Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Edgar Alwin Payne (1882-1947) worked as a scenic artist at Sosman & Landis in Chicago, the firm’s eastern affiliate in New York (New York Studios), and the firm’s western affiliate in Los Angeles (Edwin Flagg’s studio). Payne was also a well-known landscape artist and California impressionist. His artwork is still popular and quite expensive to acquire. In 2017 his oil painting, “Navajo Scouting Party” sold for $304,200. Prices for his easel art, however, will never reflect his scenic contribution to theatre history.
Payne’s life story has been well documented over the decades, especially by his wife, Elsie Palmer Payne, and his daughter, Dr. Evelyn Payne Hatcher. My two favorite books about Payne are “Composition of Outdoor Painting” (1941) and “The Paynes, Edgar and Elsie: American Artists” (1988). The first was written by the artist himself and presents an approach to art, looking at drawing, color selection, and compositional layout. The second book was penned by a friend of his daughter’s, Rena Neumann Coen in 1988. “The Paynes” was published at Payne Studios, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and delves into familial tales and artistic accomplishments, with a very a brief glimpse into Payne’s early life as a scenic artist in Texas and Chicago. Much of the information is based on interviews with Elsie Payne in 1970 and unpublished notes. These two publications provide a pretty comprehensive look at the life and career of Edgar Payne, yet so many details pertaining to his theater work are left out.
While doing research for this post, I continued to come across the statement that Payne was “largely self-taught.” Even the first chapter of “The Paynes,” reinforces this theory. Coen discusses the stylistic differences between Edgar’s and Elsie’s artwork, writing, “This difference prevailed even when the Payne’s travelled to Europe, where Edgar concentrated on the snowy peaks of the Alps or the colorful fishing boats in the harbors of Italy and France, while Elsie directed her attention to the human element in the Old World towns For unlike Edgar who came from the central states and was largely self-taught, Elsie grew up and went to school in the San Francisco Bay area where, though there were Impressionist painters there too, the decorative, linear style of Arthur and Lucia Mathews was more pervasive” (page 1).
I have noticed that some artists are quick to state they were “self-taught,” regardless of the fact that there are no definitive criteria to define “taught” or “self-taught.” I have often wondered about qualifications to identify a “self-taught” individual. Is an artist considered self-taught even if they have had one art class? Does artistic training have to come from a specific educational institution, or instructor? Is there an age-limit for the completion of the artistic training? Do trade apprenticeships qualify as a form of art instruction? In other words, if you assist a more experienced individual, actively assist in the artistic process, participate and then strike out on your own, can you still be considered “self-taught”? In my opinion, unless you live in bubble, have only worked by yourself, and never learned a single thing from any other artist, you have received some form of artistic training and are not self-taught.
Scenic artists, especially those who worked at a professional scenic studio during the turn of the twentieth-century, cannot lay claim to the term “self-taught.” Nineteenth-century and early-twentieth century scenic studios functioned as ateliers, training young artists in compositional layout, color selection, paint mixing, and a myriad of other artistic skills. If they did not follow the accepted artistic techniques associated with romantic realism for the stage, or if they deviated from the desired design, these artists were quickly unemployed.
In a personal interview between Randy Givercer Frank and Hanny in Chicago, Illinois on May 31, 1976, the following statement was made about Sosman & Landis:
“Sosman and Landis was the greatest school on earth…Everyone who was into Sosman and Landis profited by it afterwards because they had learned how to do things there. They were young fellers when they went in and they were getting the benefit of the experience of the older fellers. They saw some good work…It was training. The training has come in wonderful for me.”
Interestingly, Coen even mentions this scenic art training by page four in her book, She wrote, “The stint as a scene painter was an experience that Edgar shared with many other contemporary American artists who often found their first professional employment in this aspect of the craft. In Edgar’s case it undoubtedly taught him the broad brushwork and rapid technique that he later used, in a more sophisticated manner, in his landscape paintings” (page 4). There is a lot to unpack here, but in short, I take issue with the idea that his time as a scenic artist was a “stint.” He worked as a scenic artist for well-over a decade.
Payne was working as a professional scenic artist at Sosman & Landis by 1903, shortly before John Hanny began as a paint boy. Payne was still working as a scenic artist in the Chicago studio in 1914 when he joined the Brotherhood of Sign, Scene, and Pictorial Painters. He even made headlines just before joining.
