Douglas Arthur Teed (February 21, 1860 – May 23, 1929) was an American painter. He was the only son of the founder of Estero, Florida, and self-proclaimed messiah, Dr. Cyrus Teed. Teed was noted as an experimental artist, who explored virtually all styles associated with Aesthetic art.
Biography
Early life with Cyrus Teed
Douglas Arthur Teed was born on February 21, 1860, to Fidelia M. Rowe and Cyrus R. Teed, in New Hartford, New York. At age nine, his father left the family to develop a religious sect called "Koreshanity" after experiencing what he claimed was a divine vision. While sitting in the laboratory where he practiced medicine and alchemy, Cyrus reported "a relaxation at the... back part of the brain, and a peculiar buzzing tension at the forehead." He claimed his soul left his body and witnessed a woman whom he perceived as "His Mother and Bride." Cyrus Teed claimed this was a calling to spread the word on the true nature of our cellular cosmogony, and to bridge the gap between science and religion. Cyrus described the messenger as:
"Gracefully pendant from the head, and falling in golden tresses of profusely luxuriant growth over her shoulders, her hair added to the adornment of her personal attractiveness. Supported by the shoulders and falling into a long train was a gold and purple colored robe. Her feet rested upon a silvery crescent; in her hand, and resting upon this crescent, was Mercury's Caduceus..."
There was an awakening in the Teed household hinging on dogmatic opinions, mysticism, and the exotic. The family did not buy into the new lifestyle, however, and eventually the family lost Cyrus to the religious fervor which consumed him. Dr. Teed persisted in his beliefs, neglecting his duties at home, and eventually settled a communal colony called "The Koreshan Unity".
The American Eagle of August 1973 reports that letters from Cyrus Teed indicated affection for his wife and child, and in spite of criticism, Delia accepted him as the messianic personality of the age. However, Douglas and his mother never converted. Due to ill health, she and Douglas moved in with her sister in Binghamton, New York. They remained there until Delia's death in 1885.
Painter
Douglas Arthur Teed began painting as a small boy in Utica having opened his own study by the age of fourteen. In his youth, Teed spent many hours in the studio of George Inness, whose tonalist landscapes greatly impressed the growing artist. Teed lived in New York as a billboard painter until 1890.
Later that year he opened a studio in Rome. This would serve as the home base for his five-year study in Europe. Teed found "a land in which art had a tradition of hundreds of years of immense imaginative achievements, a lovely and dramatically varied countryside, great paintings of the past to inspire him, the accumulated magic and splendor of the past." The popular trends in European art at that time are mirrored in his paintings.
Teed returned to his New York studio in 1895. He earned his living by paintings portraits and landscapes. Most of his work was sold to private collectors; often painting in trade of other services. During World War I, the bulk of Teed's income was supported by painting the portraits of such men as Senator O'Gorman of New York, Governor Whitman of New York, Judge Williams R. Day of the United States Supreme Court, and steel mogul Andrew Carnegie. Although highly praised at the time, portraits held little interest for Teed; when interviewed in 1925, he stated being "...off portraits for life."
Through the years, his works adorned the walls of the Scranton Club, the Arlington Hotel, the Art Hall of the Koreshan Unity, the Arnot Art Museum, the 1911 International Exhibition in Rome, the Annual Exhibitions of Paintings by American Artists at the Detroit Institute of the Arts, the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery, the Oriental Theatre in Detroit, the Binghamton Public Library, and found a healthy market within the homes of the nouveau-riche Detroit industrialists. He's exhibited in Italy, Munich, London, Boston, Philadelphia, and the Royal Academy of Canada. Three canvases were purchased to decorate the reception chamber of the executive mansion in Albany during the governorship of Charles S. Whitman. Three others were purchased for the state armory.