Mackenzie, Donald Ralph. PAINTERS in OHIO, 1788-1860, with a BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
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This dissertation h been microfilmed exactly as received Mic 61—925 MacKENZIE, Donald Ralph. PAINTERS IN OHIO, 1788-1860, WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1960 Fine A rts University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arltor, Michigan Copyright by Donald Ralph MacKenzie 1961 PAINTERS IN OHIO, 1788-1860 WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Donald Ralph MacKenzie, B. A., M. S. ****** The Ohio State University 1960 Approved by /Adviser* School oC Fine and Applied Arts PREFACE In 1953, when the author was commissioned to assemble and catalogue the many paintings owned by the Ohio Historical Society, it quickly became apparent that published reference works on early mid- western painters were sadly lacking. At that time the only source books were the standard biographical indexes of American artists, such as Mallett's Index of Artists and Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of Amer ican Painters. Sculptors and Engravers. The mimeographed WPA Histori cal Survey American Portrait Inventory (1440 Early American Portrait Artists I6b3-1860) furnished a valuable research precedent, which has since been developed and published by the New York Historical Society as the Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860. While this last is a milestone in research in American art history, the magnitude of its scope has resulted in incomplete coverage of many locales, especially in the Middlewest where source material is both scarce and scattered. The only book dealing exclusively with the Ohio scene is Edna Marie Clark's Ohio Art and Artists, which was published in 1932. This volume, with its emphasis on post-Civil War developments in art is limi ted in its references to painting in early Ohio, mentioning only fifty of some three hundred and sixty artists working here prior to 1860. Some of the more famous artists who were born in this state, or who received their start here, are frequently mentioned in American art his tories: men of the calibre of Thomas Cole, T. Worthington Whittredge, and William Sonntag. The lives and works of a few of these men are also ii iii treated in published monograph form. This is especially true of the painters who went East for further study and fame. But the hundreds of painters who were known only locally, or at most had a reputation in the West, are unlisted in art histories or are recorded in biographies comprised of one sentence. For the most part these men were not great artists. Master paintings are rarely produced in the cultural vacuum of frontier settlements and during periods of great migrations. In terms of artistic accomplishment, the frontier artist can hardly be compared with his European contemporary. In fact, Henry Tuckerman seems to have grasped the situation exceedingly well when, in 1867, he stated: "We have abundance of assiduous painters, who exhaust a town in a month in delineations of its leading citizens, fill their purposes, and inherit a crop of newspaper puffs; but give no 'local inhabitation of name' to any idea, principle, sentiment, or even rule of Art...."^ Here and there one discovers a talent, such as that of Aaron Corwine (1802-1830) whose potential greatness will never be known; he died early, at age twenty-eight. Drake and Mansfield in their booklet Cincinnati in 1826 wrote that Corwine "had but a single rival in the 2 Western country." A few years later Tuckerman refers to Corwine and 3 Mathew H. Jouett of Kentucky as the two leading artists in the West. It is on the local scene that one also finds out the true stature of Stein, the painter who attracted Thomas Cole to a career in art, and the ability of Des Combes, the limner with whom Cole competed. iRenry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists (New York, 1867), p. 34. 2b . Drake and E. D. Mansfield, Cincinnati in 1826 (London, 1827), p. 80. ----------------- 3Tuckerman, p. 437. Iv . Such finds as these give savor to the investigation and constructively add to our understanding of artistic accomplishment in America. With a notable number of exceptions, early Ohio painters tend to be unacademic and, like Cole, self-taught. Their paintings, while not devoid of aesthetic quality, are most important today as social docu ments, an authentic and significant part of our cultural heritage. Among museum directors and art historians there is a growing con viction that we should know more about our American artists of the nineteenth century. The number of exhibitions held recently and the Increasing number of books published about men of the period attest to this. Perhaps the avid interest of collectors and dealers in works by these artists is the mos .onvincing measure of general public inter est. We need to discover the names of our artists and the quality and quantity c£ their works. Only then can we know and understand the period as a whole. The need for such research in American art history was well stated by John I. H. Baur when he wrote: Every movement is the work not of one man but of many, and to comprehend our major artists we must know the minor figures who worked beside them. This is the justification, if one is needed, for the painstaking research which some times seems to squander an unwarranted measure of time and effort on art of less than heroic dimensions. But it is through the by-ways of our art as much as through the well- trodden paths that we are gradually reaching a fuller un derstanding of the complexity and richness of our native schools.4 This study concerns itself with the historical biographies of all Ohio painters of the period 1788 to 1860 and the listing of represen tative examples of their works. It is not intended to be an aesthetic 4john I. H. Baur, "Unknown Nineteenth Century American Painters,' The College Art Journal, 1947, 6:282. V evaluation of early Ohio art nor a definitive estimate of the cultural forces which formed it. Needless to say, as an historical study, the research could not have been undertaken without consideration of both factors. The introductory chapters establish the chronology of events which influenced artistic development, and describe the cultur al climate in which the painters worked. Certain contemporaneous sources are employed to indicate the prestige or lack of prestige enjoyed by various artists and groups. Many of the men listed are here mentioned in print for the first time since their obituaries appeared in local newspapers. In numerous cases only an artist's name and location have been discovered despite every effort to track down his origin and works. Fortunately it has been possible to treat the majority of artists much more completely. Where a published monograph or other established works describe the life of an artist in detail, only basic information and hitherto un known facts relating to that painter's experience in Ohio are given here. Photographs of paintings by little-known artists are included for purposes of comparison and identification. This study has been limited to the years 1788 to 1860. The former date represents the founding of Marietta, first authorized set tlement in Ohio following the Ordinance of 1787. The latter date, at the beginning of the great conflict between the states, marks the close of the formative period which made Ohio an organized entity in the geographical, political, and economic sense. This same date also signals the rise of photography and the lessening of demand for paint ing as a visual record. vi The arbitrary political boundaries of Ohio hold little geographic significance as a limiting cultural factor. The counties along the Ohio River formed a natural unit of population and social intercourse during most of the period considered. Likewise, the communities of the Western Reserve offered another fairly consistent social group.^ But the waves of settlers and immigrants, which flowed westward after the War of 1812, bridged the wilderness between the two areas. The ex panding population laid down a network of roads, supported the building of canals, and finally made possible the development of railroads, all of which served to unite the state economically as well as politically. Painters followed the main routes of commerce in order to find new markets for their services. This resulted in complex patterns of travel and the widespread distribution of paintings by various artists. Sur veying the field one hundred years later, one is impressed by the ubi quitous nature of most Ohio painters. This fact by Itself would war rant the statewide treatment of the problem, but two other factors also support this broad scope. During the past hundred years many pictures have strayed from their places of origin as families moved between Ohio cities or to more distant points. The settlements of estates after deaths have often contributed to the dispersal of local collec tions. Adding to the confusion is the fact that a majority of the earlier paintings of the period are unsigned and often lack identifying The Western Reserve was an area in northeastern Ohio which Connecticut reserved for settlers when its western lands were ceded to the Federal Government in 1786. It included the land south of Lake Erie to the forty-first parallel and one hundred and twenty miles westward from the Pennsylvania boundary. Eugene H. Roseboom and Francis P. Weisenburger, A History of Ohio (Columbus, 1953), p. 46. vil information. In the statewide area some >f these works show a rela tionship to known paintings and places, which allows attribution to be made with reasonable certainty.