Mary Lord Stevens (1833-1920)
Mary Lord Stevens (1833-1920)
- Dusk at Sea
- Oil on paper mounted to board
- 10 x 14 inches
- Signed and dated 1903, lower right
Although little is known of Stevens’s artistic training, records show she was actively involved in the art scene soon after the family arrived in Pasadena. In 1892, Stevens was appointed to the art committee of the newly established Woman’s World’s Fair committee, formed to advance an exhibition highlighting work by or of special interest to women for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago the following year.[1] In 1895, Stevens became a founding member of the Society of Fine Art of Southern California.
Stevens went on to exhibit regularly with the Society in the Chamber of Commerce’s galleries and other local establishments. Regarding an 1895 exhibit at Blanchard-Fitzgerald Hall in [Los Angeles,] the Los Angeles Times said: “Mrs. Stevens is equally well known as an artist, and challenges the approval of the public in the large number of pictures which she has placed on Exhibition.”[2] Describing Stevens’s painting “Oaks on the Baldwin Ranch,” the Times said: “In the center of the wide field are old spreading oaks, their rich foliage green through the eternal summer, while in the background rises our magnificent mountain range, “our mother mountains” touched with purple and rosy tints and hinting at majestic vastness.” [3]
