Myra Maunee Deibel

Myra Maunee Deibel was a St. Louis portrait painter known for her paintings of children. Active in Missouri in the 1930s and 1940s, Deibel was originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, but lived in St. Louis nearly her whole life. Deibel came from an artistic family: Her great-grandfather had been a successful portrait painter in Wiesbaden, Germany. Deibel’s mother was not a visual artist, but studied music and was a professional pianist.

Deibel began her studies at the Mary Institute in St. Louis, where she enrolled in the art course; however, despite her natural talent, she was encouraged by the principal to postpone her art studies and first go to college. Thereafter, Deibel attended Washington University in St. Louis, majoring in psychology and Spanish. Interestingly, Deibel later commented that, while she put her dreams of art school on hold, she eventually found her background in psychology very useful in her portrait work.

Following her four years at Washington University, Deibel resumed her art studies and attended both The Art Institute of Chicago and the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. She became involved with Shikari, an all-female honorary arts fraternity made up of School of Fine Arts students and alumnae, and served as vice president of the organization in 1935. Deibel studied under St. Louis landscape painter Edmund Wuerpel, who would become one of her greatest supporters and influences. She later remarked that “whatever I have accomplished is due primarily to Mr. Wuerpel; he is so inspiring.” The two eventually shared a studio at the School of Fine Arts, where Deibel accepted some of her first commissions.

A significant milestone in Deibel’s career occurred when she won the St. Louis School of Fine Arts John T. Milliken Foreign Travel Award, which afforded three months of travel abroad. Deibel’s itinerary included England, Scotland, France, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Austria. The artist recalled that her favorite destination was Italy, particularly for sketching, and remembered being “bewitched” by the old-world atmosphere in Florence.

That experience left a lasting impression on Deibel, who was dissatisfied with the plainness of the American landscape upon her return. “I want to find something with a deep underlying meaning which challenges the artist to express it,” she later stated, citing Isle of the Dead artist Arnold Bocklin as an inspiration.

This sentiment emerged in her portraits of children, which the artist began painting “by accident” in the mid-1930s when a friend approached her to sketch a four-month-old baby. Deibel’s children's portraits often depicted their subjects in fanciful or imaginary backgrounds, which she hoped would emphasize the relationship between humankind and nature.

Deibel was not a frequent participant in local group exhibitions, but mounted a number of solo exhibitions in St. Louis in the 1930s and 1940s. However, later in her career, her focus turned to education; she taught art at Ladue Junior High School and at Reed Elementary School. As with her portraits, her focus remained on youth and children. Deibel remained in the St. Louis area for the rest of her life and died in Chesterfield in 2000. She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery.