Lawton S. Parker (1868-1954) Parts 1 & 2
By Joel S. Dryer Ā© Illinois Historical Art Project




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Part 1:
Lawton Parker was an unpretentious man, quiet at most times, always seeking to learn and listen. His penchant for educating himself and his never-failing memory of humble roots enabled him to reach a high level in art, character, and business. His friend William Wilson once described their friendship and thereby the man in a letter to Parkerās father by saying:
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āYears ago in the old days at Shinnecock Long Island, I was attracted to him by his wonderful personality, and as that friendship grew, I learned to honor and respect a man for whose beauty of nature, strength of conviction, energy and uprightness of character I have never met a better.āĀ [1]
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Hard working, energetic, opportunistic, and always contemplative, Parker spent the last half of his life living well from the fruits of his early labors. He ceased to exhibit paintings thirty years before his death and only the onslaught of the Second World War managed to extract him from an idyllic lifestyle as an expatriate. Writer Henry Kitchell Webster described what an encounter with Parker would be like on an ocean liner:
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āThere never was a man whose habit of life offered less pegs to hang eccentric little anecdotes on than his. You could cross the ocean in the same stateroom with him and never guess that he was a painter at all, or any other person of a temperamental sortā¦ He does not talk art to you, nor gesture with his hands. Indeed it is quite possible that you might talk art to him, tell him all about it. He would listen in his quiet unassuming way, perfectly willing to learn from you, if there happened to be anything you could teach him. It is surprising how many people he can learn something fromā¦ā [2]
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Born on August 7, 1868, in Fairfield, Lenawee County, Michigan, Lawton Silas āGrayāĀ [3] Parker was the son of John Wesley and Sarah Ann Sawyer Parker. Both parents were born in Ohio, John in 1831 and Sarah in 1838. Lenawee County was a leader in Michigan agriculture and had a rapid population growth after its founding in 1824, until the late 1800s. Manufacturers in the area included those in rail car and wire fence production.Ā [4]Ā John and Sarah probably met in Ohio before moving to Iowa, where a daughter, Ida May, was born in 1860, prior to their move to Michigan. John enlisted in the First Company, Sharpshooters, Twenty-seventh Infantry, on February 29, 1864. The company was in possession of the new Spencer repeating rifle which required considerable skill in handling and was far superior to the muskets in general use. He left his wife behind, possibly with family, and saw heavy action throughout Virginia until the company joined the Army of the Potomac and was mustered out of service on July 26, 1865, John having risen to the rank of Sergeant. His survival was against the odds as close to thirty percent of his company died and thirty percent was wounded.Ā [5]
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The Parker family must have left Michigan shortly after the birth of young Lawton as there is no record of them at Fairfield in the 1870 census. Lawton was in Kearney, Nebraska, the Parkerās fourth residence, at the age of five, in 1873.Ā [6]Ā He was affectionately known by close friends and family as āLottie.āĀ [7] Family history recounts they settled on a farm (today it is the Arvon Marlatt farm) in Nebraska, which may have accounted for their earlier residences in Iowa and Michigan.Ā [8]Ā The land they settled had once been Fort Kearney, disbanded in 1871Ā [9], and the land was probably available on terms favorable to veterans.Ā [10] John Parker prospered in Kearney, purchased land, and established himself as a sewing machine agent by 1880.Ā [11]
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Like most artists, young Lottie showed early promise in art when in 1882, he was awarded a prize for the best pencil drawing by the Buffalo County Agricultural Society at the annual fair in Shelton, Nebraska.Ā [12]Ā He is said to have been encouraged to art by his parents who gave him a box of watercolors at an early age.Ā [13]Ā Utilizing his talents, Lawton picked up odd jobs painting signs for area businesses as a source of income, something common for a small town boy or man with a talent for drawing. He was also said to have earned $75 painting the side of a barn in Kansas City because the prior artist had not accounted for the distortion of such a large work. [14]
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In the 1882 Christmas edition a Presbyterian weekly newspaper published in Chicago, The Interior, offered a prize for the best picture depicting country life by a subscriber with no art training; rule 3 stated: āThe drawing must be the work of the person competing, a free hand drawing, without the aid of a copy, tracing tools, or any suggestions from an artist friend.āĀ [15] The judges, Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., a noteworthy and very wealthy Chicagoan, and art professor Paul Brown (1824-1893) of Chicago, chose Parkerās Kearneyās Milkmaid,Ā [16] from over a thousand drawings submitted.Ā [17] Shortly after receiving the prize, āa magnificently printed bookā entitled The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Parker was sent to Omaha, Nebraska to study with artist James Knox OāNeil (1847-1922), who had a successful private school where he taught in all mediums including oil, crayon, watercolor and pastels.Ā [18]
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An article very early in the life of Parker had the prescience to predict the success which would come later:
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āThere is no doubt but that Master Lawton possess a large degree an artistās talent and will some day be known throughout the country as one of the masters of the profession he has thus far excelled in.āĀ [19]
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A letter from Frank Gray, announcing the award to Parkerās father, encourages him to send the boy to Chicago where Professor Brown had offered free tuition in his private studio. Brown also was active in the Chicago Academy of Design and would help secure a position for Parker there.Ā [20] Gray and his father William Cunningham Gray began a campaign among his subscribers to fund the expenses and tuition Parker would incur in Chicago, eventually transferring the young pupil to the School of the Art Institute under the tutelage of John Henry Vanderpoel (1857-1911).Ā [21] Certainly the Grays probably paid part of Parkerās tuition and likely all of it if his solicitation for help from his subscribers was not successful.Ā [22]Ā Since Parker was from a poor family and had little prospect of artistic encouragement at home, Gray also offered to supply room and board. Parker gratefully accepted the help and remained at the Gray home for several years before.Ā [23] It is interesting to read Grayās own words of the coming of Lawton Parker:
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āI detected Lawtonās gifts as an artist immediately I set my eyes on his picture. I found out that he was the son of a poor soldier and had no education of any kind. I knew that with proper instruction he would become a great painter someday...āĀ [24]
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We surmise Parker must have studied with Professor Brown and at the then artist run Chicago Academy of Design for about two years before he entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in October 1886.Ā [25] At the close of the first term, he won the first prize in the under class for Nude Life.Ā [26] He continued at the Instituteās school, except during summer months, through May 1888. Given a position as graduate assistant at the school, his abilities were confirmed at the end of the school term. He was awarded the first prize Silver Medal, for a group consisting of: full-length costumed figure; nude figure; three oil heads; one other head and anatomical study, a total of eight works.Ā [27] By the end of his education at the Institute, one newspaper commented on his talent by saying:Ā āThe work of the students is particularly good this year... Mr. Parkerās work in the life class shows a rising young genius, to which is evidently added that more rare quality - application.āĀ [28] Parker graduated from the Art Institute in June 1888, with highest honors.Ā [29]
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He returned home to Kearney, to visit friends, on his way to Edgewater, Washington Territory, where his parents had moved, once again.Ā [30] Parker left for Paris about September or October, to complete his training, Frank Gray having taken credit for āsending him to Paris.āĀ [31] It was around this time Parker showed gratitude to his supporter by using the middle name of āGrayā in addition to Silas. He entered the atelier of Jean Leon GĆ©rĆ“me at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in October. During the summer of 1889, Parker took advantage of his locale to travel in the countryside and sketch from nature.Ā [32] This quite possibly could have been his first experience with plein-airĀ painting. Upon his return to Paris, he began study in with Jean Paul Laurens; expanded his studies further by enrolling in the popular AcadĆ©mie Julian to study with Tony Robert-Fleury and William Adolphe Bouguereau and reentered the atelier of GĆ©rĆ“me.Ā [33]
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Joseph Emerson, professor of ancient languages at Beloit College, was visiting Paris in 1890. He had commented upon hearing the great master GĆ©rĆ“me speak of Parker as not only his strongest pupil, but of the entire Ecole.Ā [34] Parker developed a strong rapport with GĆ©rĆ“me and the two developed a sort of friendship; something which would prove valuable to Parker in both his education and his future acceptances at annual Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais. The year of the 1890 SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais Salon (known hereafter as the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais),Ā Parker attended the afternoon session of varnishing day with Professor Emerson.
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Varnishing day was a great event, and most of the important persons in art, literature and society were in attendance.Ā [35] Emerson recounted in a letter that he was the guest of Parker at the Palais dāIndustrie, where the show was hung;Ā [36] this began a relationship between the two which would later culminate in professional position for the artist. Emerson viewed the portrait of Homer Norris a friend of Parkerās who was studying music in Paris, and a church music director in Beloit.Ā [37] The painting had been accepted with the distinct honor, especially for an American, of being hung on the line, no doubt due the influence of GĆ©rĆ“me.Ā [38] Emerson commented on the honor for this artist of only twenty-one by saying,
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āThis is the most distinguished honor that can be bestowed by the hanging committee after a picture has run the gauntlet of criticism by the judges - who decides what paintings shall be accepted, judges composed of the best artists of the nation.āĀ [39]
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When Parker left France after the autumn of 1890Ā [40] to return to Chicago (Oak Park), he accepted a position as an illustrator at the religious publication Interior, now published by his mentor W. C. Grayās son, Frank Gray.Ā [41] GĆ©rĆ“me sent Parker back to the United States with one of his palettes, āprimed by the great artist himself and presented to his favorite pupil.āĀ Parker presented the palette to the Art Institute, rather than keeping it for himself.Ā [42] He busied himself with exhibition activities showing a portrait of Dr. Gray he had been working on for some timeĀ [43]; at the 3rdĀ annual exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists, where he had recently been elected as an artist member.Ā [44]
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In December 1891, Parker accepted a position to teach at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts (now Washington University), to replace the ill Professor Douglas Patrick.Ā [45] While he certainly would have come to their attention through the acceptance of his work at the 1891, American Annual exhibit in St. Louis, there was probably a closer connection. Director of the St. Louis School Halsey Ives was a āwarm personal friendā of Art Institute Director William M. R. French. It is more than likely that when St. Louis was in need of an instructor French made the recommendation of Parker.Ā [46] With previous experience as a graduate assistant at the School of the Art Institute in 1888, the accolades which no doubt followed him from abroad, his recent successful showing at the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ at the Art Institute where one of his works was called the ābest of the yearā,Ā [47] exhibition with the prestigious Chicago Society of artists that year and his proximity to St. Louis from Chicago, he would have been an ideal stand-in replacement.
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After the school year finished, about June 1892, Parker must have returned to Chicago for the summer.Ā [48] He vacationed with the Gray family in Island Lake, Wisconsin where they owned property with the McCormickās. There Parker painted a portrait of W. C. Gray that was hung a year later in the gallery of notable Midwesterners at the Worldās Columbian Exposition.Ā [49] He had remained active with the Chicago Society of Artists, exhibiting their 1892 annual show, and probably had other portrait commissions and newspaper illustration work awaiting him upon his arrival due to connections with Gray.
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Parker returned to St. Louis in the fall as Director of the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, stepping in for Ives who was then busy with the Worldās Fair in Chicago as director.Ā [50] Preferring, however, to be located closer to Chicago, his previous association with Joseph Emerson resulted in a position to create a department of art at the then Christian oriented Beloit College.Ā [51] Beginning in January 1893, he taught Friday evenings and Saturdays.Ā [52] This allowed him to spend the remainder of his time concentrating on added income from newspaper illustration and portrait commissions. He received a commission to paint Howard University President, Dr. W. W. Patton, and so succeeded, received orders to make four copies for the sons of Doctor Patton.Ā [53] Early on, Joseph Emerson commented, āEverybody seems very much pleased with Mr. Parker and he to like his pupils and his work.āĀ [54] Parker had introduced the French method of teaching drawing from the live model in addition to the standard drawing from casts. Such methods predated his introduction of the teaching technique at the Art Institute of Chicago by a decade.Ā [55]
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The Worldās Columbian Exposition opened to the public on May 1, 1893. As was the practice at earlier Expositions in Paris, art schools from around the country organized exhibits to be shown in their state or city section, separate and apart from the massive Fine Arts exhibit. William M. R. French commented three years later that Parkerās works āincluded nearly all the striking pictures in the gallery devoted to the St. Louis exhibit.āĀ [56]
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Classes in Beloit were opened again on September 22, 1893, but lasted for Parker only until mid October when he left because the college could not pay him enough, if at all, due to the worsening economic depression. Accounts vary on the number of students in the classes, but Parker had between twenty and twenty-five, half of whom were women, and admission was only 50 cents.Ā [57] Parker left mid-term for New York City to again further and broaden his education and obviously to seek a more encouraging financial arrangement.
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The Metropolitan Museum art school determined to open a graduate atelier under the direction of famed artist John LaFarge (1835-1910), and Parker enrolled to take full advantage of this opportunity.Ā [58] The first class organized under LaFarge was for advanced students, those artists who were already practicing in the field and sought to utilize the combination of LaFargeās insights with the museumās collections.Ā [59] H. Siddons Mowbray (1858-1928) was also at the museum school although it isnāt clear if Parker worked with him at the Museum or the Art Students League where he had also enrolled that October.Ā [60] Continuing with Mowbray, he entered the class of George de Forest Brush (1855-1941) in May 1894 at the Art Students League. Still maintaining his ties to Chicago, and possibly shuttling back and forth, he won a prize at the annual Chicago Society of Artists Black & White exhibition in 1894.Ā [61]
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From October 1894, he was taking classes from Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919), Mowbray and Brush. For a period of four months in late 1894 and early 1895, he was taking both day and evening classes, an arduous schedule. The Fall term 1895, he again entered Mowbrayās class and finally, in November 1895, he began studying with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), which lasted until January 1896.Ā [62]
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About January, a group of advanced students had become dissatisfied with the Leagueās program of instruction, preferring instead an atelier system more based upon the AcadĆ©mie Julian; Parker would have been the likely instigator of this dissatisfaction given his earlier French instruction and proclivity for teaching the French atelier system to his own students. Included in this group besides Parker, were Charles Webster Hawthorne (1872-1930), Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Eugene Paul Ullman (1877-1953) and Walter Appleton Clark (1876-1906). They, but primarily Parker, convinced Chase to form the Chase School of Art, with Parker as the first director and co-founder.Ā [63] Four criticisms were given weekly including two by Parker and two by Chase.Ā [64] Parker was benefiting from his earlier experience as an instructor and art department head in Beloit and St. Louis. Unique in the United States, there were no entrance examinations, and no drawing from the antique, only from life. āIf, after a monthās trial the pupil is found deficient, he is kindly apprised of the fact...āĀ Each month Chase arranged to have the best studies from the AcadĆ©mie Julian sent for comparison.Ā [65] The school was immediately successful, attracting over one hundred students at years end, and generating a profit.Ā [66] Miller, Hawthorne and Clark went on to illustrious teaching careers.
