Marie Garesche, Clearwater. Oil on canvas, 14 by 17 inches.
Marie Garesche was the first professional artist to work in Clearwater. Orginally from St. Louis, she had a studio near Haughtuck, Michigan. Garesche traveled extensively in Europe, returning to the United States and Clearwater in 1927. In January of 1932 she led members of the Clearwater Woman’s club on a visit to the Ringling Museum of Art. The Clearwater Sun, March 8, 1935 noted one of her paintings, “Among the portraits before which visitors to the Clearwater Art Club’s exhibit are apt to linger is one called ‘Unemployed.’ It is a three-quarter length figure of a young man who stares hopelessly, surly, not a little rebelliously. One of General Hugh Johnson’s ‘whipped babies.’ He knows all about the Depression. It almost has him licked. But not quite. The taut fist thrust towards you suggests that while he may be down he still has some fight left in him. Those are haunting eyes. It is a stirring picture, not easily forgotten.”
In 1938 Garesche spent several months in St. Augustine and the St. Augustine Record, February 6, 1938, commented, “Marie R. Garesche, a descendant of one of the pioneer French families of St. Louis, Mo., long has been identified with the artistic and intellectual life of her native city. Equally famous for her painting and her work as a teacher of art and lecturer, she has found time for original artistic and literary work. Her book, ‘Art of the Ages’ has been favorably reviewed by leading magazines and is used as a textbook in various high schools throughout the country.”
Membership: Clearwater Woman’s Club, Art Division; Clearwater Art Club, charter member, 1935; St. Augustine Arts Club, 1938.
Exhibits: Clearwater Woman’s Club, January 1, 1926; Clearwater Woman’s Club, December 1927-January 1928; Clearwater Woman’s Club, art department, March, 1933; Art Club of St. Petersburg, February 1935, one woman exhibit; Clearwater Art Club, Chamber of Commerce Building, Clearwater, March 1935, portrait, Unemployed; Art Club of St. Petersburg, 1938; St. Augustine Arts Club, February-March 1938; St. Augustine Arts Club, February 1939.
