The Paris Art Mission was a program that enabled Latter-day Saint artists to study their craft in Europe. Under the direction of Wilford Woodruff, the First Presidency paid for the artistic training. In exchange, the art missionaries enriched the temple endowment experience by creating temple murals that were both immersive and instructive. This interview with Linda Jones Gibbs discusses the history of the Paris Art Mission.
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Read more about the Paris Art Mission in Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader.
What was the Latter-day Saint Paris Art Mission?
In 1890-91, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent five Utah artists to receive art training in Paris to improve their skills for painting murals in the soon to be completed Salt Lake Temple. They were designated as “art missionaries, “ officially set apart and given blessings to remain single minded in fulfilling the purpose of their mission.
What interests you about the Paris Art Mission?
When I was a curator at the Church History Museum in the 1980s (then called the Museum of Church History and Art), I was assigned to produce an exhibition about the Paris Art Mission. The resulting show and exhibition catalogue, entitled “Harvesting the Light, The Paris Art Mission and Beginnings of Utah Impressionism,” was extremely popular and well received. As an art historian with interests in American artists in turn of the century France, it complimented my academic pursuits.
What motivated Church leaders to support the training of artists?
Church leaders did not instigate the Art Mission. Rather, a group of aspiring Utah painters approached Church leaders with the proposition to send them to Paris art academies in exchange for painting murals in the Salt Lake Temple upon their return. They presented the leaders with projected costs and assured them of their religious devotion and desires to use their talents to enhance the Kingdom of God.
Who were the art missionaries?
The first artist missionaries were John Hafen (1856-1910), Lorus Pratt (1855 – 1923), and John B. Fairbanks (1855-1940) who arrived in Paris in July of 1890. They were followed that fall by Edwin Evans (1860) and by Herman Haag (871-1895) the following year.
What training did they receive in Paris?
All the art missionaries attended the prestigious Julian Academy in Paris, a private atelier founded in 1868. It was open to any aspiring artist and became so popular it eventually rivaled in attendance the government sponsored Ecole des Beaux Arts.
In 1987, only one small part of the original murals remained.
Technical facility was paramount at the Julian Academy. Students were first taught of the fundamentals of draftsmanship by copying engravings and plaster casts. They then moved on to drawing and then painting the human figure.
Did impressionism influence the art missionaries?
During free time and in the summer months, the Utah artists left their Paris studios to paint plein-air (or out of doors) in the villages near the Parisian capital. It was there in they came under the influence, via other artists painting in the countryside and their own experiences, of impressionism.
This movement which began much earlier in the late 1860s onward, attempted to replicate the sensorial experience of the outdoors. There was a rejection of historical subjects, and Biblical and mythological themes that dominated the academy systems in favor of direct observation of nature as a subject.
Figures and natural forms became most important as surfaces that reflect light and are enveloped by atmosphere. This shift from a sense of permanence to a fleeting moment was achieved through looser brush strokes and brighter hues.
Where did the tradition of temple murals begin?
The first temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have murals was the St. George temple, completed in 1877. There were none in the first two temples built in Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois.
There is no recorded reason for the initial use of murals. The earliest precedent occurred in 1855/56 when William Ward (1827-1893), an early Utah architect, sculptor and painter, was hired to depict trees, animals and plants on some walls of the Endowment House in Salt Lake City.
One can surmise the murals were intended to enhance the temple endowment experience by immersing the participant in an environment that was both aesthetic and instructive.
What were the murals the art missionaries painted in the Salt Lake City Temple?
Two months after returning to Utah, the art missionaries, along with one of their former instructors in Utah, Dan Weggeland, were asked to begin painting the Garden of Eden and World Rooms in the Salt Lake Temple. Hafen, Evans and Weggeland worked on the Garden Room, assisted by Pratt. The World Room was painted by Evans, Fairbanks and Weggeland.
What happened to the Salt Lake City Temple murals?
Over the years, the murals were painted over due to peeling plaster and attempts to clean the murals which resulted in faded colors. In 1987 only one small part of the original murals remained. In 2021, all the murals were removed, rolled and placed in storage and the temple ceremonies converted to the use of film.
