Richard Fayerweather Babcock timeline
Babcock, Richard Fayerweather [1]
BORN: June 4, 1887 Denmark, IA
DIED: February 23, 1954 Evanston, IL[2]
MARRIED:October 5, 1916 Anita Joy Biggs of Evanston
TRAINING
Primary and secondary schools, Downers Grove, IL and Chicago
1902 J. Francis Smith Art Academy, Chicago
1903, 1905 Summer; 1904-1905 Louis W. Wilson, Frank Phoenix; 1905 evening; 1905-1906 John H. Vanderpoel, Karl A. Buehr, Frederick W. Freer, Art Institute of Chicago
1906-1907 John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis
1906-1907 Winona Technical Institute, Indianapolis, degree in lithography
1908 Evening illustration; 1908-1909 Antonin Sterba, Harry M. Walcott, Fred D. Schook, Thomas W. Stevens; 1909 Oliver D. Grover; 1909-1910 Stevens, Walcott; 1910 Louis Betts, Allen E. Philbrick; 1910 evenings, Art Institute of Chicago
1908-1909 University of Chicago
1909 Barcelona, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (summer trip with Dudley Crafts Watson, Chicago artist)
1912-1913 Weinhold and Eisengraber School of Painting and Munich State Gewerbe School
1912-1913 Munich with Ludwig Hohlwein
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1910 Mural panel, John M. Smyth School, Chicago[3]
1911-1912 Head of art department, Dean-Hicks Co., publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan
c.1914 Designer, Western Banknote Co., Chicago
1915 Poster stamp illustration, Eleventh Annual Convention of The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, Vollard Poster Stamp Company, Chicago[4]
1916 Poster illustration, Independent Society of Artists, Chicago[5]
1916-1918 Illustrations for U. S. Navy, Red Cross, Liberty Loan, Salvation Army, U. S. Department of Agriculture[6]
c.1918-ca.1920 Advertising illustration, Charles Daniel Frey, Co., Chicago
1921 Director, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI[7]
1922-1923 Head of illustration department, Bellows-Reeve Co., Chicago
1925-1927 Editor of educational department Poster Magazine
1933-1934 Lincoln and Greenwich Village projects, A Century of Progress, Chicago
1934 Works Progress Administration Mural, Father Marquette’s Winter in Chicago, Legler Library, Chicago[8]
Illustrated natural history subjects for Encyclopaedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia and free-lance illustrator for national companies
Indian illustrations for calendar, Mosinee Paper Co., Wisc.
Commercial illustration accounts including Wilson Packing, Wilson Sporting Goods, Max Factor, Armour Meat Co., Searle Laboratories, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Sun Oil
TEACHING
1910-1911 Assistant to Thomas W. Stevens, Art Institute of Chicago
1918-1921 poster illustration, 1924-1925 costume illustration, 1929-1930 layout, Art Institute of Chicago
1922-1925, 1937-1939[9]Chicago Academy of Fine Arts
1929-1930 National Academy of Art, Chicago[10]
1931-1954 American Academy of Art, Chicago[11]
RESIDENCES
1887-c.1893 Denmark, Iowa
c.1893-1897 Downers Grove, Illinois
1897-1911 Hyde Park, Chicago
1911-1913 Grand Rapids, Michigan
1913-1954 Evanston, Illinois
TRAVEL
1906 American West to paint Pueblo Indians
1908-1913 various trips to England, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, North Africa
1920s Saugatuck, Michigan (summers)
MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES
Art Students League, Chicago (president 1909-1911); Artists Guild of Author’s League of America (Guild of Free-Lance Artists, Chicago, president 1925,[12] charter member); Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors; Chicago Business Men’s Symphony Orchestra (founder); Campfire Club, Chicago; Chicago Watercolor Club; Cliff Dwellers Club; Delta Beta Rho (Daubers’ society); Delta Pi Sigma; Grand Rapids Art Students League (president 1911-1912); Hoosier Salon; Izaak Walton League (fly fisherman's organization); National Association of Amateur Chamber Music Players; Palette & Chisel Club
HONORS
1904 (two), 1905 (four), 1905 (three), 1908 (two), 1909, 1910 Honorable Mentions, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1910 Third Frederick Magnus Brand Memorial Prize, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
1910 United States representative, Prix de Rome competition[13]
1914 Book Prize, Art Students League of Chicago[14]
1931 Honorable Mention, Woman’s Club of Evanston, Annual Exhibition of Evanston and North Shore Artists[15]
JURIES SERVED
All American Exposition, Chicago, art committee 1919
Art Institute of Chicago, American Watercolors 1918
Art Institute of Chicago, Posters for National Service 1917[16]
Chicago Herald and Examiner School and College Cover contest 1926
Garden Street Theater, St. Louis, national poster competition 1925
Posters For National Service 1917
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
All-Illinois Society of Fine Art annual 1932
Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity 1919, 1921, 1931
Art Institute of Chicago, American Watercolors 1910, 1911, 194, 1915, 1918
Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition by members of the Palette and Chisel Club 1916
Art Institute of Chicago, Posters for National Service 1917[17]
Art Institute of Chicago, Red Cross Posters By Chicago Artists 1917[18]
Hoosier Salon 1933-1937, 1939
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts annual 1926
Midland Hotel, faculty members of the American Academy of Art 1932[19]
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Exhibition by Chicago Artists 1918
H. Revell & Co., Chicago, teachers at the National Academy of Art 1929[20]
Oak Park Art League annual 1923
ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS
1924 Art Institute of Chicago, Watercolor Decorations[21]
1934 Hoosier Gallery, Chicago[22]
Cliff Dwellers Club, Chicago
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Chicago Commission for the Encouragement of Local Art[23]
INTERESTING NOTES
He enjoyed golf, fly-fishing and played first violin in the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. From 1919 until his death he kept a studio at Tree Studio in Chicago.
