Evelyn Philippa Payne Hatcher's parents were renowned early 20th-century painters whose impressionistic works focused on the tribal people, culture, symbols and landscapes of the American West and Southwest, and she made it her mission to make sure their legacy lived on.
Hatcher died of natural causes Feb. 16 at Rosewood Estates in St. Paul. She was 95.
Over the course of more than 50 years, Hatcher wrote several books chronicling Edgar Alwin Payne's and Elsie Palmer Payne's art, and in the process established herself as a specialist in American Indian art, particularly that of the Navajo tribe. Her respect for and inspiration about her parents' work, combined with a curiosity about different cultures, led her to earn a doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota in 1953. She was known as a mentor for students while teaching at St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota.
Hatcher felt her parents' work was important and needed to be showcased in Midwestern museums that she donated several paintings to places such as the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, said friend Petronella Ytsma of St. Paul, photographer for the book Hatcher wrote with Rena Cohn, "The Paynes Edgar and Elsie: American Artists."
Hatcher was born in Chicago in 1914. As a child, she traveled extensively with her parents across the United States and Europe. Later in life, she wrote such books as "The Drawings of Edgar Payne, 1883-1947," "Composition of Outdoor Painting" and "Art and Culture: An Introduction to Anthropology of Art." A final book, "Made for Trade" is expected to come out this spring, said Dorothy Billings, professor of anthropology at Wichita State University.
She collected art and artifacts and donated many of them to museums. In 2007, Hatcher gave one of her father's signature paintings, "Canyon Portal," to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Services have been held.
