Donald Teague

Donald Teague, 1897-1991

Teague was one of the most revered of all Carmel artists of his time—and one of the premier watercolorists and illustrators of the twentieth century.

Teague was an American genre painter whose realistic watercolors depicted both observed and imagined landscapes, He loved to portray cowboys and frontier towns of the Wild West with a dramatic narrative flair. And because he traveled widely, he also painted landscapes, architecture, boats, and figurative works all around the globe.

Born in on November 27, 1897 in Brooklyn, NY, he studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn before serving in World War I. When he returned to the United States, he resumed his art courses at the Art Students League in New York City, studying under George Bridgman, Dean Cornwell, and Frank DuMond.

He moved to Encino, California in 1938 and lived there a decade before settling in Carmel-by-the-Sea. Teague was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1948 and soon gained national renown.

For 35 years he was one of the nation’s top magazine illustrators. He was the primary illustrator at the Saturday Evening Post where he shared an office with Norman Rockwell. Other publications using his work on a regular basis included Colliers, McCall’s, Woman’s Home Companion and others under the pseudonym Edwin Dawes [not to be confused with the landscape painter Edwin Dawes (1875-1945)].

When Colliers ceased publication in 1958, Teague gave up commercial work to concentrate solely on fine art. He joined the Carmel Art Association as an Artist Member and remained on the Monterey Peninsula until his death on December 13, 1991.

During his lifetime Teague won international recognition and numerous awards for his paintings, including five First Prizes from the National Academy of Western Art and both Gold and Silver Medal Honors from the American Watercolor Society. Today, Teague’s works can be found in the collections of the National Center for American Western Art in Kerrville, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, and Phoenix Art Museum, among others. His paintings have been exhibited in major museums throughout the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Royal Watercolor Society, Tokyo Museum, Peking National Museum in China, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Museum of Watercolor in Mexico City, Chicago’s Art Institute, Sydney Museum of Art in Australia, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

Book Available:
Due to a generous publisher/benefactor, the Carmel Art Association now has two editions available for purchase of the beautifully produced book titled Donald Teague: A Life in Color. We offer both the special hardback and slip-covered “Collectors’ Edition” signed by the artist, which also includes a high-quality, numbered print of Teague’s highly praised watercolor “Flamenco Dancers”, or the “regular hardback” edition.

Donald Teague: A Life in Color
by Claudia Meyer – Introduction by Tom Lovell, Nygard Publishing, 1988
Hardback First Edition: $65
Signed, Limited & Jacketed First Edition with numbered print included: $125

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