He was considered the first to introduce German poster style art into America.
[1]The author thanks the artist’s son William Babcock for help in compiling this timeline. See also entry in National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1956, p.78.
[2]Obit, New York Times, 2/23/1954.
[3]He was one of several Art Institute of Chicago students who worked on this senior project. The others were Gordon Stevenson (Landing at Jamestown), Frank Makowski (Marquette), George Wesienburg (LaSalle), Dorothy Loeb, Beatrice Braidwood, G. Werveke and Nouart Seron. The mural is described and illustrated in Chicago Record-Herald, 6/26/1910 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, vol. 26. The work is illustrated in Mary Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.101. Mary Gray gives a different title to the work by Gordon Stevenson than that which was originally given. However, it is much more evident the landing is at Jamestown than that of “Pilgrims.” It is unknown how Gray arrived at the change in original title. She also fails to credit Ms. Seron and Messrs. Makowski and Wesienburg for their work.
[4]The convention was held in Chicago June 20-24. Information taken from www.eBay.com item 321771862258. See also Walden’s Stationer and Printer, 6/25/1915, Vol. XXXVIII, No.5, p.14.
[5]Agnes Gertrude Richards, “The Palette and Chisel Club Exhibit,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 34, May 1916, p.236.
[6]Eleanor Jewett, “Art School to Be Reorganized Into Three Sections,” Chicago Tribune, 9/4/1918, p12.
[7]He was a director of the corporation that privately owned the school and property. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Architecture,” Chicago Tribune, 6/19/1921, p.G5.
[8]The work is illustrated in A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.109.
[9]“Ruth Ford Succeeds Werntz,” Chicago Daily News, 10/16/1937, Art, Antiques and the Artists section, p.24. See also: “Chicago’s New Head,” Art Digest, Vol. 12, 11/1/1937, p.29.
[10]“Spare Time Classes in Art Open Oct. 12,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/24/1929, p.11.
[11]He initially taught poster design. “New Poster Class,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/3/1931, p.4.
[12]“Art Notes,” Chicago Tribune, 1/25/1925, p.H4
[13]“Five Artists Picked,” Chicago Record-Herald, 4/29/1910 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, vol. 26. He was among ten competitors for the prize from the United States.
[14]Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vol. 8, No. 1, July 1914, p.7.
[15]“Evanston Art Awards,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/31/1931, p.2.
[16]Louise James Bargelt, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/24/1917, p.C7.
[17]Louise James Bargelt, “Thrills of War Animate Posters Hung at Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 7/3/1917, p.15.
[18]Louise James Bargelt, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 12/16/1917, p.C8.
[19]Eleanor Jewett, “Town Numbers Several Art Exhibitions,” Chicago Tribune, 8/7/1932, part 8, p.4.
[20]Eleanor Jewett, “American Artists Hold Annual Show,” Chicago Tribune, 10/20/1929, p.H8.
[21]Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists: Babcock Vacation Sketches Are Like Refreshing Breeze,” Chicago Tribune, 8/3/1924, p.E3.
[22]Eleanor Jewett, “Adams Portrait Exhibition Will End Tomorrow,” Chicago Tribune, 11/23/1934, p.27.
[23]The work The Golden Pheasant is unlocated. It was discussed in Eleanor Jewett, “Local Art Boomed; Commission Makes Annual Purchases,” Chicago Tribune, 12/30/1918, p.12.