Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 866 – Carl Mauch, 1913

Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

Every once in a while I am compelled to include a side story because it is so touching.  These posts are often simple memorials to those who came before me and should not be forgotten. In 1907, Thomas G. Moses wrote about Otto Armbrusters death by suicide (see past post 573). He wrote, “August 16^th, heard of Otto Armbruster’s death by suicide.  It was an awful shock as we were such close friends.  The German way of getting out of trouble, but he had no trouble, plenty of money and a good business.  No one seems to know just what the cause of the rash act was.”

In 1913, another colleague of Moses’ committed suicide in Chicago when his eyesight failed.

This one broke my heart as I first read it. It concerns one of the founders, and the first president, of the Palette & Chisel Club in Chicago. His death notice posted in the July 1913 issue of the Club’s newsletter recalled, “Fiery and at the same time gentle in disposition, Carl Mauch was invincible in his adherence to what he felt was right. In his death, the Club loses a father, and the world gives up a true artist, a brave soldier and an upright man.” A successful commercial artist in his own right, Mauch was always searching for a divine fire that would transcend his art to another level.

Here is the obituary notice concerning Mauch’s death:

On June 20, 1913,  “Washington Post” reported:

“LOSES SIGHT AND KILLS SELF.

Artist Had Just Conceived What He Thought Would Be His Masterpiece.

Special to the Washington post.

Chicago, June 19.- His life a parallel in many respects of that of Kipling’s her in ‘The Light That Failed,’ Carl Mauch, an artist, 63 years old, committed suicide by swallowing poison today. Mr. Mauch’s sight began to fail just after he conceived a work which he believed would be the greatest of his life.

‘There is nothing left for me,’ Mr. Mauch said, a few days ago, to a fellow member of the Palette and Chisel Club. ‘The inspiration of my life has come and my eyes are all but gone. Never again shall I put a brush to canvas.’”

To put the Kipling book in context, his “the Light that Failed,” follows the life of artist Dick Heldar. He who goes blind, and struggles with his unrequited love for fellow orphan and childhood playmate, Maisie. Heldar’s journey to despair and helplessness is due to the loss of his ability to work, resulting in his abandonment by Maisie. In the end, his loneliness is summed up in the statement,”…it is better to remain alone and suffer only the misery of being alone, so long as it is possible to find distraction in daily work. When that resource goes the man is to be pitied and left alone.” Mauch ended his life when he could no longer work and sought eternal solitude.

Other newspaper articles reported Mauch’s suicide:

“Despondent Artist Takes his Own Life.

Chicago, June 19 – Despondent because his eyes failed him just when he conceived after years of dreaming the picture he hoped would make him famous, Carl Mauch, an artist, took poison and died from its effects yesterday. He was 68 years old and rapidly losing his sight.

Recently Mauch told a fellow member of the Palette and Chisel Club that the inspiration of his life had come to him and he bemoaned the fact his eyes were failing him and that he never again would touch a brush to canvas.” There is some controversy in newspaper accounts concerning the age of the artist, yet his tombstone lists Mauch’s birthdate as 1854, not 1850 or 1844. Most records list Mauch as 58 at the time of his death. The article continues, “Mauch was born in Wurttemberg, Germany, and his club fellows tell a story of how, when a boy, he whipped the future king of that province. According to them it was the rule at the school, which Mauch attended that the prince should always be the winner of any game. When he saw his friends contriving that the prince should be the victor he flew into a rage and attacked the young majesty.”

Mauch died at his home on 2651 Mildred Avenue, poisoning himself with cyanide of potassium, and leaving behind a wife and two grown daughters, Fanny, Melanea and Ella.

Mauch was born on Jan. 7, 1854 in Stuttgart, Stadkreis Stuttgart, Baden-Württenberg, Germany. He studied at the Stuttgart Academy with Karl Theodor von Piloty, Heinrich Franz Gaudenz von Rustige and Karl Albert Buehr. Art history books note that his early artistic studies were interrupted he was conscripted in the German army during the Franco-Prussian War. At the time he was just sixteen years old. Following his military service, Mauch returned to painting and continued his studies in Munich and Paris, before emigrating in 1870. He soon married in 1872. He and his wife Fanny witnessed the birth of four children, two who survived to adulthood.

