Marjorie (Mrs. Timmons)

This charming portrait won the 1929 Municipal Art League’s $100 prize in portraiture at the Annual Chicago artists exhibition hosted by the Chicago Art Institute. Portrait of Marjorie rose in fame again later that year when the jury of the National Academy of Design in New York selected it for their winter show. In 1959, the painting hung in the Arts Club of Chicago's 39th annual exhibition that featured works by members. Perhaps the success in the execution owes much to the personal relationship between subject and artist; Marjorie is the wife of the painter. Her brother was a distinguished artist in his own right, Arthur Hill Gilbert. He attended the School of the Art Institute and studied under Timmons, so this may have been how Timmons met his future bride.

Marjorie Gilbert Timmons appears chic and youthful. Born in Illinois in 1895, she would have been thirty-four years of age at the time of her portrait. A newspaper article commending the painting refers to her and her husband at that time as "popular members of the north shore younger set." Her deep blue eyes penetrate and engage the viewer. Her bobbed hairstyle peeking through her cloche hat reflects the flapper ingénue, popular during the roaring twenties. The white fur collar of her coat, elegantly turned up towards her creamy skin, adds a distinguished and dashing touch. Though the portrait is rendered realistically in a traditional manner, Timmons nevertheless has idealized his subject, heightening her appeal. Marjorie Timmons died in California, likely visiting her artist brother in Monterey, who died in 1970. She gave this painting, along with her husband’s landscape, The Stevenson House, to the Union League Club in 1966.

Timmons came from the small town of Janesville, Wisconsin. His parents initially wished he would pursue his athletic abilities (he held the state record in the mile), but he boldly rejected an athletic scholarship at the University of Wisconsin and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His passion to become an artist was deeply ingrained from childhood. When he asked his parents for art lessons, they tried to assuage his desires with piano lessons! However, his music teacher gave him art instruction on the side, and even went as far as persuading his parents to give the young Timmons money for a three-month course at the Chicago Art Institute. When his funds ran out, everyone expected Timmons to return home. Relentless in his ambition, he remained in Chicago and swept floors to earn money for classes with John Vanderpool who would teach him anatomy. During his last year of study, he impressed the faculty to the degree that he was hired to teach a sketching class. He graduated with high honors in 1903, and from 1906-1918 held the post of sketching instructor. Receiving a travel scholarship in 1908, he journeyed to Europe and studied the Old Masters for a brief time. Chicago and later Evanston Illinois became his home for most of his adult life, though he traveled to California on several occasions, where his brother-in-law, painter Arthur Hill Gilbert, had moved. Timmons became active with the local art community in Carmel and even established a studio in the Sundial Court apartments, purportedly the earliest known apartment building constructed in the charming seaside community.

Sally Metzler, Ph.D., Director of the Art Collection