May Slessinger
May Slessinger was an American artist specializing in miniatures, based in San Francisco, California.
Early life
May Slessinger was born on May 4, 1872, in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Lewis Slessinger and Caroline Price Slessinger. Her Bavarian-born father, a shoemaker by training, was an American Civil War veteran, and one of the city's first businessmen. The Slessinger family was Jewish.Career
Slessinger was a painter who specialized in painting miniature portraits. She was a member of the San Francisco Art Association. Of her work at one of the Association's shows in 1903, one report commented that "Miss May Slessinger's work is of a high order of merit, for it shows the fire of the true artist and the technique of a careful worker. One of her miniatures is the size of a dime and every detail of the subject is carefully wrought."Slessinger made miniature portraits of several prominent San Francisco citizens, including artist William Keith, businesswoman Mary Ann Magnin and her son Grover Magnin, and Elizabeth Meyerfeld Roos, the daughter of theatrical entrepreneur Morris Meyerfeld Jr. In 1920, Queen Marie of Romania named Slessinger her court miniaturist, in appreciation of Slessinger's portrait of the queen; dancer Loie Fuller, working with the Red Cross in Rumania during World War I, suggested Slessinger for the portrait commission.