Part 519: Palette & Chisel, October 1927 – The Design Process
Palette & Chisel newsletter from October 1927 with article written by Thomas G. Moses.
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. His series for “Stage Scenery” started during September 1927
Here is the second part of Moses’ October installment to the Palette and Chisel newsletter during 1927:
“The artist makes a ground plan of the scene, scaled to one-half inch to the foot. The stage director approves of it, the model is made and every detail is worked out in the model. The recessed window calls for glass or the equivalent; a thin piece of mica or celluloid is glued on the model over the opening cut in the cardboard, the sash lines are drawn with heavy ink, and small bits of heraldry or stained glass are introduced. All the doors have the small thickness jambs, the floor is drawn in imitation of inlaid woods, the whole model is carefully colored and when completed is submitted to the stage director who, in turn, submits it to the playwright and the producing manager. If any minor changes are necessary they are made. When the model is O.K. it is turned over to the stage machinist and an estimate is made to build and prepare the scene for the artist who makes an estimate to paint the scene, which includes the cost of the model.
When the scene is ready for the artist it is placed on his frame. When painted, the machinist puts on the finishing hardware and lines. It is now ready to be moved to the theatre to be produced or rehearsed. The artist and stage machinist superintend the setting and lighting for the first time. It is then turned over to the stage director, and here is where the real hard part of the production comes. After many nights of labor on the scene, as well as long days in preparing the models and painting the scene, completely fatigued and ready for a good nights sleep, he must attend the rehearsal, supposed to be a scenic rehearsal. It is anything but that. The chances are that a umber of artists are interested as there are three or more acts and often a number of scenes to each act, each scene probably painted by a different artist; so each must wait until his act or scene is called. Lucky the fellow who has the first act for he is apt to get away before 10:00 P.M. The one with the forth act will probably get away about 3:00 A.M. for the director will probably go over an act several times before pronouncing it perfect. If this happens in the third act the artist of the fourth act is alone in his long waiting. After he is through and on his way back to New York City he will probably be almost unable to keep awake.
Most of the new productions of New York City are tried out for a week or so over in New Jersey, at Jersey City, Newark, Trenton, Plainfeild or Elizabeth; they all have to stand for it, for that is about the only time they get any of the Broadway production, and the show soon hears from them. If it happens to be poor and the weak points are strengthened and rehearsed every day until they are in good shape for New York critics. The scenic decorations are supposed to be perfect; in fact, they must be perfect.
The scenic artist should know all branches of scenic art and not specialize too much. While it is almost impossible to be perfect in all branches, he should have a good knowledge of landscape, architecture, figures, free hand scroll, marines and drapery; in fact, about everything under the sun. While it is necessary for an artist to be absolutely correct in many details he very often has to gloss over a great many important points which are not noticeable to the public.
Within the past few years many of the stage interiors have solid wood wainscoting, six or seven feet high, very heavy door casing and thick jambs. These solid and realistic interiors are all right but even the relief ornaments and mouldings often have to be high lighted and the shadows made strong. The walls are usually made of some real fabric. So on these scenes there is very little work for the artist. Even in the exteriors the modern, up-to-date idea is to have a lot of artificial flowers and shrubs among the painted pieces.”
Part 518: Palette & Chisel, October 1927 – The Paint Studio
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. His series for “Stage Scenery” started during September 1927.
Here is the first part of the October installment during October 1927:
“The scenic artist has gradually drifted from the theatre to the scenic studios, where productions are designed, built and painted. The dramatic or operatic stock company employs its own artists and stage mechanics. The dramatic company usually has its scenery painted in the theatre. The opera company usually has so much scenery, and the greater part is carried over from year to year, that it has to have a large storehouse and usually combines a storehouse and paint room.
We visit the theatre studio first, picking our way down an unlighted alley until we find a door marked “STAGE ENTRANCE. NO ADMITTANCE.” The fine old crab who guards the door is one of the “down and outs” of the profession. He has held all of the good positions offered by the profession and he will tell you: “Me and Booth played together at Oshkosh.” He was quite likely, a property man or stage hand, hardly veer an actor or scenic artist. He is usually deaf, but his sense of feeling and seeing are very acute, so a piece of silver felt and seen opens the door and one is directed to the stairway which is found in the corner, is circular in shape and built of iron.
