Molly Guion

Molly Guion (23 September 1910 – 1982) was an American portrait painter. She taught at the Art Students League of New York.

Molly Guion
Born
Mary Guion

(1910-09-23)September 23, 1910
Died1982
NationalityAmerican
Known forportraits
Spouse(s)John Borden Smyth[1][2]

Early life and education

Molly Guion was born in New Rochelle, New York on 23rd September 1910.[3] Her parents were Clarence Child and Georgia Palmer (Beardsley) Guion.[3]

She attended the Sea Pines School of Charm and Personality for Young Women in Brewster, Massachusetts and Montgomery College.[4] She then studied at the Grand Central School of Art.[4] She was taught by Dimitri Romanovsky.[1]

Career

Guion was initially unsuccessful as a portrait painter in New York.[1] She travelled to Britain to look for work, and was successful there in making contacts and having work commissioned by well-known people.[1] She "spent several years “painting lords and dukes, staying in castles, having a marvelous time"".[1] She painted Winston Churchill in 1946.[3] She was commissioned to paint The Queen's Beasts at Westminster Abbey in 1953.[3]

An exhibition of twenty-three of her portraits, titled Tradition and Pageantry in Britain, was held in Buckingham Palace and then toured the United States in 1952.[1][5]

In 1977, her rate for portraits was $1,000 to $4,000, with her gallery retaining a third as commission.[1]

Guion taught at the Art Students League of New York.[6]

Her work is held in the Government Art Collection, at the Black Watch Museum at Balhousie Castle and at Orkney Museum.[7] Her painting of Elizabeth II, completed in 1953, was bought by the Wardroom Officers of the Royal Naval Barracks at Portsmouth.[8][9] One of her several portraits of Thomas E. Dewey is at the Hall of Governors at the New York State Capitol.[10]

Later life and death

She married John Borden Smyth, a naval officer, in 1957.[2] They lived in Rye, New York, in a house which Guion believed to be haunted.[1][11][12]

Guion died in 1982.[7]

References
  1. Feron, James (23 October 1977). "INTERVIEW". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  2. "Mrs. John Borden Smyth". Bronxville Review Press and Reporter. 16 May 1957. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  3. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. James T. White & Company. 1960. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  4. J. Marshall Guion (IV) (1976). Descendants of Louis Guion, Huguenot, of La Rochelle, France and New Rochelle, West Chester County, Province of New York: A Guion Family Album, 1654 to 1976. Guion. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  5. "EXHIBITION OPENS". Bronxville Reporter. 1 May 1952. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  6. "DOROTHY GAY JUERGENS". Larchmont Gazette. 2007. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  7. "Molly Guion". Art UK. The Public Catalogue Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  8. "Painting of Queen at Exhibition". Portsmouth Evening News. 5 May 1954. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  9. "Queen's Portrait". Birmingham Daily Post. 4 May 1954. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  10. "Virtual Visit: Object Stories - Governor Dewey Portrait". Visit the Empire State Plaza & New York State Capitol. New York State. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  11. Cook, Joan (16 April 1971). "House With the Spirit (and Possibly Spirits?) of an Earlier Age". New York Times. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
  12. Hans Holzer (25 September 2012). Ghosts. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4532-8069-0. Retrieved 4 September 2020.
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