Romanticism, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful is a 1757 treatise on aesthetics written by Edmund Burke. It attracted the attention of prominent Continental thinkers such as Denis Diderot and Immanuel Kant....
. As Teed refined his aesthetic, he began to approach his subjects less as strict anatomical studies, and more in the vein of the foliage of the classical American landscape—in a delicate application of paint; as the vision which guided his hand, immemorial. In a Teed painting, we are asked to witness a scene which has fallen into the atmosphere, and plays on the same brush-stroke as of the sand in the wind.
Teed successfully developed his own philosophy on the "problems of light" (concentration/diffusion), popularized by the Barbizon
Barbizon school
The Barbizon school of painters were part of a movement towards realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870...
artists. Many of his compositions are approached in concept of light. These techniques were first introduced to Teed by George Inness, in his own study as a disciple at the Barbizon School in Europe, starting in 1847.
The early influence of George Inness is clearly demonstrated within Teed's work; both practicing in a similar method, active in the same influences, emoting in the same key of atmospheric romanticism. Both Teed and Innes painted rapidly over wet paint. Teed was reported to have painted with a palette knife at great speed, able to produce a picture for a buyer in one night.
Unfortunately, this manner of work causes the paint layers to dry at different rates, creating extensive cracking and paint loss in a relatively short time. This is true of many of Teed's works today.
He remained a deep admirer of the arts throughout his life. Teed exhibited specific interest and influence in the works of Antoine-Jean Gros
Antoine-Jean Gros
Baron Antoine-Jean Gros , also known as Jean-Antoine Gros, was both a French History and neoclassical painter.-Early life and training:...
, Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...
, Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century...
, Jean Leon Gerome, George Inness
George Inness
George Inness was an American landscape painter; born in Newburgh, New York; died at Bridge of Allan in Scotland. His work was influenced, in turn, by that of the old masters, the Hudson River school, the Barbizon school, and, finally, by the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose spiritualism...
, Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...
, Ludwig Löfftz
Ludwig Löfftz
Ludwig Löfftz was a German genre and landscape painter.- Biography :He was born at Darmstadt. He was a pupil of August von Kreling and Karl Raupp at Nuremberg, then of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, where he became professor in 1879, and of which he was director between 1891...
, Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven
Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven
Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven , Belgian painter, was born at Warneton in West Flanders, and received instruction in drawing and modelling from his father, the sculptor Barthélemy Verboeckhoven...
, and Jules Breton.
He studied every aesthetic style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, continually searching for a successful means of conveying his passion; compelled to portray on canvas the spiritual aura. He brought himself to the reaches of the planet in search of the mystics in Nature. Teed wanted to symbolize a reverence for God and Nature; he wanted to convey allegorical messages; he wanted his paintings to become his visual poetry.
Douglas Teed lived a quiet and humble life, never exhibiting the eccentric follies of the acclaimed masters he admired. His quiet did not mark a languid heart. There is a consistent temperament throughout his work, experienced strongest when seen in succession; a disconnected world, brooding and melancholy. In an article entitled "Distinguished Artist at Estero" (1905), one reviewer noted his painting's "...gravity of presence. With Mr. Teed, each image appears captured moments before the storm."
Upon his return from Europe, Teed's canvases became highly acclaimed for their charm. The Boston Evening Transcript
Boston Evening Transcript
The Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...
calls Teed "a man of high ambitions, with a fine sense of color, a just appreciation of values and a close observer of the subtle and delicate variations of the sensitive gamut... Rather than concentrate on specific forms, the artist has developed an overall pattern of color, light, and impasto which adds cohesiveness to the compositions."
His work no longer depicted simply the local morning picturesque. His landscapes were used as mirrors of his own complexion, both an interpretation of Nature's inner-spirit and his own. He staged "worlds of atmosphere, looking forth at us through ethereal light, through shadows..." Although he never chose to alleviate realistic representation altogether, Teed's paintings were largely the product of a passionate imagination, whose emotions materialized in the works' creation. The landscape had become subordinated to the thought.
There is a preference for the mystic and the exotic in his work. Early in his childhood, Douglas was exposed to various beliefs and theories through the oration of his father. No doubt, the vision Cyrus experienced concerning the Mother-Bride deity created an impression on the imagination of the young man. Both Cyrus and Douglas shared a propensity for idealism and didactic pursuits. There is a strong echo of Cyrus Teed's dogma in the work of his son.
Ultimately, Teed spent his entire life searching; through an emotional expression on the canvas, for inspiration in his travels around the world, in improvement of his method and evolution of style – searching for a "frankness and simplicity", stating, "simplicity is the most difficult of all things." He stands as an example of the continuous strain of romanticism used by American artists; heirs to the deep-seated religious, cultural, and intellectual convictions of a young nation founded on visionary daring and integrity.
Teed left behind twenty unfinished paintings when he died in 1929.
- "Money did not make the Barbizon school; rather, ability placed its members among the Immortals... Pictures may be good art and yet be unlike natural aspects as seen by you and me. Someone else may have 'visions' and may interpret them harmoniously, and with new departure keep within the artistic confines. Poetic feeling carries the painter higher than cold, rational appreciation; though something of both is required to obtain the highest success. Finally -- it takes more than one masterpiece to make a master."
The work of Douglas Arthur Teed is currently housed in the Koreshan State Historic Site
Koreshan State Historic Site
The Koreshan State Historic Site is a state park in Lee County, Florida located on U.S. Highway 41 at Corkscrew Road. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places...
, the Arnot Art Museum, and countless private collections around the world.
Gallery
External links
- http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/teed.html
- http://koreshan.mwweb.org/blog/?p=415
- http://koreshan.mwweb.org/blog/?p=240