Quiet Contemplation

Nura Woodson Ulreich

Nura Woodson Ulreich’s early lithograph is a precursor to her career as a children’s book illustrator, but it is also informed by the growing influence of experimental printmaking and modernist abstraction, as well as her background in textile design.

An assortment of textures is employed on the stone to give dimensionality to the three young girls, possibly sisters, who are waiting for something the viewer can only guess at. Meanwhile, an intentional flatness of depth makes up the rest of the composition, creating a dream-like quality to the image and making the three figures that much more prominent.

Nura Woodson Ulreich, painter, printmaker, muralist, textile artist, ceramist, sculptor, teacher, author, and illustrator, was born Norah Woodson in Kansas City, Missouri 1899. She attended the Kansas City Art Institute, the Art Students League in New York City, and the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. She also studied in Vienna and Paris. After the First World War, she married fellow artist Eduard "Buk" Ulreich and his nickname for her was "Nura."

Nura illustrated and wrote children books, including 'The Buttermilk Tree' which was published by the author in 1934; 'Nura's Garden of Betty and Booth' published by William Morrow in 1935; 'The Silver Bridge' published by the author in 1937, 'Nura's Children Go Visiting' published by The Studio publications, inc. in 1943, 'All Aboard, We Are Off' published by The Studio publications, inc. in 1944, 'The Mitty Children Fix Things' published by the Junior Literary Guild and American Studio Books in 1946, and 'The Kitten Who Listened' published by Harper in 1950. Her books won awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Her work was included three times in the Corcoran Gallery International Biennials between 1928-1939. She was a member of and exhibited with the Society of Independent Artists in 1928 and 1941. In 1939, the exhibition Nura Ulreich: Paintings was mounted at the Dallas Museum of Art. Associated American Artists published four of her lithographs in the 1940s: 'Listen' in 1946, 'Seraphine Sews' in 1947, 'The Vain One', and 'Young Spring' in 1948. They also published two glazed stoneware pieces by Nura in 1949: a ceramic pitcher entitled 'Seven Seas' and an ashtray entitled 'Contented Cow.' 'Seven Seas' was featured in the article "Useful Work of Artist" in the New York Times on September 16, 1950 (page 12). Other lithographs by Nura are 'Hay Foot,' 'Straw Foot;' 'An Interesting Story;' 'Quiet Contemplation;' and 'Darning Her Stockings.'

Nura's work is represented in the collections of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center.

Norah (Nura) Woodson Ulreich, died in New Rochelle, New York on 25 October 1950.