Drypigment.net

Part 517: Palette & Chisel, September 1927

 Thomas G. Moses was a member of the Palette and Chisel Club in Chicago and contributed a variety of articles to their monthly newsletter during the late 1920s. There were many scenic artists who were members of this art club. However, “Uncle Tom” was the leader of the group and the last president of the largest scenery firm in Chicago by 1915. I have included his articles about sketching trips from the 1880s that were printed in the newsletter, but here is his series of articles about the artistic process of painting stage scenery. His series for “Stage Scenery” started during September 1927. At the time, Moses was 71 years old.

The editor of the newsletter introduces Moses and his series of articles:

“Stage Scenery How it is Painted. Tom Moses Tells the Tricks of the Trade.

This is the first article of a group by Thomas G. Moses to be printed serially in the Palette and Chisel. For over a half century Tom Moses has designed and painted stage settings for productions that were famous in their time. He was associated with the famous scenic firm of Sosman and Landis which eventually became just Tom Moses though the old firm name still flies at the mast head. In this first offering, Mr. Moses tells about the mimic world in which he works; he tells of the “sets”, how and why they are made, while analyzing some o their production from the managerial and technical standpoint. This article (continued) will acquaint the reader with everyday work and problems of the scenic artist. Later Mr. Moses will tell of the sketching trips in search of new material, made to out of the way places. The first trip is dated 1884.” 

Here is Moses’ first installment to the Palette and Chisel newsletter:

“Stage Scenery 1918

The first movable scenery was invented and painted by an Italian artist by the name of Peruzzi and used in a play called “La Calandra”, which was presented before Pope Leo X in 1508, and the further developments of his inventions, which were thoroughly in accordance with the spirit of the age, led to the necessity of a recessed stage with a frame, like a picture.

Shakespeare used placards naming the different scenes, as “This is a street,” “This is a forest,” etc. A few of Shaekespeare’s disciples attempted to do this even to this advanced age, but with very little success, for it leaves too much for the imagination.

Scenery in connection with the legitimate drama or Grand Opera must be very authentic in design and truthful in color. In a “Spectacle,” “Light Opera,” “Musical Comedy,” “Burlesque,” or “Vaudeville” acts, a scenic artist can go the limit on design and give the public a riot of color, and in return for this they will howl with delight.

Thirty years ago most of the scenery was painted in the theatre, a room or paint bridge being arranged on the stage of adjoining room for that purpose. Each theatre furnished the necessary sets for the traveling company, which was headed by some big star. In the larger cities, the theatre employed a scenic artist and an assistant to keep regular stock scenery in good condition and to supply and special scene needed. While the regular stock scenery in each theatre was nearly complete there was always a call for some scene not to be found in stock. As the scene plot was sent ahead and turned over to the scenic artist, the required scene was built and painted. Often the scene was painted on an old drop, or over old framed wings.

The big spectacles, similar to the Kiralfy’s immense production, or the well-known Black Crook, had to carry all of their scenery, several car-loads, for it would cost a fortune to paint anything for these shows. At the present time nearly everyone carries scenery, and, as a rule, a lot of it.

In the early days of scene painting in America, the majority of the artists were of English descent; many of them had a weakness for the flowing bowl, and many tales have been told of several artists and what beautiful scenes they would paint while in their cups. As a rule an artist has to be in a very normal condition to paint any kind of a scene and then he will often fall down on the job.”

To be continued…

 

Part 516: Palette and Chisel Club, the Camp Tradition Draws Members to Fox Lake

The Palette and Chisel camp at Fox Lake, Illinois, was a scenic retreat for members of to escape the daily grind of Chicago. The town was incorporated on Dec. 15, 1906, and certified by the state on April 3, 1907. Located on the south shore of Pistakee Lake, Nippersink Lake, and Fox Lake, the three connected water bodies formed the Chain O’Lakes system. Early in the 20^th century, there were only a few hundred inhabitants who were residents of Fox Lake and lived in the area year round. However, during the summer months the population could reach thousands, as area hotels and cottages filled to their capacity.

Thomas G. Moses first visiting Fox Lake camp in 1907. I discovered an undated copy of a newspaper article about the camp at the Harry Ransom Center; this was during my research visit in 2016. The article was simply titled “The Camp Tradition Draws Members to Fox Lake,” and describes the appeal of the location so well. Here is the article in its entirety

 

“When the green gits in the trees” and the birds begin their annual house-planning campaign, Palette and Chisel Club members naturally experience sundry tugs and nudges which they ascribe to the lure of the camp. That time is now and we bow to its influence.

Andy why has the Club Camp such a hold on the affections of our members? Not, surely, because there are no other places for out door sketching. It is equally convenient for most members to visit the hundreds of other small lakes within easy distance of this city, or the Desplaines and Fox rivers of the Dune Country of northern Indiana. The Forest Preserves, the Chicago river and harbor, our older streets and buildings are even closer at hand.

No, it is not the convenience nor the suitability of the Club Camp that gives it a hold on us. It is the tradition it embodies and makes real.

For three decades a camp in the vicinity of Fox Lake has been a recognized Club institution. The actual location has changed several times. Sometimes it has been close to the water, sometimes near the top of the low hills which surround the lake. The present site was elected by Tom Moses and the late Dave Adam, and their choice was immediately ratified by the erection of a more pretentious camp building that we have ever before aspired to own.

At the time there were no other buildings in the neighborhood. In every direction one could gaze without interference upon nature undefiled. Now, to be sure, many resort cottages more or less adorn the surrounding hills, but they are neither numerous nor close enough to interpret work or pleasure at the Camp.

Those, however, who no longer feel contented to paint on the camp grounds can still make the Camp their headquarters while sketching in the vicinity. There are many desirable scenes within ease walking distance, and no one will deny that it is more inspiring to seek them out in company with fellow workers that to wander alone from some commercial beanery where there is no feeling of companionship or similarity of aims and tastes.

It is, in fact, this very companionship which constitutes the lure of the Camp. It is the companionship which keeps alive the Camp tradition. It stands high among the things which make our Club worth while. Let us all join hands in fostering and profiting by it.

C.H.C.”

To be continued…

Part 515: The Palette & Chisel Club – Fox Lake

In 1906, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “I joined the Palette and Chisel Club at the Chicago Society of Artists. 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.” Moses was a member of another fine art society before joining the Palette & Chisel Club. In 1904, he became a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, sponsored by R. M. Shurtleff.

The year that Moses joined the Palette and Chisel Club, the group consisted of sixty local painters, illustrators, and sculptors. The Chicago Tribune reported that it was “primarily a working club, being the oldest organization in the west” (Chicago Tribune, 6 Jan. 1906, page 2). That year, the club’s new enterprise was the maintenance of a permanent exhibition in the clubrooms on the seventh floor of the Athenæum building.

