Dorothea Tomlinson Marquis
Dorothea Tomlinson Marquis, (1898-1985)
Born in the central Iowa town of Fairfield, Dorothea took private lessons with a local artist, sold her first painting at the age of sixteen, and enrolled in the Cumming School of Art in Des Moines. She attended the 1932 Stone City Art Colony session, specializing in oil painting. Dorothea would later diversify her talents through WPA mural commissions, landscape paintings, portraiture, lithography, and architectural design.
Tomlinson had exhibited widely prior to the art colony, winning awards at the Iowa Art Salon, Iowa State Fair from 1928-1930. In addition, she would frequently garner prizes from the Des Moines Women's Club for her oil paintings, taking top honors in 1937. One work, "Family Quilting," shown at the Women’s Club in March, 1934, was later chosen for a WPA art exhibition in the central Congressional building, Washington D.C. Depicting her mother's ancestral home in Fairfield, Iowa, the painting was featured in an article on WPA art in the Sunday New York Times, on April 29, 1934.
In 1939, Tomlinson was awarded the WPA mural commission for the Mount Pleasant Iowa post office and produced three small murals that captured the town's history in 1840. The panels depicted Pioneer Hall at Iowa Wesleyan College, at the city square and first county courthouse, and a local farm. The panels were installed in November, 1939. Tomlinson would also design and create a WPA mural for the Hoisington, Kansas post office in 1939 titled "Wheat Center," showing a harvest scene.
Tomlinson continued to exhibit widely, including: the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs (1934); Iowa Artists Club (1933); Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa (1939); and the drawings titled "Pioneer Industries (in the Middlewest Before the Railroad)." Tomlinson served as a member of the Iowa Artists Club, including organization secretary (1933-34) and as art chairman of the Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs (1937-39). She led summer art workshops in Fairfield at Parsons College and gave lectures on art appreciation. Tomlinson was listed in "Who's Who in American Art", 1938-39.
Following a busy art career, Tomlinson joined the manufacturing industry as an engineer for Climax Engineering in Clinton, Iowa. She later worked for Loudon Manufacturing in Fairfield, Iowa, and for Fair-Play Manufacturing in Des Moines, the original creators of the electronic scoreboard. In her later years, she returned to the Des Moines area and died there in 1985.
The above bibliography is quoted from " The Stone City Art Colony: 1932-34, Anamosa, Iowa, A Collection of Biographical Profiles of Students and Faculty", by Kristy Nelson Raine, Busse Library, Mount Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; copyright October, 2003.
The following bibliography is quoted from” Iowa Artists of the First Hundred Years"; by Zenobia B. Ness and Louise Orwig; published by Wallace-Homestead Company, Des Moines, Iowa, copyright 1939.
Tomlinson, Dorothea (Mrs. Dorothea Tomlinson Marquis), 2708 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa. Painter, lithographer, draughtsman. Born Fairfield, Iowa, June 16, 1898.
Studied with Mrs. Bertha Linder Pumphrey of Fairfield; Frances Keffer and Charles A. Cumming of Des Moines; Stone City Colony 1932 under Grant Wood and Marvin Cone. Exhibited, Iowa Art Salon; Iowa Artists Club; Federation of Arts Traveling show; Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Joslyn Memorial, Omaha; Boston Academy of Design; Great Hall, Iowa State College; Hoyt Sherman Place, Des Moines.
Awards: Iowa Art Salon, 1928, fourth, "A Holiday Morning"; 1930, "Cordes Rise"; 1931, "October Maples"; 1932, second oil, "Unloading Hay"; 1933, "Threshing," third oil; 1934, "The Covered Bridge," oil; "Bill Hunt", "The Country Doctor," figure; 1935, "Indian Summer"; 1936, "Dust to Dust," oil, and "Band Concert"; 1937, "Corn". Second award Des Moines Women's Club, 1920; second award, 1933; Des Moines Women's Club prize 1937.
"Family Quilting", exhibited at Women’s Club, Des Moines, March 24, 1934, and then sent to Washington, D.C., to be shown with the Public Works of Art Project Exhibition, Congressional Building. The picture was painted in Fairfield, Iowa, in her mother's old home, reproduced in Sunday New York Times, April 29, 1934.
Exhibited, "Self Portrait", Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs Exhibit, 1932; first award, Iowa Artists Club, 1933; "Band Concert Night," Mt. Vernon, April 1938; Iowa Artists Exhibit, "Mother and Child," Corcoran Biennial, February, 1939. Represented by "Threshing" and "Corn", Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa. "Sorghum Mill," Woman's Club, Charles City, Iowa. Commissioned to do mural, "Wheat Center," for Post Office at Hoisington, Kansas; P.O. Mt. Pleasant, Iowa (3 panels), “Mt. Pleasant 1840." Represented U.S. Government Congressional Offices. Author of books of drawings, “Pioneer Industries (in the Middlewest before the Railroad)."
Member, Iowa Artist club, corresponding secretary, 1933-34. Art chairman, Iowa Federation Women’s Clubs, 1937-39, “Art for Fun,” a summer school conducted in Fairfield, Iowa 1934, was very popular course. Lectures on Appreciation of Modern Art.
Who's Who in American Art, 1938-39.
