Over the years, I have tracked down a variety of scenic artists and their work, finding bits and pieces of information regarding their life and painting. During this time, my primary focus always remained on Thomas Gibbs Moses (1856-1934) and his Masonic installations.
Recently, I have branched off to look at some of Moses’ contemporaries. Andrew Geis will be my first subject as I have an immediate connection to him.
Many years back, I received multiple packages from a friend in Chicago. I have often become the depository of “things a local museum won’t take and I can’t store them anymore.” Each once is loving placed in a file or stored in my studio until I am able to find a better home – one that the future generations can access. This is one of the reasons that I have started a blog. I want to get the information out sooner rather than later as it takes years to process a museum/archival collection ad digitize it. The blog also provides a searchable format for the information that I am sharing with the public.
So, back to my story…One of the Chicago boxes contained a portion of Geis’ design book. My training introduced me to this type of source book as a “painter’s morgue.” This term was introduced to me by my Professor Emeritus C. Lance Brockman at the University of Minnesota. In short, it is a source book for painters and designers with a variety of images to reference when drawing and painting.
Looking at Geis’ imagery with “older eyes” (and a tad more experience) I was able to pair up some of Geis’ sources with Masonic stage compositions. This excited me and I immediately went to my “Andrew Geis” file. Unfortunately, it only had four images of his design, currently held at the University of Minnesota Performing Arts archives. I contacted my friend in Chicago to see if he had any idea about Geis’ background. He recalled seeing the name in the 1927 Scenic Artists’ Ball program. Bingo.
I finally stumbled across a single census entry from 1920. Here is what I know to date about Geis. Both of his parents were born in Germany, emigrating the the United States before Andrew was born. Andrew is born in 1888 and eventually marries his wife Elizabeth (b. 1891). They lived in Chicago’s 34 Ward at 3906 West 19th Street in Chicago, Cook County. His profession was listed as scenic artist for the art industry. Both Geis and his wife are listed in the 1927 program as helping with the event.
The Scenery Collection renderings also his union affiliation: United Scenic Artists Local 350-2021. Again, here is the link to the online collection – http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/scenicsearch. You can find his rendering by typing in “Geis” in the Keyword option and hitting the “search” button.
Today, I will start with sharing his four rendering of interiors that were created for the Twin Cities Scenic Co.
