Jessie Beard Rickly, Urban Landscape

Jessie Beard Rickly (1895-1975)
Urban Landscape, watercolor on paper, n.d.
Collection of the St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri - St. Louis

Jessie Rickly was born in Poplar Bluff, Missouri and educated at Harvard and at Washington University School of Fine Arts. Further training came from Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and upon returning to St. Louis she also studied with Oscar Berninghaus and with Edmund Wuerpel, the director of the Washington University School of Fine Art. In 1934 she and fellow artist Aimee Shweig co-founded the Ste. Genevieve art colony whose members included Joe Jones, Joseph Vorst and Thomas Hart Benton, among others.

Rickly was an artistic voice for women in the 1930’s and very active politically. She was involved in creating organizations to help educate the public and other artists about the role of art in society including the Independent Artists, The Missourians and the New Hats. In 1935, Rickly made St. Louis her permanent home where she continued her art career.