30 Facts About Marie Goth

Jessie Marie Goth was an American painter from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Best known for her portraiture, Goth was the first woman to paint an official portrait of an Indiana governor that was installed in the Indiana Statehouse.

Marie Goth became a charter member and former president of the Brown County Art Gallery Association in 1926 and a cofounder of the Brown County Art Guild in 1954.

Marie Goth died from injuries sustained in a fall at her home in 1975.

Marie Goth's work is represented in the collections of more than a dozen of Indiana's public art galleries, museums, and educational institutions.

Marie Goth exhibited her art at every Hoosier Salon from 1925 to 1975, and in other art exhibitions across Indiana, in New York City, and elsewhere in the United States.

Marie Goth willed the bulk of her estate to the Brown County Art Guild to establish and maintain a local art museum in Nashville, Indiana.

Jessie Marie Goth, the eldest daughter of Jessie and Charles Goth, was born on August 15,1887, in Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.

Marie Goth's mother was a vocalist, while her father played bass violin with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and was co-owner of the Crown Monument Company, a successful monument business in Indianapolis.

Marie Goth and won her first art prize at the age of sixteen in a citywide design contest.

Marie Goth grew up in Indianapolis, where she attended a local elementary school and graduated from Manual Training High School about 1906.

Marie Goth studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati while spending a summer with relatives.

Marie Goth applied for and received a scholarship to attend the Art Students League of New York in 1909.

Marie Goth initially intended to become an illustrator, but switched to portraiture after studying with Frank DuMond, her instructor and mentor.

Cariani was a devout Catholic, while Marie Goth was raised as a Christian Scientist.

Marie Goth returned to Indianapolis in 1919 to begin her career as a portrait painter; Cariani left the Art League in 1917 to enlist in the military.

When her mother's health declined, Marie Goth decided to move her studio out of the family's Indianapolis home and established her permanent residence in Brown County, where the original cabin was torn down and replaced with a new one.

Marie Goth, who is known for her portraiture, painted the likenesses of numerous Hoosier notables, prominent businessmen, and dignitaries during her long career.

Marie Goth exhibited at every Hoosier Salon from its debut in Chicago in 1925 to 1975, the year of her death, and received many of its awards.

Marie Goth's work was seen outside of Indiana at the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors Exhibitions in New York, the National Academy of Design Annual Exhibition in New York, as well as the Brooklyn Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.

In 1926 Marie Goth became a charter member of the Brown County Art Gallery Association and served for two years as its first president.

Marie Goth maintained her home in Brown County, Indiana, from 1923 to 1975, even after she suffered the loss of her family members, including her brother-in-law, Carl Graf, in 1947, her sister, Genevieve, in 1961, and close friend and companion, Cariani, in 1969.

At the age of eighty-seven, Marie Goth entered two paintings in the Hoosier Salon's fifty-first exhibition, which was held in January 1975.

Marie Goth died at her cabin in Nashville, Indiana, on January 9,1975, from head injuries and several bone fractures suffered in a fall.

Marie Goth's remains are interred at the Brown County Memorial Park, a cemetery in Nashville, Indiana, beside Cariani's.

Marie Goth was the first woman commissioned to paint an official portrait of an Indiana governor.

Marie Goth willed the bulk of her estate, valued at more than $600,000, including her property and collection of 2,000 paintings by Marie Goth, Cariani, and Genevieve and Carl Graf, to the Brown County Art Guild, along with funds to establish and maintain a local art museum to house her collection, and to display the work of the founding members, as well as contemporary artists.

Marie Goth received a special recognition from the Hoosier Salon in 1974 for her continuous participation as an exhibitor since its first exhibition in 1925.

Marie Goth was posthumously elected to the Indiana Academy in 1977.

Marie Goth's work is represented in the collections of several of Indiana's public art galleries, museums, and educational institutions, as well as private collections.