Founded in 1895, the Palette & Chisel Club was an association of artists and craftsmen for the purpose of work and study. The organization’s members were reported to be “all wage-workers, busy during the week with pencil, brush or chisel, doing work to please other people” (Inland Printer, 1896). But on Sunday mornings, they assembled for five hours to paint for themselves.

In 1905, the members of the Palette and Chisel Club established a seasonal camp at Fox Lake, Illinois. In the beginning it was quite rustic. Of the camping experience, Moses wrote, “June 1^st, 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.”

The Palette and Chisel Club camp drew a variety of artists during the summer 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 2014, I discovered a map on the backside of a stage drop in Winona, Minnesota. This was while we were putting the Scottish Rite scenery into temporary storage. The map was located near the top batten, scribbled in pencil. Around this same time, I came discovered an artist’s cartoon depicting the Fox Lake area.

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.”

By 1909, Moses wrote, “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.”

Moses enjoyed his scenic retreats to Fox Lake, escaping from the hard grind of the studio whenever he could during the summer. He painted numerous landscapes of Fox Lake and the Palette & Chisel camp house over the years, but it was one painting labeled “Fox Lake, 1909” that came to my attention in 2017. The small artwork prompted my travel to Maui in 2017 to meet the owner of the painting – Moses’ great-grandson. I first contacted him during 1996 while working on “Theatre of the Fraternity,” a touring museum exhibit curated by Lance Brockman. Twenty years went by before I received a response from Moses’ great grandson; it was during the spring of 2016, just before the elimination of my position as Curatorial Director at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. Some things are just meant to be, and I returned to Minnesota during the fall of 2017 with several of Moses’ paintings, including three small ones depicting Fox Lake in 1909.

In 1910, Moses wrote, “Fox Lake appealed to me all summer. I went up as much as possible and made good use of my time. How I wished in vain for time and money to spend all summer sketching. I know I could do something worthwhile.” Regardless of his own opinion, Moses was making progress in the eyes of Palette and Chisel Club members. By 1912 the Palette and Chisel Club honored Thomas G. Moses by giving him a big dinner and a new nickname – “Uncle Tom” of the Club.

By 1913, Moses was still spending time at Fox Lake, writing, “I enjoyed the summer at Fox Lake, as the motor boat kept us busy and I enjoyed the water. I also did quite a number of sketches, a few very good, balance rather doubtful.” That same year, he wrote, “The Palette and Chisel Club boys wanted me to give an exhibit at the club. I always refused, claiming that I am not in the picture game, and paint pictures for pleasure only. September 3^rd, a committee came to the house and insisted on going to the studio, I had over three hundred pictures in the studio; some very good but the other 275 were not as good, but the boys seemed to think I had at least 250 good ones, which was quite flattering.” That year, Moses also commented, “The Palette and Chisel Club were anxious to buy a lot near the lake, but we found it would cost too much.” Yet the search for a new home continued the following year.

In 1914, Moses wrote, “Early in April a number of Palette and Chisel Club boys, including myself, went to Fox Lake to look for a new site. We didn’t find anything worthwhile, so we will remain where we are for another season… Miss Maude Oliver, Art Critic of the Herald, wanted to see the animals fed and housed, so she went to Fox Lake to the camp. She requested that we all act perfectly natural and not put on any frills and do nothing out of the ordinary to entertain her. I never saw a bunch act worse. It was awful. I think she got plenty of local color and artistic atmosphere for her article in the Sunday Herald the next week – convinced me that she had drunk a glass full of camp life…I am not very regular at Fox Lake this year and I miss sketching. I also miss my rocks and running brooks. I have to go some distance for that kind of a motive.”

By 1915, Moses commented about the Palette and Chisel Club’s new site on Fox Lake, “April 17^th 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.”

The next few years include only a few sporadic entries in Moses’ memoirs. In 1917, Moses wrote, “I went to Fox Lake on Decoration Day, official opening. I had a new cot sent up and it was certainly and improvement over the old one. I actually rest now and enjoy going up.” In 1918, Moses wrote, “I have not been out to Fox Lake this year, the first I have missed in twelve years. The business is in such an upset condition that I felt I should stick to it.” In 1919, Moses and his son Rupert made several trips to Fox Lake where he made a few sketches. He wrote, “It is very nice to make the trip in a car, as we made it in three hours. The roads were not any too good.”

By 1920, Moses wrote, “Early in June I went to Fox Lake to see about tearing down the club houses and moving them to another place…I go up to Fox Lake every Saturday, looking after the house and I hope to complete it on time.” By this time, Moses had been venturing up to paint at Fox Lake for thirteen years. His interest in the area would soon wane. At the time, he was traveling quite a bit to California for work, and writes of the West Coast’s appeal to artists. By 1922, Moses wrote, “I made one trip to Fox Lake Camp. It is not the same, and I am very sorry to say that I have lost interest in it, besides I feel that all the good sketching had been worked to death.” He did not write about Fox Lake again.

To be continued…

 

 

Part 514: Victor Higgins and the Sketching Trip to Oldenburg, Indiana, 1910

In past posts I have examined scenic artists who traveled across the country to gather material and hone their artistic skills! Thomas G. Moses recorded and submitted descriptions of many nineteenth-century sketching trips to the Palette and Chisel Club Newsletter during the 1920s. The “Brookville Democrat” published an article in 1910 about Victor Higgins and a group of artists who traveled to Oldenburg, Indiana, for a sketching trip. The article was “Artists From Chicago Spend Two Weeks at Oldenburg Making Sketches” (Brookville, Indiana, 6 Oct. 1910, page 1). Seven Palette and Chisel Club members visited east-central Indiana for four weeks during 1910. They stayed two weeks in the primarily German village of Oldenburg, one of the oldest communities in the state.

The artists secured lodging at the Gibson Hotel, run by Joseph Merchen. At the end of their trip, the hotel displayed 130 landscapes that were painted during their stay. One of these paintings, however, portrayed the group playing a game of pool. Each artist was painted with his palette overhead, depicting how he arranged his colors. Each portrait was attributed to a specific member of the group. The Oldenburg painting collection was again exhibited again at the Pallette & Chisel Club upon their return. The Chicago exhibit did not include the group painting, as it was a gift to Oldenburg community. The trip was described in a local newspaper:

“Seven artists of the Palette and Chisel Club spent two weeks of hard work at Oldenburg and vicinity. The Palette and Chisel Club was founded fifteen years ago when the advanced students of the Art Institute of Chicago felt the need of a club in which each could “ride his own hobby,” apart from school and yet be organized. In their meeting they relate their experiences gained from private work and observation, and thus mutually help each other. Although the organization began with but a few members, it has steadily increased and now boasts of a hundred members. It includes members from some of the best art schools of this country as well as abroad.

