Lee Greene Richards was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1878. He was a successful professional artist and teacher known for his portraits of prominent citizens, landscapes, and murals at the State Capitol. He died in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1950.

Richards and his early colleagues, Mahonri Young and A. B. Wright, were part of the Twentieth Ward Group. J. T. Harwood was their teacher. Richards studied for three years (1901–4) in France, first at the Académie Julian and then, after passing the rigorous entrance exam, at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Although best known for portraiture, Richards also painted landscapes and murals. His mural depicting Utah pioneers is on the dome of the Utah State Capitol. His murals are also on the ceilings of several temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Biography adapted from Springville Museum of Art.

Lee Greene Richards was born in Salt Lake City, July 27, 1878. Originally named Levi, like his father, he changed his name to Lee, preferring that shortened version for “professional reasons.“ He grew up in Salt Lake City surrounded by artists. His grandmother, Sarah Griffith Richards, was a well-known English watercolorist. His father, Levi W. Richards, was also a painter but did not get much opportunity to paint because of the demands of pioneer life. He was, however, very interested in the art world.

Lee's neighbors included George M. Ottinger, whose studio the young Richards visited often. In addition, Mahonri Young and A. B. Wright lived on the same block and the three artists became known as the “Twentieth Ward Group.“ They were fellow students under J. T. Harwood, along with John Sears and Louise Richards. According to Mahonri Young, Lee's academic drawings were the best of the class. Richards claimed that Harwood so effectively taught the academic methods he had learned at the Académie Julian that Richards learned as much from J. T. as from any of his later teachers in Paris.

A mission for the L.D.S. church took 18-year-old Richards to England in 1895, where he was able to visit the British museums and see original paintings by the old masters as well as to sketch and paint the lush English countryside. Richards' perceptions of the English portraitists during his museum visits impressed the young man so much that he aspired to portraiture himself.

After a visit to Paris at the end of his time in England, Lee Greene Richards came home determined to earn enough money to go back to France and study art. Upon returning to Utah, he worked three years at Zions Savings Bank of Utah before realizing his dream and returning to Paris. He studied for three years (1901 - 1904), first at the Acadamie Julian (which had no entrance exam) and then, after passing the rigorous entrance exam, at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris.

A successful exhibition career began with the Salon des Artists Francais in 1903. In 1904, he headed the Salon list for honorable mention, becoming the first Utah artist to receive such a distinction. Following this illustrious beginning, his successful career continued with works exhibited by the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Etchers in London, Manchester, and Burnley, England; and at the Chicago Art Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.

After Richards' return to Utah in 1904, he received many commissions for portraits due to a combination of factors, his undoubted and internationally recognized skill, his family connections to important L.D.S. church and community leaders, and the providential move of John Willard Clawson, an accomplished portraitist, to California. In 1908, Richards married Mary Jane Eldredge, the daughter of a well-to-do Salt Lake banker. The money Mary Jane brought to the marriage paid for a long honeymoon in Paris for the newlyweds. Then in 1910, they moved back to Utah and Lee set up a studio in the combination barn and carriage house at the back of the property, his mother-in-law's home.

Lee Greene Richards painted many portraits; for those of family and close friends he used a less formal and looser style than for his official commissions. However, it was his ability to capture some integral essence of the sitter that brought him recognition in the art world. His personal philosophy of art was that art should be firmly based in the traditions of the past but, while based on “certain fundamental principles,“ it was up to each artist to find the particular adaptation so “he may perfectly reveal himself.“

Although best known for portraiture, Richards also painted still lifes, landscapes, and murals. He often painted his children and used them as models in his murals, the children posed in appropriate costumes. The early years of the Great Depression saw a revival of historical and genre painting in Utah. Murals were commissioned for the dome of the state capital building, and Richards was one of the artists heavily involved in their completion. With a number of artists working on projects depicting Utah heritage and culture, the number of paintings of pioneers increased. Lee Greene Richards was one of the most active muralist and easel painters in this regionalist phenomena.

Biography courtesy Springville Museum of Art.

Newspaper Articles

"5 Fine Exhibits Are Facets At A Real Gem Of A Show." The Deseret News, September 18, 1994.

"150 Years of Art: 'Art at the 'U' Traces History of University's Art Department." The Deseret News, February 20, 2000.

"Art Canvass." The Deseret News, November 16, 1997.

"Art Exhibition At Y. Applauds A Century Of Utah Beauty." The Deseret News, 24 April 1996.

"Art Of The Depression: Colorful Works That Reflect Hope." The Deseret News, September 25, 1988.

"Caption Only: After The Hunt." The Deseret News, November 20, 1994.

"Council's Traveling Shows Put Art On Display All Across State." The Deseret News, August 17, 1989.

"Exhibit Celebrates 100 Years of Arts Council Display Includes Folk, Fine, Public Art Since 1899." The Deseret News, March 21, 1999.

"`Hidden Treasures' Surface At Museum" The Deseret News, March 10, 1991.

"Special Showing And Sale Feature Paintings By Early Utah Artists." The Deseret News, September 22, 1996.

"Murals In Utah Getting A Face Lift." The Deseret News, September 6, 1996.

"Paper's Walls Graced with Art Treasures." The Deseret News, September 27, 2001.

"The Palette Of Artists." The Deseret News, September 25, 1988.

"This Place Utah: Artists' Passion For State's Beauty Makes A Stirring Exhibit At LDS Museum." The Deseret News, January 21, 1996.

"Utah Art Spans An Array Of Time, Subject Matter." The Deseret News, March 31, 1991.

"Utah Painting and Sculpture." The Deseret News, December 21, 1997.

"Utah's Statehouse Houses One Of State's Finest Art Collections." The Deseret News, February 3, 1992.

"Variety Of Mediums Fall Into Place At Local Art Galleries." The Deseret News, October 23, 1994.

Books

Davenport, Ray. Davenport's Art Reference. Ventura, CA: Davenport's Art Reference, 2001.

Dawdy, Doris. Artists of the American West: A Biographical Dictionary. Chicago, IL: Sage Books, 1990.

Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson, ed. The Artists Bluebook: 29,000 North American Artists. Scottsdale, AZ: AskART.com, 2003.

Falk, Peter Hastings. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.

Falk, Peter Hastings. The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1989.

Falk, Peter Hastings. The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1888-1950. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990.

Fielding, Mantle, and Glenn B. Opitz, eds. Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1986.

Gerdts, William H. Art Across America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting, 1710-1920. New York, NY: Abbeville Press, 1990.

Haseltine, James L. 100 Years of Utah Painting: Selected Works from the 1840s to the 1940s. Salt Lake City, UT: Salt Lake Art Center, 1965.

Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge, Index of Artists, International-Biographical; Including Painters, Sculptors, Illustrators, Engravers and Etchers of the Past and the Present. New York, NY: Peregrine Smith, 1948.

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. Artists of Utah. Salt Lake City, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999.

Opitz, Glenn B., ed. Dictionary of American Sculptors: "18th Century to the Present," Illustrated with Over 200 Photographs. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1984.

Ostler, Barbara Boyer. Lee Greene Richards, 1878-1950. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, 1994.

Samuels Peggy and Harold Samuels. The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.

Springville Museum of Art. Permanent Collection Catalog. Springville, UT: Springville Museum of Art, 1972.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Art. Layton, UT: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, Donna Poulton, and Janie Rogers. 150 Year Survey of Utah Art, Utah Artists. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 2001.

Swanson, Vern G., Robert S. Olpin, and William C. Seifrit. Utah Painting and Sculpture. Layton, UT: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1991.