| OCR Text |
Show NPS Form 10-900-a Utah WordPerfect 5.1 Format (Revised Feb. 1993) 0MB No. 10024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 3 Ramsey, Lewis A., House, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT members of the church who had known Joseph Smith. For many years, the Ramsey portrait was considered the "official portrait" of Joseph Smith by the IDS Church. In 1915, Lewis Ramsey received one of his most important commissions: the landscape murals of the Hawaii LDS Temple. Ramsey spent eighteen months in Hawaii. Unfortunately, the dampness of the climate eventually destroyed the murals because, against his recommendations, he was ordered to paint directly on the walls instead of separate panels. After his return from Hawaii, Ramsey painted a number of religious scenes which were hung in various LDS buildings. Between 1904 and 1915, Ramsey was primarily a portrait artist, although during that time he began to paint more landscapes, especially in southern Utah. He was one of the first artists to camp in Zion's National Park and Bryce Canyon. He sold his completed paintings to fellow campers, usually wealthy tourists from out of state. As a result he was known nationally as a landscape artist rather than a portraitist. Prior to 1918, Ramsey lived at 255 West 6th North in Salt Lake City. He worked from a studio in the Templeton Building, a popular venue for Utah artists. Both this early home and the Templeton building have been razed. After moving to the home on 128 South 1000 East, the city directories indicate it was Ramsey's only studio for sixteen years. Ramsey's daughter remembers her father painted upstairs in the south room and sold paintings from the parlor.9 In 1919, Lewis Ramsey began working on a,project close to home, a mural for the Eleventh Ward Chapel directly across the street at 131 South 1000 East. The mural, entitled "The Restoration," is a scene of Joseph Smith receiving the gold plates from the Angel Moroni, and was completed in 1923. Ramsey painted several versions of this painting, one of which is on permanent exhibit at the LDS Church Museum of History and Art. The Eleventh Ward Chapel mural was removed, along with the portion of the wall on which it was painted, when the chapel was demolished in 1960. The painting sat in a storage yard for twenty years where it experienced serious deterioration. It was eventually restored and hung in the later Eleventh Ward Chapel in 1982. Interestingly, the pulpit of the new chapel has been placed off-center-a rare design for an LDS meetinghouse-allowing the congregation an unrestricted view of the painting. As with many of Ramsey's religious paintings, "The Restoration" has been reprinted in countless church publications since 1923. Ramsey's work is found in several LDS meetinghouses, as well as the Salt Lake, Portland, and Chicago temples. His portrait of church president Lorenzo Snow (painted in 1911), and portraits of two church apostles (both painted in 1912) are currently on display at the LDS Church Museum of History and Art. 10 As a portrait painter, Ramsey has been dismissed by one Utah 9Driggs interview. 10These paintings are of Anthon H. Lund and Charles W. Penrose. The LDS Church owns several more Ramsey portraits and a few landscapes which have been part of rotating exhibitions in the museum. X See continuation sheet |
