The same year that Sosman & Landis’ Annex studio opened on the West Side, an article appeared in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, “Paint Mimic Scenes, Men Who Have Found Fame in the Wing and Drop Curtains” (Dec, 18, 1892, page 41). The title was followed with a brief recap of what would be covered in the article – “Art Required to Produce the Gorgeous Stage Effects That Delight Modern Audiences – Cost of Setting an Elaborate Spectacular – How Scenery Designed for Theaters Is Painted – Chicago Is Universally Acknowledged as the World’s Greatest Scenic Center – Work That is Done.”
I am posting portions of this article over the next few days due to its length and the information that is covered. Here is the first installment:
“The theatrical stage in China is the oldest in the world, yet it is barren of scenic investment today as it was in its most primitive period. In Elizabethan age, during the greatest epoch of dramatic achievement, no attempt was made at scenic illusion. The stage was almost bare; properties and costumes were few and simple; painted scenery was unknown; tapestry-covered scenes marked the entrances and exits; locality was indicated by a placard bearing the name: “The Forest of Arden,” “Rome,” or “Venice,” as the case might be; while the canopied seat, the rough couch,” or the table crowded with tankards served for the throne-room, the bed-chamber, or the wayside inn.
The past simplicity was natural to the stage, beauty and pageantry were integral parts of daily life, and the theatre needed only to suggest them. Today, less showy life has reversed conditions, leaving the citizen no longer an actor. As a mere spectator he demands the picturesque. Perhaps even the Puritans would wonder at the plainness of our daily attire. Processions have almost disappeared, court ceremonial has simplified, and color is a passing incident as far as its current influence in civil life is concerned. Taste, beauty, and historical accuracy together with most liberal and enlightened expenditures for their attachment appear to be the present characteristics of stage art. Realism undreamed of by our progenitors, and correctness that astonishes the precise student of the drama and art lovers have characterized the theatre this last quarter of the nineteenth century. Occasionally in time past ambitions and art-loving managers have made elaborate productions, rich in spectacular effects; but they were fitful and could not, in either ingenuity or point of finish, compare with the sustained scenic effect that now attends nearly all forms of theatrical entertainment.
The portentous and striking combination of play and spectacle is largely due to the influence of Henry Irving. Rare artistic discrimination and liberality have invariably given distinction to his productions. Alma Tadema, or Seymour Lucas, or other famous artists with antiquarian knowledge have furnished designs for costumes, while scenery came from master brushes of William Tellin [Telbin] or Hawes Cravens. The late Lawrence Barrett followed the precedent established by his distinguished brother actor from across the ocean in productions marked by scenic merit; and now the fashion has become universal from high tragedy down through the repertoire even to rollicking farce comedy. Occasionally the complaint is voiced that “the play was lost in the setting; the painter made the playwright indifferent.” This may be true in some cases, notably burlesque or melodrama, but fine scenic investiture cannot belittle good poetry.
Chicago is today the largest scenic supply center in the country. Of the eighteen theatres in this city the major portion have their own scenic artists. Three mammoth studios here send their art product as far east as Maine and all over the West to the shores of the Pacific. The oldest firm here in this line of work claims to have supplied nearly 1,300 opera houses, theatres, and halls with scenery during the last ten years, and of late business has increased enormously. All the scenic effects used in Modjeska’s recent picturesque revival of “Henry VIII” were painted in this city and used for the first time in New York. Many instances might be cited where productions of similar artistic value presented by the late Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, William Crane, and others have been furnished in Chicago and presented for the first time in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia, winning recommendation in spite of sectional prejudice against Western art product.”
To be continued…