On May 5, 1914, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “ARTIST HAS TO JOIN UNION TO PAINT THEATER CURTAIN.” Under the article headline read, “Edgar Payne Starts Work, but Strike Results, and Compromise Solves the Problem. There is a difference between an artist and a scene painter. This Edgar Payne, of 4 East Ohio street, learned yesterday when he started on a big western picture for the drop curtain of the new American theater at Ashland avenue and Madison street. No sooner had the landscape artist titled his canvas and dipped his brush in a jar of blue paint than there was trouble. All the sign, scene, and pictorial painters of local 830 in the building laid down their tools and walked out. W. G. Lathrop, business agent for the union asserted the men would not work so long as a landscape artist remained. Moreover, not one man in the union would hang the curtain after it was decorated with the western mountains from the brush of a nonunion painter – Payne. “I am an artist, I am a landscape painter and mural painter, not a decorator – “ Mr. Payne trained to explain. But he had to join the union or lose the job. He joined the union and went on with the picture.”
In addition to the drop curtain, Edgar also designed the murals for the American Theatre depicting the history of France and Spain in the new world. Although the theater no longer exists, four of his preliminary designs still survive.
Here is a little back story that provides context for Payne’s work for the Chicago-based scenic studio.
Edgar Alwin Payne (1882-1947) was the son of John Hill Payne and Nancy Ellen Reed. Although all of his grandparents came from Virginia, his father was born in Mississippi and his mother was born in Kentucky. The couple met and was married in Washington County, Arkansas, on January 22, 1880, but established their first home in Missouri. They celebrated the birth of five children, with Edgar being the eldest son, born in Missouri’s Cassville County. Possibly near the current city of Washburn, an area is in the southwestern part of Missouri, near the Arkansas border.
When Edgar was eleven years old, the Payne family moved south from Missouri to Prairie Grove, Arkansas; a sixty-miles trip. The 1900 Census verifies that they were living in Prairie Grove that year and the Payne Household consisted of John Payne (50 yrs.), Nancy E. (41 yrs.), Fleda (19), Edgar (17 yrs.), Nora (15 yrs.), Robert T. (12 yrs.) George W. (9 yrs.) and John B. (2 yrs.) John Sr. was listed as a carpenter, with his son Edgar listed as a carpenter apprentice.
The Payne’s incentive to move south was that his mother had inherited a small parcel of property. Familial tales suggest that it was in Arkansas where Payne’s began early experimentations in art began; playing with his mother’s bluing, white lead house paint, and red coloring made out of pokeberry juice were his early art supplies. As with many other ambitious boys growing up on a farm and longing for the adventure of city life, he made several attempts to run away. Like other, including Thomas G. Moses, hauled home and reprimanded.
The Payne’s soon moved south again, this time to Lovelady, Texas. To help place this small town within the massive geographical scope of Texas, Lovelady is located 14 miles due south of Crockett, Texas, and 100 miles north of Houston. Founded in 1872, the town was named after Cyrus Lovelady who granted land access to the Houston & Great Northern Railroad for their railway line. I have yet to locate any records that substantiate the Payne’s time or activities there. Coen’s book indicates that Payne began his scenic art career in Loveland. Purportedly, Payne delivered stock scenery for stage at the Lovelady Town Hall in 1902 at the age of twenty-four. With his background as a carpenter, my guess is that he both built and painted the scenery at this time. However, I have yet to locate any other information or images pertaining to Payne’s work for Loveland’s town hall stage.
Also, around this time, Coen notes that Payne delivered a few scenic pieces for the high school in Conroe, Texas. First of all, there wasn’t a high school at the time, just the Conroe Public School. An image of the school in 1900 shows a building that could have easily included some type of theatrical stage.
Conroe is located a little more than halfway between Loveland and Houston, approximately forty miles due north of Houston. The two theatre projects in 1902 appear to be his first scenic art projects, especially considering his age.
This is where the timeline presented by Coen on Payne’s youth-to-young-adult journey gets pretty sketchy. She writes, “At some time during this period [c. 1902], Edgar left home again, this time for good. He tramped through the countryside painting fences and barns, teaching himself how to letter, and occasionally getting a job painting signs. For a time, he also travelled with a barnstorming theatrical troupe, painting and rigging up scenery, sometimes stepping into the act, and generally doing anything needed as a handyman or roustabout.”
Working as an itinerant artist in his mid-twenties is not unusual, but I cannot verify any of Payne’s activities in Texas at this time.
By 1903, Payne relocated to Chicago at the age of twenty-five. There are a few things to consider about Payne’s brief move to Chicago and his working for Sosman & Landis. In 1903 Payne was twenty-five years old; not young enough to start as a paint boy at the firm, but old enough to be added as a full scenic artist. This mean that he started at the studio with his own palette, first painting at the firm between 1903 and 1904.
