In 1913 the art works of Thomas G. Moses were featured in a Palette & Chisel Club exhibition.
An invitation to Club members noted,
“There is not one of our members of whom we are more proud. There is probably not another painter in Chicago who has sought out and painted so many of the beauty spots of our country. From a thousand sketches and paintings sixty have been selected and are hung in our Club to give our members an opportunity of seeing a representative collection of the works of Thomas G. Moses. The exhibition will be open on weekdays from 10 to 7, and on Monday, Wednesday & Saturday evenings until 9.”
This is quite a statement. Moses had been a member of the Club since 1906. In addition to joining the Palette & Chisel Club, Moses was a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association and the Salmagundi Club in New York City. He sketched alongside those associated with other art movements, such prominent individuals who established art colonies in Taos and the Pacific Northwest.
In addition to being recognized in fine art circles, his skill as a scenic artist was also recognized by some of the greatest American stage personalities in the 19th and 20th centuries, including Joe Jefferson, Al Ringling, Buffalo Bill Cody, Frederick Thompson, Edwin Booth, Sarah Bernhardt, Julia Marlowe, Katherine Clemmons, Helena Modjeska, William Haworth, and the list goes on. Many of Moses’ theater drops still remain, scattered across the United States in various theaters. However, there are precious few scenery collections that were ever primarily painted by Moses; a studio setting prohibited this characteristic. Many of Moses’ premiere collections were created after the initial liquidation of Sosman & Moses. From the mid to late 1920s, Moses again found himself producing entire collections with one assistant, often on site. One example was for the Scottish Rite Theater in Fort Scott, Kansas, a scenery collection eventually purchased by the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center during 2015.
After I supervised the removal and transportation of the entire Fort Scott Scottish Rite scenery collection to a storage facility in Minnesota, the CEO of Minnesota Masonic Charities selected a team of individuals who were unfamiliar with the appropriate handling of historic backdrops. They were hired to restore the entire scenery collection in a compressed timeline, just about the same time I was my position as Curatorial Director for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center was eliminated. Sadly, hot melt glue was used to attach new netting to the historic cut drops, irreparably damaging each piece. Original battens were removed, and leg drops cut apart. The quality of the restoration speaks for itself and I have written much in the past about the appropriate handling and repair of historic scenery.
The point of today’s post is to consider the extant works of Thomas G. Moses, both his fine art and scenic art. Internationally renowned artists held Moses in high regard. He was not merely a tradesman, producing picturesque backgrounds for the theater, but an artist who exhibited at some of the most respected art schools across the United States. His scenic work cannot be dismissed and devalued based on its exhibition space in an entertainment venue.
Fortunately, Lance Brockman, Larry Hill and Rhett Bryson documented many of these collections during the 1980s and 1990s, so we at least know what was lost. The Scottish Rite scenery in McAlester, Oklahoma, seems to be the sole survivor that is still owned by the Fraternity.
To be continued…
