Landscape painter Pauline Meyer Colyar (1873-1928) was admitted to the Art Academy of Cincinnati at the age of 13, the youngest age for admission. A resident of New Bedford for 32 years, her landscapes captured scenes of New England, from crashing waves to tranquil harbors to winter forests. New Bedford Free Public Library owns Colyar’s Landscape, on view in the main library and exhibited twice at the New Bedford Art Museum.
Talented and young, landscape painter Pauline Meyer Colyar (1873-1928) was admitted to the Art Academy of Cincinnati at the age of 13, the youngest age for admission. A resident of New Bedford for 32 years, her landscapes captured scenes of New England, from crashing waves to tranquil harbors to winter forests.
Born in Mason, West Virginia in March of 1873, Pauline was the youngest child of Frederick and Catherine Sophia Meyer who had both immigrated from Germany. She had four siblings, three brothers and one sister. Eventually, the Meyer family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.
At the age of 15, Pauline began teaching art in Cincinnati and resided there until she met and married Frank Ellsworth Colyar on April 25, 1895. She was 23 and he was 34. After their wedding they moved to New Bedford, where Frank had lived since his birth in 1861. They resided there for the next 32 years, from 1895 through 1927. Pauline continued to teach art in her home and paint landscapes in oil and watercolor. Many of her paintings are of local New England woodland scenes and the seacoast along New Bedford, including its harbor. A photograph of one of her paintings called “Dumpling Rock Light,” which is at the entrance of Buzzards Bay, is included in the book Artists of New Bedford: A Biographical Dictionary by Mary Jean Blasdale. In 1900, Pauline was given a commission to decorate the Exposition Hall in Cincinnati.
New Bedford Free Public Library owns Colyar’s Landscape, donated in 1939 by Mrs. Otis S. Cook from the estate of Mrs. Elizabeth B. Mackie and on view on the main library’s first floor. This landscape painting has been exhibited twice at the New Bedford Art Museum: in Sisters of the Brush from November 7, 2012 through January 30, 2013 and again in Pastoral Light from July 27, 2020 through December 31, 2020.
Although she was painting for many years in this area, her career was overshadowed by male artists such as William Bradford, Charles Gifford and Lemuel Eldred.
During her marriage she often traveled to California to paint. Ultimately, she and her husband retired to Los Angeles in 1927. Pauline died one year later of heart failure at the age of 55 on June 15,1928.
Janice Linehan with JJ Galindo, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (Elisabeth Arruda, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Faculty Sponsor) and Ann O’Leary, Emily Bourne Research Fellow
Information from
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Beitz, Jill. “Biography Information.” Cincinnati History Library and Archives. Received by Janice Linehan, 15 Mar. 2023.
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Blasdale, Mary Jean. Artists of New Bedford: A Biographical Dictionary. New Bedford Whaling Museum, The Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1990.
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Copeland, Alexandra. “Pauline Meyer Colyar.” New Bedford Free Public Library. Received by Ann O’Leary, 4 May 2023.
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Hardin, Jennifer. “Biography Information.” Cincinnati Art Museum. Received by Janice Linehan, 27 Mar. 2023.
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“Mrs. Colyar Dies in West.” Evening Standard (New Bedford, MA), 28 June 1928.
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New Bedford Art Museum. “Cameo of the Permanent Collection of the City of New Bedford.” Resource Library, 2010, http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m478.htm.
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“Pauline M. Colyar New Bedford, MA/New England American Artist-Antique Painting.” WorthPoint, https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/pauline-colyar-bedford-ma-england-540421655.