In 1893, Mauch was listed as one of 302 artists in “The Years Art as Recorded in The Quarterly Illustrator” (Published by Harry C. Jones, 92, 94, and 96^th Fifth Avenue, New York). The publication listed, “Carl Mauch is one of the successful foreign artists who have made the United States their permanent home. Mr. Mauch has lived here ever since the Franco Prussian War.”

At the time of his passing, Mauch was well-known as a Chicago illustrator, Impressionist painter, and member of the Palette & Chisel Club. Mauch is buried at Graceland cemetery on June 20, 1913.

A decade before his passing, “The Inland Printer” included a photograph of Carl Mauch in an article about the Palette & Chisel Club (June 1896, page 315).. It seems appropriate to add to today’s post as a positive remembrance to Mauch’s life. Here is the article in its entirety:

“THE PALETTE AND CHISEL CLUB.

An association of artists and craftsman for the purpose of work and study – such is the Palette and Chisel Clun of Chicago, some of the members of which have appear in the half-tone upon the opposite page, engraved from a photograph by Carl Mauch [image missing]. The organization is unique in that its members are all wage-workers and busy during the week with pencil, brush or chisel doing work to please other people. But on Sunday mornings, at 9 o’clock, they assemble in the studio of Lorado Taft, in the Atheneum building, and for five hours each amuses himself by working in his chosen medium, to suit himself.

The article continues, “Sunday morning means a good deal to one who has worked all week, and thought of these young men placing their easels and arranging their palettes at an hour when the rest of the city is in bed or on bicycles, is sufficient proof of their earnestness. A peep into the studio would show the men all work using all kinds of mediums, oil and water color, wash, pen and ink, charcoal, clay and modeling wax, and each busy as a boy with a jackknife. And the conversation while the model rests deals not so much with “impressionism” and “realism,” or the tendency and mode of artistic revelation as wit the best methods of drawing for reproduction of the discussion of technicalities in the sculptor’s or decorator’s arts.

The work of the club has so far been more for study than exhibition, but there can me no doubt that such a movement among men actually engaged in illustration and decoration and kindred arts appealing directly to the people must result in improving the standard of their work. The impression that a “real artist” is incapable of doing “for the trade” is less erroneous that the idea that an artist earning his living by practical application of his talents may not be the artist worthy of his name. The painter may lack the technical training necessary to the successful illustrator, but an experience in designing or illustration often develops qualities in a man who is prevented from attempting the higher branches of art by lack of time or opportunity, which when his chance comes, gives him an advantage over the mere painter.

Two-thirds of the members are students in the “life class” at the Art Institute night school, and a desire for opportunity to study from the model in daylight, so that color might be used, led to the organization of the club. The time at their disposal is too short to spend bothering with officers or by-laws, so the only formality is the payment of monthly dues to the treasurer, Curtis Gandy who settles the rent and pays the models. The following is a list of the club’s membership: Charles J. Mulligan, David Hunter and W. J. Hutchinson, sculptors; Ray Brown, chief of the “Times-Herald” art department, and F. Holme, of the “Evening Post;” Henry Hutt, illustrator and designer for J. Manz & Co.’ Carl Mauch of the Werner Company’s art staff; Will Carquerville, poster designer and lithographer; Curtis Gandy, Capel Rowley, Richard Boehm and Edward Loewenhelm, designers and illustrators; L. Pearson, F. J. Thwing and H. L. Bredtschneider, fresco painters and decorators; Fred Mulhaupt, display advertiser; Ansel Cook, scenic artist; A. Sterba and W. H. Irvine, portrait artists; Arthur Carr, H. Wagner, L. M. Coakley and J. S. Shippen, art students. Fred Larseon is a “proofer,” and the printer’s trade is represented by W. A. Randall.

The treasurer’s report shows a comfortable balance of cash in hand, and, while the Sunday meetings will soon be temporarily discontinued on account of the hot weather, the dues will run on just the same, so that when the club assembles in the fall it will be with every promise of a good and successful career.”

The statement “Sunday meetings will soon be temporarily discontinued on account of the hot weather” explains why the club purchased a summer home on Fox Lake in 1906, as it gave artists a cooler place to continue their studies.

To be continued…