After a dizzying climb of thirty feet above the stage floor you will land on a solid floor called a “fly floor,” From here all scenery which is fastened to a set of lines, is raised and lowered. The drop curtain is also managed from here. In the modern theatre all of this work is done from the stage floor level. Thousands of feet of half-inch rope is required to handle the scenery, to say nothing of the steel cable that I used.
You feel your way along the rail called the “Pin rail”; to this all of the lines are fastened. You will see a bright light at the rear of the stage; this is the “paint bridge” – six feet wide and reaching from one fly floor to the other. Between this bridge and the back wall is hung the paint frame, also one on the other side of the bridge. These two frames are skeleton frames, as light as possible, but strong enough to hold the frame pieces of scenery of the drops and borders to be painted. These are operated from the floor by a windlass; plenty of counterweights are used to balance the heavy load of scenery. Everything that hangs is operated over pulleys placed on the “gridiron,” sixty feet above the stage floor. A “strip” light is necessary for painting. The artist has a designing room on the fly floor. The palette is two feet wide and eight feet long, two feet and six inches high, mounted on a table with castors. A smooth surface is required for mixing of tints, a set of palette bowls, each six inches in diameter, about sixteen in number and filled with the colors mixed in the pure state with water – other tints are mixed in pans or small pails; a pail of glue size and a pail of clean water, a few brushes. A few strong strokes, with a crayon stick filled with charcoal, you see the design and the painting starts immediately.
In this case we will not do any painting until we find out just what it is going to be. Before any actual work is done the playwright has to give over the manuscript to the manager who has agreed to produce it. The stage director is called in and sometimes whole scenes are cut in spite of anything the playwright may say. He often rehearses the play. If he is a big man, with a reputation, he pays no attention to any one and does as he pleases. When everything is O.K.’d by everyone the manuscript is handed to the scenic artist who, in turn, reads it very carefully and makes notes of the principal “business bits” which are usually marks with red ink. This is very important, as the playwright has fitted the scenes and play together and has specified as follows: “Act 1. Scene 1. A library – Tudor Gothic – one large arch C – fireplace R C – recessed window with seat, doors down L door 2-R night. Place, any place in England, early Nineteenth Century.” By making notes and reading carefully we find a character opens and enters the recessed window, necessitating a different construction; door down right must open on stage.”
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.”
Part 516: Palette and Chisel Club, the Camp Tradition Draws Members to Fox Lake
Palette and Chisel club house in Fox Lake, Illinois
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 20th 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.
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.
Thomas Gibbs Moses (1856-1934)
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 1st, I made my first trip to the Palette and Chisel Club camp at Fox Lake, Ill. Helped to put up the tent. A new experience for me, but I enjoyed it. I slept well on a cot. Made a few sketches. A very interesting place. I don’t like the cooking in the tent and there should be a floor in the tent. I saw a great many improvements that could be made in the outfit and I started something very soon.”
This is the tent at the Palette and Chisel Club’s Fox Lake camp in 1907. Image posted by Stuart Fullerton at paletteandchisel blog. Here is the link: https://paletteandchisel.wordpress.com/2012/01/
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.
Cartoon of the Fox Lake area where the Palette and Chisel Club established their summer camp for sketching. Map published in the Palette & Chisel newsletter, September 1927.Map of the Scott Lake area drawn by a Sosman & Landis artist on the back of a theatre drop for the Scottish Rite stage in Winona, Minnesota. The backdrop was created at the Sosman & Landis studio in Chicago during 1909.Map of the Fox Lake area created by Palette & Chisel member Otto Hake, published in the Jan. 1928 Palette & Chisel newsletter.
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.”
Painting by Thomas G. Moses of the Palette & Chisel Club house at Fox Lake, 1909. From the collection of Wendy Waszut-Barrett.
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.
Painting by Thomas G. Moses of Fox Lake, 1909. From the collection of Wendy Waszut-Barrett.Backside of painting by Thomas G. Moses, 1909. From the collection of Wendy Waszut-Barrett.
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 3rd, 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 17th a crowd of us went to Fox Lake and took down the old house and moved it to our new site south of the track on a very high hill, overlooking Pistakee Bay. Got the carpenter and lumberyard men together and we arranged for credit and ordered the material for a new house 22 x 50, was soon ready for members. We certainly got great sport in assisting the carpenter. Pretty hard work for an artist, but they all did very well.”