Those members that visited our county follow different lines of work. Mr. H. L. Engle is an expert in the restoration of old masterpieces. Mr. O. E. Hake is one of the faculty of the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago. He is a designer and illuminator for the leading editors and authors. Mr. J. E. Phillips is a noted commercial artist. Mr. R. I. Ingerle is a noted member and officer of the Chicago Society of Artists and a member of the Western Society. Mr. August Petrytl is a designer and illustrator. Mr. L. O. Griffith follows the same line of work. Mr. Victor Higgins is proficient in painting theatrical stage scenes.

The Palette and Chisel Club send some of its members out every year to make their own choice. Some of the men who were here have traveled abroad and through the west and southwest of our country. This year through the influence of Mr. Higgins, we were honored with their visit.

During their stay here they have made one-hundred-thirty landscape sketches. Most of their work was exhibited at the Gibson House, where they had their headquarters, on Friday evening. The artists expressed surprise when told that there had been no other artists here before now to make paintings of the beautiful scenery that nature has so liberally scattered in these parts. They say that there is material enough here for years of work, and they will try to come back again in the near future.”

First of all, the artists are listed for their professions; Higgins is noted as a scenic artist in 1910. Secondly, it was Higgins who suggested the area. Finally, by 1910, the year of the sketching trip, the membership of the Palette & Chisel Club had grown to one hundred members, a significant number. The seven artists from the sketching trip also represented in the M. Christine Schwartz Collection (https://schwartzcollection.com/). This Collection is a privately owned collection, consisting of paintings by mid-nineteenth- to the mid-twentieth-century Chicago artists. Included are landscapes, portraits, city views, still lifes, and figural works in a variety of academic and modernist styles. The Oldenburg group painting is now part of the Schwartz Collection.

The seven artists who journeyed to Oldenburg are quite fascinating when examined as a whole. What an exciting and interesting trip in 1910. Here is a brief description of the artists who accompanied Higgins on the sketching trip:

L. Engle was, Harry Leon Engle (1870-1968). Engle was listed in the American Art Directory of 1907-1908 as the president of the Palette & Chisel Club. A well-respected and talented landscape painter, he wrote articles about the contemporary art scene in Chicago and organized the Chicago Galleries Association. Engle later became director of the association. Engle was a Palette & Chisel gold medal winner in 1923.

______________________

August Petrytl (1867-1937). Petrytl designed numerous illustrations for books and even designed a green spade tarot deck in 1921. Known for his painting of historical figures, Petrytl was president of the Palette & Chisel Club in 1906. His portrait by Joseph Kleitch hung on a dining room at the Palette and Chisel club.

__________________

Louis Oscar Griffith (1875-1956). Griffith was born in Greencastle, Indiana, and moved to Texas during his youth. He attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and the Chicago Art Institute, later moving to Chicago to work as a commercial illustrator. He was noted for his skills in oil painting, watercolors, woodblocks and etching. He was the Palette and Chisel Club gold medal winner in 1921.

_______________________

Otto Eugene Hake (1876-1965) was born in Ulm, Germany and immigrated to the United States as a teenager. After apprenticing with a wood carver in St. Louis, Hake traveled to Chicago in 1892. In Chicago, Hake worked as an engraver and illustrator for the Binner-Wells Company. He fought in the Spanish-American War of 1898, later earning American citizenship at the age of twenty-one. Hake entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1905 and received his first mural commission for a public high school that year. He worked as an illustrator and designer, but was best known for his murals. Hake became the president of the Palette & Chisel Club by 1910. He was also the editor of the Palette & Chisel Club journal, called “The Cow Bell.” He traveled abroad in 1912 to study at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and at the Debschitz Academy in Munich. He was the Palette and Chisel gold medal winner in 1935.

_____________________

Rudolph F. Ingerle (1879-1950) was the son of Moravian parents, born in Vienna. His immigrated to the United States as a child, eventually settling in Chicago around 1891. Ingerle studied music before becoming an artist. He was a student at Smith’s Art Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago, and a private pupil Walter Dean Goldbeck. Ingerle joined Carl Krafft and several St. Louis artists to found the Society of Ozark Painters. He later focused on the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland Mountains during the 1920s. He and Hake went on trips to the Great Smoky Mountains where he became well-known in the region. Ingerle was a founding member of the North Shore Art League in 1924 and served as its first president. He was also the president of the Chicago Society of Artists, and a member of the Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors. In 1920 Ingerle won a gold medal from the Bohemian Art Club of Chicago. He was the Palette and Chisel gold medal winner in 1929.

_______________________

John E. Phillips (1848- ?) I have uncovered very little information about Phillips, other than his birthdate and prints of a few paintings. He was the president of the Palette and Chisel Club in 1916.

To be continued…

Part 513: A Biography of Victor Higgins by Mary Carroll Nelson

As I was looking for information about Victor Higgins, I encountered an article written by Mary Carroll Nelson for “American Artist” in January 1978. The article was posted at “The Old Palette, Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of Chicago’s Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art” (Chris Miller, April 1, 2018). It is a little long, but an interesting read:

A Biography of Victor Higgins — by Mary Carroll Nelson

“OF THE FIRST eight Taos artists it was Victor Higgins who led the field in creativity. Less content than the others with the dicta of academic painting, Higgins was open to the currents of change in art. He was born into a large farm family of Irish extraction in Shelbyville, Indiana, on June 28, 1884. An itinerant sign painter introduced him to the wonders of paint and filled his head with “art talk” when Higgins was nine. Farming didn’t interest Higgins. At 15 he went to Chicago and remained there, studying and later teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In 1910 he went to Europe and studied for four years: in Paris, at the Academie de Ia Grande Chaumier under Rene Menard and Lucien Simon; and in Munich under Hans Von Heuck. When he returned, his style was urbane, though monotonous in color. His touch was sure in pastoral landscapes and museum copies. Victor Higgins did not seek out the experimental leaders of Parisian art circles when he was in Europe, and he seemed to miss entirely the Post-Impressionist ferment of Cezanne’s analytical composition and Matisse’s emotional color. While in Paris Higgins met Walter Ufer, a rough, blunt man who also had lived in Chicago. Higgins was a shy, retiring person; Ufer was an aggressive extrovert; but they got along well, attracted perhaps by their different natures. They shared a mutual antagonism for academic subject matter though they had sought academic instruction, they regretted the lack of international recognition for American art and agreed that their country needed an identifiable art of its own.

In 1914, back in Chicago, Victor Higgins was offered a commission by Carter H. Harrison, a wealthy buyer of his work who had been a long time mayor of the city, to do a landscape of Taos. Carter paid Higgins’s way to Taos for the painting trip and underwrote his expenses. He did the same for Walter Ufer. Higgins went first to Santa Fe, where he met Sheldon Parsons, unofficial greeter of visiting artists to New Mexico. He stayed a brief time and was entertained by the widower Parsons and his teenage daughter, Sara, who was his hostess. Shortly afterwards Higgins continued his trip to Taos and in 1915 was invited to join the Taos Society of Artists. Ernest Blumenschein described Higgins: “I gathered from his good breeding, soft-spoken voice, and gentle manner that his boyhood was uneventful. He was not a strong, virile character like Ufer, but one of hesitating sensitive nature. Higgins felt out his compositions with a broad, sweeping style and masses of color en rapport. He had a painter’s style.” Blumenschein refers to Higgins as “the dreamer” as opposed to the realist.

