Belle Weeden McNeer, Tampa. Banjo Man with Lady, oil on paper mounted on board, 14 1/2 by 18 1/2 inches.
Belle Weeden McNeer was the first artist working in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, advertising in the Florida Gazetteer and Business Directory of 1895 as an artist. Belle Weeden was the sister of Dr. Leslie Washington Weedon (1860-1937), health officer of Hillsborough County in 1890’s, and a descendant of Dr. Hamilton Weeden, the physician responsible for Chief Osceola’s medical care at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. Weedon Island Preserve in Pinellas County once belonged to her family. Belle Weeden McNeer was a founding member of Tampa’s Student Art Club in 1902. When her husband died suddenly, of Yellow Fever, McNeer left Tampa to spend the summer of 1908 studying art in New York City with Mrs. Vance Phillips, returning to Tampa in the Fall. She left Tampa in 1909, again to study art in New York with Mrs. Phillips. The Tampa Weekly Tribune, February 18, 1909, “The many admirers of Mrs. H. C. McNeer’s tapestry paintings are disappointed that she exhibited none of her work at the fair (Florida Mid-Winter State Fair, Tampa). Mrs. McNeer is a successful artist and teacher and has had a fine training by famous teachers. She recently studied with Matuno the Italian tapestry painter in New York City, who executed some of the magnificent tapestries in the Ponce De Leon Hotel at St. Augustine. Mrs. McNeer also studied china painting with Mrs. Vance Phillips.” Leaving New York, she taught art in Spartanburg, South Carolina and later in Asheville, North Carolina, not returning to Tampa until 1910. Belle taught landscape and portrait painting as well as china painting at her studio and home at 320 Plant Avenue in Tampa. As a child growing up in Tampa Mrs. John B. Garrison, one of the founders of the Pensacola Art Club, was one of Belle McNeer’s pupils. The Tampa Times, March 25, 1919, commented on her portrait of Captain J. W. Hatton, a native of Tampa, killed in the Argonne Forest during World War I as, “A wonderfully fine portrait, Belle Weedon McNeer, a Tampa woman, has made a reputation as one of the finest painters in the south… Hatton, in uniform with captain’s bars and sharpshooter’s medal was so real it was hard to keep from saluting him.” A Tampa pioneer, Belle Weeden McNeer died in Biloxi, Mississippi, August 31, 1938 with her twin sister Mrs. May Hazen, her daughter Lynd Ward, and son J. Weedon McNeer, at her side. In 1956, her daughter, who wrote children’s books under the professional name May McNeer, established the Belle Weedon McNeer memorial prize, given annually by the American Graphic Artists. Education: In Atlanta, Georgia, 1905, with Hal Morrison; With Italian tapestry painter, Matuno; with Mrs. Vance Phillips in New York City; Washington D.C., winter, 1913-1914. Membership: Student Art Club, Tampa. Exhibits: Florida State Fair, Tampa, November 1904, pastel painting, first and third prizes, tapestry painting, third prize; Tampa Gas company, August 16-21, 1915, hand painted china; Tampa Photo & Art Supply Company, September 1915, with Norman Borchardt, Helen Stewart and Lottie Watkins; Students’ Art Club, first public exhibit, December 1916, china and glassware paintings; Florida Federation of Woman’s Clubs, Tampa, November 1917, china paintings and tapestries; South Florida Fair, February 1921, portrait copy, second prize; Students’ Art Club, 2nd Annual Exhibit of Florida Art, Tampa Museum of Art, City Hall, March 12- March 19, 1923, Hydrangeas. Directory: Listed in Florida Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1895, as Belle Weeden; Listed in the Tampa City Directory in 1918 as an artist with a studio at 111 1/2 Lafayette.
