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Barbara (Cook) Latham

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Barbara (Cook) Latham (1896 - 1989) was active/lived in New Mexico, Massachusetts.  Barbara Latham is known for Indian genre painting, graphics, illustration.

Painter, print maker, and children's book illustrator, Barbara Latham was born in Walpole, Massachusetts in 1896, and lived most of her life in the Southwest. She was raised in Norwich, Connecticut and studied at the Norwich Free Academy and then attended Pratt Institute from 1915 to her graduation in 1919. She then studied with Andrew Dasburg at the Art Students League summer school in Woodstock, New York.

She spent the early part of her career in New York, where she worked for the Norcross Publishing Company, and did illustrations for Forum magazine and The New York Times Sunday magazine.

In 1925, Latham went to Taos, New Mexico, for the first time to get material for illustrations for a greeting card company. She met artist Howard Cook, who was in the process of developing illustrations for Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes to the Archbishop. The couple married in 1927.  From 1928 to 1935, they traveled widely including to   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 5557 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 45 auction lots for Barbara (Cook) Latham (of which 41 auction records sold and 0 are upcoming at auction.)

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.  There are 2 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 10 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by Barbara (Cook) Latham as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

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.  askART lists Barbara (Cook) Latham in 1 of its research Essays. Barbara (Cook) Latham has 5 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for Barbara (Cook) Latham available:    Jozef Bakos,  Ila McAfee,  Willard Ayer Nash,  Howard Norton Cook,  Joseph Fleck,  William Penhallow Henderson,  Bror Nordfeldt,  Helmuth Naumer,  Alfred Gwynne Morang,  Gene Kloss,  William Thomas Lumpkins,  Sheldon Parsons,  Henry Cornelius Balink,  Gerard Curtis Delano,  Emil Bisttram,  Gerald Ira Diamond Cassidy,  Fremont F Ellis,  Ben Turner,  Carl Von Hassler,  Carlos Hall,  Ernest Leonard Blumenschein,  Leon Gaspard,  Ernest Martin Hennings,  Peter Hurd



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Facts about Barbara (Cook) Latham

   Barbara (Cook) Latham  Born:  1896 - Walpole, Massachusetts
Died:   1989 - Santa Fe, New Mexico
Known for:  Indian genre painting, graphics, illustration
Name variants:  Barbara Latham Cook

Biography from the Archives of askART

Painter, print maker, and children's book illustrator, Barbara Latham was born in Walpole, Massachusetts in 1896, and lived most of her life in the Southwest. She was raised in Norwich, Connecticut and studied at the Norwich Free Academy and then attended Pratt Institute from 1915 to her graduation in 1919. She then studied with Andrew Dasburg at the Art Students League summer school in Woodstock, New York.

She spent the early part of her career in New York, where she worked for the Norcross Publishing Company, and did illustrations for Forum magazine and The New York Times Sunday magazine.

In 1925, Latham went to Taos, New Mexico, for the first time to get material for illustrations for a greeting card company. She met artist Howard Cook, who was in the process of developing illustrations for Willa Cather's novel, Death Comes to the Archbishop. The couple married in 1927.  From 1928 to 1935, they traveled widely including to Mexico; Springfield, Massachusetts; Paris, France; and Norwich, Connecticut. In 1933, the couple made their home near Taos, on the Talpa Ridge just south of the town.  In 1976, they made their final move, which was to Santa Fe.

Latham, from the time of her first visit to Taos, created prints and paintings of New Mexico subjects: the Taos landscape, views of the town and genre depicting the seasons of rural life including that of the Taos Indians. She also illustrated children's books and did pencil drawings. Latham's illustrations for children's books included Pedro, Nina and Perrito, 1939, and Maggie, which was chosen as one of the best books from the period of 1945 to 1950 by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. A lithographer and etcher, she created wood engravings that have an intense, contrasting use of black and white.

One of her paintings, Approaching Storm, c. 1930, 10 x 13, is a tiny but expressive painting emphasizing the orange of the earth and green of trees against the dark, stormy sky. In style, the painting is a blend of the characteristics of the New Mexico landscape, the colorful approach to landscape developed by the original Taos painters and later followers, and a certain muscularity of form suggestive of Thomas Hart Benton.

Tourist Town, Taos, c. 1940, is an example of her painting of the village and its Indian and Anglo inhabitants milling about in front of one-story adobe shops and strongly-constructed, purple mountains beyond.

Latham's art became darker and moodier, somewhat surrealistic, after World War II. She died in 1989.

Among Barbara Latham's one-woman exhibitions are the Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Roswell Museum, New Mexico and Weyhe Gallery, New York City. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Sources include:
Jules and Nancy Heller, North American Women Artists of the 20th Century
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, Women Artists of the American West
Internet: http://www.kargesfineart.com/links/Barbara-Latham.htm


Biography from Addison Rowe Fine Art

Barbara Latham was an exceptional artist of her time. She was well schooled, having studied at the Norwich Connecticut Art School, the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and the Arts Student League in Woodstock, New York. She was also an adventurous traveler. To gather inspiration for her illustrations, she traveled everywhere, from bicycling through Brittany with a friend, to taking a train to Taos, New Mexico where she found her future husband, Howard Cook.

She spent the early part of her career in New York, where she worked for the Norcross Publishing Company and did illustration for Forum magazine and the New York Times Sunday magazine.

Latham, from the time of her first visit to Taos, created prints and paintings of New Mexico subjects: the Taos landscape, views of the town and themes depicting the seasons of rural life. A lithographer and etcher, she created wood engravings that have an intense, contrasting use of black and white. She also did pencil drawings and illustrated children's books that were award winning.

Barbara Latham's one-woman exhibitions include the Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Roswell museum, New Mexico and Weyhe Gallery, New York City. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, and Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.


Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, II

Born: Walpole, Massachusetts 1896

Painter, illustrator, author, graphic artist.

Mrs. Latham studied at the Norwich (Connecticut) Art School, at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and at the Art Students League in Woodstock. She came to Taos in 1925. Her Taos paintings are landscapes of the Talpa Valley, "delicate and exquisite in color and directly joyous." She "treated the everyday occupations of her neighbors in a pleasant, realistic manner, with special attention to the seasonable pastoral pattern of life." After World War II, her "style of painting combines surrealism and meticulously renderd still-life arrangements." Her reputation at the time was based on her illustrations for Christmas cards and juvenile books such as "I Like Caterpillars."

Resource: SAMUELS' Encyclopedia of ARTISTS of THE AMERICAN WEST,
Peggy and Harold Samuels, 1985, Castle Publishing


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