Thetis Lemmon (1907–1987) was an American artist, educator, and metal-smith active primarily in Texas during the 1930s and 1940s. She exhibited widely in regional and national exhibitions, working across media including oil painting, metalwork, jewelry, and wall hangings. Lemmon also served for more than a decade as a faculty member in the Fine Arts Department at Texas State College for Women.Thetis Lemmon’s Resume, undated, Thetis Lemmon Vertical File, The Woman’s Collection, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
Early life and education Thetis Lemmon was born in 1907 and educated in the Dallas Public School system. She attended Travis School (City Park School) before enrolling at Forest Avenue High School in Dallas, Texas.
Lemmon pursued higher education at Texas State College for Women (T.S.C.W.) in Denton, Texas (now Texas Woman’s University), where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree. During her senior year (1929), she was highly active in campus arts organizations. She served as art editor for both the Daedalian Quarterly and the Daedalian Annual, was a member of the Art Club and the Mary Eleanor Brackenridge Club, and graduated as a high honor student. She had a straight-A record for all 4 years of her education, achieving the best college record in the history of the university at the time. Her drawings appeared extensively throughout the 1929 yearbook.The Daedalian, 1929. College of Industrial Arts, and Texas Woman’s University. LD 7251.T4225 The Woman’s Collection, Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas
She later attended Columbia University in New York City, where she earned a Master of Arts degree. While at Columbia, she studied painting under Charles Martin and spent four summers in New York working toward her master’s degree.
Academic career Lemmon served for eleven years in the Fine Arts Department at Texas State College for Women. She taught courses including Freshman Drawing, metalworking, and jewelry design. Faculty records list her among early members of the department starting in 1929.
Artistic career and exhibitions Lemmon exhibited extensively between 1933 and 1941 in Texas and nationally. Her work included oil paintings as well as decorative and industrial metalwork.
Exhibitions 1933 Modern Show, Provincetown, Massachusetts Architectural League, New York City (wall hangings: one painted, one appliqué)
1934 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (solo exhibition of jewelry, metalwork, and wall hangings)
1936 Denton Art League – First Prize (Oil) Texas Centennial Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oil) Ney Museum, Austin (Oil) First National Exhibition of American Art, New York (Oil)
1937 Pan-American Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oil) Denton Art League – First Prize (Oil) Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oils) Ney Museum, Austin (Oils) Second National Exhibition of American Art, New York (Oil) Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City (Oil) Exhibition of Contemporary Industrial and Handwrought Silver, Brooklyn Museum
1938 Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City (Oil; work sold) Denton Art League (Oils, metalwork, jewelry) Texas Fine Arts Teachers’ Exhibit, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oils) State Fair of Texas Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oils)
1939 State Fair of Texas Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oils) Exhibition during inauguration of new president of the University of Texas, Austin (Oils) Preview of works entered for the New York World’s Fair Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Oil) Denton Art League (Oils, metalwork, jewelry)
1940 Five States Exhibition, Philbrook (Oil, 1940–41) Texas Fine Arts Association, New Museum, Austin (Oil) Traveling Exhibition of the Texas Fine Arts Association (Oil)
1941 Texas–Oklahoma General Exhibit (Oil) Midwestern Artists Exhibition, Kansas City (Oil) Texas Fine Arts Association (Oils) West Texas Artists Association, Fort Worth (Oil)
Artistic style and media Lemmon worked across multiple media, including: Oil painting Jewelry design Metalworking Wall hangings (painted and appliqué)
Her exhibition history reflects a dual engagement with fine art and decorative arts, particularly in silverwork and handwrought metal fields that gained prominence during the interwar period through craft revival movements and industrial design exhibitions.
Legacy Though not widely known today, Thetis Lemmon was an active participant in Texas’s interwar art scene. Her repeated inclusion in regional exhibitions, prize recognition from the Denton Art League, and participation in national exhibitions in New York and Kansas City indicate professional recognition during her career.
Her contributions as both artist and educator center her within the development of women’s art education and regional modernism in Texas during the 1930s and early 1940s.
Art on display Thetis Lemmon has three pieces of artwork at the Dallas Museum of Art. The silver and New Zealand jade necklace is currently on display and is located at J. E. R. Chilton Gallery I, Level 1 of the Dallas Museum of Art.
Works previously at the Dallas Museum of Art
References