Theora Hamblett (Mississippi, 1893 to 1977)
Theora Hamblett was born in 1893 and grew up on her father’s farm in Lafayette County, Mississippi. She attended a small school in Paris, about a mile from her home, and eventually became a teacher. For fifteen years she taught in a one-room schoolhouse. Caring for her ailing mother required Hamblett to leave her teaching position, and move to Oxford in 1939. There she bought a Victorian home near the town square where she took in boarders from the University of Mississippi.
In 1950 Hamblett took an art class at the University of Mississippi, studying with Charles Mussett. Inspired by nature, specifically trees, the artist developed her own style based on her dreams and memories. Two elements seen in many of Hamblett’s rural life paintings are: a horse, and an autumnal tree. The renderings have a childlike quality, and enabled Hamblett to record things recollected from her formative years including scenes of everyday activities, as well as religious visions.
Information courtesy of Neal Auctions, May 2008.