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Mine Mouths Open On The Hillsides, by Ruth Bear Levy, n.d. Oil Painting. 30 X 40 in. Reproduced in "A Wee Bit of Scotland: Growing up in Lonaconing, Maryland." Private Collection of Dr. Robert and Ruth Levy, Baltimore, Md.
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Lexington Market, by Ruth Bear Levy, n.d. Oil Painting. 17 X 20 in. Shown at The Peale Museum as part of "Life in Baltimore" exhibition, 1959. Private Collection of Elizabeth Levy Malis, Baltimore, Md.
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The Pitch, by Ruth Bear Levy, 1980. Oil Painting. 19.5 x 23.5 in. Illustration accompanying Levy's Maryland Historical Magazine article, "Recollections of Lefty Grove." Private Collection of Elizabeth Levy Malis, Baltimore. Md.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Lonaconing, Maryland
Place of Death: Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Born here, Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Folk Art; Naive; Primitive; Impressionist; Genre
Gender: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Ruth Bear Levy, born in small-town Lonaconing in Garrett County, Maryland, did not begin painting until later in life. Once she started making pictures, the subject matter she chose most often was derived from the Baltimore land- and cityscapes that surrounded her, as well as from her memories of her hometown during her childhood.
Ruth Bear Levy's images of Baltimore included marketplaces, museum shows and her Guilford neighborhood. Of Lonaconing, Maryland, Levy depicted kids playing ball and jumping rope, her father's general store, interiors, people working, coal cars and scenic views of the Western Maryland countryside. Ruth Bear Levy grew up playing ball with Hall of Fame baseball player Lefty Grove. They were childhood friends in Lonaconing. She always loved baseball and did a series of baseball paintings -- many inspired by Lefty.
Levy wrote a book with her work as illustration called A Wee Bit O' Scotland: Growing Up in Lonaconing, Maryland. She wrote about her experiences growing up in Lonaconing, primarily a Scottish mining community, at the turn of the century. Her family was musical: her mother played the piano and Ruth played the mandolin. Her father's store was called "M. Bear's Daylight Clothing Store"; he served on the Lonaconing city council. Levy's paternal grandfather emigrated from Bavaria and settled in Frostburg. Ruth's father moved eight miles to Lonaconing where he opened his store and got married. Her maternal grandfather Eisenberg from Austria-Hungary and settled in Cleveland, Ohio and then in Cumberland, Maryland. He opened a store there with his three sons and became a founder of the Reform Jewish Temple.
Levy traveled throughout childhood to visit her three uncles in Baltimore and to tour Washington, DC, Pittsburgh and Cleveland with her family. Ruth Bear Levy eventually left Lonaconing for Baltimore in pursuit of a degree in English at Goucher College. In Baltimore, she met her husband, urologist Dr. Charles Levy, a Johns
Hopkins graduate. Levy wrote that it was not until after she was married for 21 years or more and her son returned from service in the Navy during World War II that she had met painter Herman Maril, whose work along with that of other important Maryland artists of the period is characterized in part by the use of pastel tones. Levy wrote, "I had never been interested in painting before. But now a childhood urge returned to express my most innermost feelings, to be productive, to record, and I began putting my thoughts on canvas under Herman's sensitive, skillful tutelage. Later I worked under Walter Bohanan's guidance. The pictures in this book are among the results." (Levy, A Wee Bit O' Scotland, p. 4) She began painting in her 50s and painted until her death. She studied with Maril as a private student beginning in about 1954.
In her book about Lonaconing, Levy wrote about how "modern artists could create masterpieces out of the sights and sounds of Lonaconing," how a "painter could paint the shapes and dark and light contours of the area" and how, "All the pastel colors could be rolled out of the tubes for the pink, green and brown syrups covering fruits and ices in the ice cream parlors." (Levy, A Wee Bit, p. 3)
A number of Levy's surviving relatives hold her work and keep her memory alive, including her son Robert I. Levy, M.D., and his wife Ruth, granddaughters Elizabeth Levy Malis and Katherine Bear Levy Crenner and grandson David Levy, Ph.d.
Education/Training: Goucher College
Taught By: Herman Maril; Walter Bonahan
Other Employment: writer
Selected References: Levy, Ruth Bear. A Wee Bit O'Scotland: Growing up in Lonaconing, Maryland, (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society), 1983.
Other Publications: Levy, Ruth Bear. "Recollections of Lefty Grove, Part II." Maryland Historical Magazine 83 (Summer 1988): 127-141.
Levy, Ruth Bear. "Recollections of Lefty Grove: Baseball's Greatest Lefthanded Pitcher, Part I." Maryland Historical Magazine 82 (Summer 1987): 165 -76.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: George's Creek Library (Lonaconing, Maryland);
Goucher College; Jewish Museum of Maryland;
University of Maryland University College
Maryland Institutions Holding Biographical Material: Maryland Historical Society Library
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Peale Museum; Easton Art Gallery
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