The same year that the Sosman & Landis Annex studio opened, 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). Here is the continuation of that article started in installment #245.
“H. J. Buhler is another artist whose interiors are excellent examples of careful drawing, in which projection and shadow are most skillfully handled. Still other rising lights in this circle are John Young and F. E. Gates. The latter averages two drop-curtains every week. He is a rapid worker and has been known to complete a curtain with forty-eight figures in three days. Such rushing gives small chance for detail. The latest addition to the scenic fold is Deneth [Oliver] Grover, formerly an instructor in the Art Institute and winner of the Yerkes prize in the last exhibition. Grover has no rivals in drawing the human figure and his work promises to make artistic sensation.
Fred Dangerfield, a new comer, has been talked of considerably, and his work as the artist at the Chicago Opera House burlesques the last two seasons variously estimated. Thanks to Martin Kruger, he has one of the best lighted stages in America, and light gives wonderful witchery to scenery. It would be interesting to know just how much of “Ali Baba” was painted by Dangerfield, and how much by Gates, Williams, and Burky, who are concealed in that vague word “assistants.”
Manager James Hutton of Havlin’s is the only person holding a similar position in this city who can paint scenery. He has painted the drop curtains for all of the Havlin theaters and is one of the best judges of this class of work in the city.”
Looking at the artists above, I was very familiar with John H. Young’s work.He worked and went on sketching trips with Thomas G. Moses during the 1880s. Later, he found success as a Broadway designer (see past installments # 131, 140, 171-3, 181, 184, 186, 189, 192-3, 195-8, 202, 203, 205-11, and 215-16.) F. E. Gates was also a well-known persona. Like many, he would branch into other areas of painting and interior decoration. Gates came from a family of theatrical managers, musician, and actors and eventually partnered with E. A. Morange to form the studio Gates & Morange (see past installments #149, 171, and 189-91). Gates would also win the Medal of Honor as a painter in 1918 during the Architectural League of New York Exhibition, held in the Vanderbilt Gallery. This exhibition was unique, the idea of an architectural exhibition in collaboration with the building crafts.
In “Real Estate Records and Builders Guide, Vol. 101,” the article covering this exhibition noted, “It may seem as though the scenic effect had been deliberately made to dominate over the more serious and ‘architectural’ quality of the exhibition. However, by looking beneath the surface, it will be noted that the exhibition represents the spirit of the times. We do not live with Greek simplicity. We are avid in our eagerness for progress.”
Many of these scenic artists became established and were recognized for work outside of the theatre. Whether fine art, interior design, or another visual entertainment, they continued to seek other artistic avenues. The impression that I am often left with after examining a late-nineteenth-century scenic artist’s career is their penchant for artistic growth. These men continually sought training in the arts, whether drawing or painting, and applied this knowledge to every upcoming project. So when I think about the article’s description of Moses as one “who has small opportunity to exercise his creative faculty,” there is an overwhelming sense of lost opportunities. I can’t help but feel sorry for him and share in his turmoil. He is too busy to really take time for sketching trips in 1892, such as those to Colorado and West Virginia a decade earlier. His primary travel is for the studio. It transports him all across the country, but his work continues at a manic pace. The long sketching trips with fellow artists are becoming less frequent. He might only get away for a day or so on location.
The Sosman & Landis studio is heading toward becoming a scenic factory; one that mass-produces stock scenery and drop curtains. This will remain true until the end, especially with Scottish Rite scenery entering the picture.
Even Moses’ speed is now overshadowed by potential attributed to the younger generation. F. E. Gates who is noted as averaging two drop curtains per week is heralded with completing a drop curtain with forty-eight figures in three days. In 1881, Moses had recorded, “The others were able to draw more, because they were better in the artistic end, but I had it over them when it came to speed.” He was losing his edge and others were already passing him by. In 1892 he was only thirty-six years old.
To be continued…
