Theodore Clement Steele, American, 1847–1926
1924
Oil on canvas
56.19 cm x 68.58 cm | 22 1/8 in x 27 in
Framed: 69.85 cm x 82.55 cm | 27 1/2 in x 32 1/2 in
Signed and dated lower right, T.C. Steele | 1924
Donated to the Brown County Public Library by Kevin and Barbara Sheehan
This painting represents the Brown County landscape when T.C. Steele painted exclusively en plein air (outside on location). He and his second wife Selma Neubacher Steele, moved to Brown County in 1907 and established a home, studio and gardens on 211 acres. They named their home “House of the Singing Winds”. Steele died in this home in 1926.
This painting is displayed in the Brown Country Public Library behind the reference counter.
The Brown County Library turned 100 in July of 2019, and has been part of the community for as long as there has been a community. Historical articles indicated that in 1836, 10 percent of the funds raised from the sale of lots in Jacksonburg (which later became Nashville) were earmarked for the establishment and maintenance of a library.
One of the founding members of the Brown County library in 1919 was American painter Ada Walter Shulz (1879 – 1928), whose impressionist style featured primarily those of mothers, children and barnyard animals. She donated a painting to the library titled: Mother from the Hills. She, along with her husband and artist Adolph Robert Schulz, were founding members of The Brown Country Art Gallery Association in 1926.