Part 515: The Palette & Chisel Club – Fox Lake
In 1906, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “I joined the Palette and Chisel Club at the Chicago Society of Artists. I don’t know why, as I had so little time to give to pictures, but I live in hopes of doing something some day, that is what I have lived on for years, Hope, and how little we realize from our dreams of hope. As the years roll by, I think one’s whole life is one continuous dream, unless we are wonderfully gifted and fame drops on us while we sleep.” Moses was a member of another fine art society before joining the Palette & Chisel Club. In 1904, he became a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, sponsored by R. M. Shurtleff.
The year that Moses joined the Palette and Chisel Club, the group consisted of sixty local painters, illustrators, and sculptors. The Chicago Tribune reported that it was “primarily a working club, being the oldest organization in the west” (Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 1906, page 2). That year, the club’s new enterprise was the maintenance of a permanent exhibition in the clubrooms on the seventh floor of the Athenæum building.
Founded in 1895, the Palette & Chisel Club was an association of artists and craftsmen for the purpose of work and study. The organization’s members were reported to be “all wage-workers, busy during the week with pencil, brush or chisel, doing work to please other people” (Inland Printer, 1896). But on Sunday mornings, they assembled for five hours to paint for themselves.
In 1905, the members of the Palette and Chisel Club established a seasonal camp at Fox Lake, Illinois. In the beginning it was quite rustic. Of the camping experience, Moses wrote, “June 1st, I made my first trip to the Palette and Chisel Club camp at Fox Lake, Ill. Helped to put up the tent. A new experience for me, but I enjoyed it. I slept well on a cot. Made a few sketches. A very interesting place. I don’t like the cooking in the tent and there should be a floor in the tent. I saw a great many improvements that could be made in the outfit and I started something very soon.”
The Palette and Chisel Club camp drew a variety of artists during the summer months. An artistic community was formed along the shores of Fox Lake, providing a haven far away from the hustle and bustle of work in Chicago. There were many Sosman & Landis employees who also became members of the Palette & Chisel Club, escaping to Fox Lake whenever they could. In 2014, I discovered a map on the backside of a stage drop in Winona, Minnesota. This was while we were putting the Scottish Rite scenery into temporary storage. The map was located near the top batten, scribbled in pencil. Around this same time, I came discovered an artist’s cartoon depicting the Fox Lake area.
In 1908, Moses wrote, “I bought the portable house that we built years ago and at that time we received $300.00 for it. I finally got it for $50.00, some bargain. It cost $25.00 to remove it and we will put it up at Fox Lake in the Spring. It has been used in Forest Park all summer to show “The Day in the Alps.”
By 1909, Moses wrote, “As we had put up the portable house in Fox Lake, I was better contented to go up. I gave the camp a portable kitchen and it was some class. I felt sure I would manage to get a camp outfit worth while and the boys all fell in line with me.”
Moses enjoyed his scenic retreats to Fox Lake, escaping from the hard grind of the studio whenever he could during the summer. He painted numerous landscapes of Fox Lake and the Palette & Chisel camp house over the years, but it was one painting labeled “Fox Lake, 1909” that came to my attention in 2017. The small artwork prompted my travel to Maui in 2017 to meet the owner of the painting – Moses’ great-grandson. I first contacted him during 1996 while working on “Theatre of the Fraternity,” a touring museum exhibit curated by Lance Brockman. Twenty years went by before I received a response from Moses’ great grandson; it was during the spring of 2016, just before the elimination of my position as Curatorial Director at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. Some things are just meant to be, and I returned to Minnesota during the fall of 2017 with several of Moses’ paintings, including three small ones depicting Fox Lake in 1909.
In 1910, Moses wrote, “Fox Lake appealed to me all summer. I went up as much as possible and made good use of my time. How I wished in vain for time and money to spend all summer sketching. I know I could do something worthwhile.” Regardless of his own opinion, Moses was making progress in the eyes of Palette and Chisel Club members. By 1912 the Palette and Chisel Club honored Thomas G. Moses by giving him a big dinner and a new nickname – “Uncle Tom” of the Club.
