Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1915, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “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.”
Fox Lake was the summer home for Palette & Chisel Club members, drawing a variety of artists during the hot 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 1906 Moses joined the Palette and Chisel Club at the Chicago Society of Artists. Of his membership, he wrote, “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.” The year that Moses joined the group, the Palette and Chisel Club consisted of sixty local painters, illustrators, and sculptors. The Chicago Tribune commented that the group was “primarily a working club, being the oldest organization in the west” (Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 1906, page 2).
Founded in 1895, the Palette & Chisel Club was an association of artists and craftsmen for the purpose of both work and study. Members were reported to be “all wage-workers” who were “busy during the week with pencil, brush or chisel” (“Inland Printer,” 1896). On Sunday mornings they gathered, spending five hours to paint just for themselves.
By 1905 the members of the Palette and Chisel Club established a seasonal camp at Fox Lake, Illinois. At first it was quite rustic with a communal tent. Of the camping experience at Fox Lake 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.”
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.’ Moses was 52 years old that year. The next summer Moses added, “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.”
It was this portable house that Moses mentioned moving during the summer of 1915.
In his scrapbook, Moses pasted a small clipping about the Palette & Chisel Clubhouse – “Coals To Newcastle.” Here it is:
“One of our neophytes recently called at the S & L scenic studios on business which had to be taken up with a gentleman of such genial and artistic manner as to make him obviously desirable for a club member. So the neophyte, fired with the traditional ardor of the new broom, strongly urged the S & L man to put in an application for membership.
‘I, a member of the Palette and Chisel Club!’ was the rejoinder of the astonished prospect, ‘why I own the club.’
His name turned out to be Tom Moses.”
The article is likely published in the Palette & Chisel newsletter and the use of “S & L man” says a lot. Over the years, there were many Sosman & Landis men who joined the Palette and Chisel Club. I even discovered a map to Fox Lake on the back of a 1909 drop delivered to Winona, Minnesota. S & L men were friends both in an out of the shop, always sharing their love of art and nature.
To e continued…
