Theodore Van Soelen
1890-1964
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Theodore Van Soelen had a highly distinguished career in both the eastern and southwestern United States. His favorite subject matter was ranch scenes executed in a realistic illustrator style, and he also became a noted landscape and portrait painter.
Van Soelen began his art training at the St. Paul Institute of Arts and Sciences from 1908 to 1911 and then studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From that institution, he won a Cresson Traveling Scholarship for study in Europe in 1913 and 1914.
Upon his return and as a result of tuberculosis, he went west in 1916 to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he worked as a commercial illustrator and began selling his first paintings. To further his understanding of the Indian culture and the cattleman's way of life, he lived in towns and ranches throughout the state and spent a year at San Ysidro's Indian Trading Post.
During that time, the Cincinnati Art Museum held a one-man exhibition of his work, which received national attention.
Van Soelen married Virginia Carr, and in 1922, after traveling throughout the West, they moved to Santa Fe and then in 1926, they became permanent residents of neighboring Tesuque. In the 1930's, he had developed a strong market for his western paintings in the East, so he established a second studio in Cornwall, Connecticut.
He was elected a National Academician and continued to exhibit in the East including at the National Academy, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Chicago Art Institute.
He remained active in New Mexico, completing numerous, vivid landscapes and a mural in 1938 for the post office in Portales, New Mexico. In 1960 he was named Honorary Fellow in Fine Arts by the School of American Research in Santa Fe.
Actively seeking works by Theodore Van Soelen.
