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Archiver > OHGALLIA > 2003-12 > 1071177318


From: "Al & June Jordan" <>
Subject: Re: [OHGALLIA-L] Chalk artists information
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 16:15:30 -0500
References: <00f901c3c015$4e2bb7c0$d82b5818@Herbie> <000b01c3c090$ad265520$5c8cdc0c@insightbb.com>


Thank you Regina.

June





----- Original Message -----
From: "regina smith" <>
To: <>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 4:16 AM
Subject: Re: [OHGALLIA-L] Chalk artists information


> June,
>
> I, for one, can't thank you enough for the wonderful information that you
> posted here on the itinerate artists of Ohio and surrounding communities.
> This was very informative and I will forward it to other family members.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Regina Angel-Smith
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Al & June Jordan" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2003 1:33 PM
> Subject: [OHGALLIA-L] Chalk artists information
>
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> > ==== OHGALLIA Mailing List ====
> > The Gallia County Historical and Genealogical Society
> > offers memberships and publications at:
> > 412 Second Avenue
> > Gallipolis, OH 45631
> > 740-446-7200
> >
> >
>
>
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