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In October 1896, Parker was named the winner of the John Armstrong Chaloner scholarship for study in Europe.Ā [67] At the time, arguably the two most influential teachers the School of the Art Institute had ever seen, Lorado Taft and John H. Vanderpoel, along with director William French, maintained Parker would soon ābecome one of this countries sic foremost painters.āĀ [68] French further commented, āHe is a genius.āĀ It was an impressive prize. Students were judged on drawing from nude life, painting a head from life and composition. Twenty-seven competitors in all were subjected to a jury which consisted of: Henry G. Marquand, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Thomas Woods, president of the National Academy of Design; John LaFarge, president and Augustus St. Gaudens (1848-1907), Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936) and George DeForrest Brush of the Society of American Artists; George W. Breck (1863-1920), president and Walter Shirlaw (1838-1909), Charles Yardley Turner (1850-1919) and James Carroll Beckwith (1852-1917) of the Art Studentsā League and John George Brown (1831-1913), president of the American Watercolor Society. The jury concluded unanimously on the choice of Parker.Ā [69]
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Parker was in Chicago around the winter holidays and then probably left for Paris immediately.Ā [70] He returned to the retrieve his parents and nephew, Claude Freeman, to stay in Paris with him while he studied; they arrived on March 2, 1897.Ā [71] Correspondence shows Parker was still active with the Chase school. Earlier, acting in capacity as director of the school, Parker contacted the Cincinnati Academy of Art and School of the Art Institute of Chicago, about a fee for sending works to their schools from the concours winners at the AcadĆ©mie Julian. This āschemeā was to earn fifty dollars (later reduced to twenty-five) per month. It appears initially it was put into action as the press reported āenergeticā Parker had secured drawings for the School of the Art Institute from the Chase school and āsome of the Paris academies.āĀ [72] It would have certainly been a financially rewarding enterprise, with eight months, two schools, and limited expenses. Parker had expressed to the Cincinnati school he and Chase were attempting to eliminate the need for students to travel āabroadā to study. They also hoped to include regular studies by Dagnan-Bouveret, Bastien-Lapage and others.Ā [73]
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Records of the AcadĆ©mie Julian show him re-entering as a student beginning in 1896. There he studied with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin- Constant.Ā [74] Seeking to compare his work to others immediately, he entered the Salon of 1897, and was accepted with a portrait of a young girl, apparently āhung on the lineā, or line of sight, the most important location in an exhibition where works were hung from the ceiling down.Ā [75] Parker had also reentered the atelier of his former mentor GĆ©rĆ“me, on of his strongest supporters, at the Ecole. By 1898, the indefatigable worker was also enrolled in the evening classes of the AcadĆ©mie Colarossi.Ā [76]
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The period of 1898 to 1899 must have seemed a whirlwind to the fast-rising Parker. In 1898, he won Prix dāAtelierĀ at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,Ā [77] two first portraiture prizes at the AcadĆ©mie Julian,Ā [78] and their special medal for general excellence,Ā [79] and a bronze medal at the AcadĆ©mie Colarossi.Ā [80] The following year he won first and second prizes at the Julian concoursĀ [81] and the Senator William A. Clark second prize at the American Art Association of Paris.Ā [82] In 1897 he had shown in theĀ Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais and once again in 1898.Ā [83] In January 1899, he exhibited at the annual exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the catalogue gives him a Chicago address, which means, despite his stays in New York and Paris he was probably calling Chicago his home. Later that year, he was asked by Paul-Albert Louis Besnard, to assist in the decoration of Cazin Hospital at Berck, France.Ā [84] During periods when he was not enrolled in school, he traveled. Parker visited Etaples in 1897, [85] Spain in 1898 and Monteuil in 1899.Ā [86] The Parker family spent the entire summer at Ćtaples. They rented an apartment with a vegetable garden and a woman to clean and cook. Lawton set out to work almost every day, traveling to nearby sights and small towns.Ā [87]
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In April 1899, he entered James McNeill Whistlerās short-lived AcadĆ©mie Carmen with Edward Dufner (1871-1957).Ā [88] The AcadĆ©mie was named after Whistlerās longtime model Carmen Rossi and located at 6 Passage Stanislas. Parkerās artist friends Alson Skinner ClarkĀ [89] (1876-1949) and Frederick Carl Frieseke (1874-1939) were also enrolled.Ā [90] A fellow Chicago artist Mrs. Blanche D. Cole had this to say about Whistler and his instruction:
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āHe comes to criticize every day and his criticisms are like himself and his work ā original, subtle, and hard to understand. He is small, slight, and as neat as a pin. He is 65 years of age, has a fine face and a sweet voice, and is a representative gentleman of the old school. He is nervous, terribly nervous, and his hands are never quiet. He suggests rather than says things, as in his pictures, but he makes you feel the thought he wishes to convey.āĀ [91]
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It was probably during this period when Parker was thinking most about building a successful business venture in the way of a school of Art. He had discussed the success of the AcadĆ©mie Julian with its founder and wanted to know the difference between the successful AcadĆ©mie and the government Ecole. Julian made clear the need for one man rule in a successful school.Ā [92] He even sought Master Whistler, prior to leaving Paris, for pointers on how to conduct his classes in New York.Ā [93]
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Ever enterprising, he began acting as a paintings dealer by at least 1899, acting as an agent for Americans coming to France to purchase works and artists desiring to find clients.Ā [94] He also engaged in club activities joining with the American Artistsā Association of Paris and exhibiting there in 1899,Ā [95] and had resumed teaching privately.
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In 1899, most likely in the fall, Parker returned to America as president of the New York School of Art, formerly known as the Chase School.Ā [96] The school had become immensely popular in just a short time (it would soon grow to over 1,200 students)Ā [97] as it bypassed the academic regimen and offered students study from the live model, limited class sizes and long waiting lists.Ā [98] Back in Paris again by November 1900, where he would remain until 1902 in the Montparnasse section of Paris,Ā [99] he found the opportunity to open the Parker Academy which existed about three years in Paris. [100] One of the great benefits of his studio locale at 9 Impasse du Maine, which he moved to in 1898, [101] was his close proximity to fellow artists, among them many Americans, some who had studied at the Art Institute such as Frieseke.Ā [102] It was also a base for those American artists friendly with Parker upon arrival in Paris.Ā [103] This area was an enclave of sorts with a small courtyard completely surrounded by living and working studios. Created in 1812 the Impasse du Maine was previously home to noted AcadĆ©mie Julian professor Jean-Paul Laurens, painter Jules Bastien-Lepage and sculptors Jules Dalou.Ā [104] Sculptor Antoine Bourdelle was resident at the same time Parker was there.
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Parkerās fame was rising on both sides of the Atlantic. He had won Honorable Mention at the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais in 1900Ā [105] and exhibited there again in 1901.Ā [106] Then in 1902, he was celebrated with a Third Class Medal at the Salon.Ā [107] With these two prizes, an opinion which was highly respected by the director of the Art Institute and his successes in teaching firmly established, it was time for a triumphant return to Chicago.Ā [108] A photograph of him and his prize winning picture appeared in the press, a kind of announcement of his coming.Ā [109]
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Parker returned to Kearny the in summer 1902, to visit his father and mother who had moved there upon their return from France in 1900.Ā [110] Honored by the locals as a famous painter, the small town presented him with a gold handled cane and showered him with affectionate speeches by the dignitaries.Ā [111] The award was probably also a memento of gratitude for in 1900 he had helped the Haydon Art Club (later renamed the Nebraska Art Association) with a selection of works from the Paris Universal Exhibition of art.Ā [112] He was also helping Nebraska local art patron Frank M. Hall assemble a formidable art collection.Ā [113]
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Parker then headed for Chicago to teach at his alma mater during the 1902-1903 school term. Critic William Vernon said one of his reasons for returning was to paint portrait commissions and that he āhas set up his easel at Oak Park.āĀ [114] Faculty records indicate he taught from October 1902 until January 1903, two days per week.Ā [115] It is very possible his hiring was in response to the increasing competition from other art schools in Chicago.Ā [116] The Smith art academy had already adopted the French method of atelier teaching and by 1902, had gained considerable strength especially from its affiliation with the AcadĆ©mie Julian in Paris. The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, founded in October 1902, by Carl Newland Werntz (1874-1944), had enticed Oliver Dennett Grover (1860-1927), a locally famous painter and former Art Institute teacher, back into the teaching ranks; took John Warner Norton (1876-1934) from the Institute and offered Ralph Elmer Clarkson (1861-1942) a position when the Institute could not find an opening for him.
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Just a month earlier, in a letter published by Chicagoās Brush and Pencil, Parker mounted an attack on the current methods of teaching art in America:
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āTitian painted one of his masterpieces at the age of nineteen... Does any one suppose that he spent three or four years drawing after our methods? or that he was obliged to learn how to draw with the āpointā or by any other system?... What chance have we for producing a Titian under our āsystemsā? ā¦Today art education is a sort of corporation arrangement. The student, instead of being apprenticed to a master, usually has his education mapped out by the layman, and the artist instructor is only a hired servant in some large institution... The principal advantage in Europe is the privilege of coming into close relationship with the old masters... The American school... has been shaped in its growth by the methods of a financially successful institution... on the mistaken idea that a financial success means an artistic success... But to perfect our schools, more effort should be made toĀ send our instructors abroad.āĀ [117]
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Those running the Art Institute were concerned they were falling behind in the latest methods, and Parker would be their answer for experimenting with an updated program. Director French said of Parkerās coming:
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āOur object is to keep the school fully up to date in ideas of the art world. We are all growing old, and I, as the oldest of the lot, am especially anxious lest we fall too much into routine. None of our advanced teachers have had the opportunity of studying in the foreign schools, or even visiting foreign countries, for quite a good many years, and under our system our younger men upon their return... get no chance at the life students at all. Parker has some ideas and is certainly as well informed as any man living with regard to the Paris school and their relations to the American schools.āĀ [118]
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Parker had ample experience with the new method at his position with the New York School of Art and his presence was felt throughout the school immediately.Ā [119] At the end of December, director French wanted to institute some of the same changes with other teachers into the evening school curriculum as well.Ā [120] The winner of the apparently first concours was announced in the papers to much fanfare and an illustration. The critic noted āThere are some objections, of course, to the French concours.āĀ But the indication was of a popular method, āHis classroom the last three weeks has been packed with studentsā¦āĀ [121]
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Parkerās own class was very popular with the advanced life students. When the students learned his tenure was only intended to be temporary, they demanded of French he employ their master longer.Ā [122] The press announced a letter had been sent to all students announcing far reaching changes for the winter term. Parker was to stay and revamp the Art Instituteās teaching methods along his idea of the French atelier system, like the successful methods at the New York School of Art.Ā [123] This French system to which Parker subscribed was completely different from the mode of teaching in most American schools. Rather than being channeled through a series of classes and professors, the student chose his own teacher monthly. At the end of each month was held a concours to determine which student work was the best of the month. The professor then allowed the students to choose their sitting position for the next month in order of rank in the concours. If a student didnāt like his professor or didnāt care for his judgements, he could easily change to another atelier.
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However, after only one month of changes, Parker resigned his teaching post on January 28, 1903.Ā [124] He had introduced ideas that were supported by French but apparently werenāt exactly in accord with everyoneās wishes. Probably the most extreme change was the recommendation of the elimination of diplomas in favor of prizes, medals and scholarships. One newspaper account stated, āLawton S. Parker, a Paris artist, is largely responsible for the sweeping changes planned.āĀ The article carried Parkerās opinion, speaking out against the practice of art students āloafingā in accord with āfascinating bohemianism sic.āĀ He felt a system of prizes and medals would give the students āsomething to work for.āĀ [125]
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How the politics were played is not exactly known. French had in the past been on both sides of an issue and couldnāt be depended upon for support. Parker generally upset others with his āradical ideas.ā After Howard Pyle (1853-1911) criticized the methods of the school later that year it was published that:
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āThis artist Parker, who had won fame in Paris, was too radical in his methods for the Chicago Art Instituteās directors. His āFrench ideasā - insistence on perfection of technique at the same time the individuality of each pupil was given free play - did not find favor at the institute and he ceased his duties as ānonresident instructorā.āĀ [126]
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His resignation was accepted on Friday, January 30, and only two weeks later it was reported the system he had instituted was running smoothly to everyoneās delight and enrollment had increased.Ā [127]
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Parker immediately began a position with the competing Chicago Academy of Fine Arts on Monday, February 2, 1903.Ā [128] In December 1902, the Academy had become affiliated with the New York School of Art which could well have been precipitated by Parker, who may have sensed trouble in the offing at the Art Institute.Ā [129] Parker instituted his French atelier method immediately and added a new Saturday afternoon nude life sketch class. Weekend classes proved popular for the students whose jobs kept them busy during the week.Ā [130] It was reported there was āperfectā harmony between the two competing schools, but that the Academy was proceeding āalong experimental lines of modern methods.āĀ [131] A few students left the Institute to join him at the Academy, without any urging from Parker. One of those was Wisconsin artist Merton Grenhagen (1878-1941). In an article some four decades later Grenhagen gives a hearty explanation of how much interest Parker would take in his students.
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āThe āgreenhorn from Wisconsināā¦ was permitted to join Parkerās class, persuaded to take up oil painting, and as a result of Parkerās methods made rapid progress. He followed Parker to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, where his study of a girlā¦ was selected as the best of the group. Parker insisted that he go to Paris and submit the study to the jurists of the salon. On a scholarship he spent a year in Parisā¦ under J. P. Laurens.āĀ [132]
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His students who remained at the Institute were spread among the other professors.Ā [133] He had strong success at as a teacher; one account had twelve of his students paintings admitted to the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais.Ā [134] Having already established his career as a portrait painter for many of Chicagoās elite, he attracted society women as pupils, who were, due to the success of his students, āeager on that account to make progress in their work.āĀ [135] The newspapers were filled with interesting accounts of the progress of Parkerās new methods and classes.Ā [136] That winter term, Parker served on his first jury, a purchase prize competition for the Young Fortnightly. Selected from works at the annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, their prize was highly sought after as it entitled the recipient to $200, and a place in their fine collection.Ā [137]
Ā
As classes ended in June, Parker stayed in Chicago to complete portrait commissions for some of the local society women. He discussed commissions of Mrs. Shrive Badger and Mrs. William Emory in the press;Ā [138] and he was again at work on the very important commission of Art Institute trustee and respected Chicago collector, Martin Ryerson.Ā [139] When later asked how he began his portrait sittings he said, āBy making thirty or forty studies in pencil and colour.āĀ [140]
Ā
Like most successful painters, portrait commissions were an important source of income. The Ryerson portrait was later featured in an article, which was a conversation by Parker and the writer. āThe difference between a successful and an unsuccessful portrait is that one renders character and the other is a mere map of features,ā Parker said. He went on to explain the details of his portrait painting methods. āIt is a study of character as well as externals.ā āI prefer that my sitter should not steadily pose. As he moves, talks, walks about, I can grasp here and there a characteristic point and make a note of it. Then out of a multitude of notes I select what seems best for my purpose and build up my portrait.ā āYes,ā he says, āI prefer working in my sittersā own homes. There they get over the stiff feeling of sitting for a likeness. And I prefer their own environment. I like the background to be the habitual background of their daily lives. I like to paint each person at his accustomed desk, or handling his favorite books, or seated in her own special chair. It is certainly more interesting than a āpropertyā chair, the same for all sitters, such as a photographer uses. āLight?ā he answered another question: āWhy should I want the strong studio light? Peopleās friends are not used to seeing them under the bold lights and shadows of a skylight, but in the quieter, more diffused illumination of a room.ā
Ā
He continued, āI have found it safest to paint first in tempera, and then lightly glaze with oils. Certainly, other portrait painters do the same; nearly all of them.ā āYes indeed, there are many preliminaries. For instance, I made careful drawings in red chalk of the heads and of the hands in different positions. There is so much character in a hand. I made two separate paintings of the dog, for the ladyās portrait. I believe I did three different chairs. Then there is the important preparation of the canvas. Indeed, the hardest part of the work is done before I begin to paint. There are so many things to think of. See, I have placed the gentleman close to the window. He gets its direct effect, because, to my thinking, a bold even harsh light is suitable to a man. But the lady is somewhat removed, so that the sharpest note will be on her gown, while higher up there will be a softening and diffusing of light that befits the gentler subject.ā
Ā
When asked what is required of a portrait painter Parker concluded āFirst and last, study of character, but also the workmanās knowledge of his tools, acquaintance with the chemical action of his paints.āĀ [141]
Ā [1]Letter to John Wesley Parker from William Wilson, Paris, 11/26/1901, p.2, IHAP Library.
Ā [2]Henry Kitchell Webster, āLawton Parker,ā Collierās, Vol. 52, 1/13/1914, p.23.
Ā [3]It will become evident later in the essay where the name Gray was taken from.
Ā [4]āLenawee County, Michigan,ā Internet page, http://multimag.com/county/mi/lenawee.
Ā [5]Record of Service of Michigan Volunteers In The Civil War 1861-1865, āTwenty-seventh Infantryā and āMichigan Volunteers,ā Vol. 27, (Lansing: Michigan Legislature, 1915), pp.1-3, 102.
Ā [6]Auld Ingle and Maud Marston Burrows, Lawton Parker, Artist, typescript scrapbook of transcriptions of newspaper articles, āKearneyās Artist, Lawton Parker in Kearney,ā p.14. Scrapbook courtesy of Kirk R. Edgar, private papers. The town was incorporated December 3, 1873.
Ā [7]Ā Numerous letters to and from Parker refer to this nickname.
