Sosman & Landis: Shaping the Landscape of American Theatre. Employee No. 26 – Hanson D. Puthuff

Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

Hans Putuff was a scenic artist at Sosman & Landis, c. 1906-1909. He worked with Victor Higgins and the two gifted a painting to the firm’s foreman, Charles E. Boyer, after a sketching trip in 1909. Years later, their gift made the papers in La Crosse, Wisconsin, when the origin of the interesting painting was remembered as a wedding gift to Boyer’s daughter, Ruth Boyer Anderson.

Hanson Duvall Puthuff (1875-1979) is remembered as an Impressionistic painter in the early California Plein-Air Movement, c. 1910-1940. Much has been written of his easel art, yet his backstory seems to be a series of “cut-and-paste” articles. Occasionally, there will be one line about his work as a sign painter or scenic art endeavors in 1906 for “Sosman Studio,”  but little else is cited. That being said, he is a difficult individual to track down, not only because of his early work as an itinerant artist, but also because of his name change and consistent misspellings over the years. Hanson took the last name of his adoptive mother sometime in the 1880s, at the very beginning of his artistic career.

He was an easel artist, frescoer, sign painter and scenic artist. There is no question that he was incredibly skilled and extremely versatile. His fine art paintings are often described in detail and commended for their coloration and play of light. However, it is his personal story that intrigues me the most.  Keep in in mind that by this point I have spent years tracking down Puthuff’s career in historic records and city directories. The majority of his life until 1910 was spent with his adoptive mother as they traveled west to Denver and then Los Angeles. His care and dedication for Elizabeth C. Stanley Puthuff is a story in itself. I am captivated by the loyalty and love that caused this young artist to take care of his adoptive mother until her dying day, as well as adopting her last name.

Hanson Duval (some records note Duvall) was born on August 21, 1875, in Waverly, Missouri. This date is even suspect, as other records suggest March, with little known of his birth parents. He was purportedly the son of Alonzo Augustus Duval and Mary Anne Lee. Other names filter in and out of historic records, but his parents were cited as coming from Kentucky. When he was only two years old, Hanson’s mother passed away and he was adopted by close family friend, Elizabeth Puthuff (1845-1910). Most historical records use the phrase “passed on,” with the idea that Hanson’s father left his son and moved on with his life. This may have been the driving force over the years that caused Hanson to always care for Elizabeth, as she was the one who took him in during his greatest time of need.

Elizabeth’s care and love for Hanson was also born of loss. Since 1865, Elizabeth had lived as a Civil War widow, managing to support herself as a seamstress. She was born in Tennessee, the daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Stanley and by 1850 the family was living in Jefferson, Indiana.

Elizabeth married James T. Puthuff at the age of 22 years old. Their union is only briefly mentioned in a wedding record, a mere scribble. The timing is too quick to suggest a lengthy courtship, but it was in the midst of the Civil War and the two were married at the height of James’ service. Here is the timeline that makes me wonder what else was at play: James first enlisted in the Union army in St. Louis, Missouri, on Nov. 1, 1863 and mustered out as a Private with the 12^th Cavalry that same day. He enlisted a second time on Jan. 29, 1864, and mustered out with Company K in the Missouri Veteran Volunteers on March 7, 1864. He and Elizabeth were married on March 31, 1864 and James was killed a little over two weeks later. A week after his passing, on April 23, 1865, Elizabeth filed for a Civil War Pension.

It was Sergeant Perry O. Singleton who reported that James was killed by gunshots from either rebels or a bushwhacker on, or about, April 15, 1865 near Montgomery, Alabama. Puthuff was originally buried 100 yards from Mr. Howard’s store 1 ½ miles south of Shorter’s Station near Cross Keys, Macon County, Alabama. His body was later exhumed and buried at Montgomery, Alabama cemetery and relocated again to Marietta National Cemetery. If I am interpreting records correctly, his gravestone does not match his history, and the cemetery is aware of it.

