Vera Wise

Vera Wise was born on July 26, 1892, in Iola, Kansas. Her family moved to Sunnyside, Washington, where she grew up and graduated from high school. In 1920, she received her bachelor’s of art from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. After graduating, she taught at high schools in Washington and Montana before moving to Chicago to work for the Marshall Field and Company as a designer in their interior design department from 1925-1929. While in Chicago, she studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1924 and 1925.

Wise moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and worked for the Robert Keith Company from 1929-1938, and then with the Bradley Studios from 1938-1939. While in Kansas City, she studied under Thomas Hart Benton in 1931 and then again in 1938-1939 at the Kansas City Art Institute. She also studied under Thomas Craig at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1940.

In 1939, Wise was appointed head of the newly formed Department of Applied Arts at the Texas College of Mines (1939-1949), where she began teaching interior design but expanded to teaching painting and art history in addition to other art subjects. After the College of Mines changed its name to Texas Western College, she was head of the Art Department from 1949-1962 and expanded the number of courses offered. She retired in 1962 and moved to California.

Wise was known for her interior design, but she was also known for her watercolor landscapes, oils and lithography. As mentioned in the Kansas City Independent magazine, “her murals and paintings in many private homes here and in business places reflect her ability in other fields than interior decorating” (The Sunnyside Times, November 2, 1939).

Wise exhibited her artwork extensively nationally and in solo exhibitions, but most of her exhibits were in Texas, where she spent most of her artistic career. She showed mostly watercolors, but also oil paintings and lithographs. The subject of most of her artwork were landscapes of the West. Art critic Arthur Miller praised her work, saying, “Watercolors by Vera Wise were painted in New Mexico, the Midwest, and California. Done in clear colors, generous form and with good design, they express a real love of the visible world.”

Wise was involved in several art organizations: National Association of Women Artists, Southern States Art League, Texas Fine Arts Association, Texas Watercolor Society, Pomona Valley Art Association, and the California National Watercolor Society. Many of the exhibitions she participated in were hosted by one of these organizations.

After retirement, Wise exhibited frequently up to a few years before her death. Her work is included in the art collections of Idaho State College, Texas Fine Arts Association, and Southern Methodist University. She died on June 6, 1978, in Stockton, California.