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.
Part 513: A Biography of Victor Higgins by Mary Carroll Nelson
Victor Higgins
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?
Part 512: Victor Higgins and the Taos Society of Artists
Painting by Victor Higgins
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.
Painting by Walter UferPainting by Victor Higgins.
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.
Victor Higgins painting a drop curtain at the Sosman & Landis studio. published in “Scene Painting and Bulletin Art,” 1916.Victor Higgins painting a drop curtain at the Sosman & Landis studio. published in “Scene Painting and Bulletin Art,” 1916.
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.
Painting by Victor Higgins. Notice the blue of the shadow colors.Painted detail of Sosman & Landis scene created for the Scottish Rite in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during 1914.Theatrical scene consisting of leg drops, cut drop and backdrop. Sosman & Landis scene created for the Scottish Rite in Grand Forks, North Dakota, during 1914.
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.’”
Victor Higgins, “The Valley of the Waiting Souls.”
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.
Victor Higgins painting his “Little Gems.”
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/
Victor Higgins’ easel, paint box and palette. Replica of Higgins’ studio inside the Eiteljorg Museum.
I return to the life and times of Thomas Gibbs Moses in 1903. Moses was living in Mt. Vernon, New York, and was running the scenic studio of Moses & Hamilton in New York City. His his business partner was William F. Hamilton. Everything was on an upward swing, but it wouldn’t last for long. In less than a year, his he would return to Sosman & Landis in Chicago. When looking at the entire context of Moses’ career, this was his last true ascent before starting a slow decline from this pinnacle. There would still be many highlights, but Moses would always lament leaving New York and the potential that seemed possible in the fine art work there. In New York, he was able to study landscape painting with the famous artist R. M. Shurtleff.
In 1903, Moses wrote, “I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. R. M. Shurtleff, the famous interior wood painter. I showed him some of my sketches and he was rather pleased with them. So much so, that he finally agreed to take me on as a pupil. I could only spare a day each week, but that gave me great insight into his successful methods. I had been an admirer of his work for thirty years.”
R. M. Shurtleff (1838-1915)
Roswell Morse Shurtleff (1838-1915) was born in Rindge, New Hampshire, to Asahel Dewey and Eliza (Morse) Shurtleff. His firs studies were at Dartmouth College. Leaving the institution in 1857, he later received an honorary BS in 1882, suggesting that he never completed his initial studies. In 1857, Shurtleff took charge of an architect’s office in Manchester, New York. By 1858 he moved to Buffalo, New York, and began working in the field of lithography. He continued his artistic studies at the Lowell Institute of Boston, later attending the Academy of Design in New York from 1860 to 1861. There he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and engravers. He halted all artistic training to enter the Civil War in 1861, initially helping to organize the famous “naval bridgade” for the protection of Washington. His grandfather had as also a soldier, having served in the Revolutionary war with Gen. Peleg Wadsworth’s brigade. The elder Shurtleff had also fought in the battle of White Plains and later in the War of 1812.
R. M. Shurtleff enlisted in the Ninety-ninth New York Volunteers on April 16, 1861. Soon after, he was wounded and taken prisoner while on a scouting expedition. As a Southern Prisoner, he was held in Richmond and detained until February 22, 1962. It was often reported that he was the first officer to be captured as a prisoner of war.
After the Civil War, Shurtleff married Clara E. Halliday (b. 1846) on June 13, 1867. She was the daughter of Joseph B. and Eleanor (Carrier) Halliday of Hartford, Connecticut (Hartford Courant, 7 Jan. 1915, page 19). The marriage never produced any children.
It was during the late 1860s that Shurtleff tried his hand at magazine and book illustration. His projects included designing the cover for an edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” He worked for the American Publishing Company in Hartford and also did several illustrations for Mark Twain’s “Innocent’s Abroad” and “Roughing It.” It was not until 1870, that Shurtleff began his fine art career in oils and watercolors in earnest. He opened a studio at the Charter Oak Building on Main Street in Hartford. In the beginning, he painted animals, but later focused on woodland landscapes.
