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From: "Al & June Jordan" <>
Subject: [OHGALLIA-L] Chalk artists information
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 13:33:41 -0500


Listers,

I received the information from the art librarian at the Dayton Art Institute regarding our on-line discussion the end of November on Chalk/Pastel paintings and itinerate artists. She said that there was not much information available. Following is information that I hope will give some incite to the itinerant artists.

June



Early Itinerant Artists

"Late in the nineteenth century, the legend grew that the country portraitist sat by the fire in the winter sketching and painting bodies of men, women and children for his summer travels. Next, the itinerant is discovered on the road, his wagon bristling with a variety of frames, stretched and painted canvases and a good supply of paint for filling in the blanks where the faces should be. As he progressed from farm to town, this legendary figure knocked at every door offering, for a small sum, to paint in faces to suit the features of each household."

"It is a wonderful story endlessly repeated by grandfathers, novelists and art experts. Its only flaw is that it doesn't seem to be true. The remarkable folk painters of the nineteenth century were more likely than not to keep accounts, write letters and even manage journals of their activities and travels. The headless body is not mentioned. More important, among liter ally thousands of folk portraits that exist today not one is without a head. The opposite, in fact, is true; not only are there paintings of faces in which the costume is outlined only in a sketch, but in artists' saving ways the reverse of several canvases show sketches of faces and heads above no body at all."

Certainly, it is easy to believe, seeing a bright face painted above a dark dress and background that this was the final touch. Perhaps the story took shape late in the nineteenth century from elegant photography parlors where almost everything but the face was furnished. It might have grown in another way. After 1860, former itinerants made large and colorful copies of daguerreotypes and tintypes, sometimes combining them into group portraits. With these mechanics to guide him, the artist might begin wherever he pleased: feet, body or head first."

"Every folk artist favored certain backgrounds, furniture and props and these came to be as much a part of his style as his personal tricks for creating good likenesses; but family jewels, buttons, furniture, bonnets and laces that still exist--in fact as well as in portraits-give additional support to the professional method of the folk artist at the peak of his career. In this respect, he worked as his academically trained brother did. The head was first sketched from life; then costume, prop and background were filled in according to an attractive formula that the folk artist learned early and well."

If the artist was using paints, he frequently ground his own expensive pigments into equally dear oil vehicles. He mounted and stretched his canvases, and often made his own frames."

"An itinerant artist took to the road carrying the tools of his craft and traveled from town to town and from house to house. Other professionals worked within their own regions for relatives, friends and neighbors. These pictures gave farmers, innkeepers and housewives a sense of importance that only a record of their faces and belongings could give - and immortality that served to remind their children of what their fathers had been."

"Working in small towns or traveling in rural areas, the folk artist made a unique record of American life. He gave to country people an art distinctively their own. He performed a necessary and positive function for his patrons, who called upon him to portray themselves and their children."



The Itinerant Artist in Early Ohio

Today the native American quality of early nineteenth century paintings is recognized and the public has become interested in searching out family portraits once relegated to attic storage. Few pictures attract more attention or give more delight than the primitive portraits by the early itinerant artists. Although many works have been lost and their artists forgotten, the growing evidence confirms the importance of these paintings in the lives of our early Ohio ancestors.

Beginning with the arrival of the English painter Jacob Beck in Cincinnati in 1795, artists periodically visited the frontier settlements. Prior to 1830, only Cincinnati and a few of the larger towns could boast of a local artist, although many house and sign painters attempted primitive portraits. The amazing fact is the number of artists circulating through the state. A recent study shows that more than sixty professional painters worked in Cincinnati before 1840 and more than three hundred and sixty artists painted in Ohio prior to the Civil War. This number includes itinerant painters, who constitute about fifty percent of the men listed, but does not include those artists who merely passed by on the Ohio River with no more than a few days pause in Cincinnati, the casual amateurs, who were numerous in the late 1850s when sketch clubs became the mode, and many painters who, while born in Ohio, were not producing artists in this state before the year 1860. Most!
of these painters were not great artists.

As Steubenville, Marietta and Cincinnati on the river and Zanesville and Chillicothe inland began to assume the characteristics of towns, itinerant artists drifted into the area to satisfy the local needs. Most of these men would turn their hand to any job requiring their skill from painting a sign to decorating a chair, mantle, carriage, or barge. More than one hundred such men, known from their advertisements in local papers are listed by Rhea Mansfield Knittle, and her survey has only scratched the surface. When population was thinly scattered over large areas, the professional man or specialist had to travel over a wide territorial circuit to obtain enough customers for his services to earn a livelihood. Lawyers, judges, ministers, dentists, doctors and artists all followed this practice. Teaching a town, the itinerant would establish himself in a suitable location and publicize his availability. When all demands were supplied, he moved on to fresh territory.!
Vocations such as the ministry, law, and dentistry were well suited to regularly repeated circuits of a few weeks duration. Although portrait and sign painting often called for a substantial stay in each town, once the market was exhausted it remained so for a considerably length of time. The itinerant artist rarely retraced his steps. This practice has contributed to the difficulty and confusion surrounding the identification of paintings by these early artists, most of whom did not sign their work.



Example of an early newspaper ad for an itinerate artist from England.



ZANESVILLE

Wednesday, March 10, 1813

"To the admires and patrons of the fin arts - We are happy to inform the citizens of Zanesville and it vicinity, that Mr. J. Carroll, Artist and Portrait Painter from London, a Student of the Royal Academy, has come to spend a few days among us. We have had the pleasure of inspecting specimens of his genius and taste in his profession, and according to our judgment, he is a first rate artist and entitled to encouragement from an enlightened public. He paints Portraits of all sizes in the most elegant manner, and executes every branch of that pleasing art in Oils, Crayons, or Water Colors in a masterly style. He commits to the Canvas Historical Scenes, Landscapes, &c. and the whole circle of visible objects. We understand that his prices are moderate, and hope he will meet with that encouragement which his merit entitles him to. As his stay in this place is to be short, we would suggest to those Ladies and Gentlemen who wish to employ him the propriety of immediately applying!
as another so good and opportunity may never present itself. Specimens of his art may be seen at his quarters at Mr. Robert Taylor's tavern, where people will please to call."



References:

American Folk Painting by Mary Black and Jean Lipman

Ohio History, Ohio Historical Society

Art & Antique, October 1988

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