Elizabeth was a widow for twelve years before adopting Hanson. At the time, she was thirty years old and working as a seamstress. Over the years, she went by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Puthuff, Lizzie Puthuff, and Mrs. L. C. Puthuff. Regardless of directory listing, she was often noted as the widow of J. T., Jason T. and James T. Puthuff.  What is so interesting is that her Civil War Pension Application listed James S. Puthuff, but that may have been a clerical error. Or a simple misreading of a handwritten T.

Five years after adopting Hansen, the two were listed in the 1880 Federal Census. At the time, they were  living in Rio Norte, Colorado. Hanson Duval was listed as Lizzie’s adoptive son and she was working as a dressmaker. The two were still living in Rio Norte in 1888, when Lizzie posted a series of advertisements: “Mrs. L. C. Puthuff, Del Norte, Colo. Fashionable Modiste! Respectfully solicits a continuance of the patronage of old friends and a trial by new customers. Works done on short notice, Corner Columbia avenue and Sixth street.” They soon relocated to Denver,

Sometime between 1880 and 1890, Hanson changed his last name from Duval to Puthuff, with Duval becoming his middle name. I have yet to locate any legal records of has name change. By 1890, Hanson was studying with Ida De Steiguer at the Fine Arts Department of the University of Denver, ca. 1890 – 1893. In 1893, Hanson was listed in the Denver City Directory as a janitor for the Art School.

By 1894, Hanson took a position as a fresco painter in Peoria, Illinois, while his mother stayed behind for the year and continued her dressmaking. This was likely an apprenticeship in ornamental painting. In the 1894 Peoria City Directory listed Hanson’s employment address as the YMCA building, 109-111 N. Jefferson Ave.  By 1896 Hanson returned west and was again listed in the Denver City Directory, now as a fresco painter, but still living with his mother. In 1897, Hanson listed himself as an artist, but soon returned to Peoria for another year of work. Projects in the city included murals at City Hall and local churches.  While in Peoria, he was listed as a frescoer at Trapp & Hocking, located at 228-229 Adams, the corner of Fulton in the Woolner Bldg. His residence was 619 Sixth Ave. Although I have yet to locate a listing in 1899, his mother was still living in Denver.

The 1900 Federal Census provided a little more information about the two.  Listed as L. C., “Lizzie” listed her birthday as in March 1845 and that her father and mother were from Virginia and North Carolina, respectively. Hanson’s birth month was listed as August in 1875 with both of his parents originating from Kentucky.

By 1901 Hanson was working as a sign writer at the Curran Bill & Poster Distributing Co. This advertising firm was located at 1728 to 1734 Lawrence Ave. in Denver.  Hanson continued to work for the firm as a sign painter throughout 1903. He was also listed in the artists section of the Denver directory too. For context, James A. Curran owned the firm and was considered not only the father of outdoor advertising in Colorado, but also the “boss bill poster of the Rockies.” Curran’s first advertising business was established in Leadville, Colorado, in 1880. By 1881, he was working with the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. He was also an early advertising agent for the Tabor Opera Houses in Leadville and Denver, tying directly into my research about the railroad’s gifting of picturesque advertising curtains to Colorado opera houses. By 1883, Curran relocated to Denver where he established the Curran Bill & Poster Distributing Co., a business that rapidly became the preferred painting and sign poster firm throughout the region. He employed scores of scenic artists and sign painters such as Pufhutt.  Curran was also an agent for traveling theatre shows that included the Nellie Boyd Dramatic Co., Sullivan and Company and Damrosch Concerts. Curran artists were was likely the connection between Pufhutt and Chicago (Sosman & Landis). By 1906, Curran was also the owner and president of the Curran Opera House in Boulder, Colorado.

Pufhutt’s work for Curran also became his connection to Los Angeles. In 1904, Hanson & Lizzie moved to Pasadena, California, likely at the recommendation of  A. Allison, of the Curran Bill & Poster Distributing Co. On Jan. 23, 1904, “Billboard” announced, “A. Allison, formerly of the Curran Co., Denver Colorado has been elected secretary and general manager of the California Billposting Co. of Los Angeles. Mr. Allison brings with him to the new form a fine knowledge of the business (page 15). For the next few years, Pufhutt worked for the California Billposting Co. as he made inroads into the Los Angeles fine art community.  Although he continued to be listed as an artist in the Los Angeles Directory, Pufhutt worked across the country, including in Chicago at Sosman & Landis studio, sporadically between 1906 and 1909.

