Walter Ufer timeline
BORN: July 22, 1876 Hückeswagen, Germany[1]
DIED: August 2, 1936 Albuquerque, NM[2]
MARRIED: June 1906 Mary Monreds Fredriksen[3]
TRAINING
Primary and secondary schools in Kentucky[4]
1888 William Clark, Louisville, Kentucky[5]
1893-1894 Hamburg Applied Art School, nights[6]
1896-1898 Dresden Royal Academyof Art with Carl Bautzer and Gotthandt Kuehl[7]
1900 Art Institute of Chicago, evenings, Charles E. Boutwood
1900-1903 J. Francis Smith Art Academy, Chicago, evenings[8]
1911-1912 Munich with Walter Thor
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1892 Apprentice to commercial lithographer, Louisville
1893-1894 Apprentice lithographer[9]
1894-1896 Journeyman lithographer, Germany[10]
1898-1900 Sketch artist, Courier Journal, Louisville[11]
1900-1905 Poster designer, Barnes Crosby Co., Chicago[12]
1905-1911 Commercial artist, assistant advertising manager[13], Armour & Company, Chicago[14]
1917-1918 Poster illustration, American Red Cross[15]
1923 Lectured to Terre Haute Art Association[16]
1928 Cover illustration, Literary Digest[17]
[1]Letter from Walter Ufer to Robert Harshe, Harshe Archives, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago, 10/21/1922. Ufer asserts in this letter he was born in Louisville, KY. For identification of his birthplace, see: Peter C. Merrill, German Immigrant Artists In America, (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1997), p.271. He was the son of engraver Peter Ufer. Merrill states records from the Jefferson County courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky, show his parents did not come to the United States until 1880. Merrill also points out, the baptismal register of the Evangelische Kirchengemeinde in Hückeswagen confirms he was baptized on 8/10/1876.
Much of Ufer’s early life is recounted in Lula Merrick, “Walter Ufer - Painter Of Indians,” International Studio, Vol. 77, July 1923, pp.295-299. The facts in the article very nearly match those in his letter to Harshe, written about the same time.
[2]His friend Bob Abbott and Taos Indian friend and model Jim Mirabel, scattered his ashes at the mouth of an arroyo east of Taos after a ceremony in Ufer’s studio among his friends, see: “Ufer, Painter of Southwest, Dies at Taos,” Art Digest, Vol. 10, 9/1/1936, p.13.
[3]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/13/1913, p.8. She was the daughter of the exiled prime minister of Denmarkwho brought his family to Americaat the close of war between Prussiaand Denmark.
[4]Stephen Good, “Walter Ufer, Munichto Taos, 1913-1918,” Pioneer Artists of Taos, (Denver: Old West Publishing, 1983), p.122. Ufer left high school after his first year, see ibid., letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[5]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922. Clark was a local artist who had studied with Messionier in France.
[6]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[7]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[8]One of his works for the school composition was discussed in James W. Pattison, “Pattison’s Art Talk,” Chicago Journal, 12/4/1901, p.4.
[9]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[10]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[11]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[12]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[13]Letter to Harshe, 10/21/1922.
[14]Op. cit., Good. Ufer would remain a commercial artist throughout much of his career depending upon his income at the time.
[15]Op. cit., Good, pp.153, 163. This was a contribution to the war effort.
[16]“Terre Haute Exhibit,” “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 3/13/1923.
[17]The cover was the May or June issue. He discusses his views on current art in “National Art Coming From Southwest: Ufer,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 6/5/1928, p.6.