Leonard Marion Bahr (May 12, 1905 – July 25, 1990) was an American portrait painter, muralist, illustrator and educator. He worked for many years as a painting professor at the
Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Personal life
Leonard Marion Bahr was born on May 12, 1905, in Maryland.[1][2][3]
He married
Florence E. Riefle, who had been a student at
Maryland Institute (now Maryland Institute College of Art), in 1934 and they had three children, Beth, Leonard, and Mary.[4] Leonard died July 25, 1990.[1][3]
Artist
Bahr created realistic landscape paintings, still lifes and portraits.[4]
Bahr believed that artists have an ability to see beauty in unlikely places, like "an old lady getting on a bus with a basket of fish or a rusty garbage can glistening in the rain, but there's beauty everywhere you look."
In 1930, Leonard started his professional painting career while still a student, beginning with two portraits of Baltimore's Mayor Preston.[citation needed] He made portraits of Bishop
Noble C. Powell,[5] various doctors and administrators at
Johns Hopkins Hospital,[6] and other prominent individuals.[7][8] The State of Maryland commissioned him to replicate the historical portrait, by
John Wollaston,[9] of
Daniel Carroll, which is now located on the first floor of the
Maryland State House.[10]
Bahr made a painting of his brother, Maurice, at work underneath a Ford Model T automobile. Within the "rough grained" wood frame was a painting made of gray, black and dark brown oil paint. After the initial exhibition at the
Baltimore Museum of Art, it traveled in a labor and art tour across the United States.[4]
Biblical themes
A Christian, Bahr painted Biblical themes, including Christ in War (1964)[11] and an altar painting of
Christ at Gethsemane for Our Savior's Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Lansdowne, Maryland. He made an illustrated book of his drawings depicting the
23rd Psalm of David that was published in 1933.[12]
Murals
Bahr painted murals for the
Public Works of Art Project (1933–34). In 1934 he made the mural of Mary Caroll (Polly) Caton, daughter of lawyer, statesman and Contintental Congress representative
Charles Carroll. The mural entitled Arrival of Mary Carroll Caton at Castle Thunder was made for the
Catonsville High School library. In it, she arrived at the Caton Manor Estate, which was her father's gift to her when she married Richard Caton. It is "presumedly" her husband who greeted her as she exited the carriage. The high school was renovated in the 1960s and the mural was lost in the process.[13] The same year, he made Slaves Rolling Hogsheads of Tobacco Down a Road for the school's library. In it, slaves are rolling casks of tobacco to
Elkridge Landing on Rolling Road. Historically slaves rolled the tobacco
hogsheads from farms to the Elkridge Landing seaport on the
Patapsco River where they would be shipped.[14][15] A preliminary drawing for the library murals is held at the
Smithsonian.[citation needed] He made two more murals for the Baltimore Municipal Aquarium at Druid Hill Park.[citation needed]
World War II
His service as Lt. Commander in the Navy during World War II, included illustrating Navy life for various military magazines.[citation needed]
Other information
In April 1933, Bahr exhibited at the first annual exhibition of the Maryland Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers at the Baltimore Museum of Art.[16]
Leonard served on art boards and juries and exhibited his work widely, winning many prizes for his artistic eye.[citation needed] Articles about him or his works were published in American Artist,[17][18]The Appalachian South,[19]Gardens Houses and People, The Baltimore Sun Magazine, and the Baltimore Sun.[citation needed]
Maryland photographer
Emily Hayden took a series of photographs of Bahr painting outdoors, which are in the Maryland Historical Society archives.[20] In December 1980 and January 1981, Maryland Institute College of Art held a retrospective of his fifty years as a painter.[21] In the 1980s he was filmed for a video entitled "A Painter's Portrait."[22]
Educator
Bahr taught beginning and advanced painting classes at the
Maryland Institute College of Art for more than 50 years, beginning when he was an undergraduate. He taught day and night classes on the weekdays and Saturdays for much of his career.[4] In 1980, he retired with honors for service.[citation needed] Two years later, he was still teaching one painting class in the fall and spring semesters. Bahr also gave private lessons.[4]
^
abBeneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
^1940 Baltimore, Baltimore City, Maryland census. Roll: T627_1524; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 4-400. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
^Bahr, Leonard (1957).
"The Quiet Girl". uarizona.pastperfectonline.com.
Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
^"Images from the Collection". Elkridge Heritage Society. Photographs by Mary Bahr.
Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.