Miriam Ibling (February 17, 1895 – November 9, 1985) was an American
muralist who worked on art projects for the
New Deal's
Section of Painting and Sculpture creating public art in Minnesota. Her lithograph Sheep Resting is in the collection of the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
From 1935, Ibling was painting murals in and around Minneapolis for the
Works Progress Administration (WPA), in addition to working as an art teacher, graphic designer and painter.[4] She created such works as a 1935 lithograph, Sheep Resting, which is currently in the collection of the
National Gallery of Art in
Washington, D.C.;[5] an outdoor scene from 1936 which was featured on a wall in the basement of the
Central High School;[6][7] and a mural painted in fresco-secco, Youth and the Modern World in the
Stillwater High School. The work, in the school's auditorium, symbolizes both community growth and the advances made in arts and sciences.[8] In the
Lymanhurst Hospital playroom she created a mural called Alice in Wonderland in 1937.[Notes 1] In 1938, she painted a mural, Mother Goose in the historic school building, now known as Merrill Hall, at the
Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children.[4]
Ibling taught classes at the State Reformatory for Women in the 1940s, and an exhibition of their work was shown in March and April, 1940.[16] Her 1941 design, Orchestra, Attending the Opera, and Country Band Concert for Galtier Elementary School, in
St. Paul, combined three studies illustrating American music.[17][18] These were done as silk screens and applied to the wall after completion. The draft sketches for the stylized rhythmic figures for the three sections, "Orchestra", "Attending the Opera" and "Country Band Concert" are currently held in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.[19][20][21] In 1943, Ibling created murals with Charles Morgan for the Minneapolis Service Men's Center,[22] which was the year that the federal artist's program ended.[4]
After her WPA period, Ibling taught until 1946 at Cherry Lawn School in
Darien, Connecticut,[23] before relocating to California in the early 1950s.[24]
^Though the Federal Writer's Project and O'Sullivan call this painting Mother Goose,[9][10] McCarney's project inventory calls it Alice in Wonderland,[11] as does "American Paintings and Sculpture, which states "She also painted scenes from Alice in Wonderland for the Children's Hospital (later known as the Sister Kenney Memorial Hospital for Children)".[3] The Minnesota Historical Society identifies the same painting with both names.[12][13] Traditional characters in Mother Goose, "Baa Baa Black Sheep", "Jack and Jill", "Little Bo Peep", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "The Old Woman and the Shoe", "Three Blind Mice" and others,[14] are not in the painting. Traditional Alice characters, "Humpty Dumpty", the "Mad Hatter", the "March Hare", the "Red Knight and "White Knight", "Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee"[15] point to the painting being Alice in Wonderland.
American Paintings and Sculpture in the University Art Museum collection. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota. 1986.
ISBN978-0-938-71300-5.
"Attending the Opera". Minnesota State Historical Society. St. Paul, Minnesota. 2016. Archived from
the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
"Country Band Concert". Minnesota State Historical Society. St. Paul, Minnesota. 2016. Archived from
the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
"Ibling, Miriam". National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C. 2017. Archived from
the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
"Iowa, Delayed Birth Records, 1850-1939". FamilySearch. Des Moines, Iowa: State Historical Society of Iowa. July 14, 1943. certificate #158637. Retrieved 2 March 2017.