Home > Carnegie Center > Arizona Women's Hall of Fame > Inductees > Evans, Jessie Benton
Jessie Benton Evans
1866 – 1954
Inducted in 1989
Used by permission from the Arizona Historical Society
“Her vision was original and honest. Most early western painters
saw only its remoteness and grandiosity. She was on personal, friendly
terms with the land. Who before her had painted an ironwood?" --
Rudy Turk, Director of Collections, ASU Art Museum. 1987
Internationally respected artist Jessie Benton Evans came to Scottsdale
in 1911, making the central Arizona city her home for the next 43 years
until her death in 1954. While a resident of Arizona, Jessie Benton Evans,
or "Madame Evans" as she was known, became one of the most outstanding
artists in the history of Arizona and one of the foremost cultural leaders
of the area. She was renowned for her love affair with the Arizona landscape
according to Rudy Turk, Director of the Arizona State University Art Museum.
Jessie Benton Steese was born in Uniontown, Ohio to Jacob Steese, a hardworking
country doctor and his wife, Amanda on March 24, 1866. Blessed with a father
who encouraged her imagination with colorful tales of historic places,
heroes and romance, she blossomed into an artistic young woman. She began
her formal artistic education at prestigious Oberlin College, augmented
with frequent trips to Europe. Wooed by Chicago fruit importer Denver Evans,
she married on August 12, 1886. Adventurous and "liberated",
the new Mrs. Evans enjoyed a special relationship with her husband, of
which grandson Walter Ben Ware said, "She was lucky to have the
financial support of a husband who loved and understood her and let her
live her life."
Several years after her marriage, she returned to Europe with young son
Robert, to advance her art career. Continuing her transatlantic education
she received a diploma from the Chicago Art Institute in 1904. She also
studied with such respected American artists as Charles Hawthorne, Lawton
Parker, William Chase, Frederick Freerer and such European notables as
Roberto Rascovich and Professor Zila Zanetti of Italy. Her strikingly classical
face framed by long blond hair became familiar in the European cultural
centers. Soon she was exhibiting her work through- out the European continent.
Showings included important galleries such as the Paris Salon and the Paris
Internationale. While still a young woman, Jessie, who spoke five languages
fluently, translated the original "Romeo and Juliet" from Italian
to English during a stay in Italy.
When Jessie Benton Evans decided to settle in Scottsdale, she brought
the flavor of Europe with her. Purchasing 40 acres at the base of Camelback
Mountain, she and her husband Denver Evans created an Italian styled villa.
Her home soon became a cultural crossroads for area people interested in
the arts, whether sculpture, drama, painting, music or literature.
Jessie Evans, never an elitist in her genre or ethnicity, was most instrumental
in encouraging George Cavelliere's work in wrought iron. She also
encouraged the artistic development of artist Jesus Corral, who later founded
Los Olivos. In addition, she taught Cruz Medina and others to paint, sculpt
and carve. Evans held weekly artistic gatherings, which she called "salons" open
to all who were interested in the arts in the Phoenix area. She often invited
important guests like author John Galsworthy and Irish tenor John McCormack
to address the salon, and sponsored dramatic readings or music recitals.
Before the area had a formal cultural institution to support the arts,
Jessie Evans opened her home.
In 1929 when asked in an interview by the American Magazine of Art the
reason she chose to live and paint in Arizona, Evans replied:
"I think that real beauty exists where we least expect
it, in an unrevealed sense, disclosing itself only as we earnestly search
for it, thus stimulating our creative faculties. The desert seems to
me always alluring and illusive; its spirit is sweeping and vital and
its voices form a chorus of endless song. It never allows one to work
in an imitative way, which would certainly rob it of its charm. There
is a virgin freshness in the hills and barely trodden trails in the southwest
that one misses in tired, worn Europe."
The
American Magazine of Art called Jessie Evans the "Dean
of the artists in the Salt River Valley." She is listed as the recipient
of the first prize at the Phoenix Municipal Exposition, recipient of two
first landscape prizes and a second portrait prize at the Arizona State
Fair. The Municipal Collections of Phoenix and Akron, Ohio own pieces of
her work; the Santa Fe Railroad Company owns pieces of her work as well
as the University Art Museum, the Phoenix Art Museum, the University Club,
Vanderpool Art Association of Chicago and private collectors around the
world.
Evans influenced through example, especially with the construction of
her Italian styled villa and later in her work on early area resorts with
son Robert, an architect and artist in his own right. Together they formulated
the basis for the stylish and sophisticated resorts in the Phoenix metropolitan
area. Robert Evans was the first architect in the area to work with adobe,
designing many homes in the Spanish and Mediterranean style, later seen
in the Jokake and Paradise Inns.
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