Ā [8]Lawton Parker Freeman, āRemembering Uncle Lawton,ā typescript, copyright 1995, Lawton Parker Freeman, p.1. Hereinafter referred to as Freeman essay. See also: Margaret Stines Nielsen, āThe Arts In Early Kearney,ā Buffalo Tales, Buffalo County Historical Society, Vol. 8, No. 8, September 1985, pp.4-5.
Ā [9]Ā The newspaper article: āParker Wins Chandler Chaloner Paris Prize,ā Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1896, p.9, incorrectly states that John Parker was attached to a still active fort.
Ā [10]Parker was noted by sculptress and close friend Nancy Cox-McCormack to be one eighth Native American. If true this may have accounted for some ties to the western territory. Letter to Alice Gerstenberg from Nancy Cox-McCormack, Nancy Cox-McCormack papers, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Box No. 1, Spring 1951, p.36.
Ā [11]Ā Op. cit., Freeman essay, p.2.
Ā [12]Ā Op. cit., Freeman essay, p.2. See also clipping āLawton S. Parker, 1st, general penmanship and pencil drawing, 2nd, pencil drawing,ā Lawton Parker newspaper clipping and letter diary, IHAP Library, p.2. Parker diary.
Ā [13]Ā Rochester Democrat, āFirst Prize In Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais,ā 8/19/1913, p.6. Further evidence of his fatherās encouragement is found in āOur Young Folks. The Prize Drawings,ā The Interior, Vol. 14, No. 669, 2/22/1883, p.7, which quotes a letter from Parkerās father saying: āI am very anxious to get my boy to an art school. But what can a poor old broken down soldier do without money or health? I suppose I will have to wait and let the poor boy fight his own way up. I feel confident he will make it in time, for he is a good boy and is trying hard to make something of himself.ā My thanks to Diana Sanderson of the Presbyterian Church Department of History, Montreat, North Carolina, for assistance in locating this article.
Ā [14]Ā Op. cit., Webster, Collierās, 1/13/1914.
Ā [15]Ā Op. cit., The Interior, 2/22/1883, p.7.
Ā [16]Ā Op. cit., The Interior, 2/22/1883, p.7, which also ran illustrations of the runners up and winner. See also: āKearneyās Young Artist,ā New Era-Standard, Typescript article and undated clipping, Kearney, Nebraska, IHAP Library, 2/17/1883 and āDr. W. C. Gray Happy. His ProtĆ©gĆ©, Lawton Parker, Wins Chandler Chaloner Paris Scholarship,ā Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9. William Cunningham Gray was publisher of the Interior. McCormick was had purchased the weekly almost ten years earlier having been convinced of its prospects by Gray. Information courtesy of Mark Hammons and his āBiographical Notes: William Cunningham Gray (1830-1901),ā 1985.
Ā [17]Miss Laura McProud (Louella B. Mendenhall), āLawton Silas Parker,ā Souvenir of the Louisiana Purchase: American Studentsā Census Paris, 1903, (Privately published, Laura McProud, 1904), p.173.
Ā [18]Ā Op cit., New Era Standard, 2/17/1883. His first name and middle initial are found in an unidentified clipping, āFine Work,ā Lawton Parker diary, p.8, a copy is in the IHAP Library. OāNeil was well known among artists and patrons in Omaha. For a brief story on the artist see: Elizabeth Flynn, āCalifornian Reports on Artist-Father,ā Omaha Evening World-Herald, 3/6/1963, p.14 and John Lethem, Historical and Descriptive Review of Omaha, (Omaha: Jno. Lethem, 1892), pp.164-165.
Ā [19]Ā Op cit., New Era Standard, 2/17/1883.
Ā [20]Ā Letter to J. W. Parker from Frank S. Gray, Parker diary, no date, February 1883, pp.9-10. The Chicago Academy of Design had been taken over by businessmen and converted to the Art Institute of Chicago by 1882, however, the artists of the old Academy still maintained a small school.
Ā [21]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9. The details of these events come in part from op. cit., The Interior, 2/22/1883, p.7.
Ā [22]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9.
Ā [23]Thanks to Mark Hammons for his essay āBiographical Notes: William Gray Purcell (1880-1965),ā 1985.
Ā [24]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9.
Ā [25]Ā Brown drew a scene in Parkerās memento book signed āChicago, Ill 1884,ā IHAP Library, p.6. From this we know Gray was successful in bringing Parker to Chicago as early as 1884. A note in the memento book, signed āMrs. George Bancroft, Evanston, Ill. April 13thĀ 1884,ā indicates he stayed at the Bancroft home and was there the better part of a school term, thereby indicating he arrived in the Fall 1883, see p.7.
Ā [26]āAt the Art Institute,ā unknown newspaper clipping, date surmised by other student prizes, June 1887, Parker diary, p.10.
Ā [27]āThe Ideal From Mud,ā Chicago Times, 6/23/1888 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks (hereinafter AIC Scrapbooks), Vol. 4, col.3, p.60. In speaking to the class at the end of the term āMr. French closed his remarks with a very handsome tribute to both the character and promising talent of the winner of the first prize, Lawton S. Parker.ā Also, āArt Institute Prizes,ā Chicago Sunday Herald, 6/24/1888, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 4, col. 3, p.61. āMr. Parkerās work in the life class shows a rising young genius, to which is evidently added that more rare quality ā application.ā
Ā [28]āArt Institute Prizes,ā Chicago Sunday Herald, 6/24/1888, p.17.
Ā [29]Ā Printed flyer, The Art Institute of Chicago, āSchool Notice,ā āChicago, Sept. 20, 1902,ā signed by W. M. R. French, director, Ryerson Library Archives, Art Institute of Chicago, on file at IHAP Library. The notice says in the second paragraph, āMr. Parker was graduated with the highest honors at the Art Institute in 1888...ā
Ā [30]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9; op. cit., Ingle and Burrows, āGoing To Paris,ā p.2; and Handwritten letter to William French from Lawton Parker, Paris, 10/25/1889, Ryerson Library archives, Art Institute of Chicago. An article in the Parker diary, āRoom For Settlers,ā p.11, describes how the land in Washington was available at $1.25 per acre through the government and that āonce cleared will raise almost anything that is planted on it.ā It was certainly such land which attracted the senior Parker West.
Ā [31]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9.
Ā [32]Ā Op. cit., letter to French from Lawton Parker, Paris, 10/25/1889.
Ā [33]Ā Catherine Fehrer, The Julian Academy Paris 1868-1939, (New York: Shepherd Gallery, Spring 1989), n.p.
Ā [34]Ā Letter-diary of Joseph Emerson, 4/22/1890, p.287, Beloit College archives. Emerson dates Parkerās arrival in this letter by stating he had been there āonlyā nineteen months. See also: H. B. E., āProf. Lawton S. Gray Parker,ā The Round Table, 2/15/1893, pp.132-135.
Ā [35]Ā Op. cit., The Round Table, 2/15/1893, p.134.
Ā [36]Ā Op. cit., Emerson letter, 4/22/1890, p.287.
Ā [37]Ā The circumstances of how exactly Emerson came to know Parker have several possibilities. In the Round Table, article, Emerson was invited to visit the Ecole des Beaux-arts while GĆ©rĆ“me was criticizing and heard of Parkerās great talent. Norris, however, was a music director in Emersonās church, such fact we know from his letter of 4/22/1890. In the Round TableĀ article, it states Norris was a friend of Parkerās.
Ā [38]Ā See also: Letter to his daughter Clara from Joseph Emerson, 12/21/1892, Beloit College archives.
Ā [39]Ā Op. cit., The Round Table, 2/15/1893, p.134.
Ā [40]āArt Notes,ā The Graphic, 3/14/1891, p.174. The article noted he remained until ālast autumnā and was working at the time of the article on a portrait of Dr. Gray, his supporter.
Ā [41]James Spencer Dickerson, āProgress in Art,āĀ The Interior, Vol. 23, No. 1132, 2/4/1892, pp.8-9. Oak Park was the Home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whom Parker may have met there. Wright would later create an interior space for Parker, discussed later. My thanks to Diana Sanderson of the Presbyterian Church Department of History, Montreat, North Carolina, for assistance in locating this article. It is certain Parker resided in Oak Park for a time (Art Institute of Chicago exhibition records) and more than likely Parker lived with the wealthy Gray family, who had moved there in 1872 and had earlier provided him room and board; Gray was like a father to Parker as witnessed by the adoption of the Gray name into Parkerās own middle name. W. C. Grayās daughter married wealthy Charles Purcell and their son William Gray Purcell became a famous architect of the Prairie School design.
Ā [42]Ā Op. cit., The Round Table, 2/15/1893, p.134. It is not clear exactly in which month Parker left. We know he was working in the atelier of Benjamin-Constant, with whom he was quite friendly, sometime after July 1891, from Alphaeus P. Cole, āAn Adolescent in Paris: The Adventure of Being An Art Student Abroad in the Late 19thĀ Century,ā The American Art Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, November 1976, pp.111-113. Cole was āgoing onā sixteen when he entered the AcadĆ©mie Julian, which is sometime after his fifteenth birthday on 7/12/1876. Most likely it would obviously have been the fall 1891 when Parker was in the atelier, before returning to Chicago.
Ā [43]Op. cit., The Graphic, 3/14/1891, p.174.
Ā [44]āThe Fine Arts,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/8/1891, p.10. āArt and Artists,ā Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XX, No. 19, 4/12/1891, Part 1, p.3.
Ā [45]Ā āThe Fine Arts,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/20/1891, p.37.
Ā [46]Ā āChicago Art School,ā Chicago Sunday Herald, 5/10/1891 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, col. 2, p.46.
Ā [47]Ā āPalette And Brush. The Fourth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings,ā Daily Inter Ocean, 10/27/1891, p.5: āLawton S. Gray Parker, a gifted young man of Oak Park, Ill., who was formerly a student at the Art Institute, exhibits a portrait of Miss Allen (No. 303), daughter of James Lane Allen, which is worthy of praise and has received favorable notice from many. Some have even gone into raptures over it and bestowed extravagant panegyrics by declaring it the best thing of the year.ā
Ā [48]Ā An exhibition catalogue from Chicago incorrectly listed his address as Denver, Colorado, see: āList of ...Members: Parker, Lawton. T. S. G.,ā Fourth Annual Exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists, (Chicago: Chicago Society of Artists, 4/25/1892). In 1893, he had a studio at 304 Wabash in Chicago, see: āList of Exhibitors: L. S. G. Parker,ā Fifth Annual Exhibition, (Chicago: Chicago Society of Artists, 1893).
Ā [49]Op. cit., Hammons, āBiographical Notes: William Gray Purcell (1880-1965),ā 1985.
Ā [50]Ā Information courtesy of the St. Louis Art Museum.
Ā [51]Ā Op. cit., The Round Table, 2/15/1893, p.135. The article states he preferred to āestablishā himself in Chicago.
Ā [52]Heather Lee Schroeder, āHelen Brace Emerson and the Art Department,ā Beloit College, 2000.
Ā [53]Ā Op. cit., The Round Table, 2/15/1893, p.135.
Ā [54]Ā Letter to his daughter Clara from Joseph Emerson, 1/14/1893, Beloit College archives.
Ā [55]Ā Letter to his daughter Clara from Joseph Emerson, 4/12/1893, Beloit College archives.
Ā [56]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9. French added: āMost of the meritorious pictures exhibited in the St. Louis department in the art building at the worldās fair were from him or his pupils.ā
Ā [57]Ā Op. cit. Emerson letter, 4/12/1893, and Beloit Free Press, 9/21/1893, below not related heading, āWhat Would They Have Done,ā Beloit College archives. Op. cit., Schroeder, āHelen Brace Emerson and the Art Department,ā 2000. Mrs. Emerson was wealthy and had married Professor Emerson in 1883. āHistory of the Wright Museum of Art,ā Beloit College.
Ā [58]Ā āParker Wins Chandler Chaloner Paris Prize,ā Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1896, p.9.
Ā [59]āThe Art Museumās New Field,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/29/1892, p.14.
Ā [60]Mowbray was teaching at the Museum in 1892-1893 as the Metropolitan was re-evaluating their classes for the more senior students. It is currently a matter of assumption that he was with Mowbray here and not at the Art Studentās League as records from the Museum do not list individual students. James Moske of the libraries of the museum confirmed through a series of emails in August 2014 there were students mentioned being from Chicago during this time.
Ā [61]Ā āPortraits By Master,ā Chicago Times-Herald, 12/27/1896, Part 3, p.33.
Ā [62]Ā āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902, AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 17, p.66. Issues of the Sunday edition were not microfilmed by the Chicago Public Library and no other sources have been located for the Sunday editions. There are several sources for Monday through Saturday editions and such sources often list Sunday editions as well, but in all cases, holdings are exceptionally scattered containing only a few dates. The article gives a slightly incorrect set of dates which has been corrected through student records of the Art Students League.
Ā [63]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1896, p.9; Lolan C. Read, Jr., āThe New York School of Art,ā The Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 8, April 1904, p.219, and Chase School of Art, Advertising pamphlet, (New York: Chase School of Art, 1896), Cincinnati Art Museum Library. Chase had invited some top artists to judge the regular school concours including Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John La Farge, J. Carroll Beckwith and Robert Blum. Hawthorne acted as Secretary and Treasurer. āDear Arts,ā Arts For America, Vol. 6, No. 3, November 1896, p.95, āThe Chase School, founded by Mr. Chase, assisted by Mr. Lawton Parker, the winner of the Chandler Prize, is somewhat unique and exceedingly popular.ā The article goes on to quote Parker as saying the school has the strongest line of students ever before assembled in New York. In op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9, the article says of Parker, āHe next became managing director of the Chase School of Art.ā In Parkerās letter of 2/11/1897, to Mr. A. T. Goshorn of the Art Academy of Cincinnati on Chase School of Art letterhead, Parkerās signature appears above the title of Director. See also: Chase School of Art. New York. Season 1896-1897, advertising pamphlet, Cincinnati Museum of Art archives, 1896, wherein Lawton Parker is listed as āDirector.ā In William H. Ingram, editor, āParker, Lawton Silas,ā Whoās Who In Paris Anglo-American Colony, (Paris: The American Register, Count Louis Hamon, 1905), p.68, Parker is stated to have founded the school. Parker was known for his business acumen and it is not unlikely he did found the school after convincing Chase to lend his name as both whole or part owner and teacher. See also: Miss Laura McProud (Louella B. Mendenhall), āLawton Silas Parker,ā Souvenir of the Louisiana Purchase: American Students' Census Paris, 1903, (Privately published, Laura McProud, 1904), p.173. The school, years after Parker ceased to be affiliated, went into receivership in 1909. āReceiver For School of Art,ā New York Times, 8/26/1909, p.14.
Ā [64]Ā Op. cit., Arts For America, November 1896, p.95.
Ā [65]Ā Op. cit., Arts For America, November 1896, pp.95-96.
Ā [66]Ā Op. cit., Read, The Sketch Book, April 1904, p.219.
Ā [67]Op. cit., Whoās Who In Paris Anglo-American Colony. Proposed in 1890/1891 as the āParis Prize Fund,ā the award jury consisted of well-known French painters including Parkerās master at the Ecole, GĆ©rĆ“me. The recipient was granted $5,000 ($900 per year) and entitled the holder to study five years in any part of Europe he chose. Better known as the Chaloner Prize it was formed by John Armstrong Chaloner in New York City. Chaloner canvassed local art patrons for donations and combined with his own contributions formed the prize to support art study in Paris. By 1917, however, only two grants had been made, one of those to Parker. In 1917 the fund was organized into a foundation, with Parker, Charles A. Platt, and William Rand, Jr. comprising the board of trustees. The prize was given through 1973 where after the foundation was dissolved. Records may be found at the Archives of American Art. The prize is described in some detail in āArt Notes,ā Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XX, No. 61, 5/24/1891, Part 1, p.6, and again further in āArt and Artists: Art Notes,ā Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XX, No. 75, 6/7/1891, Part 3, p.18. See also, āWon The Key To Trilbyland,ā in AIC Scrapbooks, no source, 1896, vol. 8, p.2. The prize is sometimes mistakenly attributed to the Art Students League of New York. However, it was open to all students at every school, almost entirely from New York City. See also, op. cit., Sunday Times-Herald, 12/27/1896, Part 3, p.33. The prize was also frequently misattributed to āChandler,ā not Chaloner. Chaloner was born to a wealthy New York family. At the time his fortune was $4 million. The eccentric Chaloner was committed in 1897 to an insane asylum, from which he escaped in 1900, to fight the rest of his life to remain free and legally sane. Information courtesy of Anne Holub, āSpirit Walk spooks students, community, The Cavalier Daily, 10/31/1996, and http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org accessed 6/11/2013.