The original six Taos artists were well known in Chicago, and Higgins had been anxious to see the village for himself. When he arrived, 16 years after Phillips and Blumenschein’s arrival, Taos had become a recognized, if distant, art center. In 1916, two years after Higgins moved to Taos, the clouds of war drove Mabel Dodge from her salon in Paris back to America. She and her husband Maurice Sterne traveled to Taos in search of a remote, romantic environment. Though Maurice Sterne stayed only two years, it was he who invited Andrew Dasburg to Taos. Dasburg brought with him an enthusiasm for and understanding of Cubism. Mabel Dodge divorced Sterne, married Taos Indian Tony Luhan, and remained as a magnet to the talented. She was a stimulator of events and a generous sponsor who aided others. The other artists of Taos were less affected by this dramatic woman than Victor Higgins, but he at times was a part of her circle, and he took pleasure in a contemporary exploration of aesthetics. At first, however, his paintings continued to be set pieces. Elegant and increasingly spare, they featured Indian figures in repose. He made an effort to vary the focus of his paintings. It is noteworthy that Higgins was never an illustrator but always an “easel painter.” He dispensed with detail that is characteristic of illustration and concentrated on composition.

Taos, with its fresh pictorial possibilities, deeply satisfied him. He once flamboyantly wrote, “The West is composite, and it fascinates me. In the West are forests as luxurious as the forests of Fontainebleau or Lebanon , desert lands as alluring as the Sahara, and mountains most mysterious. Caflons and mesa that reveal the construction of the earth, with walls just as fantastic as facades of Dravidian Temples. An architecture, also fast disappearing, as homogeneous as the structures of Palestine and the northern coast of Africa; and people as old as the peoples of history, with customs and costumes as ancient as their traditions. And all this is not the shifting of playhouse scenes but the erosion and growth of thousands of years, furrowed for centuries by Western rains, dried by Western winds, and baked by Western suns. Nearly all that the world has, the West has in nature, fused with its own eternal self.”

In 1919 Victor Higgins married Sara Parsons. He was 35, she was 18. Their first home was one provided by Mabel Dodge Luhan (later they rented a house on Ledoux Street, right across from the Blumenschein house). It was a long series of rooms attached together in the adobe style with primitive facilities. Other aspects of life were of a high order-particularly conversation. Victor Higgins was a favored raconteur with an Irish gift for storytelling. Sara Higgins found the social side of her shared life enjoyable and was especially fond of Mabel Dodge Luhan, who was a good friend to her. However, in private Victor Higgins was a single-minded artist, not given to small talk. He also had strong opinions about the role of woman as helpmate to the husband. The marriage was one of incompatibles, for Sara Parsons Higgins was a spirited, talented, athletic young woman who required outlets for her prodigious abilities and had always enjoyed an adult, stimulating life with her father. The marriage ended in 1924, much to Higgins’ sorrow. He loved his beautiful, red-haired wife and cherished their daughter, Joan, born in 1922. Their relationship became that of dear friends, without rancor, and extended to include Robert Mack, Sara’s second husband of over 40 years. The influence of Sara’s powerfully discerning eye during their brief marriage was important in the career of Victor Higgins, for she steered him toward a more stark style, away from a tendency to theatrics and decoration.

Higgins was a handsome man, gray eyed, brown-haired, of medium build, who always had a trim mustache and neatly barbered head. In his studio or on location he painted while dressed formally in a white shirt and tie. His so-called “Little Gems,” which were painted outdoors in all weather, were sometimes produced by Higgins wearing hat, suit, and coat. To Higgins there was no apparent incongruity in the professional formality of his attire and the usual messiness of a painter’s gear, for he was fastidious in his handling of paint. He gave concise, useful critiques as a teacher and helped many young artists. At a party he was an asset. But he kept the world at bay from his intimate feelings and beliefs.

Though Higgins lived as a bachelor most of his life, he was no recluse. His biographer, Dean Porter, traces a second Taos period in Higgins’s work that began around 1920. He selects the one abstract statement Higgins ever painted, Circumferences, as a breakthrough and a talisman of the mystic nature of the artist. It could not have been painted by any of the other artists in the Taos Society of Artists, and it’s atypical of Higgins, but it does show a capacity in the artist to step away from subject matter as such and to become ever more purely a creator of a painting. However one analyzes it, there’s a change in brushwork, color, and subject matter that enlivens Higgins’s work after 1920, separating it still farther from that of other Taos artists. Brushwork in the earlier Higgins was free and juicy, but in later work it takes on a more graphic quality. He searched for the basic form of the nearby mountain and decided it was a series of diagonal slabs. Clouds became flat strata of varying lengths receding in space. The valley became a series of stripes or a rickrack of color. The essentials of form gradually took precedence over accidents of appearance.

Meeting John Marin in 1929 and painting on fishing trips with him came at a perfectly timed moment in Higgins’s life. He was already moving toward simplification, and he enjoyed watercolor as much as oil. There is a pronounced kinship between Higgins’s watercolors and those Marin did in New Mexico in their reduction and calligraphic symbolism. One would be at a loss, however, to separate the influence and determine whose was more powerful, for Higgins was in his own habitat and had a staccato style before he met Marin. Of the early Taos artists, Higgins alone excelled in watercolors. He made many contributions to American art that were varied and commanding, but none were more so than his watercolors, which add greatly to the American history of the medium and yet have received less than ‘their rightful recognition. The older Higgins grew, the more he was able to do with the least means. He developed private schema for pine trees, clouds, earth, and adobes that rank him with Charles Burchfield in creative expression in watercolor. Winter Funeral is perhaps Higgins’s best known oil. Below the greenish gray Taos mountains on the snow covered mesa, the funeral is made to seem pathetically unimportant and small when compared to the large scale of the setting. It is a lonely, harsh, and haunting scene-a complete statement that stands as one of the finest paintings in the history of American landscape. It also marks, for Higgins, an end to the figure in landscape and the beginning of landscape for its own sake, something the other artists in Taos did not paint with the same concentration. In addition to his landscapes, Higgins shared two other interests with the work of Cezanne. One was the introduction of still lifes, especially flowers on slightly tilted tabletops, and the other was figure studies, done in the studio, whose power rests on design and abstraction. Victor Higgins had a distinguished career.

