Saved by Seagulls
Minerva Teichert (1888–1976) | oil on canvas | 40" x 46 1/2"| 1931–1937
Saved by Seagulls after 2021 conservation.
With her arms raised up to welcome divine blessing, a young woman greets seagulls descending to grateful figures below. When crickets arrived to devour the Latter-day Saints’ second crop in the Salt Lake Valley, seagulls came to eat the crickets. Throughout time, this story came to be seen as evidence of God’s divine favor. The other figures in the scene kneel down in thanksgiving.
Teichert painted several scenes of seagulls visiting Latter-day Saint settlers, eating the crickets that ate the settlers’ first crop in the Salt Lake Valley. Teichert’s daughter Laurie remembered posing for the figure in the red dress in this scene.
2021 Conservation Notes
The painting had been affixed to a low-quality particle board and was lifting and puckering off the board. It was also covered with grime.
Saved by Seagulls upper-right corner before treatment.
Saved by Seagulls, detail, viewed in raking light to reveal paint lifting.
Conservators at Balboa Art Conservation Center removed the canvas from the board and flattened the painting by humidifying the work and laying it on a hot table. Before stretching the flattened canvas on a new stretcher, conservators cleaned off the grime.
Conservators removing particle board from the back of Saved by Seagulls.
Conservator removing grime from Saved by Seagulls.
Remnants of an Earlier Painting
During the process, conservators took infrared photos of the painting. Curators were surprised to see remnants of an earlier seagull work, which was exhibited in 1931 and known previously only through a newspaper photograph.
Seagull painting by Minerva Teichert in July 12, 1931, Salt Lake Tribune.
Behind the girl with upraised hands stands a male figure, his head bowed toward the earth. He and the figures on the left of the painting match the painting shown in a newspaper article, announcing Teichert’s first Utah exhibition at the Newhouse Hotel in 1931. Alice Merrill Horne, Minerva’s agent, recommended she sell it for at least $275. But it seems the painting never sold. Sometime before 1937, Teichert repainted it as the Saved by Seagulls composition we have today.
Infrared photograph of Saved by Seagulls (left), with yellow lines marking earlier painting (right).
Detail of infrared photograph of Saved by Seagulls.
Seagull painting in July 12, 1931, Salt Lake Tribune (left) with yellow outlines of figures present in Saved by Seagulls (right).