The Good Samaritan
Elsie Marie Bates Freund (1912-2001), Artist
Oil on Masonite
20th Century (3rd Quarter)
Elsie Bates Freund, jewelry-maker, watercolorist, craftsperson, and educator, was born on January 12, 1907, in Mincy, Missouri. In 1929, she graduated from high school in Branson, Missouri, and taught school for one year before attending the Kansas City Art Institute from 1930 to 1932. During the 1930s she owned a gift shop in Branson, while working as an artist and craftsperson.
In 1936, she met Louis Freund whom she married in 1939 in Eureka Springs. Elsie accompanied Louis to Hendrix College, teaching textile design, weaving and crafts. Elsie continued teaching at Hendrix during World War II, then accompanied Louis to the Colorado School of Fine Arts, where she studied lithography and took a design class with George Van der Sluis. Serving on the faculty of Stetson University in Deland, Florida, she taught a variety of design classes from 1949 to 1967.
In the 1940s the Freunds purchased Hatchet Hall, the last home of Carry Nation, in Eureka Springs, which served as the site of the Summer School of the Ozarks from 1940 to 1951. Here the Freunds conducted art programs, as well as pursuing their own careers as artists.
Elsie worked extensively with watercolor, textiles, jewelry and ceramics, developing a technique called “Elsaramics” of fused glass on ceramic forms in an enameling kiln. When the Freunds retired to Eureka Springs in 1967, Elsie continued to work as an artist while remaining active in the art community and worked along with Louis Freund to preserve the historic character of Eureka Springs and to promote Arkansas art and artists. In 1995, the Freunds moved to Little Rock. Mr. Freund made a great effort to distribute his work to churches and public facilities in his last years. Arkansas institutions that received gifts of his art include the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, the Historic Arkansas Museum, the Central Arkansas Library System, the University of Arkansas Little Rock, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, University of Central Arkansas, Hospice of Little Rock, and Eureka Springs Historical Museum.
These four works by Harry Louis and Elsie Marie Freund were purchased in 2003 from the Freund estate by Jim Maase with funds provided by the PHUMC Memorial Committee.