Mary A. Reardon

{{short description|American painter (1912–2002)}}

Mary Agnes Reardon (1912–2002) was a Catholic liturgical artist; she was a painter, muralist,{{cite book|author1=John M. O'Loughlin|author2=Francis Emmett Fitzgerald|title=The Catholic Library World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGwaAAAAMAAJ|volume=27-28|year=1956|publisher=Catholic Library Association|page=206}}[http://lookingglassreview.com/html/blank_review_for_copying64.html Snow Treasure]. Looking Glass Reviews. designer and illustrator of children's books.{{Cite web|url=http://www.askart.com/askart/r/mary_a_reardon/mary_a_reardon.aspx|title = Mary A. Reardon – Biography}}

File:Our Lady of Guadalupe chapel (Washington Basilica).JPG

Reardon attended Radcliffe College Mary A. Reardon, 89, of Hingham, muralist, illustrator.(Obituary) and was a BFA graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts (1939). She also studied in Mexico with artist David Alfaro Siquieros from whom she learned true fresco.{{cite web|url=http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0219|title= Mary A. Reardon Papers: 1924–2002, Biographical sketch|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society}} She was the designer and painter of the "first true fresco in the United States" at St. John Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts.

Reardon painted murals for many religious institutions.{{cite book|author=Mary Ellen Snodgrass|title=Religious sites in America: a dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DgYAQAAIAAJ|year =2000|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-154-0|page=66}} Major works include the Guadalupe chapel and two transept ceilings at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.,[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/05/AR2009030500980.html "Art at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception"]. Holly E. Thomas – The Washington Post March 6, 2009{{Cite web|url=http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/biography.aspx?searchtype=BIO&artist=10235|title = Mary A. Reardon – Biography}}[http://www.mocavo.com/Quincy-Sun-July-Dec-1974-Volume-6-7/558709/325 "Mary Reardon Mural Exhibit at the Main Library"]. Quincy Sun, July – Dec 1974, via Mocavo a triptych at the Cathedral of Mary our Queen in Baltimore, Maryland, an early mural at Cabot Hall at Radcliffe College, two half domes, soffits and historical walls at the St. Louis Cathedral.[http://libraries.slu.edu/a/digital_collections/ravenna/company_history.htm The Ravenna Project] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140515001309/http://libraries.slu.edu/a/digital_collections/ravenna/company_history.htm |date=2014-05-15 }}. St. Louis University Digital Collections.

Reardon also illustrated seven children's books. The best known of these is Snow Treasure, with text written by Marie McSwigan.[http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20050718/20825-children-s-books-for-fall-a-d.html "Children's Books for Fall"]. Publishers Weekly. As of 2015, this book was in the collection of more than 1400 libraries.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57694837 "Snow Treasure"] WorldCat