In California, Hanson’s primary focus of artistic study was Eagle Rock, La Crescenta, Corona del Mar and La Canada. By 1905, Puthuff was featured in the “Los Angeles Times.” On Oct. 22, 1905, the newspaper reported:

“The true artist is dowered at birth by a fairy godmother, and her great gifts to him are sight and insight – the clear eyes that takes in the outward aspects of beauty, the swift intuition that seeks and finds its spirit and its meaning. The schools may supply him with tools, or he may fashion his own to suit his needs. It matters not, so long as he persistently holds fast to his two gifts, and so long as he does not begin to believe that the mere tools of his trade are the “whole thing.” For he was made an artist by the grace of God. Al other painters and artisans in the temple – clever, conscientious, painstaking, intelligent artisans, if you will, but still artisans, and their presence is often an intrusion which does not further the true worship of the goddess of art. They pose as high priests, when they really belong among the humblest of penitents. Hanson Putuff, the subject of this appreciation, is one of our painters who is an artist. Sight and insight, Putuff has already done much, but he will do a great deal more. Let the doubting Thomases, if there are any such, so to the exhibit of his sketches with the friends who believe in him have urged him to hold in the near future. Hanson Puthuff is of Kentucky parentage, and of French and English extraction – and these fortunate accidents of birth have given us an impressionist and a reactionist who knows moderation. He studied portraiture and figure painting with Henry Reed and Jean Mannheim, in Denver, and this laid the foundation for his accurate knowledge of construction and good drawing. But in his study of landscape he had no helpers, going straight to Nature in his search for beauty and truth, as every artist must. His home studio, which he planned himself, and which he decorated throughout, with his own hands, is a pleasant, unobtrusive, artistic, little redwood bungalow on Avenue 52, in Highland Park, Here his many sunny sketches may be seen, and here he conducts a life class two evenings a weeks. This class is attended by earnest young men, who are for the most part employed in various handicrafts during the day, and who can find no other time for learning to paint and draw, But all know this is to be their golden opportunity. And not one of them is a purposeless idler. Hanson Puthuff, it will be seen, is doing much for the cause of art in Los Angeles” (page 62).

By November 4, 1906, the “Los Angeles Times” published Puthuff’s portrait alongside an article entitled “Pictures by Three Painters” (page 82). Advertising the upcoming Blanchard Gallery exhibition, it gave a little history about Puthuff’s increasing popularity among those “who are sincerely concerned with the progress of art in Los Angeles.”  The article reported, “In the first place, it will give us an opportunity to judge, with some degree of correctness, the progress made by Hanson Puhuff in the last two years. It was then that he first became known to us, in the Ruskin exhibit, through three or four pictures of unusual strength and promise. He now has some twenty-five new canvases to show, portraits, figures, landscapes and marines – and they will convince us, I think, that he has not been standing still.”

Within the next three years, he became extremely well-known in the region. On October 1909 George Whart James wrote an article entitled “Hanson Puthuff and His Work: A Study and an Appreciation” for the “Arroyo Craftsman” (pages 31-37). That same year,  Puthuff and his adoptive mother were living at 401 W. Ave 52. Erroneously, the city directory listed him as Anton Puthuff, with Hanson still working as a scenic artist, but now employed by Charles F. Thompson Scenic Co. In addition to his easel art and scenic art, Hanson continued to care for his aging mother.

Just as Lizzie took care of Hans as a small child, Hanson continued to care for his mother until her dying day.  It was not until after his adoptive mother passed, that Hanson married and began a new life. On October 5, 1910, Puthuff married May P. Longest in Los Angeles. Their marriage announcement was published on October 4, 1910 in the “Los Angeles Herald” (page 14): “PUTHUFF-LONGEST. H. D. Puthuff, age 35 and May P. Longest, age 18; natives of Missouri and Kentucky, residents of Los Angeles.” May was certainly not 18, as she had been listed in as a single artist in the city directories for five years. She was born in 1879 and 31 yrs. old.