In 1921 he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design after winning many major prizes in Chicago and New York. He was one of the Taos artists asked to paint murals for the State Capitol of Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1935 he was elected to full membership in the National Academy. His sales were not so steady as some of the other artists in Taos, but he aligned himself with a shrewd Chicago dealer who once had his work placed in some new homes and made a major sale, for which Higgins received a check for over $10,000.

He participated less in exhibitions in his later years. Although he did not achieve the popular success accorded to Couse, Sharp, Blumenschein, and Ufer, he did enjoy esteem from the art community. In the last five years of Victor Higgins ‘s life, from the mid to the late ’40s, he did a series of fresh, small landscapes that synthesized his proficiency with the brush and his intensified vision: These are called his ” Little Gems” and were noted by Ernest Blumenschein in the introduction to Bickerstaff’s book: “His last group of pictures I shall never forget. They were done on sketching trips around Taos Valley and in the Rio Grande Canyon. In them was the best Higgins quality, a lyrical charm added to his lovely color. His art had developed in [an] intellectual side through his adventure with Dynamic Symmetry and other abstract angles. Not that he used mechanical formulas. He always had, as do most good artists, an instinct that guided his form structure… and he put all he had into this dozen of small canvases. They must have been about eighteen wide by ten inches high. All works of love; love of his simple subjects and of his craftsmanship. These pictures had the ‘extra something’ that the right artist can put into his work when he is ‘on his toes.’ ” The “Little Gems” have become the most sought after of Higgins’s work. Not just once but time after time he created paintings with economy and power, about which a viewer could truthfully say there isn’t a stroke out of place or unnecessary to the whole.

While dining with his friends the Thomas Benrimoses, Higgins was stricken with a heart attack and died in Taos on August 23, 1949. As Sara Mack has stated, Victor Higgins was articulate about art. In an interview with Ina Sizer Cassidy in 1932, he made these statements that clarify his ideas and career: “The term reality is greatly misunderstood. It does not mean the ability to copy nature as most people seem to think; it means more than that, the reality of being. The difference between the modernistic and the romantic form of art, as I see it, is the architectural basis. The modern painter builds his picture, he does not merely paint it. He has his superstructure, his foundation, just as an architect has for his buildings.” When he was asked why he liked to paint in Taos, Higgins spoke of color and added, “And besides this, there is a constant call here to create something.”

There was no mention of his continued work for the theater. Did the author know that he was a scenic artist, or was it not considered an artistic contribution?

To be continued…

Here is the link to the “This Old Palette” post: http://thisoldpalette.blogspot.com/2018/04/biography-of-victor-higgins.html

 

Part 512: Victor Higgins and the Taos Society of Artists

In 1914, Carter H. Harrison funded a second artistic trip for Victor Higgins and Walter Ufer; a year-long trip to Taos in exchange for eight paintings! Higgins and Ufer were two alums from the Chicago Institute of Art who had previously studied in Europe together. The meat-packing tycoon Oscar Mayer, also contributed financially on Ufer’s behalf for this trip. Higgins stayed in Taos, as the Taos Society of Artists was formed in 1915. Higgins became president of the Society and remained a member until the society’s dissolution in 1927.

Although Higgins spent much of his time in the southwest, he continued to return to Chicago for Sosman & Landis. A picture published in “Scene Painting and Bulletin Art” during 1916, depicted Higgins painting a drop curtain at the Sosman & Landis studio in Chicago.

While living in Taos, Higgins focused on painting the Pueblo people and landscapes, writing “This strong primitive appeal calls out the side of art that is not derivative; it urges the painter to get his subjects, his coloring, his tone from the real life about him, not from the wisdom of the studios.” Art historians note that around this time Higgins abandoned many of the traditional approaches to fine art that he had learned in Europe, specifically incorporating the vibrant colors of the landscape and painted his subjects as realistically as possible. This same infusion of color, however, also occurred in the world of scenic art as the shadow colors increase in vibrancy. Some drops painted this time begin to be dominated by ultramarine blue. By the 1920s, this would become more prevalent, but I wonder if Higgins may have been the leading force in the movement at the scenic studio.

As Higgins periodically returned to Chicago, he exhibited his southwestern artworks at the Palette and Chisel Club and the Art Institute of Chicago, dominating the juried exhibitions. He also exhibited works in Indianapolis and New York, with the occasional show in Europe.

By 1921, Higgins convinced four wealthy collectors to fund two years of travel to paint. These would become two of the most productive and experimental years in his career, allowing him to expand on his paint atmospherics with brilliant colors. Looking at Higgins’ economy of brush stroke, one could parallel these techniques with his scenic art for the stage. Historical backdrops produced by the Sosman & Landis studio reflected the hand of their creator. Because the same compositions were being replicated over and over again, it is possible to trace the work of individual artists. The brush work for foliage, marble work, and draperies, are like a signature.

In 1926, Higgins said, “The transcription of a natural scene to paint on canvas is analogous to handwriting. It is to be presumed that an artist knows the mechanics of his art; knows how to handle his tools, just as an author is assumed to have mastered the mechanical task of writing. In both cases, the art of the thing is beyond that. The artist does not merely depict the scene; he digests it; he expresses an emotional reaction. He does not try to compete for accuracy with a colored photograph. The whole modern movement is back to three-dimensional form. Impressionism was a scientific investigation of light. Esthetically we have discovered that while impressionism moved art out-of-doors and gave us cognizance of new factors, the really vital thing is form, rather than light” (Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 16 Jan. 1926, page 38).

The “Honolulu Star-Bulletin” reported that in Hawaii, Higgins commented, “diffused light, which is more than direct light, modifies forms, [and] is somewhat similar here to that in desert country, to which it takes a newcoming painter perhaps two to three tears to become accustomed” (16 Jan. 1926, page 38). It was the diffused light and the distant mountains that appealed to Higgins, Thomas G. Moses and many other scenic artists, as they developed landscapes for the stage.

Higgins was further quoted, “I consider that the mountain country – in New Mexico, in Hawaii, anywhere – is a reservoir of strength. Whether they know it or not, the mountain people are building up a spiritual force that will be valuable to the country. In every crisis, the man or the idea has appeared, and for these crises the mountains are building the reserve of power.” The article explained that this idea was expanded upon in Higgins’ painting “The Valley of Waiting Souls,” – “a scene in which the height and distance of mountains interpret a certain ‘waiting’ attitude in these geological formations, and the idea is carried further by groups of human figures: ‘The mountains wait, and the people wait with them.’”

In 1929 Higgins was invited to participate at the Museum of Modern Art’s second exhibit. That same year, Moses mentions Higgins stopping by to visit him in California on February 14th. Higgins and his wife were in town to settle the estate of their nephew, Theodore Roberts, a famous movie star. In regard to Higgins’ personal life, he was briefly married to Sara Parsons, the daughter of Sheldon Parsons. The union resulted in one child – Joan Higgins. Later, he married Marion Kooglen McNay of San Antonio (1937-1940). McNay was the wealthy daughter of an oil baron with multiple marriages behind her. An artist in her own right, McNay had been trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and also worked as an art instructor. Little is said of these his relationships.