Ā [68]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 10/26/1896, p.9.
Ā [69]Ā Op. cit., āWon The Key To Trilbyland.ā Details of the prize prior to the competition are found in Isabel McDougall, āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 1/9/1897, p.10.
Ā [70]Ā Isabel McDougall, āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 1/9/1897, p.10.
Ā [71]Ā Diary of Claude Freeman, 1897, property of Virginia Freeman Bottorff, as quoted in op. cit., Freeman essay, p.4. It appears Parker supported his family on the generous Chaloner scholarship along with his fatherās pension. Freeman essay, p.5.
Ā [72]Isabel McDougall, āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 2/27/1897, p.10.
Ā [73]Ā Letters from Parker to A. T. Goshorn, Cincinnati Art Museum Archives, 2/11/1897, 2/17/1897 and 5/10/1897.
Ā [74]Ā Op. cit., Fehrer, The Julian Academy, Paris 1868 - 1939, 1989, n.p.
Ā [75]Ā It has been said he had only one day to prepare and four days to paint the work, op. cit., McProud, Souvenir of the Louisiana Purchase, 1904, p.174. McProud was also the author who commented the work was hung on the line.
Ā [76]Op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902.
Ā [77]Op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902.
Ā [78]Ā āThe Art Academy At The Julian Concour,ā Arts For America, Vol. 7, No. 8, April 1898, p.483; op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902, and Whoās Who In Paris Anglo-American Colony. These two honors were supposed to have given him Hors Concours in the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais. Parker continued to study under Constant and Laurens in an effort to hone his talents. His presence was noticed by a then young Alphaeus P. Cole (1876-1988): āI must not neglect to say here that our class had in it a few men already well-known artists; old timers who came back to paint from the model for some reason or other, such as Lawton S. Parker from Chicago, with whom the master was quite friendly.ā This quote taken from āAn Adolescent in Paris: The Adventure of Being an Art Student Abroad in the Late Nineteenth Century,ā American Art Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, November 1976, p.112-113.
Ā [79]Op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902.
Ā [80]Op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902.
Ā [81]Ā John Parker Diary, 1/25/1899 and 1/29/1899. The latter prize carried an award of one hundred Francs.
Ā [82]Ā āArt,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/19/1899, Part 4, p.35. The jury consisted of Jean Paul Laurens, Charles Emile Carolus-Duran, Cazin, Dagnan Bouvert and Augustus St. Gaudens. First prize was 1,000 Francs; the second prize was 600 Francs. The Clark prize was a life size portrait of a Miss Gluckner, op. cit., McProud, Souvenir of the Louisiana Purchase, 1904, p.174.
Ā [83]Catalogue IllustrĆ© du Salon de 1897 and 1898, (Paris: Librarie DāArt). In 1897 he showed a portrait, #1298 in the catalogue and in 1898 another portrait #1572 in the catalogue as well as The Water FairyĀ (location unknown), #1573 in the catalogue.
Ā [84]Ā George Breed Zug, āThe Art Of Lawton Parker,ā International Studio, Vol. 57, December 1916, p.37. He was noticed by Besnard at the Ecole when he won the Prix dāAtelier. Mention of this invitation is made in John Parker Diary, 6/11/1899. A later entry, 8/24/1899, makes mention of Parker helping Besnard decorate a church. Besnard exhibited the six cartoons for the Hospital work at his one-man exhibition in Chicago opening April 25, 1913, in the Art Institute.
Ā [85]Ā John Parker Diary, 5/23/1899.
Ā [86]Ā John Parker Diary, 9/24/1899, Notes.
Ā [87]Ā Op. cit., Freeman essay, pp.5-6.
Ā [88]Ā John Parker Diary, 4/3/1899.
Ā [89]Ā According to the unpublished biography of Clark by his wife Medora, Parker coordinated the trip for Clark and two other artists and met them at the train upon their arrival to help them get settled in Paris. While not so stated, this most likely was during the spring or summer of 1899. Gean Stern, Alson S. Clark, (Los Angeles: Petersen Publishing Company, 1983), p11. Clarkās experiences in Whistlerās school are told on p.12.
Ā [90]Op. cit., Stern, Alson S. Clark, 1983, p.12. Clark did not enroll until ālate in 1900.ā Parker was also apparently friends with Alfred H. Maruer (1868-1932) who showed Parker as a referring artist when Maruer entered the AcadĆ©mie Julian in 1897. Maruer really had no Chicago connections to speak of and perhaps the two met through the American Art Association in Paris as suggested in Stacey B. Epstein, Alfred H. Maurer: Aestheticism to Modernism, (NY: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 11/30/1999), p.13.
Ā [91]āArt,ā Sunday Chicago Tribune, 12/3/1899, p.34.
Ā [92]Ā Isabel McDougall, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 2/24/1907 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, col. 3, p.130.
Ā [93]Ā John Parker Diary, February 6, 20 and 24, 1899 and 3/18/1899. In a diary entry dated 6/28/1899, mention is made that Parker visited Whistler in his studio for āpointers for the benefit of his future schoolwork in NY.ā
Ā [94]Ā John Parker Diary, 8/15/1899 and Notes after 8/27/1899. Parker had by this time received commissions of 500 Francs for his efforts.
Ā [95]Ā John Parker Diary, 1/21/1899. Some sources claim, incorrectly, he was a founder of this organization. In May 1890, Mr. A. A. Anderson, opened the clubhouse to artists then resident in Paris of American origin. See: E. H. Wuerpel, āAmerican Artistsā Association Paris,ā Cosmopolitan Magazine, 2/20/1896, p.402.
Ā [96]Ā āDr. Lawton S. Parker,ā Annual Report of the Artistsā Guild, (Chicago: The Artistsā Guild, 1917), p.33, Chicago Historical Society; op. cit., āLawton S. Parkerās Remarkable Career,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/26/1902, and Whoās Who In Paris Anglo-American Colony: ā...when its name was changed to the New York School of Art from the Chase School, was elected its first President.ā The name was changed to reflect the broader scope of the student body.
Ā [97]Ā Op. cit., Read, The Sketch Book, April 1904, p.220.
Ā [98]Ā Op. cit., Read, The Sketch Book, April 1904, p.219.
Ā [99]Ā Parkerās address is verified in Catalogue of the Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 10/28/1902), p.49. Number 16 was the one-time home of sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. In 1910 painter Marc Chagall had moved to the avenue.
Ā [100]Ā āLawton S. Parkerā¦,ā The Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 1, September 1903, p.28; op. cit., Printed flyer, The Art Institute of Chicago, āSchool Notice,ā āChicago, Sept. 20, 1902,ā The school continued under Charles Cottet and Lucien Simone during his absence; op. cit., Whoās Who In Paris Anglo-American Colony, itĀ states the school was established in the Quartier Montparnasse āwhich has since been remarkably successful,ā and āNotes On Current Art,ā Chicago Chronicle, 5/10/1901, p.8: āHe recently opened a class in painting and drawing in Paris and now he has reorganized and enlarged the class, which is to be supervised by Simon and Cottet.ā In 1903, the classes were taken over by George Aid. William Vernon, āNews of Chicago Art and Artists,ā Chicago American, 2/14/1904, pp.8, 14. There is implication the school continued into 1906 with the comment, āHe has a famous school in Paris...ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 3/18/1906 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, col. 4, p.4.
Ā [101]Op. cit., Catalogue IllustrĆ© du Salon, (Paris: Librarie DāArt, 1897 and 1898). In 1897 his address was listed as rue de Grenelle 145.
Ā [102]Several friends who were in Paris to study stayed with Parker before finding permanent quarters including George C. Aid. Michael J. McCue, Paris & Tryon: George C. Aid and His Artistic Circles in France and North Carolina, (Columbus, NC: Condar Press, 2003), p.11.
Ā [103]Ā Mary Louise Kane, A Bright Oasis: The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, (New York: Jordan-Volpe Gallery, 1997). Kane takes her information from AcadĆ©mie Julian records as to Millerās address at #9 as well as Parker being the recommending teacher for Millerās enrollment. Miller had studied with Parker in St. Louis.
Ā [104]Ā John Milner, The Studios Of Paris. The Capital of Art in the late Nineteenth Century, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), p.222.
Ā [105]Ā Rowland Sheldon, āTwo American Artists Distinguished Abroad: Lawton Parker and C. Arnold Slade,ā Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 30, May 1914, illustration p.243. This painting, My Model, was completed in only one week. Henry Kitchell Webster said Parker had prepared a painting for the Paris worldās fair of 1900 but a broken stove pipe spewed soot on the work, realizing he had time to enter the regular Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais, he readied the painting which won him the award. See: op. cit., Webster, Collierās, 1/31/1914, p.23.
Ā [106]Ā He showed L'age d'or #1562.
Ā [107]Ā Op. cit., Sheldon, Fine Arts Journal, illustration p.244. This prize was for his painting Mrs. Leonard Woods, of Pittsburgh. āSalon Medals To Americans,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1902, p.13.
Ā [108]Ā Letter from William M. R. French to Caroline D. Wade 9/25/1900, p.4, and letter from French to Parker, 11/2/1900, p.6, French letter archives, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago. (Letters which are hereinafter referred to French letter archives, are on microfilm.) These letters indicate French, director of the Art Institute, had begun to depend upon Parker for his input and taste. The latter letter was an indication Parker had helped secure paintings from Americans in Paris for the annual American show at the Art Institute. Parker was active that year in securing fifty-five works from France for the annual Nebraska Art Association exhibition. Theses paintings were combined with about thirty-five from the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ at the Art Institute, and formed the nucleus of the Nebraska show, see: āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 12/8/1900, p.8.
Ā [109]Ā William Vernon, āPaintings of Lawton Parker, an Old Chicagoan, Will Attract Attention - Has Followed Art 22 Years,ā Chicago American, 10/18/1902, p.3. The painting illustrated was not, however, the proper work. His Portrait of Mrs. W, (Mrs. Leonard Woods) was illustrated in an article by James Ford Buell concerning the annual showing by American artists at the Art Institute of Chicago: āChicagoās Fifteenth Annual Art Exhibition,ā Brush and Pencil, Vol. 11, No. 4, January 1903, p.307. Buell stated Parkerās canvas was direct, without ātrick of brush work.ā He felt because it wasnāt painted with exhibition in mind, it represented a truer form of portraiture, see pp.301-302. The work had previously been exhibited at the Art Institute in the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture, and was illustrated in Edmund Buckley, āArt,ā World To-Day, Vol. 3, December 1902, p.2156, as a worthy opponent of the Harris prize winning painting by Walter McEwen.
Ā [110]Ā Parkerās father had taken ill and died later that year. Op. cit., Freeman essay, p.6.
Ā [111]Ā āLawton Parker Artist,ā Compiled and printed for Lawton and Mrs. Parker by Maud Marston Burrows, Kearney, Nebraska, 1931, original typescript document courtesy of Kirk Edgar, Los Angeles. Transcription of newspaper article: L. B. Cunningham, Editor, āLawton Parker Reception,ā Kearney, Nebraska, 8/20/1902, p.15.
Ā [112]Ā Fred N. Wells, The Nebraska Art Association A History 1888-1971, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1972), pp.11-12.
Ā [113]Ā Norman A. Geske, Art and Artists in Nebraska, (Lincoln: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 2/11-3/28/1982), pp.27,46. The Hall collection was left to the University of Nebraska, which is now in the Sheldon along with the collection of the Nebraska Art Association. Information relating to this connection is courtesy of Janet G. Smith. It is possible Geske relied on information compiled in op. cit., Wells, The Nebraska Art Association A History 1888-1971, p.19, that specifically states Hall depended upon Parkerās advice.
Ā [114]Ā āChicago Flower Painter Wins Recognition in the French City. Artists Are Coming Back to Town,ā Chicago American, 9/22/1902, p.3.
Ā [115]Ā Microfilm contract, Ryerson Library archives, Art Institute of Chicago.
Ā [116]Ā Art critic William Vernon had commented on the competition between the three Chicago art schools in āProfessor George Ford Morris Promises a Treat to Pupils That Attend Classes in the Fine Arts Building This Winter,ā Chicago American, 10/19/1902, Section 1, p.2.
Ā [117]Ā Letter dated Paris, September 1, 1902, Brush and Pencil, Vol. 2, No. 1, October 1902, pp.11-16.
Ā [118]Ā Letter to Caroline D. Wade from French, French letter archives, 7/16/1902, p.675.
Ā [119]Ā The school in New York was founded on the same principles. A student entered life drawing immediately and his work was judged at monthly concours which carried prizes. Spencer H. Coon, āThe Work Of William M. Chase As Artists And Teacher,ā Metropolitan Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 4, May 1897, p.310.
Ā [120]Ā Letter to Charles E. Boutwood from French, French letter archives, 10/30/1902, p.231.
Ā [121]Ā Edward G. Holden, āIn The Field of Art: Concours at Institute,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/21/1902, Section 6, p.50.
Ā [122]Ā āRewards To Keep Art From Loafing,ā Daily Inter Ocean, 1/1/1903, Part 1, p.11. That the students had already begun agitating for his continuation is found in Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 11/15/1902, p.14. In the same article, McCauley found his entry in the annual exhibition of American artists āone of the striking pictures of the exhibition.ā
Ā [123]Ā The system was thoroughly described in op. cit., Daily Inter Ocean, 1/1/1903, Part 1, p.11 and āChanges At Art Institute,ā Chicago Record-Herald, 1/2/1903, p.14.
Ā [124]Ā āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 1/31/1903, p.8, and āIn The Field of Art,ā āArt Notes,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/1/1903, Part 5, p.37.
Ā [125]Op. cit., Daily Inter Ocean, 1/1/1903, Part 1, p.11. See also: op. cit., Chicago Record-Herald, 1/2/1903, p.14. At least one other source has stated diplomas were eliminated in 1906. The article clearly states, diplomas were being abolished in 1902, but that anyone who had entered school prior could obtain a diploma if they so wished.
Ā [126]Ā William Vernon, āHoward Pyle, Americaās Greatest Illustrator, Points Finger at Alleged Defect,ā Chicago American, 12/4/1903 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 19, p.72.
Ā [127]Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 2/14/1903, p.8.
Ā [128]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 2/1/1903, Part 5, p.37.
Ā [129]Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 12/20/1902, p.14.
Ā [130]Ā āThe Chicago Academy Of Fine Arts,ā The Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 8, April 1904, p.268.
Ā [131]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 1/31/1903, p.8.
Ā [132]Ā Grenhagen also attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts around the time Parker had gone there. Russell B. Pyre, āAs Artist I Chose Sincerity Over Gain, Genhagen Says,ā Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, 11/24/1940.
Ā [133]Ā Edward G. Holden, āIn the Field of Art,ā āArt Notes,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/15/1903, Part 5, p.42.
Ā [134]Ā āIn the Field of Art: A Life Class Concours,ā Chicago Tribune, 3/22/1903, Part 5, p.47. This account of success is somewhat confusing as it isnāt clear if these were Art Institute students of Academy students.
Ā [135]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/22/1903, Part 5, p.47.
Ā [136]Ā See for example, op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/22/1903, Part 5, p.47., and āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 2/28/1903, p.8.
Ā [137]Ā āChicago Artistsā Work Is Shown,ā Chicago Chronicle, 2/4/1903, p.12. The Young Fortnightly was the junior group of the Fortnightly club, still in existence. The club was described in, āClub Womenās Work,ā AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 9, 1896, p.16.
Ā [138]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt And Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 5/23/1903, p.14. Portraits of Mrs. Badger and Mrs. Emory were later illustrated in the āIn the Field of Art,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/14/1903, Part 5, p.39.
Ā [139]Ā In the city, Charles Francis Browne shared with him his studio in the Fine Arts building where he worked on portraits of Martin Ryerson, and three others. Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 12/27/1902, p.8.