May was first listed in the 1903 San Jose Directory, living with her mother Mrs. Anna W. Longest, at 532 n. 14th Street. That only lasted for a year, and soon May was on her own. She continued to be listed as an artist until her marriage to Hanson and began having children.  The couple celebrated the birth twin sons (Duvall J and Lee C., b. 1912), Robert H. (b. 1914), Paul M. (b. 1916), Matilda L. (b. 1918) and Addie W. (b. 1920). As one child after another was born to the couple, May’s artistic aspirations diminished and her husband’s soared.  

In order to support his growing family, Hanson continued to work as a scenic artist and sign painter at a variety of studios. In 1912, he was listed in the city directory an artist at T. H. B. Varney, still living at 401 W Ave 52. Charles M. Elliot was also working for the firm at this time too. T. H. B. Varney previously was a founder of the bill posting firm Owens, Varney & Green (L. D. Owens and J. C. Green). This was a period of transition of Puthuff, however, as his easel art continued to gain national and international recognition. His success and continued work at advertising studios funded the purchase of a new home at 161 College View.

On January 8, 1913, the “Los Angeles Times” included an article on Hanson Puhuff and his studio (page 26):

“If you labor under the contemptuous delusion – some fairly intelligent people do – that the painter of pictures is a lazy man, prone to loaf and invite his soul, go to the airy studio of Hanson Putuff in Eagle Rock and become enlightened.

“Here you will find a score of landscape sketches and studies painted in three weeks, an average  of one a day. And they aren’t thumbnail sketches either. Hanson Puthuff doesn’t cover postage stamps. Some of the studies are hardly less than three by four, and most of the others are almost as big in size. Puthuff, whose technique is admirably easy and free, wields a big brush attached to a strong and pliable wrist, and he requires space in which to express himself.

The new studio is situated on the charming climbing avenues among the hills of Eagle Rock – beautiful hills, now covered with the rich cloth-of-gold of Southern California’s early summer. It is on College View avenue, so called because it offers a glimpse of the new buildings on Occidental College, also among green hills, Diagobally opposite Puthuff’s studio is that of landscape artist Aron Kilpatrick, landscape painter. Arion Putnam, another landscape painter, is not far away, and on the outskirts of Glendale, still very near, Eugene Frank is domiciled, Val Costello and the Wendt’s own lots in the vicinity, and will probably erect studios some time. A veritable artists’ colony, you see a wonderful nest of landscapists. Mark my words, it’s a colony that will become famous some day, for some of the colonists are already bug men and the rest all intend to grow big.

All Hanson Puthuff’s recent studies were made in his immediate neighborhood. Indeed, he hardly found it necessary to stir from the shade of his own vine and fig tree. The views from his studio windows are very wonderful, a series of pictures of already ‘composed’ oaks and valleys, hills and mountains.

“I think it was Jean Francois Millet,” said he,” who declared that the artist who couldn’t find materials at home was hardly an artist at all. By the same token,” he added with a modest smile, “I’ll have to consider myself a real artist, for I find plenty of stuff right here. But see for yourself.”

So I “saw for myself,” studying with pleasure and interest the last vigorous sketches of this gifted young painter of California landscape. The “stuff” was indeed all good, the best that have so far come from a man that never paints poorly. In truth, Puthuff have every right to consider himself a real artist.

The painter of landscape deprecates a “subject” picture. Therefore, “I don’t suppose you’ll be much interested in this,” said Puthuff, about to turn to the wall of a study of the famous Eagle Rock, that tremendous boulder thrusting its gray flank through the side of a hill, and offering to a gaping world its strange shadowing picture of a flying eagle. But I was interested, for the canvas was a picture as well of a “subject,” a picture of finely modeled hills under a gray sky, varied in color, poetic in feeling. And the great eagle hovered against the rounded wall of rock, giving the theme a certain grandeur. This picture was an “order,” given by a real estate dealer, I believe. I congratulate the lucky owner of it, for he has much more than an advertisement, he has a picture of sterling worth without the hall mark of “business.”