Their creative output constitutes some of the most stunning examples of late 19th and early 20th century Utah art.
Was the Church’s support of the artists a form of patronage?
From an art historical standpoint, patronage in the case of the Art Mission is questionable. It was more a limited contractual agreement between the artists and the Church that required them to fulfill certain obligations in return for some limited financial support.
How else did the Paris Art Mission benefit Utah?
The benefits of the Paris Art mission went well beyond the initial painting of temple murals. The artists became leaders in the Utah art scene, heading arts organizations, teaching, and exhibiting. Hafen, for example, donated a painting to Springville High School in 1903. That planted the seed for more donations which eventually grew to form the collection at the Springville Museum of Art.
Perhaps the greatest legacy is the proliferation of paintings produced by the art missionaries after their return to Utah. Their creative output constitutes some of the most stunning examples of late 19th and early 20th century Utah art and brought the cosmopolitan influences of French naturalist and impressionist painting to what was at the time a rural region. Their art continues to be sought after by modern collectors of Utah art.
What do you hope people remember about the Paris Art Mission?
I hope people will celebrate a time when the Church formally designated the importance of visual art to uplift and instruct and did so when Utah was predominantly agrarian and distanced from major centers of culture.
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About the interview participant
Linda Jones Gibbs is an independent scholar living in New York, has a PhD in art history from the City University of New York with specialties in American and modern art. Jones Gibbs was a former curator at the Museum of Church History in Salt Lake City and the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University. She has written extensively on American artists in France and on the artist Maynard Dixon.
Further Reading
- What Church-Related Artwork Has Anthony Sweat Produced?
- What Did Wilford Woodruff Contribute to the Development of Temple Doctrine?
- What Buildings Were Used for Temple Ordinances Before the Salt Lake Temple?
- What is the History of the Kirtland Temple?
Paris Art Mission Resources
- Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader (Oxford University Press)
- Harvesting the Light: The Paris Art Mission and Beginnings of Utah Impressionism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
- John Hafen and the Art Missionaries (Journal of Mormon History)
- The Paris Art Mission (BYU-I Speeches)
- Utah Collection (Springville Museum of Art)
3 replies on “What Was the Paris Art Mission?”
I found a harvest picture by Lorus Pratt at the desert industries. Upon looking up this piece of artwork I found this outstanding piece of Mormon history. And it spoke of the artists, starting with John hafen who is already in Europe in Paris France and he wrote a letter to Quincy q Cannon the president of the church at that time asking to send four other artists to be educated and honing on their artistic skills so that they can return to Utah and help finish the Salt Lake temple with murals. I have a copy of the letter that John hafen wrote to the president of the church, president Cannon. I have never read something that has touched my heart as much as this letter. It will go in my Christmas cards next year, the fact that art is so important in our lives that as he States a religious life is not a religious life without it. If you can find this letter you will love it also. And I have this painting by Laura Pratt hung on my wall and my heart is full of great love and respect for these artists. Especially love the fact that this was during the era of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gougan and the art exposed that Europe was holding, and all the impressionistic artist we’re trying to get their paintings accepted into these expos. What fabulous history this is showing that Mormon pioneers were being trained alongside of European impressionistic artists.
I just filled out a huge comment only find out that, I didn’t save it properly. So here I go again. I found a canvas framed picture of the harvest by Lorus Pratt at the DI. In searching the history of this amazingly historic painting I found information that John Hafen was in Paris France and wrote to the president of the church, president George Q. Canon in 1890, requesting that he sent four other artists to hone in on their art skills to return afterwards Utah for the finishing of the murals in the Salt Lake Temple. I have never read something so touching in my life as this letter that reaches deep into the soul of Art and religious living. I’m copying it and sending it with my Christmas cards next year. I love the fact that we have LDS members/artists that were part of the impressionistic movement in Europe, especially in Paris France. The expo fairs selected artists and their artwork to be displayed in these expo fairs and I remember reading years ago that they turned down Vincent van Gogh’s paintings yet, I think they allowed Paul Gougan to enter some of his paintings. It warms my soul to know that we had LDS artists in Paris France involved in this wonderful stage of historical art works.
Looks like my first reply was saved after all, well now you have more information. Yahoo. Judith Nelson