Aimee Schweig

Aimee Gladstone Schweig was born on January 30, 1892, in St. Louis, Missouri. She studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University. In the 1920s, Schweig, with her daughter Martyl, studied with Charles Hawthorne at the Provincetown Art Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts, during the summer. After Hawthorne’s death, Schweig studied for a short time with Henry Hensche.

In 1930, Schweig and Jesse Beard Rickly founded the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony with Bernard Peters in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. In 1934, they opened the Ste. Genevieve Summer Art School, where Aimee was responsible for publicity, the curriculum and the teaching staff.

Schweig also had an extensive career in St. Louis. She taught painting and was the head of the painting department at Mary Institute in St. Louis for twenty-one years. She also was commissioned to paint portraits, and in addition to her teaching career she taught private lessons.

Schweig was a member of Shikari, an honorary art fraternity for St. Louis women painters, and was president of the organization in 1930. Aimee was also involved with the St. Louis Society of Independent Artists, where she was elected treasurer in 1931 and as corresponding secretary in 1932.

Schweig was involved with the creation of the People’s Art Center in St. Louis, and was a founding member of the St. Louis chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters and also Group 15. In 1937, Schweig was the chairman of publicity for the Saint Louis Artists’ Guild, and in 1951 she was president of the Artists Equity Association.

She died in 1987 in St. Louis, Missouri.