1901
August 25: Mary Louise Harrington Emerson born, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Harrington Emerson and
Mary Crawford Suplee Emerson. Harrington Emerson (1853-1931) was an efficiency engineer and businessman.
1922 – 1923
Graduates Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, New York.
Studies at the Arts Students League, New York, New York. Studies painting with Kenneth Hayes Miller, life drawing with George Bridgman and sculpture with Leo Lentelli.
1923 and 1924
During the summers she studies at the American Academy at Fontainebleu, France. Studies fresco with Paul-Albert Baudoüin.
1925
Drives from New York to Taos, New Mexico to stay as the guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan at her ranch, Los Gallos. Executes a series of drawings, watercolors and oil paintings of Southwestern themes. Meets artist Arnold Rönnebeck.
1926
March: Marries Arnold Rönnebeck in New York, New York. Arnold accepts position as Director of the Denver Art Museum and the couple moves west.
Included in group show at Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, “32nd Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts”. Work exhibited: Watercolor New Mexican Hills.
1927
Son, Arnold Emerson Ronnebeck, born.
Included in show at Chappell House, Denver, Colorado in exhibit by the Denver Artist Guild.
1928
June: Gives lecture on modern art at Denver University Library.
One woman show at the Chappell House at Denver Art Museum. Eighteen canvases exhibited, including Taos Indian Child, Rocky Mountain Foothills, Growing Forms, Baby and Plant, Infant in the Old Cradle, Relics of 1890, and Centrifugal Rhythms.
1929
Daughter, Anna Maria Ursula Ronnebeck, born.
Exhibits at the Broadmoor Art Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1933
Executed true fresco panel for Kent School for Girls, Denver. Gift to the school from Anne Evans. Demolished.
1934
Executes two fresco panels with the themes of boys’ and girls’ athletics for the Public Works of Art Project at Morey Junior High School, Denver, Colorado. In situ, damaged.
1935
Executes oil on canvas mural entitled The Nativity for the pediment on the Denver City and County Building, Denver, Colorado. Mural was 76 feet long and 13 feet high at apex. It was displayed temporarily during the holiday season. Mural is presumed lost.
1938
Executes the mural on canvas, The Fertile Land Remembers, for the Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts, for the Worland, Wyoming Post Office. The mural was later moved to the Casper, Wyoming Federal Building.
Executes Adoration of the Magi, oil on canvas, Episcopal Church of the Holy Redeemer, Denver Colorado. In situ.
1940
Executes the mural on canvas, The Harvest, for the Treasury Department Section of Fine Arts, for the Grand Junction, Colorado Court House and Post Office. In 1992, the mural was moved to the Aspinall Federal Building, Grand Junction, Colorado.
Executes three fresco panels for the facade of the Robert Speer Memorial Hospital for Children, Denver, Colorado. In situ, overpainted.
1942
Maraba Twilight fresco acquired by the Denver Art Museum for their permanent collection.
Executes three panels for the USO Men’s Service Club, Denver, Colorado. Demolished.
1943
Designed and executed a poster for the Junior League of Denver to present to the Denver chapter of the American Red Cross to encourage blood donation.
1945-1950
Teaches drawing and painting at the University of Denver School of Art, Denver, Colorado.
1946
November: 21 work solo show at the City Hall Galleries, Denver, Colorado. Works included: So Little Time, Rocky Mountain De Lux, Detail Study for Speer Memorial Hospital for Sick Children.
1947
Husband, Arnold Rönnebeck, dies of throat cancer.
1948
Completes mural for the Mural Room at the Albany Hotel, Denver, Colorado. Hotel demolished in 1976.
1952
Executes free form abstract mural in true fresco for the Weld County Hospital in Greeley, Colorado. Status unknown, presumed lost.
1954-1973
Lives in Bermuda. Teaches art at the Bermuda School for Girls.
1966
1973
Returns to Denver, Colorado.
Executes large lobby fresco for St. Brendan’s Hospital, Bermuda. Building demolished.
1980
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck dies in Denver, Colorado.
1983
May 14-June 8, 1983: Group show, entitled “American Art in Colorado Collections” at Rosenstock Galleries, Denver, Colorado. Work exhibited: End of Summer.
1989
January 19-April 2. Exhibited in group show, “Colorado Women Artists, 1859-1950”. Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada, Colorado. Works exhibited: Frontier Hoedown, c1938; Mountain Picnic, c1936; Ursula, 1945; End of Summer, 1945.
1993
April 17-May 30, 1993. “9th Annual Artists of the West Exhibition and Sale”. Work included, Central City Street Scene c1932; Mother-in-Law’s Tongue, c1936; Black Eyed Susans, c1930; Roberta, 1928.
1995-1997
The People vs. Mary Elizabeth Smith and 4B exhibited in group show, “Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West 1890-194”5. Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, California. Show traveled to the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
2007
January 18-February 24: Included in group show, “American Social Realism: 1920-1950″ at the Forum Gallery, New York, New York. Work exhibited: Oil Rigger, Oppressed Workers: Justice Triumphant.
April 5-May 6. Exhibited in group show, “Eight Painters & Sculptors at the University of Denver 1930-1965”, at University of Denver, Denver, Colorado.
2011
December-February: “Louise Emerson Ronnebeck: A New Deal Muralist in Colorado” exhibition at the Byers-Evans House Museum, Denver, Colorado. Some of the mural studies included in the show were, Morey Junior High (1934); Messages Undelivered, Study for Phoenix Arizona Post Office (1938), Birdy in a Cage and Three Hand Round, Study for Grand Junction Post Office (1940), Battle of Milk Creek, Study for Grand Junction Post Office (1940), The Harvest, Study for Grand Junction Post Office (1940); South Denver Post Office Proposal (1942).
May 5-August 14: Exhibited in group show, 15 Colorado Artists Breaking Tradition at the Kirkland Museum, Denver, Colorado.
2014
April 12-August 30. Exhibited The People vs. Mary Elizabeth Smith, in group show, entitled “Madonna’s of the Prairie: Depictions of Women in the American West”, at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.
2021–2022
November 2021 – March 2022: Landscapes of Extraction: The Art of Mining in the American West at the Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix Arizona. Group show included works by Louise Emerson Ronnebeck (Silver Mine, Russell Gulch (c1933) and Oil Rigger (1941). Show also included nine works by Arnold Rönnebeck.