Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1921 Thomas G. Moses landed the scenery contract for the Tacoma Scottish Rite. Of the project, he wrote, “It took some work to close the Tacoma job at $6,400.00. Will come back to do the work myself.” He was to start the Tacoma Scottish Rite project at the beginning of December 1921, but he had to put out a few fires before leaving Chicago that winter. Moses wrote, “I should have been back in Tacoma December 1st. I have written them on the cause of my delay.”
He had a very short period of time to accomplish a lot of tasks in the main studio before leaving town, and there were stops to make along the way. Too much to do in too little time; a theme that I am certainly familiar with these days. Moses and his wife did not leave Chicago until Dec. 13, spending a full day in Kansas City before continuing onto Los Angeles. Then there was another stop in San Francisco, where Moses took the boat across the bay and headed east to Stockton. He hoped to close another contract, but had no such luck.
Of his side trip to Stockton, Moses wrote, “Took the boat back again and left for the north the same day. We had a very pleasant trip. Found a lot of snow in the north on our arrival in Tacoma. We found our apartment all ready for us and it is very cozy.” He was in town to paint scenery for the Scottish Rite Theatre, but also planned on doing a little oil painting in his spare time. Moses, continued, “I found we needed another room for a studio, which I got, and it is going to be a good asset to my picture painting. The most glorious view of the mountain at sunrise, noon, sunset and an hour after sunset. I have finally got to work and while it is going to be a long job, I will enjoy doing it, and incidentally getting some good sketches of the mountain.”
His stay in Tacoma with Ella must have been a wonderful break from both travel and responsibilities associated Sosman & Landis. It was a new project, a new year, and he was surrounded by beautiful scenery. One of his favorite compositions to paint was the nearby Mount Rainier. In 1889, he recorded his first glimpse of the mountain, also known as Mount Shasta, writing, “My first view of Mt. Shasta I shall never forget. It was sunset and all the foreground and middle distance was in shadow. Made a rapid pencil sketch and have since painted it in watercolor and oil, with some success.”
At the onset of 1922, Moses wrote, “January 1st found the Madam and I enjoying ourselves in Tacoma, Washington. I had the Scottish Rite Temple work pretty well started, went back to the old theatre to work. I was there and painted one of my famous drop curtains.” Moses was referring to the Tacoma Theatre. Moses and Ed Loitz painted the stock scenery for the venue in 1889-1890. Here is the link to my past post about this project: https://drypigment.net2017/09/28/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-acquiring-the-fort-scott-scenery-collection-for-the-minnesota-masonic-heritage-center-part-222-thomas-g-moses-and-the-tacoma-theatre/
Of his drop curtain from 1889, Moses wrote, “As I look at it now, it is hard to realize that I painted it 33 years ago. The scene is in Rome, “Temple of Minerva.” It has a richness of color that we are not able to get now on account of the inferiority quality of the colors. I found my old palette, which gave me a rather uncanny chill, to think that after so many years, it should be waiting for my return.”
The Temple of Minerva was a popular subject for nineteenth-century scene painters. In 1881, an article in “Building News and Engineering Journal,” listed the Temple of Minerva as one of the many compositions painted by scenic artists, showing their versatility of subject matter. The journal’s article was entitled, “Art on The Stage,” and it appeared in the issue on July 29, 1881. Here is an excerpt with the Temple of Minerva mention:
“Scene Painting is an art by itself. There is no other branch of painting just like it, either in the variety of subjects embraced or in the methods employed. The thorough scenic artist must be equally at home in landscape or marine work, architectural or fresco. He is not permitted to cultivate any particular branch of his art, nor any favorite style. He must be able to produce, at any time, the wild mountainous passes of Switzerland or the flat meadows of Holland; the green lanes of homelike England, or the winding valleys of romantic Spain. In his architectural work he cannot devote himself to the Gothic or the Romanesque, but must be equally master of the Moorish, the Greek, and the Oriental. He may to-day be called upon to paint the Temple of Minerva, and to-morrow the Mosque of Omar; this week the Windsor Hotel, and next week the Palace of Versailles. His art knows no boundaries, and his scope is confined by no limits. The universe must be at his command, and things unseen must live in his imagination. The methods by which he works and many of the materials he employs are altogether different from those employed by the ordinary oil or water-colour painter. They approach more nearly to those of the latter, yet even here certain qualities of the colours used by the scene-painter constitute a sharp dividing line.”
Moses’ Temple of Minerva Drop Curtain for the Tacoma Theater was also featured on the front page of “The Palette & Chisel” Club newsletter in 1917. It accompanied and article entitle, “Thomas G. Moses, All Round Scene Painter. His Work is Known from Coast to Coast.”
Here is the introductory paragraph that says so much about his scene painting work:
“Now this article is about an artist whose work has been viewed by more people that ever entered the Art Institute and the Metropolitan Museum since their doors were first opened….probably. And those people paid good round sums to get in where the artist’s work was displayed. You don’t believe that, now do you? Well, then, when I also tell you that this artist painted stage settings for Booth and Barrett, Thomas Keene, McCullough and all that ranting crew of Shakespearian heavies, you will get the pint, of course. And of course, you will think this is just another one of those anniversary obituaries dedicated to some duck that passed out about the time everyone was singing…well, whatever they were singing when real fur bearing men wore flannel night shirts.
Far from that howsumever, the gallant lad immortalized in this rhetorical garland is cheerfully employed just now in packing his sketching trunk for a paint spree in Zion National Park. And incidentally, going and coming he intends to put on the old corduroys with a brace of big theatrical contracts in Salt Lake City and Oakland, California. That is, this venerable old relic will paint the sets himself, and with Uncle Tom that means about ten hours a day on the paint bridge, and ninety days to each job. Isn’t it sad how fragile and inefficient these old timers are becoming! Tom says it bothers him a right smart now to paint a 45×50 drop in one day. What? Hell, no….FEET!”
When the article was written, Moses was sixty-one years old. Four years later in 1921, he was still working at a breakneck speed and tackling entire stock scenery projects.
To be continued…
