Mary Meigs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 27, 1919 |
| Died | November 15, 2002(2002-11-15) (aged 85) Montreal, Canada |
| Education | Bryn Mawr College |
| Partner(s) | Barbara Deming,Marie-Claire Blais |
Mary Meigs (April 27, 1917 – November 15, 2002) was anAmerican-born painter and writer.
Meigs was born inPhiladelphia, the daughter of Edward Browning Meigs and Margaret Wister Meigs, and grew up inWashington, D.C. Her great-great-grandfather was theobstetrician Dr.Charles Delucena Meigs, and her great-granduncle was Major GeneralMontgomery C. Meigs,Quartermaster General of the United States Army during theAmerican Civil War. She studied atBryn Mawr College, graduating in 1939, and subsequently taughtEnglish literature andcreative writing at that school. She served in theUnited States Navy'sWAVES corps duringWorld War II.[1]
She subsequently studied art inNew York City, and had her first exhibition of paintings in 1950.
Openlylesbian,[2] Meigs met authorBarbara Deming in 1954. Deming and Meigs became a couple and moved toWellfleet, Massachusetts, where they joined aCape Cod artistic circle that included abstract painterMark Rothko, criticEdmund Wilson, and writerMary McCarthy.
In 1963, Wilson introduced Meigs toMarie-Claire Blais, a writer fromQuebec who became romantically involved with Meigs and Deming. The three women lived together for six years. Meigs and Deming drifted apart, and in 1972 Meigs and Blais moved toBrittany. The couple subsequently returned toMontreal in 1976, where Meigs spent the remainder of her life.[1][3]
In the 1970s, Meigs turned to writing, publishing books such asLily Briscoe: A Self-Portrait (1981),The Medusa Head (1983) andThe Box Closet (1987). In addition to her writing, she became a prominent spokesperson in Canada for lesbian,feminist, andseniors' issues. She died in Montreal in 2002, following a series ofstrokes.
Meigs was instrumental in helping administer and support The Money for Women Fund, founded by Barbara Deming to support the work of feminist artists. After Deming's death in 1984, the organization was renamed as theBarbara Deming Memorial Fund.[4] Today, the foundation is the "oldest ongoing feminist granting agency" which "gives encouragement and grants to individual feminists in the arts (writers, and visual artists)."[5][6]
Mary McCarthy's 1955 novelA Charmed Life depicts Meigs as "Dolly Lamb", a tiresome artist whose paintings were "cramped with preciosity and mannerism".[7]
In 1990, Meigs appeared in the Canadiandocudrama filmThe Company of Strangers. She published a book about her experiences making the film,In the Company of Strangers, in 1991.[8]
