Hildreth Meière Documentary Series - Watch Trailer
Commissioned by: Cornelia CongerMedium: oil on canvasExecuted by: Hildreth MeièrePrivate residence
Hildreth Meière attended polo matches with a friend while staying at a cottage that had belonged to architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in Montecito, California in 1931. While there, she saw Will Rogers play polo and often visited with Charles Jackson, Jr., an avid polo player, and his wife. Interior designer Cornelia Conger commissioned Meière to paint three maps in the entrance hall of the Jackson residence at Rancho San Carlos. The maps depict Santa Barbara, the United States Showing Polio Grounds, and Rancho San Carlos:
In all, Meière painted three maps. The map on the left depicts Santa Barbara.
The center map shows polo grounds across the United States:
A map of Rancho San Carlos is on the right:
Below each of the three maps runs an appropriately themed frieze. The scale of each frieze can be seen in relation to the map above it:
Meière posed in front of her map of Rancho San Carlos. A beach scene is visible on the left side of the attached frieze. The maps and friezes for the Jackson commission are among the few residential commissions Meière designed during the first part of her career. Meière painted the maps in her New York studio.