Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1913 Moses 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… November 3rd, I got all my framed pictures; oil, watercolor, pen and ink and lead pencil. While we were hanging the show, Father McCann dropped in a bought one canvas for $200.00 and another for $100.00, starting the sale in good shape.
An announcement in the “Oak Park Leaves” on Nov. 8, 1913, appeared under the heading, “Palette and Chisel Club Exhibits Sixty Paintings of Oak Park Man.” The article reported, “There is an exhibition of pictures by Thomas G. Moses, of 233 Euclid South, now on view at the Palette and Chisel club, 59 East Van Buren Street, Chicago. The opening-reception, which inaugurated the exhibition, was held Wednesday evening and the pictures may be seen until November 22. On weekdays the exhibition will be open from 10 to 7 o’clock, and on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings until 9 o’clock.” The article cited an excerpt from “The Cow Bell,” the Palette and Chisel club newsletter: “November 4 should is a great day for the club, as it does the Tom Moses exhibition. Uncle Tom, as he always will be to the camp contingent, has to be rooted out of his Oak Park residence like a poor retired badger, before Mac-Combs could get at the spoils. Tom has shied consistently at one-man shows and Mr. Moses had to put on blinders before Mac hitched him up for November 4. Mac says the painting Tom has done while jogging around these United Railways of America passes belief and also promises some rare treats to those who know him only as a painter of scenery to the crowned heads of Thespia.”
The formal exhibition announcement stated, ‘There is not one of our members of whom we are more proud. There is probably not another painter in Chicago who has sought out and painted so many of the beauty spots of our own country. From a thousand sketches and paintings sixty have been selected, and are hung in our club to give our members and their friends an opportunity of seeing a representative collection of the works of Thomas G. Moses” (page 5).
Of the fall art exhibition, Moses wrote, “I sold 20 pictures; some very cheap to artist members. The whole sale netted only $675.00 which was not so bad for a scene painter.” Keep in mind that $675.00 in 1913 is approximately $17,546.32 today.
Moses’ continued, “A great many of the members didn’t expect to see so many or as good pictures as I had the pleasure of showing there. The amount of the sale went far ahead of what I thought it would. It was pretty good for me, and up to this date it was the most ever sold at the one show. I had 77 pictures on the walls, oil, water, temper, pen and ink, and pencil. Maine to California. That made it quite interesting. I received some very flattering newspaper notices. Mama and Rupert were responsible for the show, as I would have never gotten it up myself. We opened with a reception, which was well attended.” Rupert was Moses’ youngest son, and the one who would follow him in theatre work.
A few months later, Moses was mentioned again in the “Oak Park Leaves.” An article reported, “Mr. Moses presented this—a delightful little September landscape, painted in the neighborhood of Fox Lake, to the parochial guild, and the men folk at once showed their appreciation of his compliment by clubbing together and purchasing it for the new rector, Rev. F. R. Godolphin. A very handsome sum will be realized by the organization” (Saturday, December 06, 1913, page 38).
To conclude 1913, Moses wrote, “Pitt and the family were with us again this Christmas and we always enjoy them as the years fly along, and I think at the close of each that during the next, I will certainly make some progress in pictures and get nearer the goal for which I have been striving for so many years. But the everlasting grind and hustling for the mighty dollar has just about knocked all the ambition out of me and side tracked my picture game. My show this year has given me a lot of encouragement. I hope to make another some day. The [Palette & Chisel] boys want me to do one each year, but that is impossible. I should like to do a whole year’s sketching and I know at the end I would have something. The few weeks I get in a year don’t really mean much. I can hardly get started before I have to go. No vacation this year, and I regret it very much, as I think we are entitled to one each year.”
To be continued…