As many artists, Higgins suffered financially in his final years and began painting small scenes on boards that he called “Little Gems.” He would drive his car to a picturesque area, open his trunk and paint scenes for passersby. It is noted that he worked in a shirt and tie or full three-piece suit. I was not surprised by this description when looking at images of scenic artists who worked at studio paint frames in business attire. After all, they were the top professionals at the studio and dressed the part. It was the paint boys who wore overalls. Smoking a cigar with a paint box on his lap, Higgins sold these small artworks for approximately $250.00.

Higgins continued to paint until his death on Aug. 23, 1949. His painter’s box, easel, palette and stool, now hang in a replica of Higgins’ studio inside the Eiteljorg Museum. Here is the link for the museum: https://www.eiteljorg.org/

To be continued…

Part 511: Thomas G. Moses and Victor Higgins

In 1905, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Victor Higgins, one of our promising young men, quit to take up picture painting and started with a strong determination to win, and I think he will.”

Victor Higgins, A.N.A. (1884-1949) was a friend to Moses over the years. They painted together in both scenic and fine art studios, remaining close until Moses’ death in 1934. Higgins was born in Shelbyville, Indiana. Purportedly, it was an itinerant sign painter who inspired Higgins to become an artist. Leaving home at the age of fifteen, he entered the Chicago Art Institute and studied alongside E. Martin Hennings and Walter Ufer by 1899. It was during his time in Chicago that Higgins began painting for the theatre, eventually meeting Moses. Higgins worked at Sosman & Landis alongside Art Oberbeck, Fred Scott, Edgar Payne, Ansel Cook, Walter C. Hartson, William Nutzhorn, David Austin Strong, and an artist named Evans. Higgins also worked for David Hunt at Sosman & Landis’ eastern affiliate New York Studios. His fellow New York Studio artists included William Smart, Art Rider, and Al Dutheridge.

As Moses recorded, Higgins’ “strong determination to win” prompted him to seek further artistic instruction beyond that available in Chicago. In 1908, Higgins travelled to New York, meeting Robert Henri (1865-1929) – a leading figure of the Ashcan School of art. Henri’s students included Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, George Bellow, Norman Raeben, Louis D. Fancher and Stuart Davis. He spurned the Academy and Impressionist school of painting, promoting a revived realism and rallying “for paint to be as real as mud, as the clods of horse shit and snow that froze on Broadway in the winter.” It was this instruction that likely guided Higgins’ art throughout the course of his career. Higgins’ artistic training in New York prompted him to continue his education in Europe.

The same year that Higgins traveled to New York, former Chicago Mayor and avid art collector, Carter H. Harrison, financed his artistic study in Europe at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris. There, he became a pupil of Rene Menard and Lucien Simon. Higgins then went to Munich where he was a pupil of Hans von Hyeck. During his first year in Europe, he sent Moses several postcards to share his journey with the older artist. In 1909 Higgins mailed Moses a postcard from 16 Promenadenplatz, Munich.

Chicago offered many opportunities for artists during this time. During Mayor Harrison’s administration, the Chicago City Council created the Commission for the Encouragement of Local Art (1914-1945). This commission used taxpayer money to purchase paintings and sculpture created by Chicago artists. It is no wonder that Chicago was a leading artistic force at the time and became an artistic hub where many artists gathered.

In 1909, Higgins briefly returned to work for Sosman & Landis again, decorating the interior for the American Music Hall in Chicago. This was a time when the studio was swamped with Masonic work and the scenic artists were busily producing massive Scottish Rite scenery collections at both their main and annex studios. Two of the projects were for the Scottish Rites in Atlanta, Georgia and Kansas City, Kansas. At the time, the studio was also busy creating a huge spectacle called “The Fall of Messiah” for the White City, a Coliseum Show, and a large installation of scenery for Detroit’s Temple Theatre.

Beginning in 1912, Higgins began exhibiting his artwork with the Palette & Chisel Club, earning national recognition and the Gold Medal (1913). Moses was also a member of this same fine art society, also exhibiting many times over the decades. Other artistic awards granted to Higgins were from the Municipal Art League (1915), the Logan Medal of the Art Institute of Chicago (1917), and the first Altman prize for the National Academy of Design (1918). He was represented in permanent collection of the Art Institute in Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles museum, and many other public and private collections.

To be continued…

Part 510: Thomas G. Moses and the Orpheum Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri

In 1905, Thomas G. Moses recorded that Sosman & Landis provided drop curtains and scener for the Salt Lake Orpheum and the Kansas City Orpheum. The Kansas City Orpheum was advertised as “Kansas City’s Society Vaudeville Theater and located at W. 9^th Street and May Street. (Kansas City Journal, 10 Sept. 1899, page 14). The building, originally H. D. Clark’s 9^th Street Theatre, was leased by the Orpheum Theatre and Realty Co. in 1898.

In 1905, Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide listed that Kansas City had a population of approximately 200,000 people with six performance venues – the Willis Wood Theatre, the Grand Opera House, the Gilliss Theatre, the Auditorium, the Century and the Orpheum. The Century was a burlesque house while the Orpheum was a vaudeville theater.

The Kansas City Orpheum was managed by M. Lehman, with standard ticket prices at 15 cents to 75 cents. Located on the ground floor, the venue was illuminated with electricity (Volt. 110, Edison). The seating capacity was 2,084, with 594 in the parquet, 556 in the balcony, 556, 850 in the gallery, and 84 in the boxes. The theater did not have a scene room, but the stage had one bridge; it was located along the upstage wall.

Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical guide for 1903-1904 noted that the proscenium measured 40 feet wide by 36 feet high, with 63 feet the stage to the rigging loft and 40 feet between fly girders. The height of grooves for wings was 22 feet in height, yet the number of sets was not listed The depth of the stage was 44 feet from the footlights to the back wall. The distance between the sidewalls of the stage was 72 feet. The depth under the stage was 18 feet with seven traps.

Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide for 1905-1906 included a few changes to the technical specifications of the stage, likely why the new scenery was added at the time. When Moses was working for the Kansas City Orpheum, it had just undergone a partial renovation to the stage area. In 1905 the depth under the stage was decreased from 18 feet to 12 feet. The number of traps was also reduced from seven to two. The grooves height of grooves was also shortened from 22 feet to 20 feet. Additionally, the venue was no longer listed as being illuminated with a combination gas and electric system; it was solely electric. I have located no reason for the alteration to the building during 1905.

On December 26, 1914 a second Orpheum Theater was completed at an expense of $500,000. The new building was located at 1214 Baltimore Avenue. The previous Kansas City Orpheum Theater fell into misuse, became neglected, badly vandalized, and was eventually razed by 1922. The new Orpheum’s auditorium included a domed roof that was painted blue and highlighted with artificial stars, suggesting a nighttime atmosphere. The main stage curtain was made of wire woven asbestos painted to resemble velvet drapery and weighed in excess of 1,200 pounds.