Ā [140]Ā Op. cit., Zug, The International Studio, December 1915, p.38. Parker further explained, āOur faces are not made of marble; they do things. The question is not whether eye matches eye or ear corresponds to ear; it is rather whether the head and the figure are vital, are full of the life peculiar to this one person.ā
Ā [141]Interview with Lawton Parker, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, p.84.
Part 2:
Traveling as frequently as he did between school terms, he commented, āAs much as I like Chicago, I am not prepared to settle down just yet, though I have promised to return here next December. Art conditions in the West are far from discouraging.āĀ [1] Students remarked he was a āfirst rate teacher,āĀ critic Edward Holden said he was an āimportant factor in art instruction.ā [2] Parker went to France for the summer where he found pleasant weather just off the Brittany coast in Pont-Aven,Ā [3] and visited Holland.Ā [4] We know from the diary and unpublished book by Medora Clark that Parker, Alson Clark, Frieseke and Guy Rose traveled through Brittany that summer as well.Ā [5] Parker took time to visit other Chicagoans in the area including the wealthy Mrs. E. J. Martyn who had come to Brittany for the art instruction and encouragement of her daughter Hazel.Ā [6]
Ā
Upon his return from France in December 1903,Ā [7] he was given a reception at an Academy housewarming. They had recently moved to new quarters and taken 14,000 square feet to have enough space to meet demand of new incoming students.Ā [8] During the winter term he again gave criticisms to the advanced students.Ā [9] Always in demand for a comment on art education, Parker was quoted as saying, āOne of the essential things in an artist is the ability to make a pleasing arrangement.ā While stating the obvious, he was trying to comment on the importance of both composition and technique.Ā [10]
Ā
In January, the annual exhibition of Chicago artists opened at the Art Institute. Parker had returned to Chicago to complete his important portrait of Martin RyersonĀ [11] for the University of Chicago. The piece was lent to the exhibition by trustee Charles Hutchinson. Critic Lena McCauley, said the piece ādominatedā the main gallery, with its āplace of honorā on the West wall.Ā [12] Director French considered lending a photograph of it to the magazine World To-DayĀ to illustrate an article by Will Low on the Art Institute.Ā [13]
Ā
Parkerās spent a disappointingly short time in Chicago as he was called to New York to take charge of Francis Luis Moraās (1874-1940) class at the New York School of Art. Mora was in St. Louis working on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (properly known as the Universal Exposition). [14] There appears to have been some misunderstanding as the students at the Academy in Chicago thought he was to open a class throughout the Winter and Spring, as intimated in an earlier November advertisement.Ā [15] It is probable he stood to earn quite a bit more teaching at the well established New York school than at the newly formed Academy. This time, the newspapers reported, it was the Paris students who anxiously awaited āthe coming of Lawton Parker.ā Alluding to the success of his school in Paris, he was in an enviable position of triangulating his teaching between three schools and regular portrait commissions. As the critic said, āAnd yet some say artists have no business qualification.āĀ [16] This prescient comment by Vernon, was a small item on the future of Lawton Parker and his business acumen and later accumulation of money and a life of leisure.
Ā
The Universal Exposition, which opened on April 30 in St. Louis, brought Parker a Silver medal, along with his American friends in Paris, Frederick Frieseke, Richard E. Miller (1875-1943), George Charles Aid (1872-1938), Henry Salem Hubbell (1870-1949) and Alfred Henry Maurer (1868-1932). Three of Parkerās works were accepted including his portrait of Ryerson, lent by the University of Chicago. As had become his custom, he left that summer for Paris,Ā [17] and then traveled a bit from there, arriving in Venice where he met up with Alson Skinner Clark, before returning to Paris.Ā [18] The Clarks apartment became a sort of meeting place for several American artists including Parker, Frederick Frieseke, Will Howe Foote (1874-1965) and Eugene Ullman.Ā [19]
Ā
By at least February 1905, Parker was again a regular teacher at the Academy in Chicago.Ā [20] He had returned to both teach and complete the increasing flow of portrait commissions.Ā [21] One might make the analogy that he was becoming Chicagoās John Singer Sargent. We surmise he was in Spain during the summer 1905, although his activities there, other than the probable study of works by the great Spanish painter VelĆ”zquez, are unknown.Ā [22] He was back in Chicago by August 1905 to āexecute commissions for portraits,ā although he hadnāt yet located a studio.Ā [23]
Ā
In the fall, while working in Chicago, he received another major prize. A Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Munich was awarded his painting Une Anglaise or An English Girl.Ā [24] It had been chosen for the Munich show from among those exhibited at the 1905 Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais where it had been hung in the Gallery of Honor.Ā [25] The image explored in this painting is of a well dressed woman peering in the mirror.Ā [26] Her face is not shown to the viewer except through reflection in the mirror. Author Jean Stern points out the use of this motif by Alson Clark in 1905 with his wife Medora, as the model. Later in 1906, Medora posed of Parker on āseveral occasions.ā A comparison of Parkerās work with Clarkās Les ColliersĀ shows clearly Medora is not the model for the prize-winning picture.Ā [27] Parker gained a significant amount of coverage from this one painting.Ā [28] The painting traveled to numerous venues and was shown as late as September 1919 at the annual American show in the St. Louis Art Museum. Parker obviously enjoyed the fourteen-year run of publicity the painting must have garnered.Ā [29]
Ā
Parker was connected well enough in Paris to have the influence of French Minister of Art, Andre Saglio in persuading the Art Institute to allow him control of installation of the exhibition by contemporary French artists.Ā [30] It is more than likely that Parker was the one who selected the works in Paris for the exhibition.Ā [31] The show received favorable reviews in the press, but possibly due to Parkerās influence, director French was less than enthusiastic in his letter to Saglio.Ā [32] Already at odds with Parker and his large influence with the trustees of the museum, the feud between the two influential men would continue to intensify until Frenchās death in 1914. It is an important indication of Parkerās influence that his introduction of French atelier teaching methods had a large, and almost complete influence upon the Art Institute.Ā [33] In this respect, like it or not, Parkerās influence upon the school which William French guided, would be long lasting.Ā [34]
Ā
The final written confirmation of the severing of relations between French and Parker came as Parker was seeking another teaching position at the school:
Ā
āI ought, perhaps, in honesty to say that I am not willing, for the present, to have you connected with our school. Whether the troubles we had before were intentional on your part or unintentional, there would be risk of their recurrence, and that risk I think I should be foolish to incur. I would never be guilty of endeavoring to injure you in any way, but it appears to me too much to ask that you should be engaged as a teacher in the school again.āĀ [35]
Ā
We do not know exactly what these ātroublesā were. There was never a mention in the Press and a thorough search of Frenchās correspondence added no light. French believed Parker was pushing to be named general director of the Art Institute and would use his teaching position to achieve this in lock step fashion. [36] French had been on the job for some thirty years and likely would have retained other responsibilities. This clearly put the two at direct odds with each other. They had enjoyed a cordial andĀ active relationship dating back to 1888. A position as head of the countryās largest school and an important museum would certainly secure Parker his much sought-after permanent residence in Chicago.
Ā
Following this refusal, he opened a special portraiture class in spring 1906, at the Academy.Ā [37] His importance to that school was such that his name was listed first in its advertisements among the fifteen other teachers.Ā [38] As was his norm, he left for the summer, this time for Spain, then most likely back to Paris.Ā [39]
Ā
Several contemporary sources have put Parkerās appearance in Giverny sometime between 1902 and the summer 1906.Ā [40] It seems probable that the latest date is the earliestĀ he arrived as it would be fours years after 1906, when he first exhibited works showing the new light motif. It is more likely he arrived in Giverny somewhere between 1908 and 1910. Also, he was in Spain during the summer 1906. āGiverny is a quaint little peasant village an hour out of Paris. The houses are all on one road, with a great hill, very decoratively laid out in small fields, banking one side of the road, and the beautiful country of Eure, through which flows the Seine, on the other.āĀ [41] The Giverny experience must have made Parker think long and hard. Never one given to rash acts, always thoughtful and concerned about the business implications of his work, he must have experimented and experimented further, until he felt safe in exhibiting canvases with this new color palette. This brand of American Impressionism, painting in the out-of-doors in bright Plein-airĀ sunlight, was far, far removed from his primarily portrait work with models indoors under indirect light.
Ā
Back in Chicago again by fall 1906, Parker was hard at work on portrait commissions in new quarters at the Tree Studios.Ā [42] āThe difference between a successful and unsuccessful portrait is that one renders character and the other is a mere map of features...,āĀ expounded Parker. He continued that by painting his subjects in their own home, not holding any specific pose, he could grasp characteristics which he could then blend into a portrait.Ā [43] The natural light of their home was where their friends were accustomed to seeing them, not in the āstrong studio light.ā Parker described the intricate process of painting all canvases first in shades gray before the portrait was begun, and grounding paints so female skin would be fine and painting thin pigment diluted to a glaze. He found it āsafest to paint first in tempera then lightly glaze with oils,ā all to prevent the dulling of colors over time. This method was his solution to premier coup, or the French method which tends to darken, of painting directly upon the white canvas. In summary, the artist had to both be a keen observer of character and wise to the use of his tools and chemicals and paints.Ā [44] One would think Whistler had a strong effect upon Lawton Parker. Portrait commissions continued to come, and he seemed to have developed a penchant for āuniversity men.ā [45]
Ā
When William French wrote to Parker about whether The English GirlĀ should be in competition for awards at the Annual Exhibition of Works by ChicagoĀ January 1907, he was as detached as possible.Ā [46] French was trying to imply Parker had asked the painting not to be considered for prize competition, which seems unlikely. The painting garnered a significant amount of press coverage when it was give a āplace of honorā in the largest gallery. [47] One article noted it was āAmong the works most discussed by the jurorsā¦āĀ [48] Another noted at $2,000, it was the highest priced work in the exhibition.Ā [49] In an evening of burlesque by students of the Art Institute to raise funds for a Mardi Gras float, a caricature of the painting was āknocked down for 25 cents.āĀ [50] Despite the request by Parker regarding competition, the Chicago Society of Artists voted the painting its highest honor. Parker was the fourth artist awarded the annual silver medal by the organization which was in control of the most important art activities in Chicago.Ā [51]
Ā
Another notable portrait was recognized in the newspapers. Most likely written by regular art critic Lena M. McCauley, the subject was a successful interpretation of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson. Parkerās earlier portrait of Mr. Ryerson was shown at the Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago ArtistsĀ show in 1904 and Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais in 1905. At the Fall 1907 exhibition of American artists, he won the Martin B. Cahn prize for the best work by a Chicagoan for his portrait of Mr. Ryerson. [52] The husband-and-wife piece was the result of his integration of Mrs. Ryerson with her husband, a subject Parker knew extremely well. His familiarity with the subjects must have been the impetus for a fine work. Seen at Thurber Gallery, McCauley said of the piece it, āā¦exhibit s the maturity of Mr. Parkerās art.āĀ She used phrases such as āstrengthā and ādignityā to describe the likeness with āan element of repose and beauty.āĀ [53]
Ā
It was clear Parker was now planing to continue shuttling between Paris and Chicago now that a permanent position was not available in his favored city. To benefit this arrangement, he proposed the Franco-American Art Committee. The purpose of the committee was to promote the exhibition and sale of French artistsā works in the United States. Parker had his taste of the possible success the prior year at the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ where his French selections were accorded a small gallery. The Art Institute trustees had been aggressive and avid collectors of French art, something which is reflected today in the strength of the museum collection. Other members of the committee included Art Institute of Chicago trustee and chairman Charles L. Hutchinson, trustee Stanley McCormick of the powerful McCormick family in Chicago and wealthy industrialist and retired businessman painter Frederic Clay Bartlett.Ā [54] It is unclear why Parker pushed the formation and promotion of the organization, ever the businessman, it is possible he saw an opportunity to represent sales in this country.Ā [55]
Ā
In October 1907, Parker reportedly left Chicago for Philadelphia ostensibly to join William Merritt Chase for the winter.Ā [56] However, it is likely the reporter was slightly misinformed as Chase was in New York and only commuted to Philadelphia once a week to teach at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By November, it is confirmed he was in New York, and Newton H. Carpenter of the Art Institute was questioning his residency. Carpenter quoted āsome of the artistsāĀ who said, āyou told them you were leaving the city for good.āĀ [57] But a newspaper account said, āMr. Parker himself, however, declares he is a Chicago manā¦ He, however, considered this his headquarters and home, and even now that he is engaged in teaching with Chase in New York, retains a studio here, and expects to return.āĀ [58] He finished his portrait of then deceased Nelson Morris from studies made earlier in the Spring. One critic commented, āEven the hands are expressive.āĀ [59]
Ā
Parkerās address for the next few years was Paris at 7 Passage Stanislas, oddly enough next to the site of Whistlerās AcadĆ©mie Carmen where he had studied in 1898, at #6. However, he must have been in Chicago to paint the portrait of Norman Waite Harris, which was exhibited in the Fall 1908, Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture.Ā [60] The painting had previously been shown at the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais. Mr. Harris was a wealthy Chicago banker and the founder of the prize after his name which carried a $500 award at the American show. The papers reported the piece was given Parkerās usual place of honor in the center of the wall.Ā [61] Early the next year he was back in Chicago, most likely to work on more portrait commissions.Ā [62]
Ā
An investment in artist studios on the fourth floor of the Beil & Hermant building, 19-21 E. Pearson, encouraged Parker to spend more time in Chicago and less time in Paris. As early as 1902, there had been an overriding demand for more apartment/studios in the city.Ā [63] Carl Beil and Leon Hermant were architectural sculptors who occupied at least the first floor of the building and leased the top fourth floor to Parker. Beil was exceptionally well known as he had been the superintendent of sculpture for the Worldās Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. āThe building is attractive... the upper floor enjoys an unobstructed north light.āĀ [64]
Ā
Parker must have been thoroughly impressed by then famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They no doubt met as early as 1895 when Wright built his Oak Park studio on the same block where Charles A. Purcell lived, son-in-law of W. C. Gray, not far from the Grayās own residence.Ā [65] Wright rarely (a handful) executed interior spaces, and then only for wealthy clients. Wright and Parker probably came into close contact through many avenues, including Wrightās 1907 interior commission for Browneās bookstore, in the Fine Arts Building. Parker had shared a studio in the building with Browneās brother, Chicago painter Charles Francis Browne, earlier in 1902 and had also spent considerable time there conducting classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.Ā [66] The earliest plans are dated May 24, 1908. Subsequent plans show a sophisticated two-level studio and living space with much of the beauty of Wrightās Prairie School architecture.Ā [67]
Ā
Parker took one of the upper studios and gave the other to Wellington Jarard Reynolds (1866-1949), who only stayed one year.Ā [68] Remaining units were rented to other artists. The units consisted both of a studio and living quarters, like the popular Tree Studio Building nearby which housed a thriving artist colony.Ā [69]
Ā
āMr. Parker lives in an interesting and unusual studio in Pearson street. The interior is most ingeniously divided and subdivided so that Mr. Parker has a collection of seven or eight different rooms or cells clustering about his fair sized studio.Ā [70]
Ā
He attracted wealthy society women, who were painters and his private students, to rent space, including Mrs. John Alden Carpenter Rue WinterbothamĀ [71] (c.1880-1931),Ā [72] Mrs. Cecil Clark Davis (1877-1955),Ā [73] Mrs. (Marshall) Virginia Keep Clark (1878-1962), and Mrs. (Arthur) Emily Maria Borie Ryerson (1863-1939).Ā [74] Others who took space in the studio building were music critic James Whittaker, Mrs. George Kretzinger and her artist daughter Clara (1883-after 1940), painter Martha Susan Baker (1871-1911 ), Poetry MagazineĀ staff member Eunice Tietjens (1884-1944), artist Raymond Jonson (1891-1981),Ā [75] artist Grace Hickox Harrison (dates unknown),Ā [76] sculptress Nancy Cox McCormack Cushman (1885-1967),Ā [77] Art Institute professor and friend from Giverny Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952)Ā [78] and head of decorative design at the Art Institute, Louis J. Millet (1856-1923).
