Lorita Giles

Collections

Biography

Lorita Giles (1893–1992) was an American painter, watercolorist, and printmaker associated with San Antonio, Texas. Born in Belton, Texas, Giles became part of the city’s mid-twentieth-century art community and is especially remembered for her intimate, carefully composed prints of San Antonio’s historic architecture, missions, streets, and regional life. 

Giles studied printmaking with Clara Duer at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. During the 1940s, she worked from Mill Race, the former San Antonio studio of sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Her practice encompassed woodblock printing, lithography, etching, watercolor, and painting. The surviving record of her graphic work demonstrates a particular command of small-format printmaking, in which descriptive line, compressed space, and a strong architectural sense made local subjects immediately legible. 

San Antonio’s Spanish Colonial landmarks provided a recurring subject. Among works documented in auction, gallery, and collection records are The Alamo, Mission Concepción, Mission San Francisco de la Espada, Thomas Jefferson High School, Our House in San Antonio, and Sombreros. These works are important not simply as picturesque local views but as period records of the city’s architectural identity and cultural landscape. 

Giles also made lithographs of contemporary life. Jitter Bugs, an early-1940s lithograph, and After the Dance (1944) indicate an interest in social movement, dance, and popular culture alongside her architectural subjects. In 1944, she received an honorable mention in the Fourth Annual Texas Print Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. 

Giles’s work is represented in public collections including the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., which records her 1949 print G. I. Education, and The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas, which has included her work in an exhibition drawn from its permanent collection. Her work should be situated within the broader history of Texas regional printmaking and the visual documentation of San Antonio in the middle decades of the twentieth century. 

Lorita Giles 

Dates

1893–1992 

Nationality

American 

Birthplace

Belton, Texas 

Principal Association

San Antonio, Texas 

Media

Woodblock print; lithograph; etching; watercolor; painting 

Education and Training

  • Studied printmaking with Clara Duer at the Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas. 

Professional Activity

  • Active in the San Antonio art community, particularly during the 1940s. 

  • Worked at Mill Race, the former San Antonio studio of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, during the 1940s. 

Exhibitions and Honors

  • Fourth Annual Texas Print Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, 1944. Honorable Mention. 

Public Collections

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 
    G. I. Education, 1949, print. 

  • The Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas. 
    Work by Giles included in The Grace Collects Women Artists, an exhibition drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, 2022. 

Collection Lead Requiring Verification

  • Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas. Giles is indexed as a creator in the museum’s collections database, but an individual object record, title, medium, date, and accession number should be confirmed before listing the museum as a public collection. 

Selected Documented Works

  • After the Dance, 1944. Lithograph. 

  • G. I. Education, 1949. Print. 

  • Jitter Bugs, second state, early 1940s. Lithograph. 

  • Mission Concepción. Woodblock print. 

  • Mission San Francisco de la Espada. Woodblock print. 

  • Our House in San Antonio. Woodblock print. 

  • Sombreros. Etching. 

  • The Alamo, c. 1940s. Block print. 

  • Thomas Jefferson High School. Print; medium and date require confirmation from a primary object record. 

Sources Consulted

  • National Gallery of Art, artist page for Lorita Giles and object record for G. I. Education. 

  • The Grace Museum, The Grace Collects Women Artists exhibition page. 

  • Dallas Museum of Fine Arts / Portal to Texas History documentation for the Fourth Annual Texas Print Exhibition. 

  • San Antonio Light, December 5, 1944, report of Giles’s honorable mention. 

  • Vogt Auction and other Texas-art market records documenting individual works and biographical leads.