Violette Mège

Violette Clarisse Mège (March 19, 1889 – May 12, 1968) was an Algerian-born French artist, and teacher and wife of artist Michael Baxte.

Violette Mège
A light-skinned woman in profile, wearing her dark hair in coiled buns over her ears.
Violette Mège, from a 1930 newspaper.
BornMarch 19, 1889
Chabet el Ameur, French Algeria
DiedMay 12, 1968 (aged 79)
Mexico
Other namesViolet Mege
Violet Posner
Violette Mege de Baxte
OccupationArtist
SpouseMichael Baxte

Early life

Mège was born to European parents Gaston Mège and Emma Barry,[1] in Chabet el Ameur, Algeria. In 1914, Mège was the first woman to win a major Beaux Arts competition in Algeria, and won a scholarship to study art in France.[2][3]

Career

In Paris, Mège exhibited her art in 1916 and won another scholarship; with the money, she moved to New York with her sister, Emma. She exhibited her colorful still life paintings, street scenes, and portraits in New York beginning in 1917.[4][5][6] "Miss Mege wastes no paint in telling her story," commented a New York reviewer in 1918. "There is an absence of detail often, but that only makes the work larger in effect."[7] She was part of group shows at the Macdowell Club in 1918,[8] and at the Waldorf in 1919 with the Society of Independent Artists.[9]

In the early 1920s, Mège was a member of the board of directors of Salons of America, an exhibition organization for contemporary American artists.[10][11] She had a solo show in 1930 at Alma Reed's Delphic Studios in New York,[12] before she moved to France with her husband. They moved again, to Mexico City, in 1941, to escape wartime Europe. By 1942, she was exhibiting her work in Mexico City. She taught her husband to paint, and he became a notable artist.[3]

Personal life

Violette Mège was married to the Belarus-born American musician and artist Michael Baxte.[2] Mège died in 1968, aged 79 years.[1]

References
  1. Federal District, Mexico, Civil Registration Deaths, 1861-1987 for Violette Mege de Baxte, Partido Nóm. 194, Cuauhtémoc, 1968. From Ancestry.com.
  2. "Michael Baxte". Lilac GALLERY. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  3. Blanshard, Julia (1930-05-17). "Can Have Career and Husband, Too". Lansing State Journal. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Brush, Edward Hale (December 1917). "L.I. Art and Artists: Exhibition by Violet Mege". Long Island Life: 7.
  5. "Touchstone House". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1917-11-25. p. 35. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. "The Beautiful Childlike Women of Algeria as Painted by Violete Mège". The Touchstone. 2: 215–217. November 1917.
  7. "Algerian-French Works by Violet Mege". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1918-12-15. p. 43. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Bowdoin, W. G. (1918-12-02). "Another Group Exhibition at Macdowell Club". The Evening World. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Field, Hamilton Easter (1919-03-30). "Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 28. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Salons of America". The New York Times. 1922-05-28. p. 89. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Salons of America to Hold Annual Spring Exhibitions". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1924-04-13. p. 24. Retrieved 2021-01-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Harris, Ruth Green (March 16, 1930). "Further Comment on Exhibitions of the Week: Seen in the Galleries: Jane Berlandina, Paul Henry Violette Mege, Pascin, Oudot, Others Exhibiting Other Exhibitions". The New York Times. p. XX19 – via ProQuest.
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