Ā
Buher and Parker had been friends for many years from Chicago. Buehr rented from Parker in Giverny and the two of them painted the same models and in one known instance, Le dejeuner sur lāherbe, by Buehr and Midsummer IdyllĀ by Parker, painted almost identical pictures of a woman seated at picnic in the grass with her tea set and parasol.Ā [79]
Ā
The proximity gave these society women ample access to Parkerās instruction.Ā [80] Mrs. (Robert) Grace Farwell McGann (1868-1949) was also under Parkerās tutelage. Among the wealthiest Chicagoans she and her family lived in the former Farwell mansion at 120 E. Pearson, just down the street, where they used the old ballroom as a studio.Ā [81] An apt description of such increasingly common studios was mentioned in comment on a new studio Mrs. McGann was planning to build:
Ā
āThe principal feature is the lofty studio with the balcony at one end. The work shop (to give it a homely, practical name) is generally high enough to permit two stories of small rooms to be built back of it for the apparatus of living, the studio being large enough to serve, if necessary, as a living room and dining roomā¦These east and west streets are necessary in order to insure the required north light for the ateliers.āĀ [82]
Ā
Throughout 1910, Parkerās usual portraits of important persons were shown, including one of Mrs. Norman Waite Harris, whose husband he had painted two years earlier.Ā [83] Heretofore, this was all he had exhibited; paintings of persons in various stages of quiet meditation, in regal poses or among their favorite possessions at home. The study of Mrs. Harris had been called āone of the best portraits exhibitedā¦of unusual quality.āĀ [84] January, though, brought the first hint of change in Parkerās public exhibition. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he showed A Modern EveĀ and Four Leaf Clover; titles evocative of outdoor painting. A March commentary by critic Lena M. McCauley announced the coming of a change in his work. While his portrait of Mrs. Norman W. Harris was to be āaccepted as the fulfillment of the artistās promise in portraiture of former years,ā the palette was ānot so somber as that of the portrait of Mr. Harris painted earlier.ā This and a painting of Miss Potter, āshow the advance that Mr. Parker has made in recent times toward a more fluent expression.āĀ [85] The Sunday Record-HeraldĀ carried a short note saying Parker was back in town in his new studio building with decorations designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.Ā [86] He had been working the past summer on Plein-air nudes to create a series of outdoor portraits.Ā [87]
Ā
April 4, 1910, was a monumental day in the career of Lawton Parker, his one man exhibition, which had been preceded the prior month by that of Karl Anderson (1874-1956), another adherent of the Plein-airĀ nude, opened to rave reviews at the Thurber Art Gallery in Chicago. Displayed there for everyone to see were his canvases bursting with sunshine, pure colors bright and vibrant. Walter Scott Thurber was one of the most progressive people in the Chicago art scene. He started in the art business as a salesman for OāBrien Art Gallery.Ā [88] His gallery space on the top floor of the old Chicago Musical College Building, with its entrance through the Fine Arts Building, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.Ā [89] He used the modern space to exhibit āmodernā artists.
Ā
Critic McCauley said that since his return, Parker was regaling his patrons with stories of his garden in Giverny, which he shared with Frederick Frieseke. She ably described his activities in France and his garden space:
Ā
āFruit trees and water plants bend over the running water and flowers and shrubs bloom in profusion on the slopes. The small house is used as a shelter, and when portrait painting hours are over in Paris, Mr. Parker hastens to the country, unlocks the little door in the high wall, and, closing it behind him, enters the circles of devotees of plein air.ā
Ā
āHere his model poses under the trees, or basks in golden sunlight amid the shrubs and flowers. Pure color vibrates in the breezy atmosphere and the painter, unrestrained by studio conventionality or artificial lights, lets the impulse direct his brush with happy results in a gallery of artistic compositions - āA Modern Eve,ā āA Bather,ā āLandscape With Nudeā and studies of landscape and figures.āĀ [90]
Ā
In a later article, she lauded Parker because his show marked āan epochāĀ in what she called a āphase of art.āĀ She wanted other local painters to take note and hastened to add they were slow to move in this new direction. McCauley continued to praise Parker comparing his portrait of Newell Dwight Hillis to Whistler with its āspiritual presence.āĀ [91]Ā Apparently Parker had spent the entire summer in outdoor work, and it showed in his output.Ā [92]Ā He and Frieseke had been working at the same motifs as well, as evidenced by their depiction of a robed figure in a row boat or the same figure along the shore.Ā [93]
Ā
The nucleus of a new American school of painting was what the Sunday Record-HeraldĀ called it.Ā [94] This group included Guy Rose (1867-1925), Edmund W. Greacen (1877-1949), Richard Miller, Frieseke, Anderson and Parker.Ā [95] While the paper failed to mention Alson Clark, Parkerās friend had made the transition after an extensive trip through Spain with Francis Mora. Clark had exhibited the results of his bright sun-filled intensely colored canvases in March 1910, at Chicagoās Oābrienās gallery.Ā [96]
Ā
āThe watchword of these young men is life, and light, and humanity. Their language of expression is achieved through the medium of a happy, fleeting vision of things real yet delightfully intangible. Direct contact with the open air is their gospel of inspiration.āĀ [97]
Ā
The Thurber catalogue was brief but described the movement as taking a āmore rational view of modern impressionism.āĀ [98]
Ā
Chicago Tribune critic Harriet Monroe was even more descriptive of the wonder at this new style of painting from Chicagoās most prominent portrait artist:
Ā
āThese pictures, which are chiefly studies of the nude out of doors, seem to me by far the best work he has ever done. emphasis added They show that he has taken a wonderfully fresh start, and that he is sensitive to the elusive beauty of light, color, atmosphere to a degree which I, for one, never suspected. He has been able to throw off the rather cold formalism, the somewhat labored effect, of what might be called his studio manner, and develop all of a sudden a style as free and spontaneous as the delicate will-oā-the-wisp subjects he has been studying.ā
Ā
Parker added to the discussion:
Ā
āWe had a wonderful place to paint. A secluded walled garden more beautiful than Monetās we thought, because it was more wild; with a rivulet running through it toward the Seine, making two little quite pools shaded by foliage. There we could work all day without fear of intrusion.ā
Ā
In a very telling description of their technique and discounting many theories that the paintings were constructed completely outdoors, he said: āBut we had to keep running back and forth to the house with our canvases because effects which seemed brilliant out in the sun would look black in doors and require change.āĀ [99]
Ā
Parker ārefusedāĀ to call these Plein-air paintings āserious.āĀ [100] Monroe noted he was almost afraid to exhibit them. The deliberate and hard-working Parker would have cause for concern as his small fortune had already been made on society portraits and teaching techniques which were anything but out-of-doors painting. While he mayĀ have been in Giverny a few years earlier than summer 1909, he either didnāt paint in this mode or he decided it was time to show the public what he had been up to. It is a matter of interest that Karl Anderson, also a society portrait painter, showed his Giverny work at the same time. Alson Clark had been in Giverny earlier, yet his outdoor work from Spain wasnāt shown until just before Parkerās. Could there have been some very careful planning by the three friends? Had Parker painted these canvases or ones similar over several years and hid them from view? Monroe called for Parker to āforgetāĀ about being serious, to be āgayāĀ and predicted if he would how āgood it would be for his fame.ā [101]
Ā
In December, the Madison Art Gallery, New York,Ā [102] opened the exhibit Impressionist landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits by Guy Rose, Frederick C. Frieseke, Lawton S. Parker and Richard Miller. For the first time this group of hard working artists was exhibiting together representing the new school of American Art. Most of the reviews of the show were very favorable with one critic offering, āThese men are impressionistic painters of the very best sort. Their work is on a par with the older and better known men.āĀ [103] That they worked together on subject matter was evidenced by In A Garden, a work each of three artists submitted by the same name.Ā [104] Critic Henry McBride offered that should these works be shown at the National Academy it would give a ājoltā to the annual show there and help to cure The Ten of their āchronic anemia.āĀ [105] This show was the culmination of the many activities for Parker that year and marked the turning point of his career. Other contemporary publications have made much of this exhibit and extolled the virtues of the work. The most salient adjectives used by the many critics to describe Parkerās work included: āastonishing progress;ā āchanged for the betterā and āpalpitating colors.āĀ [106]
Ā
Several scholars have maintained Parker was living at Giverny for somewhat of an extended period. However, the evidence says otherwise. One letter was addressed to him at Giverny, par Vernon, on September 15, 1910, but three months later another was addressed to his Paris address at 7 Passage Stanisla.Ā [107] It is clear from the vast material assembled and from the many exhibition records which required an address that Parker was spending winters in Paris and Chicago and summers in Giverny, possibly going back and forth between the city and the country all summer long.Ā [108] Critic Harriet Monroe had visited him and his friends that summer in Giverny where she commented on the group poking fun at the modernists by taking turns painting works by āMatisseā or āGauguināĀ [109] Near this time Parker had sold a work to the wealthy artist William Singer who lent it to the international exhibition in Rome. The painting Breakfast in the GardenĀ (Singerheimen, Olden, Norway) was evocative of Parkerās impressionist spirit at the time.Ā [110] Monroe wrote in June 1911 Parker had been absent Chicago for over a year with his time spent āchiefly in Giverny and Paris.ā He was ready to come home, however: āI got thoroughly tired of Paris that winter and hope I may be able to stay a long while now on this side of the water.āĀ [111] The timing for his return from some brand of boredom couldnāt have been better. Parker had become Chicagoās de facto commentator upon the American art scene in France.Ā [112]
Ā
It was during this time Parker took a young talented artist under his wing, Louis Ritman (1889-1963). As noted earlier, in the fall 1909, Parker was in Philadelphia with William M. Chase. Ritman studied with Chase there at the same time, probably at the urging of Parker. In early 1910, Ritman was in Paris and by the summer, Parker had invited him to Giverny, gaining quarters for him with a local farmer and lending him his studio and model. Leon Makielski (1885-1974) recounted, āParker said to me that he is going to see that Ritman makes the mark with his talent.āĀ It is possible Parker advanced the financially strapped Ritman the money for an entirely new set of clothes as Makielski saw him in a ānew outfit from head to footā wearing a āsmile you never saw before.ā [113] Under Parkerās influence, Ritman would soon become another member of the Giverny group and a noted success in Chicago. An account of Ritmanās ascendancy was written by critic Harriet Monroe:
Ā
āMr. Parker speaks with great interest of two young students from Chicago, who this year make their debut at the Old Salon. Louis Ritman, who is still under 20, was born in the Ghetto of Russian Jewish parents, and began his artistic career as a sign painter. He saved up money enough to take lessons at the Chicago Fine Arts academy, where he won some prizes, and began to paint portraits for a few dollars a head. The chance advice of an instructor caused him to risk starvation by going to Paris, where clever work in making copies, portraits, etc., has enabled him to subsist while he painted a more ambitious picture of two women at their toilet. This was accepted for the Salon, where it now hangs on the line, balancing one by Harrington Mann, and receives encouraging praise from artists and critics.āĀ [114]
Ā
The portrait formula, which worked so well for Parker was not really abandoned, just modified. As this continued to represent a sizeable income, he was not really at liberty to jolt the expectations of his patrons too much. Parker was now also in the real estate business with his studio building. He had much greater cause to remain in Chicago and critic Harriet Monroe, who had seen him in Giverny the summer 1910,Ā [115] said he spent the summer 1911, in the Chicago suburbs, painting outdoors.Ā [116] One painting titled, Salvia, Lake Geneva, indicates he was also at the resort town just north of Chicago in Wisconsin.Ā [117] Lake Geneva was and remains today a place for wealthy Chicagoans to spend their summer lounging by the cool lake and enjoying clement summer evenings.
Ā
He exhibited three paintings at the next Art Institute Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ in the fall. One portrait depicted a relatively new motif; the female patron sat in a large chair while she leaned across one arm. The blending of whites lent a rich, low tone to the dress of the sitter one might imagine again any number of Whistler portraits.Ā [118] During 1911, his works were shown at the Pennsylvania Academy and Carnegie annuals and at the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais,Ā [119] as well as an exhibit of American artists living in Paris at the cityās Devembez Gallery. [120] The exhibit was part of an art exchange between American and French artists, that had its first showing of French works in Chicago in 1905, under the significant influence of Parker. This had been followed in 1908 by another Art Institute of Chicago exhibit featuring six American artists who were resident in France.Ā [121] The press said Parker was one of two āpermanentā members of the selection committee. Itās likely the entire concept was thought up by Parker and no doubt he contemplated some angle to make money at it. Important support for the series was gathered from U. S. Ambassador to France Robert Bacon as well as the French Minister of Art and important French artist Henri Charles Etienne Dujardin-Beaumetz (1852-1913).Ā [122]
Ā
The most extraordinary aspect of Parkerās life in the summer of 1911 was that it was spent in Chicago, not France. Parkerās friend, writer Henry Kitchell Webster, held an exhibition of Parkerās works at his large home in Evanston where the event was news for local society.Ā [123] With this exhibition of Giverny works from the previous two summers it was clear his transformation of style was complete. Critic Harriet Monroe was effusive in her praise of this private exhibition. Exhibits at homes were rarely given any press coverage but apparently this one was difficult to miss. Twenty-two paintings in all were shown: āMost of the pictures are studies of women out of doors in Giverny gardens or verandas or beside pools, lit by dappled sunlightā¦ painted last summer, others the summer before, when Mr. Parker first fell in with Richard Miller, Frederick Frieseke, and other Americans of the plein air school who use the little French village as their summer headquartersā¦ Never did a painter effect a more complete revolution in style, nor with happier results. Giverny taught Mr. Parker to throw away the heavy and somber secondary tonesā¦The result is a series of fresh, clear, finely inspired picturesā¦The exhibitionā¦is one of the most important offered here by any Chicago painter and an amazing advance over his previous work.Ā [124]
Ā
The summer stay lasted through the winter, which was filled with some society activities, including a fantastic benefit pageant where Parker played a role as part of the English Group.Ā [125] As the winter melted away, the most important local exhibition of his career was about to open. His one man show at the Art Institute was heralded with the headline, āParker Paintings Catch Glint of Summer. Sunshiny Canvases Now at the Art Institute,ā and opened to strong reviews on March 5, 1912.Ā [126] Parker announced his own works by saying in the subheading:
Ā
āI Paint in the Vast Outdoors, in the Mists and in the Shadows.āĀ [127]
Ā
About his fresh approach Parker went on to say in the newspaper:
Ā
āI love morning, noon and evening, and I paint these moods of nature. I respond to the rising light of the forenoon, to the glory of the sunshine at high noon, to the declining light of the afternoon. Light and sunshine give to foliage corresponding notes of beauty. No artist would dare to paint the true vividness of foliage when bathed in an effulgence of sunshine; such a venture would be termed grotesque and spectacular. Being an artist endowed with prudence, I do not impart the climax of vividness that sunshine gives to leaf and flower.āĀ [128]
Ā
His works were hung in one gallery and those of Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925) were hung in an adjoining space. Parker showed both āforcefulā portraits and paintings depicting women outdoors at tea tables, lounging nude among the foliage or dressed in summer attire. Critic Harriet Monroe said of the group, āā¦the sunshine and shadows seem to ripple and shimmer like a running brookā¦āĀ [129] Lena McCauley said that if a Winter weary art student would go into the gallery āhis sensations would be stimulated to fresh enjoyment and his ideas startledā¦ā with a āthought provoking experience.āĀ [130] She waxed poetically about how paintings could touch oneās soul and wove into her critiques references to Liszt and Bach; how the subjects were revelations of beauty. Harriet Monroe spoke of a ādeeper motive than beautyāĀ in his mind.Ā [131]
Ā
The people of Chicago had just recently been exposed to this brilliant brand of American impressionism. So much of it was new there was a search for the inner depths of the artist who carried so much beauty and vitality to the public. The impact on the press was whole, completely they were taken by these paintings and creator and would continue to bring them forth for years until it became exactly what they expected. This exhibition was the culmination of an introduction of new subjects, new thought, and new spirit to Chicagoans. The critics constantly reminded the public of Parkerās academic training and great skill in pointing to the success at which he carried off these new canvases. His work could be more readily accepted by the public, despite that he painted what he saw, for as the catalogue said:
Ā
āThe canvases make a refreshing contrast to much of the modern impressionistic work in their sanity, their moderation and their admirable draughtsmanship, while they full equal, if they do not actually excel their rivals in the amount of illumination gained.āĀ [132]
Ā
The only other record of his works exhibited in 1912 was at the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ at the Art Institute and the Brooklyn Art Association in a loan exhibit.