By 1913, Moses was still spending time at Fox Lake, writing, “I enjoyed the summer at Fox Lake, as the motor boat kept us busy and I enjoyed the water. I also did quite a number of sketches, a few very good, balance rather doubtful.” That same year, he wrote, “The Palette and Chisel Club boys wanted me to give an exhibit at the club. I always refused, claiming that I am not in the picture game, and paint pictures for pleasure only. September 3rd, a committee came to the house and insisted on going to the studio, I had over three hundred pictures in the studio; some very good but the other 275 were not as good, but the boys seemed to think I had at least 250 good ones, which was quite flattering.” That year, Moses also commented, “The Palette and Chisel Club were anxious to buy a lot near the lake, but we found it would cost too much.” Yet the search for a new home continued the following year.
In 1914, Moses wrote, “Early in April a number of Palette and Chisel Club boys, including myself, went to Fox Lake to look for a new site. We didn’t find anything worthwhile, so we will remain where we are for another season… Miss Maude Oliver, Art Critic of the Herald, wanted to see the animals fed and housed, so she went to Fox Lake to the camp. She requested that we all act perfectly natural and not put on any frills and do nothing out of the ordinary to entertain her. I never saw a bunch act worse. It was awful. I think she got plenty of local color and artistic atmosphere for her article in the Sunday Herald the next week – convinced me that she had drunk a glass full of camp life…I am not very regular at Fox Lake this year and I miss sketching. I also miss my rocks and running brooks. I have to go some distance for that kind of a motive.”
By 1915, Moses commented about the Palette and Chisel Club’s new site on Fox Lake, “April 17th a crowd of us went to Fox Lake and took down the old house and moved it to our new site south of the track on a very high hill, overlooking Pistakee Bay. Got the carpenter and lumberyard men together and we arranged for credit and ordered the material for a new house 22 x 50, was soon ready for members. We certainly got great sport in assisting the carpenter. Pretty hard work for an artist, but they all did very well.”
The next few years include only a few sporadic entries in Moses’ memoirs. In 1917, Moses wrote, “I went to Fox Lake on Decoration Day, official opening. I had a new cot sent up and it was certainly and improvement over the old one. I actually rest now and enjoy going up.” In 1918, Moses wrote, “I have not been out to Fox Lake this year, the first I have missed in twelve years. The business is in such an upset condition that I felt I should stick to it.” In 1919, Moses and his son Rupert made several trips to Fox Lake where he made a few sketches. He wrote, “It is very nice to make the trip in a car, as we made it in three hours. The roads were not any too good.”
By 1920, Moses wrote, “Early in June I went to Fox Lake to see about tearing down the club houses and moving them to another place…I go up to Fox Lake every Saturday, looking after the house and I hope to complete it on time.” By this time, Moses had been venturing up to paint at Fox Lake for thirteen years. His interest in the area would soon wane. At the time, he was traveling quite a bit to California for work, and writes of the West Coast’s appeal to artists. By 1922, Moses wrote, “I made one trip to Fox Lake Camp. It is not the same, and I am very sorry to say that I have lost interest in it, besides I feel that all the good sketching had been worked to death.” He did not write about Fox Lake again.
To be continued…
Thank you for this. Thomas Gibbs Moses was my Great Uncle. His brother Kirke White Moses was my Great Grandfather who’s daughter was my beloved Grandma, Ruth Moses McNulty! Our family still has a few paintings from Thomas Gibbs Moses and his brother, Walter Farrington Moses! Periodically, I search for information on my ancestors and I was happy to find this. Thanks again.
Nice to meet you, Sherri!I look forward to further correspondence with you.
I recently acquired a Thomas G. Moses painting entitled “Fox Lake Ill”, dated October 8, 1911. Do you have any idea what it may be worth? It is very darkened and in need of cleaning. Could you please suggest a reputable restoration business in Southern California? Thank you so much!
This so so wonderful, as I also have a Fox Lake painting by Thos. G. Moses. That being said, I will need to see a picture before I can make any recommendations.