Sketch by R. M. Shurtleff published in an Art Magazine
In 1881, he became an Associate of the National Academy of Design and was elected a National Academician in 1890. Shurtleff was also a member of the American Watercolor Society. His artistic awards included a bronze medal at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, a bronze medal at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, and the Evans Prize of the American Watercolor Society in 1910. For thirty years he maintained a studio in New York City, spending his summers in the Adirondack mountains and painting scenes in the forests. His paintings are in prominent collection throughout the United States, including the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Painting by R. M. ShurtleffPaintingl by R. M. Shurtleff, posted at www.1stdibs.comPainted detail by R. M. Shurtleff, posted at www.1stdibs.com
On January 6, 1915, newspapers reported that the artist Shurtless fell dead of heart disease in front of 860 Ninth Avenue (The Sun, 7 Jan. 1915, page 13). Shurtleff was on an errand for his wife, Clara, and possibly entering a pharmacy at the time. He was only 78 years old. I could not help think of another mentor of Moses’ who suffered the same fate a few years earlier on the Streets of Chicago – David Austin Strong. Shurtleff was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of the Revolution, the Salmagundi Club, and a variety of other social clubs.
Almost three decades later in 1932, Moses remembered his time spent with Shurtleff in New York. Moses recorded,” My love for the deep forests led me to the Studio of R. M. Shurtleff in New York, whom I considered a wonderful painter of the woods. I was very happy when he consented to take me on as a pupil. When he suggested my joining the famous Salmagundi Club I was doubtful if I could make it. As the picture I gave the club for my initiation fee was sold to one of the club members, this alone placed me in a good position and had I remained in New York instead of coming to Chicago I feel that I would have forged ahead in the higher art, and would have succeeded.” Shurtleff sponsored Moses’s membership in the Salmagundi Club during 1904. Later that same year that he would return to lead the paint shop at the Sosman & Landis studio. The frantic pace of the studio and numerous Masonic project coming in would slow down Moses’ fine art studies.
Of his own artistic style, Moses wrote, “My painting is of the old school, which to me is what I see in nature, my honest impression, which I have been honest in expressing the same – while some of the young artists just starting in the art world are being convinced that the radical modern idea is one big school to follow. I will cling to the Hudson River School of Painting that made George Innes, R. M. Shurtleff, A. H. Wyant, Robert Minor and many more. There are too many so-called “Moderns” that know very little of the rudiments of art, faulty in drawing and color.”
Later in life, it must have been hard to see everything that Moses had worked so hard to achieve challenged, dismissed and then dismantled. Moses would repeatedly mention Shurtleff throughout his memoirs and his instruction in landscape painting. In 1932, Moses wrote, “In 1904, I was at the peak of landscape painting in New York City, encouraged by my dear old friend, R. M. Shurtleff, N. A.” Moses would continue, “we scenic artists have a hard time [convincing] our brother artists that we are something more than mere craftsmen.”
Early in December of 1892 Moses worked on “A Flag of Truce’” for William Haworth. His paint crew included Harry A. Vincent, A. J Rupert, Frank Peyraud, a number of assistants and some paint boys. Moses wrote, “I did a stone quarry set – a very effective scene. Vincent did a big foliage act.” He was speaking of the artist who would later be nationally recognized for his marine paintings – Harry Aiken Vincent.
Painting by Harry A. Vincent posted online, date unknown.
Vincent appears in various articles and manuscripts, including one where Edward Fournier recalls Vincent as one of his old “pot boys.” On a side note, “pot boy” was another name given to the young workers who kept the “color pots” on the palette full.
Harry A. Vincent was born in Chicago on February 14, 1864. He began working for Moses as a scenic artist in Chicago, but moved to New York by 1896, where he would continue as a scenic artist for Moses, as well as Gates and Morange. Moses wrote that Vincent “went East where he made a hit.” In 1901 Moses left the Sosman & Landis studio, also heading east. When he was living and working in New York, he went on sketching trips with John H. Young and Harry Vincent. He wrote that they two artists joined him quite often as they all lived near a picturesque spot. Their favorite places at the time were Seton Falls and Glen Island.
