1892 - 1961
Hildreth Meiere was a mural painter, mosaicist and decorator who worked on some of the major building projects of her time.
Meiere studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City, the Art Students League, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in Florence, and at the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco.
Her mural works include the mosaic in the dome of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington under the architect Bertram Goodhue. The dome was constructed of the new material, acoustalith brick, for which she developed a method of decoration involving painting over gesso. Also under Goodhue she designed floors, ceilings, tapestries and doors for the Nebraska State Capitol, 1934. The theme of the decoration was the American Indian.
She also designed the ceiling, an allegory of Wealth and Beauty, in a geometrically abstract style, for the lobby at Number One Wall Street under the architects Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, 1932. The ceiling was executed in silver leaf with colored paint airbrushed on for highlighting. For the Walker-Lispenard Telephone Exchange, by the same firm, again she used a mythological subject for the lobby ceiling, executed in silhouette mosaic, a combination of glass mosaic and colored plaster, and also designed a large map of the world in building tile for the outer entrance.
For Rockefeller Center she designed a series of plaques for the exterior of the cinema and music hall. The plaque over the entrance to the cinema represents electrical energy sending out radio and television transmission and the three on the south facade of the music hall, 18' in diameter, depict the spirits of song, drama and dance. These plaques were the largest ever produced in metal and enamel at that time in 1932.
For the 1939 New York World's Fair, Meiere designed five murals for the exterior of the Medicine, Health, Science and Education building including Science the Healer, The Road to Health which showed the relation of health to recreation by depicting people at sport, and Mankind Between the Past and Future. She also did a 60' mural for the National Council of Women depicting women who made significant contributions to society in the century 1833-1933.
Other work includes mosaics, stained glass and altars for various religious institutions and murals for the interiors of passenger ships.
Meiere was awarded the Fine Arts Medal in 1956 by the American Institute of Architects for her work as a muralist, and an exhibition of her work was held at the Architectural League in 1961. She was director of the department of mural decoration at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, served on the New York Art Commission from 1946 to 1952, as president of the National Society of Mural Painters and of the Liturgical Arts Society, and was on the board of the Architectural League. In 1945 Bimel Kehm designed a home for her in Stamford, Connecticut.
Meiere studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City, the Art Students League, the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design in Florence, and at the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco.
Her mural works include the mosaic in the dome of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington under the architect Bertram Goodhue. The dome was constructed of the new material, acoustalith brick, for which she developed a method of decoration involving painting over gesso. Also under Goodhue she designed floors, ceilings, tapestries and doors for the Nebraska State Capitol, 1934. The theme of the decoration was the American Indian.
She also designed the ceiling, an allegory of Wealth and Beauty, in a geometrically abstract style, for the lobby at Number One Wall Street under the architects Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, 1932. The ceiling was executed in silver leaf with colored paint airbrushed on for highlighting. For the Walker-Lispenard Telephone Exchange, by the same firm, again she used a mythological subject for the lobby ceiling, executed in silhouette mosaic, a combination of glass mosaic and colored plaster, and also designed a large map of the world in building tile for the outer entrance.
For Rockefeller Center she designed a series of plaques for the exterior of the cinema and music hall. The plaque over the entrance to the cinema represents electrical energy sending out radio and television transmission and the three on the south facade of the music hall, 18' in diameter, depict the spirits of song, drama and dance. These plaques were the largest ever produced in metal and enamel at that time in 1932.
For the 1939 New York World's Fair, Meiere designed five murals for the exterior of the Medicine, Health, Science and Education building including Science the Healer, The Road to Health which showed the relation of health to recreation by depicting people at sport, and Mankind Between the Past and Future. She also did a 60' mural for the National Council of Women depicting women who made significant contributions to society in the century 1833-1933.
Other work includes mosaics, stained glass and altars for various religious institutions and murals for the interiors of passenger ships.
Meiere was awarded the Fine Arts Medal in 1956 by the American Institute of Architects for her work as a muralist, and an exhibition of her work was held at the Architectural League in 1961. She was director of the department of mural decoration at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, served on the New York Art Commission from 1946 to 1952, as president of the National Society of Mural Painters and of the Liturgical Arts Society, and was on the board of the Architectural League. In 1945 Bimel Kehm designed a home for her in Stamford, Connecticut.
