Florence Riefle Bahr
Florence Riefle Bahr | |
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Born | Florence Riefle February 2, 1909 Baltimore, Maryland, US |
Died | January 12, 1998 Elkridge, Maryland, US | (aged 88)
Alma mater | Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) |
Known for | Painting, sketching, mixed media |
Spouse | Leonard Bahr |
Awards | State of Maryland's Women's Hall of Fame (1999) |
Florence Elizabeth Riefle Bahr (February 2, 1909 – January 12, 1998) was an American artist and activist. She made portraits of children and adults, including studies of nature as she found it. Instead of using a camera, more than 300 pen and ink sketchbooks catalog insights into her life, including her civil and human rights activism of the 1960s and 1970s. One of the many important captured events included the Washington D.C. event where
Personal life
Florence Riefle was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to James Henry Riefle[1] and Florence Riefle.[2] She was the only artist in a musically talented family.[3][4] Bahr grew up later in Homeland, but first in Forest Park, Maryland and graduated from Forest Park High School.[5]
She met
The newly married Bahr couple first lived in Baltimore City in a studio apartment on a third floor. In an article about her, Florence said that she was mostly interested in her husband and painting; that they both "would rather paint than eat." She also mentioned a few shared recreational interests: horseback riding, hiking and swimming.[8]
By 1940, Florence and Leonard were gaining recognition for their art, exhibitions and teaching abilities in Baltimore.[9] During World War II, Leonard joined the Navy March 1, 1943, as a naval officer and was released on December 23, 1945.[10][nb 2] In 1947, the couple moved to an historic home on Old Lawyers Hill Road, an historic hilltop district in Elkridge, Howard County, Maryland[1] and in the 1960s, Leonard had a newer house built on the same property, with each their own studios attached.[11]
Florence Bahr died in a house fire, which resulting water damage destroyed a few, but not all, of her sketches. She suffered a tragic and needless local contractor-related death.[3][5][nb 3]
Civil rights
Concerned about civil and human rights, Florence became involved in these
Bahr also sketched important events that she witnessed, like the trials of former Governor Marvin Mandel and the Catonsville Nine. She also had important images of key national and state marches and demonstrations.[3] From many of these and other events, she donated more than 300 sketchbooks to the Maryland State Archives.[3]
Education
In 1927 she attended Dickinson College. The next year she enrolled in the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and took an aggressive course schedule to earn a Costume Design diploma in 1930. The following year she earned the James Young Memorial Prize Award and a diploma in Fine Arts.[1]
She enrolled in 1959 at the
Career
Art
Bahr created sketches, oil and watercolor paintings,
From about 1931 to 1936, Bahr wrote and created pen and ink or watercolor illustrations for her or other author's children's books.
Of the many sketches that Bahr recorded from 1957 to 1992 of her experiences, she captured the Martin Luther King Jr.'s Washington, D.C. I Have a Dream speech, the Catonsville Nine courtroom trial, a march on The Pentagon, the trial of Governor Marvin Mandel,[4][5] and Robert F. Kennedy's funeral.[13]
She said she created Homage to Martin Luther King when, "I heard the news on the radio, and I felt like the world was coming to an end. I went up to my studio and poured my anguish and sorrow into the canvas. Homage came straight out of my heart.
—Florence Riefle Bahr
She created the Homage to Martin Luther King to help manage her feelings of his death and the resulting riots. It was displayed in the
Bahr's art is in private and public collections in Europe, Japan and throughout the United States,[4] including Baltimore Museum of Art, who has a color woodcut Indian Girl made in 1969.[14] The Peabody Galleria Piccola held a retrospective exhibit of her works when she was 87 years old.[3]
Antique doll collection
Bahr collected antique dolls and made more than 200 watercolor portraits of the dolls. She opened a museum in
Exhibitions
She participated in many solo and group exhibitions:[4]
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Awards
- 1936 - Baltimore Museum of Art Print Club Purchase Prize[1]
- 1952 - Baltimore Museum of Art All Maryland Show[1]
- 1968 - Maryland Institute Alumni F. Weber Award[1]
- 1968 - Maryland Arts Council Selection, Second Annual Maryland Artists Today traveling show[4]
- 1969 - Loyola College Baltimore Outdoor Show Purchase Prize[1]
- 1971 - Second place prize in watercolors in the Constellation Art Contest[1]
- 1999 - Posthumously inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame[1][3]
Recognition
In her book Women of Achievement in Maryland History, author Carolyn Stegman wrote:
Florence Bahr captured some striking images in her day, and her work remains important. She had a curious eye, a compassionate heart, a dogged determination, and an undying passion for portraying life in twentieth-century America. Frequently described as a 'Renaissance woman,' she was a diverse role model. Artist, feminist, environmentalist, consummate social activist – Florence Bahr gave her all to make the world a better place.[15]
Notes
- ^ In 1982, Leonard Jr. is a marine biologist who, at that time, performed research and taught at Louisiana State University, and is now a retired coastal advisor to the Louisiana State Government. Mary is an artist who received her BFA and MFA degrees in painting from MICA and worked as an assistant curator and photographer at the Johns Hopkins University's art history department for 17 years, but is currently a local historian and an archivist and curator at the Elkridge Heritage Society. Beth is a gourmet cook and homemaker and still travels the world.[6]
- ^ For Leonard Bahr (born May 12, 1905 and died July 25, 1990).[10]
- ^ [5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Florence Riefle Bahr. Record: MSA SC 3520-13553. Maryland State Archives. June 26, 2008. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
- ^ 1930 Baltimore, Maryland; Roll: 869; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 0518 United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Florence Riefle Bahr. Maryland Women's Hall of Fame, Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g Florence Riefle Bahr. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Del Quentin Wilbur. "Artist Dies in Elkridge Fire: Florence Bahr's Home Destroyed in Two Alarm Blaze." The Baltimore Sun. January 13, 1998.
- ^ a b c d e f Jack Dawson, "A Family of Artists." The Sun Magazine, January 10, 1982.
- ^ Florence, Special Collections. Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Painter in a Musical Family Would Rather Draw Than Eat." The Baltimore Sun, June 29, 1936.
- ^ 1940 Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland census. Roll: T627_1524; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 4-400. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
- ^ a b Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
- ^ a b Robert G. Breen. A Versatile Artist. Published between 1962 and 1967. Image of the article accessed from the Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ^ Who's who in American Art. R. R. Bowker.; 1935. p. 31.
- ^ The Archivists' Bulldog Vol. 11 No. 8, Newsletter of the Maryland State Archives, April 28, 1997 Maryland State Archives. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
- ^ Donors: Gifts of Art. Archived 2014-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Baltimore Museum of Art. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-9724362-0-5.
Further reading
- "Florence Bahr's Passion; Fire Victim: Works of Prolific Elkridge Artist Endures in Sketches and Paintings," The Baltimore Sun, January 2, 1998.
- Troy Hill. Watercolor made of historic Dorsey home, by Florence Bahr. Elkridge Heritage Society.
In addition, The Maryland State Archives (Florence R. Bahr), The Maryland Historical Society, the Elkridge Heritage Society, the Enoch Pratt Library, and her daughter, Mary Bahr, hold records of her life and work.