San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts Catalog
Accession no: 2005.13.1 Type of work: Painting
Artist/creator: Margaret Tupper
Variant forms of names: Margaret Wright Tupper; Margaret Stanley Wright Tupper
Born: 1887, in San Angelo, Texas Died: 1979, in San Angelo, Texas
Artist biography: Born in San Angelo, Texas, Margaret Tupper became a landscape painter who remained in Texas buttraveled widely including to France, Spain, Switzerland, England and, where she studied inSan Miquel de Allende.She was the daughter of prominent parents in San Angelo and showed little interest in art as a child. She graduated from San Angelo High School and then attended a finishing school. In 1907, just outof school, she married Clifton Tupper, a founder of the San Angelo Evening News. They moved toWaco and then in 1912 to San Antonio where she studied under José Arpa and Dawson Dawson-Watson. She exhibited widely beginning in the late 1920s. The Art League and Art Guild of SanAntonio and the Witte Museum displayed her work, which was also showed at the Texas Federationof Women’s Clubs at Lubbock, the Fort Worth annual, the University Centennial Exposition atAustin, the Greater Texas and Pan American at Dallas, and the Artists of Southeast Texas atBeaumont. After her husband’s death in 1938, she returned to San Angelo where she taught andcontinued to paint until she was well into her eighties.
Title of work: Untitled (water tower and two trees)
Date of item: n.d.
Signed: Lower right corner in pencil “Margaret Tupper”
Other markings/identifiers: on back in pencil, upper right corner: “Oct. 27”
Dimensions: 16” x 11 ¾” (40.64 x 29.845 cm)
Description: Landscape of a country scene, depicting a brightly colored small tree in reds, yellows and greens in the foreground. Behind it is a water tower in front of a much larger tree in all greens.
Material: paint on paper
Medium: watercolor on paper
Country of origin: United States
Condition: Good condition from Condition Report dated August 12, 2005
Conservation future: needs framing
Provenance: This watercolor was found in the home of Margaret Stites after her death when her nephew Claude Stites was cleaning out the house and running a garage sale for some of the belongings and artworks of Margaret Stites. Harold Pope, a resident of San Angelo, was a student of Margaret Stites, and apparently, at the time of his death a large stack of his drawings, watercolors and other artworks were given to Margaret Stites by his family, who did not want them. Harold Pope also took art classes from Margaret Tupper, who taught at the San Angelo Art Club. In amongst this large stack of drawings, etc. of Harold Pope’s found at the home of Margaret Stites was a group of small watercolors by Margaret Tupper. Two of these watercolors were given to the museum by Claude Stites, executor of the estate of Margaret Stites.
Gift
Donor information: Claude Stites
Value: unknown
History of object: Given to the museum in August 2005 by Claude Stites, executor of the estate of Margaret Stites, who found them amongst her belongings. Accepted into the Collection by SAMFA Board on October 20, 2005
Cataloger name: K. Zimmerly
Date: May 23, 2007
Sources used: Museum File
Catalog from the exhibit: The Eyes of Texas: The Lone Star State As Seen by Her Artists