Moses painted a few wire curtains throughout the course of his career. He wrote that they were “hard to paint.” A wire fireproof curtain in 1886 was for Jacob Litt at the Academy of Music in Milwaukee, and another was for Cleveland. In 1913, Moses painted a woven wire asbestos curtain that became damaged during shipping. Of the experience, Moses wrote, “big dents killed my picture.” He later explained that there was no remedy to repair any dented wire curtain, especially after folding one. Moses explained that “they should never be folded, always rolled.”

To be continued…

Part 509: The Orpheum in Salt Lake City

In 1905, Thomas G. Moses wrote that he worked for the new Orpheum theatre in Salt Lake, Utah. “The Salt Lake Telegram” reported that the new Orpheum Theater would open on Christmas day (5 Dec 1905, page 4). The theater did open on its targeted date, but it was a last minute rush. The newspaper noted, “With a few gilded trimmings and with walls and ceilings yet untouched by the hands of the decorator, the New Orpheum theater made its bid for public favor last night. Manager Bristes [sic] promised to have the home of vaudeville open Christmas night and he did, despite discouraging delays from one source and another” (26 December 1905, page 5).

“The Salt Lake Telegram” explained a few of the delays, “The same mystery that surrounds the consignment of opera chairs also enveloped the two carloads of scenery that were shipped west from Chicago some days ago. Yesterday, word was received that the drop curtain and scenery had been located and would arrive from Denver not later than tomorrow morning, all of which lifts a great load from the mind of manager J. F. Bistes” (16 Dec. 1905, page 4). Misplacing two carloads of Sosman & Landis scenery must have been a nightmare scenario on the studio’s end too. The grand opening was December 25, and it still had to be installed at the venue. On Monday, December 17, two carloads of scenery and a drop curtain were unloaded and placed into position (The Salt Lake Telegram, 17 Dec. 1905, page 26).

The building, located on State and Olive Streets, was a three-story brick structure, reportedly costing $80,000 (Salt Lake Telegram, 30 Nov. 1905, page 9). The design by architect C. M. Neuhausen was advertised as “Modern in Construction” (The Salt Lake Telegram, 5 Dec. 1905, page 5). Excavation commenced during April and the building was ready for some interior work by September. The general color of the interior was green, white and gold with French plush hangings for the loges and draperies of rich red, decorated with gold arabesque designs. The seating capacity was 1300 with 705 seats on the first floor and 610 in the balcony, besides the seating in the boxes. There were hardwood opera chairs in the balcony and red leather “recliners” for the parquet levels. The seven exits were constructed so that the slightest pressure would open them, allowing the theater to be emptied in two minutes during an emergency. Amenities included “an airy nursery where white-capped maids would attend to children” on the second floor.

Arrangements were made with the Utah Light & Railway company to supply the lighting and such “motive power” for the installation of modern electrical effects. There were 1500 incandescent bulbs for the auditorium. The stage measured thirty feet in depth with eighty feet between the sidewalls. There was fifty-five feet from the stage floor to the rigging loft.

The newspaper reported, “The Orpheum Circuit company, through its general manager, Martin Beck, will direct the enterprise, the success of which seems assured by an affiliation with the most influential vaudeville interests in the West. There has been secured the booking co-operation of the Western Vaudeville Association, in whose Chicago offices contracts for all the big stars are made for the Orpheum circuit and other associate theaters. Salt Lake is thus assured equal advantages with theaters in many of the large Western cities from Chicago to San Francisco, to which this booking association sends the cream of the world’s best vaudeville talent. The importance of this booking alliance may be better appreciated when it is understood that it will give Salt Lake City the attractions that are supplied to the following important theaters: The Chicago opera-house, the Olympic, the Haymarket and the million-dollar Majestic theater (now building), all of Chicago; Columbia, St. Louis; Grand opera-house, Indianapolis; Columbia, Cincinnati; Hopkins, Louisville; Hopkins, Memphis; Orpheum, San Francisco; Orpheum, New Orleans; Orpheum, Los Angeles; Orpheum, Denver; Orpheum, Minneapolis; Orpheum, Kansas City; Orpheum, St. Paul; and the Orpheum, Omaha.”

The Orpheum Circuit was a chain of vaudeville and movie theaters. It was founded in 1886 and operated through 1927, when it merged with the Keith-Albee theater chain, ultimately becoming part of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) corporation. Salt Lake was the smallest city on the Orpheum Circuit in 1905.

Of the scenery for the old 1905 Salt Lake Orpheum, the “Salt Lake Telegram” noted, “The management made an effort to have these painted in this city, but under the time limit imposed that was impossible (The Salt Lake Telegram 14 Dec 1905, page 5). By 1912, a new Orpheum was already under construction and the “Salt Lake Telegram” reported “New Scenery for Orpheum Painted Here” (14 August, 1912, page 5). The article contended, “heretofore every new theatre with the exceptions of the old Salt Lake, has imported its scenery drop curtain and sets from one of the big New York or Chicago houses which make a specialty of equipping new theatres. The new Orpheum, now under construction on West Second South Street will have all of its scenery built and painted here.” Charles Wallace, a scenic artist employed by the Orpheum Circuit, arrived from Los Angeles to paint the scenery for the new theater in 1912. The article described, “Wallace took off his coat, his diamond pin in his pocket-book and climbed into his overalls and then up the paint frame. He is now throwing color on several sets, with the result that when the vaudeville season opens Sunday, a new outfit of scenery will greet the eyes of the first nighters. Another feature is that owning to the hard knocks scenery receives in vaudeville special linen has been shipped in from Syracuse, N. Y. The average theatre considers Indian Head calico good enough for scenery, but the Orpheum proposes to have the best. While Mr. Wallace and his assistants are “throwing color” the entire Orpheum force is housecleaning and getting the theatre ready for the opening.”

The new 1912 Orpheum was managed by the Salt Lake Orpheum Realty company (The Salt Lake Tribune 4 April 1912, page 20). The company selected the site where the Salt Lake Hardware Company once stood for their new building. They then granted a twenty-year lease to the newly formed Utah Orpheum Company, incorporated in California only a few days before the Salt Lake Orpheum Realty company was organized. The Utah Orpheum Company included some incorporators who also controlled the Salt Lake Orpheum Realty company; a win-win situation. It was the Utah Orpheum Company who would furnish the attractions while the Salt Lake Orpheum Realty company provided the space. At this same time, a merger was planned for the State Street Orpheum (1905), controlled by the Orpheus Vaudeville company, and the Utah Orpheum Company. In other words, the newer Utah Orpheum Company would absorb the older Orpheus Vaudeville company.