In his later years, Moses would reflect on Vincent and others who had attained fame in the fine art world. These friendships that formed in the scenic studio would continue throughout his life. In 1922 Moses wrote “In 1893 Harry A Vincent applied to me for a position. I tried to convince him that he was foolish to break into a business that had a future only in hard work. He succeeded and has become one of the cleverest landscape painters in America…Many of his pictures are being reproduced and selling well. He is now in Italy on a sketching trip.”
Harry A. Vincent, “Dry Dock,” date unknown.
Although Vincent was primarily self taught, he gained recognition in the fine art world and later taught art classes at a variety of institutions, including the National Academy of Design in New York, the Chicago Art Institute, the Carnegie Institute and the Academy of Fine Arts in Pittsburg.
On the East Coast, he continued to create many fine art pieces. Soon, he was painting and exhibiting throughout the New England area, gaining a strong reputation for his seascapes. He was noted for his heavy use of pigment and colorful compositions. Vincent was one of the artists who made up the Rockport School. Becoming the first president of the Rockport Art Association in 1921, he also served as a charter member of the North Shore Art Association. One of his favorite subjects was the old Lobster House in Rockport. This subject inspired about fifty paintings, one of which (“Rockport Harbor”) hung in the Butler Art Institute in Youngstown, Ohio. Vincent was also a member of the Allied Artists of America and the NY Watercolor Club.
He received a variety of awards from the Salmagundi Club of New York – the Shaw Prize (1907), Isador Prize (1916) Turnbill prize (1918). In 1919, he was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design. He was also an expert in making ship models. Vincent was married twice, the second time to Mildred Dietz in 1916. His final residence was in Rockport until his passing at the age of 67years old in 1931.
Auction lot of twelve books that recently sold for $12,300. This lot contained many sketches and notes by Harry A. Vincent.
Recently, twenty sketchbooks and a portfolio of loose drawings sold for $12,300 at https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2818T/lots/1167 Several of the sketchbooks in the lots were inscribed “H.A. Vincent,” with two inscribed “P. Cornoyer.” The auction lot included pencil and charcoal sketches of various sizes, as well as three books belonging to Vincent – The Whistler Book, Dante’s Inferno by Gustave Dore, and A History of Architecture. One of Vincent’s sketchbooks was a record with thumbnail sketches of various works and notes regarding their sale at galleries. I wonder if there were any scene designs included within his sketchbooks. Regardless, I am grateful for the digital age and the many examples of his sketching techniques posted online.
Some of the sketchbooks depicting the work of Harry A. Vincent. These books were part of an online auction lot.
For more information about the work of Vincent, there is a catalogue that was released in conjunction with the art exhibit “Harry A. Vincent & His Contemporaries in a Retrospective Exhibition in 2006.” The publication is by Judith A. Curtis. Here is the link rtartassn.org/product/harry-vincent-n-contemporaries-judith-curtis-hardcover/ on Harry A. Vincent
Catalogue by Judith A. Curtis that accompanied the 2006 exhibit. Here is the link: rtartassn.org/product/harry-vincent-n-contemporaries-judith-curtis-hardcover/ on Harry A. Vincent
John Z. Wood (1846-1919) was born in England and moved to London, Ontario as a small child. The family moved again when he was eleven years old and took up permanent residence in Rochester, New York. As many young men did in the region, Wood enlisted in the Union’s 54th Regiment during the Civil War. He returned to Rochester afterwards and began a career in art. Wood initially worked as decorative painter at Lang’s Children Carriage Factory and later as a sign painter for Fran Van Doorn.
In the late 1860s, he joined a local art club called the Goose Grease Club, attending informal gatherings at the studio of William Lockhart in the Palmer building. By the 1870s, Wood opened a private art studio at the Baker building with Lockhart. Seth C. Jones later joined their studio. During this same time he also worked for the Mensin, Rahn, and Stecher Lithographic Co., later known as Stetcher Lithographic Co.
The company was most known for its beautiful fruit crate labels and nurserymen crates. After becoming a fairly recognized artist, Wood began teaching at the Mechanics Institute in Rochester.
In 1872, the Rochester Sketch Club was organized by a group of artists that included John Z. Wood, James Hogarth Dennis (1839-1914), J. Guernsey Mitchell (1854-1921), James Somerville (1849-1905), Harvey Ellis (1852-1904), and William Lockhart (1846-1881).
Photograph of Harvey Ellis.
