Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 514 – Victor Higgins and the Sketching Trip to Oldenburg, Indiana, 1910

Part 514: Victor Higgins and the Sketching Trip to Oldenburg, Indiana, 1910

In past posts I have examined scenic artists who traveled across the country to gather material and hone their artistic skills! Thomas G. Moses recorded and submitted descriptions of many nineteenth-century sketching trips to the Palette and Chisel Club Newsletter during the 1920s. The “Brookville Democrat” published an article in 1910 about Victor Higgins and a group of artists who traveled to Oldenburg, Indiana, for a sketching trip. The article was “Artists From Chicago Spend Two Weeks at Oldenburg Making Sketches” (Brookville, Indiana, 6 Oct. 1910, page 1). Seven Palette and Chisel Club members visited east-central Indiana for four weeks during 1910. They stayed two weeks in the primarily German village of Oldenburg, one of the oldest communities in the state.

The artists secured lodging at the Gibson Hotel, run by Joseph Merchen. At the end of their trip, the hotel displayed 130 landscapes that were painted during their stay. One of these paintings, however, portrayed the group playing a game of pool. Each artist was painted with his palette overhead, depicting how he arranged his colors. Each portrait was attributed to a specific member of the group. The Oldenburg painting collection was again exhibited again at the Pallette & Chisel Club upon their return. The Chicago exhibit did not include the group painting, as it was a gift to Oldenburg community. The trip was described in a local newspaper:

“Seven artists of the Palette and Chisel Club spent two weeks of hard work at Oldenburg and vicinity. The Palette and Chisel Club was founded fifteen years ago when the advanced students of the Art Institute of Chicago felt the need of a club in which each could “ride his own hobby,” apart from school and yet be organized. In their meeting they relate their experiences gained from private work and observation, and thus mutually help each other. Although the organization began with but a few members, it has steadily increased and now boasts of a hundred members. It includes members from some of the best art schools of this country as well as abroad.

Those members that visited our county follow different lines of work. Mr. H. L. Engle is an expert in the restoration of old masterpieces. Mr. O. E. Hake is one of the faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago. He is a designer and illuminator for the leading editors and authors. Mr. J. E. Phillips is a noted commercial artist. Mr. R. I. Ingerle is a noted member and officer of the Chicago Society of Artists and a member of the Western Society. Mr. August Petrytl is a designer and illustrator. Mr. L. O. Griffith follows the same line of work. Mr. Victor Higgins is proficient in painting theatrical stage scenes.

The Palette and Chisel Club send some of its members out every year to make their own choice. Some of the men who were here have traveled abroad and through the west and southwest of our country. This year through the influence of Mr. Higgins, we were honored with their visit.

During their stay here they have made one-hundred-thirty landscape sketches. Most of their work was exhibited at the Gibson House, where they had their headquarters, on Friday evening. The artists expressed surprise when told that there had been no other artists here before now to make paintings of the beautiful scenery that nature has so liberally scattered in these parts. They say that there is material enough here for years of work, and they will try to come back again in the near future.”

First of all, the artists are listed for their professions; Higgins is noted as a scenic artist in 1910. Secondly, it was Higgins who suggested the area. Finally, by 1910, the year of the sketching trip, the membership of the Palette & Chisel Club had grown to one hundred members, a significant number. The seven artists from the sketching trip also represented in the M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/). This Collection is a privately owned collection, consisting of paintings by mid-nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth-century Chicago artists. Included are landscapes, portraits, city views, still lifes, and figural works in a variety of academic and modernist styles. The Oldenburg group painting is now part of the Schwartz Collection.

The seven artists who journeyed to Oldenburg are quite fascinating when examined as a whole. What an exciting and interesting trip in 1910. Here is a brief description of the artists who accompanied Higgins on the sketching trip:

L. Engle was, Harry Leon Engle (1870-1968). Engle was listed in the American Art Directory of 1907-1908 as the president of the Palette & Chisel Club. A well-respected and talented landscape painter, he wrote articles about the contemporary art scene in Chicago and organized the Chicago Galleries Association. Engle later became director of the association. Engle was a Palette & Chisel gold medal winner in 1923.

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August Petrytl (1867-1937). Petrytl designed numerous illustrations for books and even designed a green spade tarot deck in 1921. Known for his painting of historical figures, Petrytl was president of the Palette & Chisel Club in 1906. His portrait by Joseph Kleitch hung on a dining room at the Palette and Chisel club.

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Louis Oscar Griffith (1875-1956). Griffith was born in Greencastle, Indiana, and moved to Texas during his youth. He attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and the Chicago Art Institute, later moving to Chicago to work as a commercial illustrator. He was noted for his skills in oil painting, watercolors, woodblocks and etching. He was the Palette and Chisel Club gold medal winner in 1921.

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Otto Eugene Hake (1876-1965) was born in Ulm, Germany and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. After apprenticing with a wood carver in St. Louis, Hake traveled to Chicago in 1892. In Chicago, Hake worked as an engraver and illustrator for the Binner-Wells Company. He fought in the Spanish-American War of 1898, later earning American citizenship at the age of twenty-one. Hake entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905 and received his first mural commission for a public high school that year. He worked as an illustrator and designer, but was best known for his murals. Hake became the president of the Palette & Chisel Club by 1910. He was also the editor of the Palette & Chisel Club journal, called “The Cow Bell.” He traveled abroad in 1912 to study at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and at the Debschitz Academy in Munich. He was the Palette and Chisel gold medal winner in 1935.

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Rudolph F. Ingerle (1879-1950) was the son of Moravian parents, born in Vienna. His immigrated to the United States as a child, eventually settling in Chicago around 1891. Ingerle studied music before becoming an artist. He was a student at Smith’s Art Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago, and a private pupil Walter Dean Goldbeck. Ingerle joined Carl Krafft and several St. Louis artists to found the Society of Ozark Painters. He later focused on the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Mountains during the 1920s. He and Hake went on trips to the Great Smoky Mountains where he became well-known in the region. Ingerle was a founding member of the North Shore Art League in 1924 and served as its first president. He was also the president of the Chicago Society of Artists, and a member of the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors. In 1920 Ingerle won a gold medal from the Bohemian Art Club of Chicago. He was the Palette and Chisel gold medal winner in 1929.

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John E. Phillips (1848- ?) I have uncovered very little information about Phillips, other than his birthdate and prints of a few paintings. He was the president of the Palette and Chisel Club in 1916.

To be continued…