Ā
He traveled to the artist colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut that summer, at the possible invitation of Metcalf, who he undoubtedly knew from Giverny and came in contact with again while their works were given space at the Art Institute.Ā [133] Parker then traveled on to Giverny to work the remainder of the year and through the winter with Frieseke in their shared garden.Ā [134] It is possible at this time he painted portraits of his garden mate. Two known works exist of Frieseke by the hand of Parker, one of which was used as the entry requirement for Friesekeās induction into the National Academy of Design.Ā [135] Their coterie of artists made a habit of sitting for each other.Ā [136] The weather was apparently unseasonably rainy and he was forced to spend considerable time indoors at the adjoining house and his Paris studio.Ā [137] There he worked on the most important painting of his career. One which took him four and a half months to complete, on which he labored by scraping off and painting repeatedly until he was satisfied.Ā [138]
Ā [1]Ā Op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 5/23/1903, p.14.
Ā [2]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 6/14/1903, Part 5, p.39.
Ā [3]Ā āFall Comes in Paris,ā Chicago Tribune, 9/13/1903, p.13. The port town is located 9 km inland on the Aven River.
Ā [4]Ā Op. cit., The Sketch Book, September 1903, p.28, the article saying he went directly from Holland to Paris. In R. H. Loveās Louis Ritman, From Chicago to Giverny, (Chicago: Hasse-Mumm, 1989), p.87, he states, unfortunately without documentation, āDuring the summer of 1903, Parker devoted much time to painting in Holland. He also went to Giverny, where he stayed briefly before leaving with Guy Rose, Alson Skinner Clark, and Frederick Frieseke on a painting trip to Brittany.ā Mary Louis Kane implies Parker arrived first in 1906, in op. cit., A Bright Oasis, The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, p.26. It is doubtful either are correct as discussed later.
Ā [5]Ā Gean Stern, Alson S. Clark, (Los Angeles: Petersen Publishing Company, 1983), p.16.
Ā [6]āWins Fame In Art: Hazel Martyn of Chicago Applauded by Foreign Critics,ā Chicago Tribune, 10/25/1903, p.1.
Ā [7]He arrived in the U. S. on 11/28/1903, having departed from Southampton, England. Passenger Record, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
Ā [8]Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 8/29/1903, p.8. The article also mentioned he needed to continue work on local portrait commissions.
Ā [9]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,āĀ Chicago Evening Post, 12/12/1903, p.10. An advertisement in the Sketch BookĀ announced he was leaving Paris in November to carry on portrait commissions and instruct classes. Advertisement, Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 3, November 1903, p.4A.
Ā [10]Ā āIn The Field Of Art: Artās Demands,ā Chicago Tribune, 1/3/1904, Part 4, p.30.
Ā [11]The Sketch Book, Vol. III, No. 4, December 1903, p.123. He was also working on a portrait of Miss Hazel Martyn. āHazel Martyn was the daughter of a Chicago industrialist of Irish descent. In 1904, she was on holiday in Brittany, where she met British artist John Lavery, thirty years her senior, who had been a widower since 1891. Hazel was engaged to a Canadian doctor (Trudeau), who died shortly after their marriage; and, in 1910, she married John, becoming Lady Lavery in 1918 when he received his knighthood.ā Quoted from www.findagrave.com.Ā
Ā [12]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,āĀ Chicago Evening Post, 1/30/1904, p.8.
Ā [13]Ā Letter to Charles L. Hutchinson from French, French letter archives, 1/25/1904, p.823.
Ā [14]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,āĀ Chicago Evening Post, 2/6/1904, p.10. Mora was in St. Louis working on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. See also: āNew York School Of Art,ā The Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 5, January 1904, p.143.
Ā [15]Ā Op. cit., Advertisement, Sketch Book, November 1903, p.4A.
Ā [16]Ā Op. cit., Vernon, Chicago American, 2/14/1904, pp.8, 14.
Ā [17]Ā His works Portrait Mlle. WilderĀ #1383 and Portrait Mme. Shreve-BadgerĀ #1384 appeared in the 1904 Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais.
Ā [18]Ā Jean Stern, āAlson Clark,ā California Light 1900-1930, (Laguna Beach: Laguna Art Museum, 1990), p.117.
Ā [19]Ā op. cit., Stern, California Light 1900-1930, p.117.
Ā [20]Ā Carol Aus student record, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, February through May, 1905, IHAP Library.
Ā [21]Ā James W. Pattison, āChicago Artists Are Keeping Busy,ā Chicago Daily Journal, 9/16/1905, p.8. The article said he and some other artists (most likely Alson Clark) from Paris would locate in Chicago and that he was working nominally from the Tree Studio building. āMr. Parker paints chiefly at the residences of his patrons, in order to secure the atmosphere and environment.ā At this point, Parker had taken residence in Evanston, just north of Chicago, which would have been located close to his patrons on the North Shore.
Ā [22]Ā Maude I. G. Oliver, āGossip of the Artists,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 6/8/1913 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 30, col. 1, p.125. He had almost claimed a second-class medal at the Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais with his painting English Girl, executed c.1905, but he had traveled to Spain instead of remaining in Paris to champion his own cause.
Ā [23]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 8/12/1905, p.7.
Ā [24]Ā āLawton Parker,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/15/1905, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 21, col. 2, p.87. His picture is illustrated with the article. She was identified as āMiss Mabel Gainsā Gaines, in Bulletin Of The Art Institute Of Chicago, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1912, frontice. Apparently, Alfred H. Maurer also won a gold medal at the same exhibit.
Ā [25]Ā āAmerican Works in Salon,ā New York Times, 4/29/1905. āTwo Paintings Shown At Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists,ā Chicago Tribune, 1/30/1907, illustration, p.3. The German government had offered to purchase the work. Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, col. 2, p.84. Parker knew it was a masterpiece and it is certain expected to benefit more from exhibiting it around the United States than selling it. The work had been exhibited at the 1905 Salon SociĆ©tĆ© des Artistes FranƧais, #1450. Nicholas Kilmer, āFrederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography,ā in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001) incorrectly states Frieseke won the Gold Medal in 1905 on p.31; however, Frieseke won the Gold Medal at the same exhibition in 1904.
Ā [26]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906. The work was hung in the gallery of honor in Paris. āAmerican Works In Salon,ā New York Times, 4/29/1905.
Ā [27]Ā Op. cit., Stern, California Light 1900-1930, pp.117-122 and illustrations 116, 121, 122. Parkerās painting is owned by the city of Kearney, Nebraska.
Ā [28]Ā In January 1906, it was invited to the annual exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; May 1906, invited to the American annual at the Cincinnati Art Museum; January 1907 saw it return to Chicago for the Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago ArtistsĀ at the Art Institute where it helped Parker win the Chicago Society of Artists highest annual award, the Silver Medal. In April 1907, the painting garnered an Honorable Mention at the annual exhibit of the Carnegie Institute: āPaintings Awarded Carnegie Prizes At Pittsburgh Exhibition,ā Chicago Tribune, 4/12/1907, p.3. In December 1907, the painting was shown at the winter exhibit of the National Academy of Design. The painting seemed to follow the artist around. It was exhibited at the portrait show for the benefit of Passavant Hospital at the Art Institute in 1910 and then directly afterward when his one man exhibition opened at Thurberās galley in Chicago.
Ā [29]In 1921, the Kearney library board inquired about purchasing one of his paintings. Parker instead made the gift of this valuable painting to the library to be hung āIn memory of my father and mother who loved the Home Town and all associated with its early history from the time they settled on the farmā¦ā Quoted from op. cit., Freeman essay, p.10. A slightly different version of the quotation, with the same meaning, appears in Margaret Stines Nielsen, āLooking Back On Kearneyās Anniversaries,ā Buffalo Tales, Buffalo County Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 1998, p.5. The work now hangs in the Museum of Nebraska Art. In 1914, it was shown at the summer exhibit of the Chicago Society of Artists at the Art Institute and in 1915, it was exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In 1918, the painting appeared at the Detroit Museum of Art for the annual American exhibition.
Ā [30]See the exhibition catalogue PaintingsĀ of Contemporary French Artists, at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago. The show opened 10/19/1905.
Ā [31]Ā āArt Exhibits In Chicago,ā New York Herald, 10/29/1905 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 21, col. 3, p.97: āā¦ are represented by works chosen from the Paris exhibitions of last season by a special representative of the Institute.ā The reporter said other critics pronounced them āa revelation.ā
Ā [32]Ā Letter to Andre Saglio, Ministere des Beaux-Arts, from French, French letter archives, 10/23/1905, p.234.
Ā [33]Ā This influence is very clear in, Letter to Mr. Frederick H. C. Sammons from French, French letter archives, 8/28/1906, p.405. āMr. Parker has the ear of the people most influential in the Art Instituteā¦ā
Ā [34]Ā Letter to Professor E. Woodward, Newcomb College, from French, French letter archives, 1026/1905, p.254.
Ā [35]Ā Letter to Parker from French, French letter archives, 2/8/1906, p.647.
Ā [36]Ā Letter to Miss C. Caroline D. Dupee Wade from French, French letter archives, 10/26/1906, p.751.
Ā [37] āEducational,ā advertisement, Chicago Tribune, 3/1/1906, p.7. Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-HeraldĀ 3/18/1906. Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 3/3/1906, p.9. He did not teach again in 1907, as noted in the Lena M. McCauley, āArt,ā Chicago Evening Post, 6/29/1907, p.10, although he judged a scholarship contest for the school that year. One author has said he later became president of the Academy in 1915, however, no evidence of this can be found and the commentary, unfortunately, does not carry a footnote, see: Richard H. Love, The Paintings of Louis Ritman (1889-1963), (Chicago: Signature Galleries, 1975), p.208.
Ā [38]Ā Artistsā Blue Book of Chicago, (Chicago: S. R. Winchell, 1906), p.12.
Ā [39]Ā Op. cit., Sunday Record-HeraldĀ 3/18/1906. Op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 3/3/1906, p.9. Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 3/10/1906, p.5.
Ā [40]Ā No published sources offer footnotes for substantiation of his arrival in Giverny. The author has contacted many of these authors and each has confirmed they are not sure of the date. Mary Louise Kane states that Guy Rose purchased a cottage at Giverny in 1904, Frederick Frieseke was there by 1905, and Parker arrived in 1906. Op. cit., A Bright Oasis, The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, p.26. Friesekeās grandson says that his grandfather arrived in 1900. Nicholas Kilmer, A Retrospective Exhibition Of The Work Of F. C. Frieseke, (San Francisco: Maxwell Galleries, 1982), p.14. Ilene Susan Fort recounts Parker was there first in 1904, to paint the model outdoors. āThe Cosmopolitan Guy Rose,ā op. cit., California Light 1900-1930, p.97. Richard H. Love gives his arrival in Giverny at 1903. Op. cit., Louis Ritman, From Chicago to Giverny, p.87. William H. Gerdts relates that Parker had settled in Giverny in 1903. Monetās Giverny: An Impressionist Colony, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p.179. David Sellin states he arrived in Giverny āaround 1902.ā Americans in Brittany and Normandy 1860-1910, (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1982), p.220. Sellin later incorrectly states (confirmed by Sellin) that Parker purchased a house in Giverny: David Sellin, āFrieseke in Le Pouldu and Givernyā¦,ā Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.78. Meredith Martindale said he was there in 1906. Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist, (Washington, DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990), p.65. Helen Schretlen states he arrived in 1902, āThe William & Anna Singer Collection,ā American Art Review, Vol. XIX, No. 1, 2007, p.101. Most reliably, though, is George Breed Zugās account in 1915: āAlways a studentā¦ Parker could not rest contentā¦ and hence his move a few years ago to Givernyā¦ā Op. cit., International Studio, December 1915, p.42. A āfewā means four or five years at most, not ten.
Ā [41]Ā Karl Anderson, āAndersonās Impressions,ā The Bellman, Vol. VIII, No. 190, Minneapolis, March 5, 1910, p.292.
Ā [42]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 1/19/1907, p.11. He was expected to remain in Chicago through the spring and had let his studio in Paris to fellow artist Harriet Blackstone. Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 2/23/1907, p.5.
Ā [43]Ā Perhaps the portrait he painted of architect Louis Sullivan was one such figure piece. Parker later offered to donate the portrait to a hall of fame for architects. āPlan āHall Of Fameā For Chicago Architects,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/9/1915, p.6.
Ā [44]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906.
Ā [45]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 11/17/1906, p.12. His portrait of Henry Pratt Judson of the University of Chicago was hung in Thurberās Art Gallery and had achieved positive remarks from all āthat have visited it.ā
Ā [46]Ā Letter to Lawton Parker from William French, French letter archives, 12/7/1906 ā 8/2/1907, no date, p.350.
Ā [47]Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 2/2/1907, p.7.
Ā [48]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 1/29/1907, p.3.
Ā [49]Ā āArt Exhibit To Open,ā Chicago Record-Herald, 1/29/1907, p.3.
Ā [50]Ā āArt Students Use Novel Plan to Raise āMardi Grasā Fund,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1907, p.5.
Ā [51]Ā The prize was offered from 1903 to 1925, twenty-three times. Two prize winners moved from Illinois and five were sculptors. Of the remaining prize winners, ten are featured in this book with essays. It was announced as the āgold medalā in op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 2/23/1907, p.5.
Ā [52]Ā The prize piece was illustrated in the regular news, not in the art sections, by the Chicago Daily News, 11/18/1907, p.4, and Chicago Tribune, 11/20/1907, p.5.
Ā [53]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt,ā Chicago Evening Post, 4/13/1907, p.7.
Ā [54]Ā Bartlett would later donate the now famous work by Georges Serautās, Un dimanche aprĆØs-midi Ć lāĆ®le de la Grande Jatte, among other noted French masterpieces.
Ā [55]Ā Letter to J. H. Gest from Lawton Parker, Cincinnati Art Museum Archives, 5/7/1907 and 5/21/1907.
Ā [56]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt,ā Chicago Evening Post, 10/5/1907, p.7.
Ā [57]Ā Letter to Lawton Parker from Carpenter, French letter archives, 11/6/1907, p.609.
Ā [58]Ā Isabel McDougall, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 11/24/1907 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 23, col. 3, p.106. Director French was apparently one of those pushing for Parker to declare himself not a Chicagoan. In his letter to Adam Albright, regarding the same residency issue with Louis Betts, he claims āParker was blamedā for taking a prize reserved for Chicago artists and continues to discuss Betts standing as a Chicago artist. Betts had removed his works from competition and didnāt show at the 1908 Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago ArtistsĀ where Albright was a juror. Letter to Albright from French, French letter archives, 1/30/1909, p.279.
Ā [59]Ā Isabel McDougall, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/8/1907 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 23, col. 4, p.110. Nelson Morris (1838-1907) was the protĆ©gĆ© of John B. Sherman, founder of the Chicago Union Stock Yards. Morris became the leading live-cattle trader in the country and the largest cattle feeder and processor in the world.
Ā [60]Ā That he had been in France is confirmed the fact he arrived in the U. S. from Cherbourg, France on 11/29/1908. Passenger Record, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.
Ā [61]Ā āAnnual Art Exhibit Ready,ā Chicago Tribune, 10/20/1908, p.3. Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 10/24/1908, p.4. Harris founded the Harris Trust and Savings Bank, one of Chicagoās largest banks, and was one of the cityās wealthiest men.
Ā [62]Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 1/16/1909, p.4.
Ā [63]āArtists Desire A Home,ā Chicago Evening Post, 5/9/1902, p.5.
Ā [64]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 6/26/1909, p.6. A small site plan of the building may be found in Insurance Maps of Chicago, (NY: Sanborn Map Co., 1910), Vol. 2, Reel 11, p.121, Chicago Public Library. The building no longer stands.
Ā [65]Ā Op. cit., Hammons, āBiographical Notes: William Cunningham Gray (1830-1901),ā 1985
Ā [66]Ā For details on interior works by Wright see: āInteriors By Wright,ā Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4, Fall 1993, pp.10-13. Wright would later work on two commissions in the Fine Arts Building, W. Scott Thurber Gallery (1909), where Parker opened his one-man show in Chicago in 1910, and the Mori Oriental Art Studio (1914). An image of the Thurber Gallery is found in Elia W. Peattie, āThe Fine Arts Building In Chicago,ā International Studio, Vol. 43, April 1911, p.XLVI.
