Biografie von Bertha Menzler PEYTON (1871-1947)

Birth place: Chicago, IL

Addresses: Chicago, c. 1890-1912 (in Paris, 1896-96); NYC; 1912-24; Gloucester, MA, 1921-47

Profession: Landscape and still-life painter, teacher, writer

Studied: AIC (grad., 1893); Aman-Jean, Paris, until 1896; Collin & Merson, also in Paris.

Exhibited: Paris Salon, 1895, 1896; AIC, 1895-1929 (name appears as Menzler, Dressler & Peyton); PAFA Ann., 1896-1913 (as Menzler), 1918-36 (as Peyton); NAWPS, 1926 (prize); Paris Salons, 1895-96 (as Bertha Menzler); Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901; Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1910-27 (6 times); NAD, 1913-18; Pan.-Pac. Expo, San Fran., 1915; Detroit IA; Macbeth Gal. & Grand Central Gal., NYC, after 1921; North Shore AA, 1930 (prize); CI; AWCS; Syracuse Mus. FA

Member: North Shore AA (dir.); NAWPS; NYWCC; AWCS; Allied AA; SPNY; Grand Central AG.

Work: Union Lg. Cl., Chicago; Nike Cl., Klio Cl., West End Women's Cl., all in Chicago; Evanston Women's Cl.; BM; Chicago FA Bldg.; Addison Gilbert Hosp., Gloucester, MA; AFAA; BM.

Comments: Born Bertha Sophia Menzler, she traveled out West and painted landscapes after her marriage to artist Edward Dressler. In 1903 her "San Francisco Peaks" was the first painting purchased by the Santa Fe Railroad for their collection (she was listed in their cat. as Bertha Dressler). After a divorce and a second marriage to artist Albert Peyton (c.1912), her name appears as Peyton and Menzler-Peyton.

Sources: WW47; Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 371; Pisano, One Hundred Years...the National Association of Women Artists, 71; Trenton, ed. Independent Spirits, 154; Falk, Exhibition Record Series