Artists in the Midwest prior to 1932 had to travel long distances to participate in an art colony. These gatherings were seasonal events, usually providing artists with time at a site with natural beauty or interest at which they could receive education and feel a sense of community with other artists. Sites that had artists colonies at one time or another included Provincetown, Massachusetts and Taos, New Mexico.
Artists from St. Louis and other places in the Midwest, including Bernard Peters, Jessie Beard Rickly, and Aimee Schweig, saw the need for a regional art collective and began the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony in the historic town in 1932. The town provided rural landscapes and views yet was close to the greater St. Louis area. The groups established the Ste. Genevieve Summer School of Art in 1934, and other artists joined the group, including Oscar Thalinger, Joe Jones, and Thomas Hart Benton.
Peters listed the goals of the group as “to create a center for Midwest region that could draw from New England and European traditions, with which the artists were familiar, but be left free enough to develop an independent artistic tradition." Thomas Hart Benton was a guest faculty at the colony along with others such as Fred Conway, Joseph Vorst. Benton's association enhanced the success of the colony and gave it stature in the art community.
The colony attracted primarily artists with painting styles such as American regionalism, social realism, plein air, and abstract art. Much of the artistic work coming out of the colony portrayed the human condition and Depression-era events.
The organizers rented the 19th Century Shaw House. Many townspeople and scenes provided subjects for the artists. By 1934 the school hosted visiting faculty from the St. Louis Art Museum and Washington University and provided scholarships to 25 to 30 high school students. The students boarded with townspeople while attending the school. Classes were in the Shaw House or outdoors, and faculty criticized student work on Saturday mornings. The session ended with a grand party, on one occasion including a ferry trip up and down the Mississippi.
After the first year, Bernard Peters relocated to St. Marys for more solitude and possibly after disagreement over the direction of the art. Rickly and Schweig took over directing the colony. The Ste. Genevieve Art Colony survived the depths of the Depression, only to end in 1941 with the U. S. entry into World War II. Although few know about the colony today, its influence includes the art produced, especially public art in the form of murals in 20 post offices in the region, and the artists who learned and created at the sessions.
An example of the influence of the colony is the career of Peters. Peters “found” Ste. Genevieve on the recommendation of a friend as a place to spend the summer. A local resident, Matthew Ziegler, overheard him say he was seeking a place to lease for the summer, and told him about the Shaw House. Peters maintained a friendship with Ziegler, who became an artist in his own right and instructed other painters, including Charles Rhinehart. Rhinehart in turn instructed art in the area for years thereafter.
The Ste. Genevieve Welcome Center features information and displays about the Summer School of Art and its creations. Both the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve and the St. Louis Mercantile Library have published histories of the colony.
