The diversity that characterizes the work of the Chicago artist, Frederick Warren Freer (1849‑1908), reflects the rich mixture of native and European influences comprising the American art world during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Frederick Freer responded to this changeable environment by experimenting with a number of different styles, media and subjects in the course of his career. He played a particularly prominent role in the Chicago art world as an artist, teacher, exhibitor and juror. In the decades following his death, Freer’s role in Illinois art history was obscured by the tumultuous changes which took place in American art and culture. Since the late 1970s, however, there has been a steady revival of interest in the history and oeuvre of this versatile and once highly popular artist.[1]

Freer was born on June 16, 1849 in Kennicott’s Grove, Illinois (now part of Chicago).[2] His father, Joseph Warren Freer, was the son of Dutch settlers and his mother, Katherine Gatter Freer, was originally from Wurtemberg, Germany.[3] Joseph Warren Freer was a distinguished Chicago physician who was appointed Chair of Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy at Rush Medical College in 1859and served as President of the College from 1872 to 1877.[4] Two of his sons, Otto and Paul, later studied medicine at Rush Medical College;[5] Otto became a laryngologist and Paul a chemist.[6] Frederick was the oldest son and originally intended to study medicine as well. However, when he became partially deaf from a childhood illness he suffered at the age of fourteen, his parents began to encourage him to develop his drawing talent instead and he began studying art. Frederick’s sister, Cora, also trained as an artist.[7]

As a child, Frederick Freer attended public schools in the Chicago area. It is not known what form of art training he received during these early years, but after his graduation from Central High School in 1867, the Freer family traveled to Europe so that Frederick and Cora could begin studying art at the Royal Academy in Munich.[8] The rest of the family also lived in Munich, and made regular trips to other parts of Europe while Cora and Frederick were in training at the Academy. Joseph Freer returned to Chicago at regular intervals to teach at Rush Medical College.[9]

Freer arrived in Munich during a period of rising prosperity at the Royal Academy, which was becoming a popular alternative to the art schools of Paris for Americans. Like the Parisian academies, the standard course of study at the Royal Academy followed a progression through increasingly difficult drawing and painting tasks. Students began with the Antique Class where they drew from anatomical casts and casts of ancient sculptures. They then graduated to the Life Class, in which they worked from live models, then proceeded to the Painting Technique Class and finally to the Composition Class, where they worked on finished paintings of their own design under the supervision of their chosen instructor.[10] In true academic style, the curriculum focused on technical mastery but in contrast to the schools of Paris, it also emphasized a direct, powerful form of realism.[11] Royal Academy students were taught to paint directly and rapidly, “preserving the movement of the brush and choice of modulating colors and values, visible in the finished work, as an element of additional interest.”[12] Preferred subjects were portraits, genre scenes and rural landscapes. This was in contrast to the idealized historical and mythological scenes popular in the Parisian academies and salons.

Freer’s instructors at the Royal Academy included Alexander von Wagner (1838-1919), Alexander Straehuber (1814-1882) and Wilhelm von Diez (1839-1907).[13] Diez was the instructor of the Painting Technique class and was one of the most influential teachers at the Academy. He encouraged the study and imitation of the Old Masters, particularly seventeenth-century Dutch painters.[14] Freer’s palette reflected these teachings for many years after leaving Munich in a predominance of browns, grays and blacks. The hallmarks of the Dutch Old Masters are particularly noticeable in Freer’s portraits in which the dramatically lit faces of his figures contrast sharply with their dark clothing and the shadowy, featureless backgrounds which envelop them. The careful attention to detail which characterizes much of Freer’s work also most likely has its roots in this early training.[15] He seems to have been particularly interested in objects with transparent or reflective surfaces; veils, mirrors, windows and clear glass vases full of flowers are common motifs in his paintings. Freer continued his studies in Munich until 1871, though he sent works home to exhibitions at the Chicago Academy of Design in 1868 and 1869. One such work, a watercolor titled Venus, a drawing after Canova (location unknown), proves that Freer was studying and copying a variety of other artists in addition to the Dutch and Germans.[16]

The Freer family arrived back in Chicago in September 1871, just prior to the Great Chicago Fire in October which destroyed their home and belongings.[17] Freer’s father returned to his teaching position at Rush Medical College and began trying to rebuild the family’s fortunes.[18] However, little is known about Frederick’s activities between 1871 and 1873. It is possible he returned to Munich for further study during this time, but considering the family’s financial situation, it seems unlikely. And since the Chicago Academy of Design, along with many other Chicago exhibition venues, had been damaged or destroyed in the fire, there was little opportunity to exhibit locally until 1873 when construction of the Inter-state Industrial Exposition complex was completed. Like many other Chicago artists, Freer may have left the area to work and train elsewhere during those two years.

