Minerva Teichert’s paintings are now on display at the Church History Museum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in downtown Salt Lake City.
SALT LAKE CITY – Minerva Teichert was an artist who painted what she believed. She was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and painted stories of early pioneers crossing the country, stories from the Book of Mormon and other western art.
Her works are peppered in tabernacles, churches, temples, schools and government buildings throughout Southeast Idaho and Utah. Many of Teichert’s paintings can be found in buildings throughout Cache Valley.
Currently, the Latter-day Saint church has a show of her work at the Church History Museum in downtown Salt Lake City. The show was entitled “With This Covenant in My Heart: The Art and Faith of Minerva Teichert.” It began on July 6th and runs through August 3, 2024.
The museum is open to the public Monday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is free.
Teichert was the second of 10 children born to Fredrick John Kohlhepp and Mary Ella Hickman. At 4 years old her mother gave her a watercolor set and encouraged her to be creative.
The artist spent most of her early years in Southeast Idaho.
At age 14 the budding artist went to San Francisco to be a nursemaid and while there she was introduced to art museums for the first time. She also enrolled in classes at an art school while living in California.
Teichert later went to New York and studied at the Art Students League of New York then returned to Idaho and married a cowboy named Herman Teichert. She began to paint and raise her children.
Over her lifetime she created hundreds of pieces of art.
Art curator Laura Paulsen Howe said Teichert left a rich legacy and example for museum visitors today.
“Teichert’s faith in Jesus Christ gave context to all her activities, whether she was churning butter, reading stories to her children at the breakfast table, or painting grand narratives,” she said. “Her legacy has been especially important to Latter-day Saint women who have drawn inspiration from her richly layered life.”
Teichert employed Alice Merrill Horne as an agent to sell her work. The Latter-day Saint church purchased a lot of Teichert’s paintings in the 1930s and 1940s.
Although Teichert was a celebrated artist, she worked hard as a farmer’s wife, raised five children, did her chores every day and painted from the time the family was settled until late into the night.
Matthew Teichert, 67, a cattle rancher on the old homestead remembers his grandmother using an old roller type washing machine, her churning butter and taking care of her chickens.
The Teicherts were one of the families who were asked to leave American Falls. They moved from Idaho and found a new life in Cokeville, Wyoming.
“They made a living milking a few cows and delivering milk to their neighbors when they first moved to Cokeville,” he said. “She would paint big murals, some 10 by 14 feet or 8 feet by 10 feet.”
He and his brother lived with their grandparents while their parents were building their home. Matthew remembered one night they got a dictionary and tried to stump their grandma by having her spell words they found in the dictionary.
“She was really intelligent and quoted Isaiah a lot,” he said. “She would help anyone in need, and she was generous to a fault. But she was not afraid of anyone and would not back down from anyone.”
He said his grandmother didn’t have any enemies and she helped a lot of people.
Teichert was dedicated to telling the story of her religion. She has an immense body of work. One piece valued at $1.5 million was destroyed in the Provo Tabernacle fire in December of 2010. A piece of the painting was salvaged, and the Church recreated the painting and it is on display with the rest of her works at the museum.
Both the Logan and Cache County school districts have some of Teichert’s paintings. One painting from the Logan School District is on loan to the State Capitol.
If the opportunity presents itself during a visit to Salt Lake stop in and see a little of Teichert’s celebrated work at the Church History Museum.