Ā [67]Project plans numbered 0923.001, 0923.002 and 0923.003 were provided to the author for study review by Penny Fowler of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. On 9/22/1909, Wright entered a contract with Hermann Von Holst to complete Wrightās work while he was to travel in Europe. A list of works under construction, in hand and probable, does not show the Parker studios which confirms earlier newspaper accounts that the project was finished around June 1909. Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright The Lost years, 1910-1912, A Study Of Influence, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp.27-28, 311-312. Source courtesy of Penny Fowler. In exhibition catalogues from the Art Institute of Chicago Parker listed his address as 19 E. Pearson from 1910 to 1916.
Ā [68]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 6/26/1909, p.6. Reynolds (1869-1949) had been one of the first teachers with Parker at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and later was a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. Reynolds was also Louis Ritmanās most important instructor at both schools. This connection would later become important as Parker supported Ritmanās work. Parker also leased space to Chicago and Taos artist Walter Ufer, who is featured in this book with an extensive essay by Dr. Dean Porter. Stephen L. Good, āWalter Ufer (1876-1936), Munich to Taos, 1913-1918ā, Pioneer Artists of Taos, (Denver: Old West Publishing, 1983), p.113. Mr. Good leaves the rest of the arrangement unclear. Uferās address after 1913, ceased to be on Pearson Street.
Ā [69]Ā Tree Studios exists today at 4 East Ohio Street, though it has undergone significant renovation. Parker was resident at the studios in 1907 as witnessed by his address in Catalogue of the Twentieth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 10/22/1907), p.38.
Ā [70]Mme. X, āNews Of The Society World,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/8/1913, p.H2.
Ā [71]āMrs. John Alden Carpenter Dies,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/8/1931, p.1.
Ā [72]āIn the World of Society: Mrs. John Alden Carpenter Opens Art Studio for Winter,ā Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1909, p.11. She was the former Rue Winterbotham of one of Chicagoās most elite families. He and Mrs. Carpenter would later go on to organize the Arts Club of Chicago.
Ā [73]She was the first wife of wealthy Richard Harding Davis.
Ā [74]Several of these women were noted as socially prominent in āArt Institute Exhibit Causes Veritable Crush,ā Chicago Tribune, 11/15/1913, p.10. In fact, Parker himself was noted a member of this society in the article. Clark later moved to the Tree Studio building in 1914. She had been divorced from her husband Richard Harding Davis around 1910. Addresses for artists are found in the various exhibition catalogues of the Art Institute. A compilation may be found in Peter Hastings Falk, editor, Art Institute of Chicago, The Annual Exhibition Record, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990). Mrs. Ryersonās and Davisās studios are noted in āGay New Yearās Day for North Side Society,ā Chicago Tribune, 1/2/1914, p.15. Mr. Ryerson was lost on the Titanic after giving his life vest to their maid.
Ā [75]Letter to Birger Sandzen from Raymond Johnson, 5/3/1917, Birger Sandzen Gallery Archives.
Ā [76]Op. cit., Letter to Alice Gerstenberg from Nancy Cox-McCormack, Spring 1951, pp.38-39.
Ā [77]McCormack researcher Nancy S. Weyant, Andruss Library, Bloomsburg University has located a letter from McCormack stating she and Lawton Parker later 1915 visited Wrightās home in Wisconsin, Taliesin, where Parker painted her sitting under an apple tree; two years later McCormack completed a bas-relief of Parker.
Ā [78]Letter to Karl Buehr from Faye Williams Young, c.1920.
Ā [79]Buehr was also close friends of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hubbell. Letter to William H. Gerdts from Mary Smart, 8/26/1991, p.5, IHAP Library. Smartās information is compiled from the papers of Mary and Frederick MacMonnies. Smart authoredĀ A Flight with Fame, The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937), With a Catalogue Raisonne of Sculpture, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1996). Parker installed a press at the house and was then engaged by Mary C. Wheeler to teach printmaking. David Sellin, āFrieseke in Le Pouldu and Giverny: The Black Gang and the Giverny Group,ā in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.85. Sellinās information comes from numerous conversations with now deceased Janet Johnston Farr whose father William B. Johnston purchased the house after Buehr had finished renting it. Information on Buehrās painting came from Eric W. Baumgartner, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, in a letter to Joel S. Dryer, 9/23/1996. Information on Parkerās painting came from Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, where the Parker painting was lot #67, in the 4/23/2015 sale.
Ā [80]Ā āWhat Society People Are Doing,ā Daily Inter Ocean, 2/4/1914, p.4. In 1917, noted modernist Raymond Jonson, was also resident there. He called his place āThe Little Studio.ā Letter to Birger Sandzen from Raymond Johnson, 5/3/1917, Birger Sandzen Gallery Archives.
Ā [81]āNews Of The Society World,ā Chicago Tribune, 5/4/1913, p.H3. Mme. X, āNews Of The Society World,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1913, p.H2. McGann and her friends Mrs. Edward Adams and Miss Julia Thompson painted in the dining room. Mme. X, āNews Of The Society World: Portraits Interest Society,ā Chicago Tribune, 11/16/1913, p.D2.
Ā [82]Op. cit., Mme. X, Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1913, p.H2.
Ā [83]Ā His works were shown at the Art Institute in an important loan exhibition for the Benefit of the Passavant Memorial Hospital. Harriet Monroe, āMany Famous Portraits Will Be Shown in Hospital Benefit Exhibit,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/27/1910, p.B6, and āPortrait to Be Shown at Art Exhibit,ā Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1910, p.7, which had an illustration of Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, published again in āChicago Society Women As The Portrait Painters See Them,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/5/1911, p.9. At the Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial, he showed On The Balcony, presumably an indoor-outdoor scene. And at the Art Institute Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ he showed the portrait of Mrs. Harris. He also exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Society, American annual.
Ā [84]Fred W. Sandberg, āIf Artist Benson Had Not Been on the Jury He Would Have Won a Medal and $1,000,ā Chicago Sunday Tribune, 10/23/1910, part 9, p.6.
Ā [85]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 3/5/1910, p.6. An example of a more relaxed pose for his sitter Mary Potter Kerr, was illustrated in āHas The Ever ā Present Camera Hindered Pen and Ink Artistsā Development,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/11/1911, part 8, p.7. The painting was illustrated in the catalogue and in James Spencer Dickerson, āA Western Art Exhibition,ā The World To-Day, Vol. 20, January 1911, p.67.
Ā [86]Ā Wright was then at the height of his powers as a Prairie School architect. He was probably the most sought-after architect in Chicago. Working for almost exclusively wealthy clients, this project would not have been inexpensive. As Parker sought to attract society women who were painters, he probably wanted to create as ārichā a space as possible to lease.
Ā [87]āGossip of the Artists,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 3/20/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 2, p.67.
Ā [88]James William Pattison, āThe Loss of W. Scott Thurber,ā Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 29, November 1913, p.684, and āFriend of Art and Artists Lost When Veteran Passed,ā Chicago Evening Post, 9/26/1913, p.5.
Ā [89]Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 11/7/1909 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 25, col. 3, p.126.
Ā [90]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 4/2/1910, p.6.
Ā [91]Ā Lena M. McCauley, āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 4/16/1910, p.8.
Ā [92]Mildred Giddings Burrage, āArt And Artists At Giverny,ā The World To-Day, Vol. 20, March 1911, p.350.
Ā [93]See for example Misty MornĀ by Frieseke, illustrated in E. A. Taylor, āThe American Colony of Artists in Paris,ā International Studio, Vol. 43, No. 172, June 1911, p.270, and Parkerās The Orange Parasol, in the Frigon collection.
Ā [94]Ā This may have been taken directly from the small catalogue accompanying the exhibit: āThe work of this particular group of artists is recognized abroad as rapidly forming an American Schoolā¦ā Paintings by Lawton Parker, (Chicago: Mr. W. Scott Thurber, 4/4/1910), Beloit College archives.
Ā [95]Ā āAmong the Local Galleries,ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 4/3/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 4, p.76.
Ā [96]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 3/5/1910, and op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1910, p.7.
Ā [97]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record Herald, 4/3/1910.
Ā [98]Ā Op. cit., Paintings by Lawton Parker, 4/4/1910.
Ā [99]Ā āMost Recent Work of Lawton Parker Adds Luster to Fame of This Artist,ā Chicago Tribune, 4/3/1910, Part 8, p.10.
Ā [100]Ā Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 4/10/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 1, p.84.
Ā [101]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 4/3/1910, Part 8, p.10. Important to note is that her article describes in detail several of the works.
Ā [102]Ā Located at 305 Madison, the gallery was opened in 1909 by Clara S. Davidge as part of her decorating business. Painter Henry Fitch Taylor, who had been in Giverny in the late 1880s, managed the gallery and considered the work of these Giverny artists to be progressive. For reviews of this exhibition see: Henry McBride, āSeen in the World of Art,ā New York Sun, 1/8/1911, Sec. 3, p.4; The New York Herald, āAmerican Painters In āFour Manā Show,ā 12/21/1910, p.13; Florence B. Ruthrauff, āArt Notes,ā The Morning TelegraphĀ New York, 12/21/1910, p.4c; āNews and Notes of Art World,ā The New York Times, Magazine Section, Part V, 12/25/1910, p.15. The exhibition closed 1/6/1911.
Ā [103]Ā Op. cit. Ruthrauff, The Morning Telegraph, 12/21/1910, p.4.
Ā [104]Ā Op. cit., The New York Herald, 12/21/1910, p.13.
Ā [105]Ā Op. cit., McBride, New York Sun, 1/8/1911, Sec. 3, p.4. The Ten included such notable artists as Childe Hassam, Frank Weston Benson and William Merritt Chase.
Ā [106]Ā New York Evening Globe, 12/23/1910 quoted in Paintings By Lawton Parker, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 3/5/1912). An extensive review of the show is found in āNews And Notes Of Art World,ā New York Times, 12/25/1910. The reviewer was less than kind to Parkerās output.
Ā [107]Ā Letters to Lawton Parker from French, French letter archives, 9/15/1910, p.116, and 12/19/1910, p.718. In the latter letter French expresses concern that Richard Miller was holding a grudge against the Art Institute for a slight at a previous exhibition.
Ā [108]Ā Letter to Charles Dahlgreen from Leon Makielski, Archives of American Art, roll 3953, frame 591, 10/16/1910. As previously mentioned, evidence of his sojourns in Giverny cannot be confirmed prior to the summer of 1909. While it is conceivable that he visited there a few times beginning in 1903 or 1904, Parker was always purposeful and would have painted had he stayed any length. He exhibited no pictures of Giverny until 1910, all completed the summer of 1909.
Ā [109]Ā Harriet Monroe, A Poetās Life. Seventy Years in a Changing World, (New York: MacMillan Company, 1938), p.224.
Ā [110]Information courtesy of Helen Marres ā Schretien, biographer of the Singers.
Ā [111]Harriet Monroe, āChicago Artists Prepare For Interesting Summer Vacations,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1911, p.B7.
Ā [112]Ā A few years later art in France skidded to a halt due to the outbreak of World War I. Parker was already established in his hometown when many American artists were scrambling to return and re-establish themselves
Ā [113]Ā Op. cit., letter to Dahlgreen from Makielski, 10/16/1910.
Ā [114]Op. cit., Monroe, Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1911, p.B7.
Ā [115]Ā Harriet Monroe, āDo We Really Underestimate the American Artists?ā āThe Giverny Colony,ā Chicago Tribune, 5/28/1911, p.B5.
Ā [116]Ā Harriet Monroe, āFour Art Institute Shows,ā Chicago Tribune, 3/5/1912, p.3. Karl Albert Buehr began renting Parkerās studio in Giverny probably beginning in the fall 1911, through at least the fall 1912. Letter to William H. Gerdts from Mary Smart, 8/26/1991, p.5, IHAP Library. Smartās information is compiled from the papers of Mary and Frederick MacMonnies. Smart authored A Flight with Fame, The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937), With a Catalogue Raisonne of Sculpture, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1996). Buehr also listed a Giverny address for the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and SculptureĀ exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910 and 1911.
Ā [117]Op. cit., Paintings By Lawton Parker, 3/5/1912, catalogue entry number 21. We are assuming this is one of the works he exhibited from the previous summer.
Ā [118]Ā James W. Pattison, āThe Annual Exhibition of American Art,ā Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 26, January 1912, p.31.
Ā [119]Ā Art and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 5/27/1911, p.6. Other artists in Giverny who showed at the salon included Richard Miller and Chicagoans Clara Kretzinger and Pauline Palmer.
Ā [120]Ā Stacey B. Epstein, Alfred H. Maurer: Aestheticism to Modernism, (NY: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 11/30/1999), p.33.
Ā [121]Paintings and Sculpture by 6 American Artists Resident in France: H.O. Tanner, Myron Barlow, F.C. Frieseke, H.S. Hubbell, A.H. Maurer and P.W. Bartlett, Art Institute of Chicago, 1/7/1908.
Ā [122]American Salon In Paris: Artists from United States Contribute Their Works,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/19/1911, p.A1.
Ā [123]āSociety, Clubs and Entertainments,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/21/1911, p.8. āNews Of The Society World,ā Chicago Tribune, 6/26/1911.
Ā [124]Harriet Monroe, āLawton Parkerās Paintings on Exhibition,ā Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1911, p.A9.
Ā [125]āSociety, Meetings and Entertainment,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/22/1911, p.8. āSociety To Show Old World Pomp,ā Chicago Tribune, 12/24/1911, p.3.
Ā [126]Ā Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 29, p.4. All Examiner entries are referred to their place in the scrapbooks. It must not have been easy for Director French to withstand the probable pressures from the trustees to grant Parker this show and to print the expensive catalogue, fifteen paintings were illustrated, and thus, the catalogue provides an excellent record of this period of his work.
Ā [127]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912.
Ā [128]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912.
Ā [129]Ā Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/5/1912. His Mother and ChildĀ was illustrated in the article.
Ā [130]Ā āArt and Artists,ā Chicago Evening Post, 3/7/1912, p.6.
Ā [131]Ā āExhibit By Metcalf and Parker of Great Interest to Art Lovers,ā Chicago Tribune, 3/10/1912, Part 2 (Editorial), p.3.
Ā [132]Ā Op. cit., Paintings By Lawton Parker, 3/5/1912.
Ā [133]Ā Records of the Lyme Art Association show he exhibited there in 1912. Later, after land for an art gallery was purchased in 1917 from Florence Griswold, Parker would chair the building committee working with the same architect, Charles A. Platt, who had designed Freer Art Gallery in Washington , D.C. and the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London , CT. āLyme Art Association History,ā http://lymeartassociation.org/history.php accessed 4/8/2011.
Ā [134]Parker had let his apartment studio in Chicago artist Abram Poole, a member of another local prominent family, during the winter of 1912-1913. āNews of the Society World,ā Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1913, p.H3.
Ā [135]Nicolas Kilmer dates the painting 1912-1913, Nicolas Kilmer, āFrederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography,ā in Friederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.33. The painting is also illustrated in: William H. Gerdts, Monetās Giverny, An Impressionist Colony, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p.183. Parker had said he liked to paint portraits of people with their favorite things or in their most enjoyable activities. He depicts Frieseke sitting in a wicker chair doing just that, relaxing and reading. The other work is in a private collection in California.
Ā [136]Op. cit., Kilmer, Friederick Carl Frieseke: (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.33.
Ā [137]Critic George Zug states this was during the Summer 1912, op. cit., The International Studio, December 1915, p.43. The painting is illustrated on p.41. Critic Maude Oliver quotes two French critics reviewing the Salon in her column, op. cit., Oliver, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 6/8/1913. Parker also complained of foul weather, for some six years running, as his reason for remaining in Chicago the summer of 1913. Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 5/4/1913, p.H3.
Ā [138]Ā Op. cit., Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 8/19/1913, p.6. He was known to work laboriously on a painting as evidenced by one which he repainted an area of wall space over twelve times. Eunice Tietjens, āLawton Parker,ā The Little Review, May 1914, p.34. There is little in this article which wasnāt appropriated from articles by previous writers in magazines and newspapers.