Sometime between 1905 and 1906, Payne purportedly returned to Texas and settled in the Houston area with his siblings. He was not listed in the “Houston City Directory” for either year, yet his siblings Robert, Fleda and Nora were rooming at 306 McKinney Ave during this period. Like most young scenic artists, he may have accepted any project that came his way, whether it was decorative work for residences or house-painting. That meant home-basing out of his sibling’s Houston residence. In her book, Coen also credited Payne with establishing the Payne-Morris Studio at 142 Pearl Street in Dallas, Texas, but gave very little information or exact year for the firm. We do not even know the first name of his partner. The studio must have been short-lived, however, as there was no listing in a city directory, nor was there a listing for Payne at all. The only proof of its existence is an image of the two men in front of a “Payne Morris Studios” sign. That being said, there were only two likely individuals working as painters with the last name of Morris in Dallas: Charles C. Morris and Octavius J. Morris. Between briefly formed the studio of Morris & Co. from 1907 to 1908. Living at 305 Peabody Street, Charles worked as the traveling salesman; Payne was not even listed in the directory during this time.
By 1907, returned to Chicago and briefly studied at the Chicago Institute of Art, only lasting two weeks according to Coen. My guess is that Payne’s focus was on making a living, and continued to work as a scenic artist. He remained in the Midwest, yet began traveling west for sketching trips.
In 1909 he ventured to California for the first time, painting in Laguna Beach and in San Francisco. It was in California that he met his future wife, commercial artist Elsie Palmer (1884-1971) in 1910. The meeting and courtship are fascinating, described in detail by Coen in her book. Although Payne spent an increasing amount of time in California, the 1910 US Federal Census still listed Payne’s permanent address as Chicago, living at 3 East Ontario with C. B. Hartman and W. C. Wilbrandt. All three men were working as artists, listing their respective employers as “own studio.”
By 1911, Payne worked for Edwin Hardin Flagg (1878-1927) in Los Angeles, a western affiliate to Sosman & Landis. That year, Payne sent a postcard to Thomas G. Moses, humorously illustrating his work at Flagg’s studio. Moses became the company’s second president in 1915 after Joseph S. Sosman passed away. Moses had close ties with Edwin H. Flagg By 1913, the Edwin H. Flagg scenic company was one of the best-known scenic studios in the country, installing over $100,000 worth of theater scenery a year and employing a workforce of 30 artists. Flagg worked as a designer, scenic artist, theatre producer, and movie producer, running two studios by 1921; one in Los Angeles and the other in San Francisco. In 1921 the firm advertised that “90% of all stage equipment on the coast was provided by their studio” (“Los Angeles Post-Record,” 10 August 1921, page 16). Flagg’s studio was marketed as the largest scenic studio west of Chicago.
In have written about Flagg in a past post. Here is the link: https://drypigment.net2020/11/27/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-1124-thomas-g-moses-and-the-edwin-h-flagg-scenic-studio-1921/
In 1911, Elsie was offered a job in Chicago, prompting her to relocate to the Midwest. The two were married on Nov. 8, 1912. In Coen’s book “The Paynes,” Elsie described the postponement of their marriage due to a scenic art project. They rescheduled the ceremony from Sunday morning to Sunday evening. Edgar was in the midst of painting a backdrop for Mandel’s Department Store. Elsie remembered, “We went to work the next morning, Sunday, all alone in that big department store and both painted on the backdrop…in the afternoon O found a nice comfortable bed on display so I took a nap while poor Edgar toiled steadily on. I felt like a heel but just could not keep awake.”
Payne continued to work as a scenic artist in Chicago, despite repeated sketching trips for his easel art. While away on his trips, Payne continued to send postcards to Thomas G. Moses. On December 27, 1914, Payne sent Moses a postcard with “Holiday Greetings” written on the back, The postcard depicted one of Payne’s paintings. The inscription on the back noted “By Edgar Payne, Palette and Chisel Club, Chicago. A reproduction of one of eight paintings presented to the Henry O. Shepard School, Filmore and Mozart streets, Chicago. Engraved by Wells & Co., Chicago. Printed by the Henry O. Shephard Company, Chicago.”
In 1922, Moses reminisced in his memoirs about the talented individuals who passed through the studios doors, writing, “Edgar Payne, now in France, was with us only a few years ago… As I look backward over the names of the successful ones, I wonder what I would have done had I been gifted with the same amount of talent.”
The rest of the Payne’s story primarily concerns his easel art and rise to fame in the fine artworld. This tale is well documented and presented in dozens of art history books, so I will stop here.
To be continued…