A strong bit of painting is “Morning,” green and yellow hills as seen from Puthuff’s backyard. Oaks are climbing up the hillsides towards a sky as full of color as the heart of an opal. Equally vigorous in handling is “Verdugo Road,” showing eucalyptus trees on either side of the sunny road just before it dips into the valley. The cloudy sky if of an exquisite blue-gray, a color invented by Puthuff for Nature to imitate – if she can.

In “Verdugo Mountains” we see the mountains on a cloudy day just after a shower, when the air is washed clean and pure as a crystal. Sunlight and shadow play over a bewildering mosaic of colors. The foreground embankment is of a tawny hue, while below lie green orchards. “Silvery Light,” as its title indicates, is a study of delicate mists as they affect hills and valleys. The light throws its glamours over pale greens and purples, and turns the Verdugo hills into fragile blues. It is an unusually charming picture, a happy blending of fact and vision.

Sunshine and Flowers” gives us yellow blooms (species unknown to painter and deponent,) set on a sunny slope among eucalyptus trees and live oaks. There are blue mists beyond them. The picture is full of living brightness. “Lupin,” painted in Verdugo Park, shows the pal purple blooms massed in the foreground, which is a level valley tanned yellow by the sun of early summer. The hills beyond are floating in silver mists.

Though Hanson Puthuff is known as a landscape painter, now and again he essays the portrait, and with marked success. A recent counterfeit presentment is that of George Alexander, first president of the Jonathan Club. The subject is seated at a table, Hands and face are cleverly modeled, yet with the utmost simplicity. The color scheme of Bronx-browns and grays is pleasing and harmonious, decidedly individual, as Puthuff’s color is apt to be. Another attractive recent portrait is that of a child. W. W. Mines’ little 2-year-old daughter, in white against a cream-colored background, a difficult subject technically, but triumphantly carried out. I have shown, I think, that at least one artist in Los Angeles, has learned the value of hard work. I could point out a score of others.”

In 1914 he was awarded a bronze medal at the Paris Salon and by 1915 received two silver medals from the Panorama-California Exposition. Puthuff’s WWI draft registration card listed his physical appearance as tall, medium build, blue eyes, gray-brown hair. That year, he was working as an artist at another advertising firm – Foster & Kleiser, located at 231 San Pedro St. Los Angeles. The registration still listed Hanson’s home address as 161 N. College View, Eagle Rock, LA. Walter Foster and George William Kleiser founded Foster & Kleiser Outdoor Advertising in 1901. Their immediate prosperity led to regional branches in the Pacific Northwest to outdoor plants in Los Angeles, San Francisco and eastward toward the Atlantic seaboard. Interestingly, his son’s draft registration for WWII would also noted Robert H.’s employer as Foster and Kleiser. By 1920, the Puthuff family included Hanson, May, their six children and May’s mother, now 70 years old. In the 1920s, Hanson’s projects included habitat displays for the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. Later commissions included model displays for the Santa Fe Railroad and panoramas for the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial  in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

May Longest Puthuff passed away on Dec. 12, 1939 at the age of 60. Puthuff remarried and continued to live for more than three decades, passing away at Corona del Mar. On May 12, 1972, the “Los Angeles Times”  Puthuff, Hanson D., age 96. Passed away Friday, May 12, Dean of California landscape painters. Survived by wife Louise, sons Paul and Lee Puthuff, daughter Matilda Scoville, step-daughter Sara Blatterman, 8 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. No funeral services at his request.”

Puthuff made a name for himself in the fine art world and is associated with the Eucalyptus School of California landscape painters. He was a co-founder of the California Art Club and the Laguna Beach Art Association. Thomas G. Moses and many other Sosman & Landis artists were also members of the Laguna Beach Art Association. Puthuff’s artworks remain in many collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Art Museum, and Bowers Museum, as well as being catalogued in the Smithsonian American Art inventory.

His legacy also lived on in his many students. On February 11, 1943, the “Granada Pioneer” in Colorada included an article entitled “Thumbnail Sketches.”  The artist remembered taking private lessons from Hans Puthuff, “one of the foremost nature artists on the west coast” (page 3).

To be continued…