The architect, contracted to provide the new drawings for the proposed building was Mr. Landsberg. The older 1905 Orpheum building eventually became a movie theatre. The auditorium and main lobby were refurbished several times over the decades, each time the venue changed hands in fact. Except for the stage, little remained of the original building as a series of renovations altered the auditorium. The theater was first converted to show movies in 1918. Over the years, the theater was known by other names, including Loew’s Casino Theater (1920), Wilkes Theater, Roxey Theater, Salt Lake Theater, and Lyric Theater (1947). In 1971 the Lyric closed when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints bought the theatre. They restored the building for church plays, renaming it the Promised Valley Playhouse. By 1996, however, the theater closed due to structural problems. In 2000, the Church replaced the playhouse by building a new 911-seat theater as part of its new Conference Center. The final owners of the building, Zions Securities, eventually demolished the auditorium in 2003 to build a 400-car parking garage. The facade and lobby are the only elements that remain of the original building.

To be continued…

Part 508: Henry C. Tryon, Scenic Artist for the Salt Lake Theatre, 1882-1883

In 1883 Henry C. Tryon was in Salt Lake City, producing scenery for the newly renovated Salt Lake Theater. The “Salt Lake Daily” published, “The improvements which have been in progress at the Salt Lake Theatre during the past nine or ten months, under the direction of Henry C. Tryon, the noted scenic artist, have attracted a great deal of attention from theatrical men generally” (July 22, 1883, Vol. XIV, No. 41). Harry Miner’s Dramatic Directory listed Henry C. Tryon at the scenic artist who produced the 25 sets of scenery for the newly renovated Salt Lake Theatre.

The theater had already undergone one renovation in 1873. This project included adding a large parquet with four ascending parquet circles and two boxes flanking the proscenium opening. The dress circle curved in a semicircle that allowed the placement of a movable floor over the parquet seats. The false floor was level with the stage, creating a large hall for a various activities. Once positioned, the flooring permitted everything from grand balls to benefit dances for city firemen. The theater also included several dressing rooms and storage areas.

1884 the renovated stage was described in Harry Miner’s Dramatic Directory. The seating capacity was enlarged once again to accommodate 1,850 people. The renovated stage included a proscenium measuring 28 feet wide by 32 feet high. The venue used hard wings in grooves that measured 18 feet in height. The stage area was 65 feet deep by 70 feet wide. The height from the stage to the fly loft was 52 feet, with a depth under the stage of 11 feet.

The Salt Lake Theatre was enlarged again in the 1890s when the proscenium opening was expanded. Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide for 1896 reported that the proscenium opening now measured 32 feet wide by 40 feet high. There were six pairs of grooves, each measuring 18 feet in height. The grooves could now be taken up flush with the fly gallery. The stage had 5 traps included a vampire trap in front.

The Salt Lake Theatre was built in 1861. Located on the northwest corner of State Street and First South Street, the structure measured 80 feet by 144 feet. The seating capacity for the venue was originally 1,500 individuals. The theater served many functions over its lifespan and was host to a variety of social and political activities. When the theater was conceived, Salt Lake City had a population of 12,000 inhabitants. It was still considered a frontier outpost with a telegraph service, but little else.

The Mormon leader Brigham Young announced the plan to construct a theater and was integral in its overall planning and construction. Since the Mormons’ time in Nauvoo, the community had both enjoyed and promoted theatrical activities, including performances at H. E. Bowring’s makeshift playhouse or other entertainments at their social hall. Young made the decision to build the Salt Lake Theatre there in 1858. Part of his decision was due to the popularity of the amusement hall at nearby Camp Floyd. Camp Floyd’s hall maintained a tenuous existence and was not big enough for elaborate productions. When the Civil War began, Gen. Johnston was called back east, leaving a vacant hall at Camp Floyd. The amusement hall’s theatrical properties and scenery were procured by Nicholas Groesbeck for Springville, Utah. It was in Springville where Henry C. Tryon first worked in the region, painting $1000 worth of scenery for the venue.

The principals participants in the construction of the Salt Lake Theater included William Folsom as the main architect; Hiram B. Clawson as the general supervisor; E. L.T. Harrison as the interior designer; Alexander Gillespie, Henry Grow, Joseph Schofield, and Joseph A. Young as the foremen; and George M. Ottinger, Henry Maiben, and William Morris as the original scenic artists. Alfred Lambourne succeeded Ottinger as the scenic artist for the Salt Lake Theater. It was Lambourne who studied with Tryon when he was in the region.

“Scenic Notes” published in “The Salt Lake Daily Herald” described the scenery painted by Henry C. Tryon for the Salt Lake Theater” in 1882 (25 Nov 1882, page 8).

“Last evening a few of the new scenes painted by Mr. Henry C. Tryon were lighted up for the delectation of a small circle of friends who were present in the Theatre. A snow scene, beyond all comparison ahead of anything yet placed on the stage, was the theme of much favorable comment on account of its artistic naturalness. The effect of light and shade on the newly fallen snow, and the superb delineation of chill winter, was never more effectively shown, no matter what pains taken of the class of surroundings. The sky effect was faultless, and showed most exquisite taste in harmony of color, and in the delicate handling of the transparent vapors of a winter atmosphere. The whole scene is charming, and so true to nature, that an effort of the will seemed necessary to retain normal temperature.

We had a slight glimpse of the woods scene, now in process of development, and it indicated grand results on completion. A street scene was also run out to the front, and we do not hesitate to say that such a perfect representation of buildings has never been seen in this section, and never excelled elsewhere. The bricks, stone and mortar were to the eye as solid and real as the genuine article, and a more perfect counterfeit presentment could not be desired. It astonished as to find that Mr. Tryon, who excels in free-hand work, should display such ability in the hard mechanical effects of architectural painting. A prison, painted as effectively as was the building in this scene, would hold a hardened convict under the impression that it was built with solid rock.

The management are displaying excellent taste and good judgment in securing the artistic talent of Mr. Tryon, who is working wonders in the scenic department of this popular temple of the drama.” (The Springville Herald, 26 March 1936, page 4).

Mormon church president Heber J. Grant announced his intention to close the building during the 1920s. Until its demolition in 1928, this decision was protested by many from the community, including the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Various suggestions at the time included renovating the space or transforming it into a museum, but neither local nor state authorities were willing to preserve it. At the time the theater was razed, it was nationally recognized as one of the top historic stages in the country.

University of Utah doctoral student Aaron Ward Tracy compiled articles from various publications printed about the Salt Lake Theatre from 1864 to 1913. His research is now in the Special Collections of the J. Willard Marriott Library. The collection contains an extensive list of published materials about the Salt Lake Theatre, including plays, reviews, actors and actresses, venues, celebrations, and exhibits. Tracy researched the material in anticipation of his doctoral dissertation, which was never completed. Here is the link to the collection: http://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv55145

There his research sits, waiting for another scholar to continue the work.

To be continued…