Tasha Tudor: 19th Century Naturalist and the American Beatrix Potter?

This is a guest post by Marie Vahue. Vahue runs the library for The Summit Center, a non-profit organization serving children on the autism spectrum. With a background in Art History and Museum Studies, Marie loves to explore the many intersections of art, natural history, and museums. 

Tasha Tudor: Creating a Life

Tasha Tudor was an American children's author and illustrator born in 1915, a fact that is somewhat surprising  when viewing pictures of her or enjoying her books.  Though she survived into the 21st century (she died in 2008), Tasha Tudor lived as if it were 1830, with flickering candlelight and a cooking fire in the hearth of her farmhouse, spinning and sewing her own clothes and tending to the vegetables and abundant flowers in her gardens. Tudor felt that she belonged to another time, an idea that began in her childhood and only grew stronger as she grew older.  Her determination to live in a 19th century manner was the foundation in creating a life and art that reflected her vision. [See Tudor's comprehensive collection of American and European historic clothing from the mid-18th through the mid-19th centuries.]

A quick look at Tasha Tudor's life 

Tudor grew up in a Bostonian family steeped in history, literature and art.  She knew early on that she wanted to be an illustrator and so she filled her days observing the world and drawing in the many sketchbooks she kept with her- a habit she kept up throughout life. As a young woman with a growing family, Tudor's illustrations brought in enough money to maintain her household and to begin financing the 19th century life she envisioned.  While her paintings and illustrations documented the natural world and family life on a farm, she also introduced charming and imaginative characters, a bit of magic infused into Tudor's already captivating life. People loved it.

Tasha Tudor's impact

Fans were continually fascinated by Tudor's life and art and how one intertwined with the other. My own interest with Tudor began in my twenties as I tried to recreate a bit of my rural childhood in suburban Buffalo. I admired her self-sufficiency for she lived with no electricity on a Vermont farm. 
As I grew older and time began rushing by, I appreciated Tudor's mindfulness of the seasons and the passage of time which she carefully documented and tenderly illustrated in her books.  I revisit her first book, Pumpkin Moonshine, annually when the leaves start to fall.  Early in my forties, as life and relationships grew complex, Tudor again served up inspiration.  While her artwork often reflected a sentimental ideal, biographies revealed a Tudor that was tough, cantankerous and sometimes unbending in her relationships.  She was a smart businesswoman who enjoyed and cultivated the public's fascination.  

Taking a trip with a dear friend to visit a Shelburne Museum exhibit of her work provided an opportunity to appreciate Tudor's creative process. She was a prolific artist, her work encompassing many genres of books, cards, and commissioned paintings. One thing is certain: Tasha Tudor's life and art were inseparable, one nourishing the other. Tudor's work was nostalgic and joyful but had a detailed realism that spoke to her habit of sketching the world around her. Like her art, Tasha Tudor was many-layered, full of depth and complexity, reflecting a life resolutely lived.