Wood was the instigator, organizer and promoter of the group. Five years later, the sketch club would morph into the Rochester Art Club, with charter members: Dennis, (president), Emma E. Lampert (vice-president), John Z. Wood (treasurer), W. F. Reichenbach (secretary), Ellis, Mitchell, Lockhart, Anne H. Williams, Joseph R. Otto, E Kuichling, Julius W. Arnoldt, Libbie S. Atkinson, Helen W. Hooker, Mary G. Hooker, Sara A. Wood, Ellen L. Field and Horaio Walker. The club incorporated in 1882. Wood not only served as Treasurer (1877-1882), Vice President (1889-1891) and President (1894). He seems to be quite successful as a fine artist, also working as an instructor and advertising his classes in the Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY).
Advertisement listed by John Z. Wood for art classes.
The inclusion of so many women surprised and delighted me.
1934 Newspaper recalling the Powers Gallery in Rochester, New York.
In 1874, the Rochester Academy of Art, also emerged as an offshoot of the Rochester Sketch Club. It soon received a collection of paintings purchased by Hiram Sibley in Italy. This became the core of their permanent collection. It was later displayed in the Powers Art Gallery, founded by Daniel F. Powers in 1876. This gallery also promoted and sold works by members of the Rochester Art Club.
For the educational training, a room was secured at the Rochester Savings Bank Building. This became their headquarters with a small faculty consisting of Horatio Walker (water color), James H. Dennis (oil), John Z. Wood (drawing), Harvey Ellis (composition), and Ida C. Taylor (painting). It is important to note that Ellis was primarily an architect who designed several of Rochester’s buildings and would later design in the mid-western region of the United States.
Harvey Ellis designed the Mabel Tainter in Menonomie, Wisconsin.Harvey Ellis designed Pillsbury Hall for the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities campus.
Unfortunately, the Club soon lost the first of its resident members, Walker. His renowned as a watercolor artist soared and he left the region to accept a variety of commissions across the country. Mitchell was the next president, but also soon departed. His sculpting career lured him away to Paris where he opened a studio. Dennis became the club’s third president in 1885 and remained in the role until 1889. It is exiting to examine the convergence of personalities and talents, watching their careers part and reconnect over the decades. I am always amazed to see how frequently these early artists travelled throughout the country. Forming brief partnerships and then amicably parting for new adventures.
During the 1880s, it was the annual art exhibition and sale of pictures that established a successful course for the Rochester Art Club.
The event drew in artists from throughout the region and resulted in profits to keep their venture going. By the 1890s, the club was sending representatives to New York City to secure additional works for their annual exhibition. A series on the history of the Rochester Art Club was published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle during June of 1934. In 1893, Wood traveled to the Chicago World Fair with fellow artist James Somerville. Around that same time, he became a member of New York’s Salmagundi Club, the same fine art group that Moses joined in 1904. Their paths possibly crossed during the turn-of-the-century in New York as this was before Wood left the region to primarily work as a scenic artist.
In 1907, Wood began traveling throughout the country and working as a scenic artist at various theaters. He travels brought him to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Los Angeles, California. In 1917 he returned to Rochester and was “recognized as a scenic painter for the Masonic Temple and other theaters in the city” (Rochester Art Club history records). His work was for the new 1917 Masonic Temple building that included a theatre on the third floor. I am currently corresponding with the Club’s historian to see if this is one of the primary reasons for Wood’s return to the area.
Interior view of 1917 Masonic Temple theatre in Rochester, New York.Interior view of 1917 Masonic Temple theatre in Rochester, New York.Interior view of 1917 Masonic Temple theatre in Rochester, New York.
Only two years after his return to Rochester, Wood was reported as suffering from cardio vascular renal at the Sellwood hospital in Portland, Oregon, as reported by the Oregon Daily Journal. However, this would not be a contributing factor to his death two years later. In 1919, Wood’s name would appear in the newspaper one final time when he was involved in a motor vehicle accident. On November 13, 1919, George C. Newel caused the death of John Z. Wood, residing at No. 144 South Ave. Wood was hit by Newell’s automobile when crossing the street. The court ruled against Newell as he was driving too fast and unable to stop in time. Wood was only 72 years old.
The Rochester Art Club records that Wood was “known for his sense of humor, ability at mimicry, and telling a good story.”
