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Show FALL 2013 pp 386-404_UHQ BReviews/pp.271-296 9/16/13 1:22 PM Page 388 UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY focuses on his paintings, drawings, and prints from around 1920 to 1940, when Stewart directed his attention not only on the weathered barns and humble farms of northern Utah, but also on urban scenes with their derelict storefronts, industry, and billboards. This body of work is his best. His 1937 painting of bindle-stiffs riding the rails, ironically titled Private Car, has been called the “finest picture ever painted by a Utahn, or in Utah.”2 Stewart was also an important teacher who trained generations of artists during his tenure at the University of Utah and through decades of private instruction. Once again Gibbs Smith deserves praise for publishing a beautiful book. With over three hundred color plates from private and public collections, Masterworks extends the life of Stewart’s 2012 retrospective jointly held at the University of Utah Museum of Fine Art and the LDS Church History Museum. The book also features five essays from a variety of scholars, a majority of whom knew Stewart and included personal insight and anecdotes. In all, the essays provide an interesting window into the career and life of the artist. Among the topics explored in the essays are his education and training, his troubled childhood and its losses, his spiritual attachment to the land, and the context of his art on a local and national stage. The challenge with this text, however, is that there is a lot of overlap and little coordination between essays. There are even contradictions. The most glaring and intriguing of these is the question of whether Stewart is or is not a Regionalist. Indeed, Stewart and his work are very different from Wood and Benton, but there were few as tied to a specific place and time as Stewart. Whether he was a regionalist, realist, or romantic, one thing is certain: Stewart captured the genius of place in Utah better than almost anyone else and that, if nothing else, needs to be recognized and appreciated. Is Masterworks enough to solidify his reputation on a broader stage? No, but it can help. Ultimately another text will be needed to more fully and evenly explore the depth of Stewart’s personality and creativity. Only then will we be able to more fully appreciate the Utah master, LeConte Stewart. JAMES R. SWENSEN BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 1 2 Wallace Stegner, “The Power of Homely Detail,” American Heritage 35, no. 5 (1985): 62. Ibid. The Brothers Robidoux and the Opening of the American West. By Robert J. Willoughby. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2012. 252 pp. Cloth, $45.00.) WHEN READERS OF WESTERN HISTORY consider significant names of the St. Louis fur trade, the Chouteaus, Manuel Lisa, and William 388 |
