Heather Belnap on Teichert’s “Queen Esther”

We were honored to talk to Dr. Heather Belnap, associate professor of art history at BYU, about one of her favorite Teichert pieces. Her most recent book, _Marianne Meets the Mormons: Representations of Mormonism in Nineteenth-Century France_ was published in 2022. Her current book project, a critical biography of Minerva Teichert, is under contract with University of Illinois Press. In this video, Dr. Belnap tells the story of Queen Esther from the Bible and describes the context in which this piece was created. This painting is on display at the BYU Museum of Art in the “From the Vault” exhibition, along with two other pieces by Minerva Teichert.

Image: Minerva Teichert, “Queen Esther,” 1939, oil on canvas, 65” x 48,” Brigham Young University Museum of Art.