In 1949, artist Donald “Don” Teague (1897-1991) hit the ground running when he moved to Carmel with family in tow. At age 52, Teague was a senior illustrator for The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s. The year prior, he had been elected a full member of the National Academy of Design in his parallel career as a fine artist. The new arrivals (Don, his wife Verna, and two young daughters Linda and Hilary) were refugees—from Encino.
Teague was no stranger to life’s adventures. Artistically gifted and inclined from boyhood, the native Brooklynite enrolled at Art Students League for two years upon completion of high school. In 1920, after working in advertising for two years, Teague embarked on a three-month bicycling odyssey through post-war continental Europe with two friends. Upon returning stateside, he successfully transitioned to story illustration, and landed his first assignment for The Post in early 1923. Teague spent most of his summers in Europe in the 1920s and London became his second home. But after riding high through the 1920s, he received a gut punch in 1929 as the Great Depression began to take hold—The Post let a number of its junior illustrators go, and Teague was among them.
Undaunted, Teague simultaneously decided to transition from oil to watercolor painting for illustration work, as watercolor reproduces better in magazines. He was picked up by Collier’s in late 1929 and given all the assignments he could handle. Teague was rehired by The Post in 1937 as the Great Depression lifted. Just a year later, Don and Verna were married and, after their honeymoon, moved cross-country to Encino. Teague had developed into a top Western illustrator in the 1930s, a genre for which he had little lived experience. Proximity to Hollywood and its Western sets and accoutrements was, perhaps counterintuitively, highly advantageous.
By 1948, a post-war construction blitzkrieg was rapidly transforming bucolic Encino into a hectic Los Angeles suburb. The Teagues sought a more relaxed and inspiring environment for themselves and their daughters. After a search as far north as Marin, the elder Teagues decided that Carmel looked like the best fit.
After renting a home at 13th and Dolores for a year, the Teagues knew that Carmel would be their forever home. They bought a lot on Fifth near Randall and, working with a local carpenter, began drawing up plans for a home. The carpenter was an admirer of Hugh Comstock’s post-adobe construction method, and convinced the Teagues to build in that style. With simple elevations in hand, work commenced. Teague kept meticulous cost records, and paid the various contractors on a weekly basis. By mid-1951, construction was complete and the Teagues moved in. Costs were: land $12,000, and construction $14,000. Teague was an Anglophile, and the home has a distinct English cottage feel on the inside, to include 7-foot ceilings in many rooms. Quirks, perhaps a result of the elevations-only approach, add to the home’s charm.
Kind, humble and soft-spoken, Teague quickly made many friends and connections in Carmel. He joined the Carmel Art Association and had his first one-man show there in 1950. Teague was drawn to the region’s cartoonists in particular—his closest friends included Bill Bates, Eldon Dedini, Gus Arriola and Hank Ketcham. In the early 1980s, these gentlemen—along with other artists and writers—formed Carmel’s Tuesday Downtown Chowder & Marching Club, which soon became a Tuesday fixture in the front room at The Pine Inn. Sporting a trademark tweed jacket adorned with either an ascot or a bow tie (he owned over one hundred), Teague relished these Tuesday meetings. Verna was a vegetarian—Tuesdays meant meat was finally on Don’s lunch menu.
Teague’s closest friendship in Carmel was with cowboy artist Jack “JN” Swanson. The introduction came via Teague’s daughter Hilary, who cleaned stalls at the Hodges Stable at Mission Ranch in exchange for free rides. One day, Hilary watched the talented Swanson sketching horses at the stable. Hilary told her father that the two must meet, and meet they soon did. Although separated by 30 years, the two men had a natural affinity for one another. Swanson was young, handsome, fit and good on a horse —in short, a perfect male model for Teague’s Western illustration work. Swanson became Teague’s primary male model for the duration of his illustration career.
Teague was an artist, a family man, and a world traveler at heart. That being said, he contributed significantly to local civic life. In 1953 and 1954, he headed committees associated with CAA’s Annual Arts Ball. Teague served as CAA president in 1955, as the head of the “Hanging Committee” in 1958, and as policy chair in 1959. He garnered Carmel Pine Cone coverage for appointments to the Carmel Forestry Commission (1959), the Arts Commission (1966), and the Cultural Com-mission (1967). Teague served as a judge at the 1962 Concours d’Elegance, and on the board of the Monterey History and Art Association (1967-70), where he led its Art Committee. He also served as a juror or judge for many local art competitions—”a perilous undertaking,” Teague quipped.
Teague ended his illustration career when Collier’s ceased publication at the end of 1956. From 1957 until his death in 1991, Teague devoted his efforts exclusively to fine art painting. He worked predominantly in watercolor, but returned to oil on occasion to paint still lifes and selected other works. Teague is remembered mostly for his Westerns, but his fine art paintings of Europe and Asia rank among his best—he was particularly fond of painting Spain, Italy and Normandy. Once his daughters were old enough to travel, yearly trips to Europe became the norm, and Teague continued to travel overseas well into his 80s. Teague enjoyed himself while traveling, but these were also working trips—he would sketch and take photos of interesting scenes, then paint what he had experienced when back in his Carmel studio.
Teague was a highly-awarded and revered artist nationally and internationally. He received a number of awards from the National Academy including five gold medals. The American Watercolor Society showered numerous awards upon him, as did Western art societies such as the National Academy of Western Artists and the Cowboy Artists of America. Teague was one of few artists to be inducted into both the National Academy of Design and the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Upon his passing, the Los Angeles Times named Teague “the Dean of American Watercolorists.”
Reflecting on his life and career, Teague said, “I’m the luckiest person I know. To think that I would be allowed to make a living at what I love best.” Regarding his legacy, Teague said, “As for questions of what I hope to leave behind, well, I’d settle for a light footprint. If the people who have bought my paintings enjoy having them as much as I’ve enjoyed doing them, we’re even.”
Adopted out at birth, Scott Gale, M.D., is Donald Teague’s biological grandson. Gale has become the foremost authority on the art and history of Donald Teague, and he sits on the board of the Monterey History and Art Association.