Freer did participate in the large art show held at the new Industrial Exposition complex in 1873 and sometime between 1873 and 1875 he traveled to San Louis Potosi, Mexico,[19] where he created a number of drawings in pen, ink and pencil, as well as watercolors, oil paintings and etchings of the area.[20] Work from this trip and from his studies in Munich, were exhibited at the Chicago Academy Design in June of 1875.[21] Freer was elected an Academician in the Chicago Academy of Design the following year on the strength of his Mexican work and his rising reputation as a portraitist.[22] The Chicago Academy of Design consisted of four membership classes including Academician, Associate, Honorary Academician and Fellow. Academicians were those considered most proficient in painting, sculpture, architecture, engraving or design.[23]

Freer’s father died in April 1877. That fall, Freer returned to Europe, traveling first to Munich, then to Paris, Holland and Italy.[24] During this second trip to Munich, Freer became closely associated with the American artists Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) and J. Frank Currier (1843-1909), though he probably had already met Duveneck during his first trip to Germany.[25] It is also likely that Freer first met William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) at this time.[26] Chase and Duveneck, along with Walter Shirlaw (1838-1909) and J. Frank Currier, had emerged as the leading American painters in Munich. Duveneck and Chase had both acquired reputations for creating richly executed realist paintings in the Munich style. Duveneck retained this style throughout his lifetime though Chase went on to become one of the leading American Impressionists. Freer developed a working relationship with Duveneck which continued after their Munich years; portraits of each other and pairs of paintings of the same subjects in the Montgomery (Alabama) Museum of Fine Arts collection testify they stayed in contact and continued to paint together when they had the opportunity.[27] Moreover, during the 1900s, Freer also became a member of and regularly exhibited with the Society of Western Artists, which Duveneck, who served as its first president, co-founded.

Freer spent the summer of 1879 in Polling, Bavaria, along with Duveneck, Currier and their students.[28] It is unclear whether Freer traveled to Polling as Duveneck’s student or companion, but considering their equivalent levels of training and experience, he most likely was not one of the “Duveneck boys.”[29] Freer painted a number of watercolors and oils of Polling and the South Tyrol landscape. After leaving Polling, Freer went on to Paris where he remained for the better part of a year. There currently is no evidence which suggests he studied at any of the Parisian academies or with a private instructor. Most likely he spent his time visiting other artists, attending museums and exhibitions and absorbing the new developments in contemporary French painting.

Freer returned to the United States in 1880, apparently visiting Chicago first,[30] then settling in New York City where he immediately set about making a name for himself.[31] He began exhibiting at a number of New York locations including the National Academy of Design,[32] the Society of American Artists and the Brooklyn Art Association, as well as exhibiting work in other Eastern locales such as at the Boston Art Club and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. During this period he remained active at the exhibitions of the Chicago Academy of Design and the Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition. He joined a number of artist clubs, such as the Society of American Artists, the American Watercolor Society, the New York Etching Club and the Salmagundi Club, where he met and exhibited with a number of well‑known and rising American artists.[33] The result of one such meeting led to the painting, titled Andante (location unknown), done in collaboration with Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) in 1883.[34]

Freer also began to explore other media such as etching, producing a number of plates of scenes from his travels in Germany and Mexico, as well as reproducing several of his more popular paintings.[35] In addition, he began painting a range of subjects from portraits and idealized heads to still-life and landscapes. Freer had worked with watercolor from his earliest days in Munich, but he intensively pursued the medium during this period in New York. As he stated: “Water‑color painting was a delight and on my return from Europe in 1880 I used to work for hours at a time, tacking the paper to the floor and bending over and working out the picture practically between my feet.”[36] Freer’s watercolors won for him widespread recognition in New York.[37]

The years between 1883 to 1885 were particularly active for Freer. His name frequently appeared in exhibition reviews in the New York newspapers indicating growing public interest in his work and revealing his extensive exhibition record for those years.[38] In June 1883, Freer traveled to Europe in the company of William Merritt Chase and H. Siddons Mowbray (1858-1928). To wile away the journey, the three artists decorated the smoking room of their ship, the S. S. Pennland.[39] The purpose of Freer’s trip and other details of this journey are currently unknown though one writer has suggested that Freer continued on with Chase to Antwerp, Spain and Holland.[40] Upon his return to New York, Freer was offered a job for the 1884-1885 school year at the Art Students League, where his friends William Merritt Chase and Walter Shirlaw were already employed.[41] Freer taught drawing and painting, the morning head and afternoon life classes and the composition class with Walter Shirlaw.[42] His growing reputation attracted the attention of major collectors of American art, such as Thomas B. Clarke who acquired his Choosing a Study (location unknown) in 1882,[43] and he began to receive invitations to participate in special events such as the 1884 Louis Prang and Co. Christmas Card Competition at the American Art Gallery in New York.[44]

On June 16, 1886 (his thirty-seventh birthday), Frederick Freer married Margaret Cecilia Keenan of New York. Little is currently known about Margaret Keenan: she was born in Richmond, New York,[45] she and her sisters worked as artist’s models,[46] and she also was an artist.[47] She studied drawing, painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago and exhibited at the National Academy of Design Annual in 1890,[48] and at the 1890 Inter‑State Industrial Exposition in Chicago.

She also was a member of the Lake View Art Club of Chicago and exhibited in their annual shows.[49] She and Frederick Freer met when she came to pose for one of his pictures; they were married shortly thereafter but she continued to be Freer’s favorite model, appearing in a variety of poses, costumes and settings during the course of his career.[50] Freer’s reputation as a painter of beautiful women is based partially on his extensive series of paintings of his wife.[51] It was on the strength of one of his earliest and best‑known portraits of his new bride, Lady in Black (Nassau County Museum of Art),[52] exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Boston Art Club in 1887, that Freer was elected an Associate of the National Academy in New York.[53] The work also later won a medal at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

The Freers eventually had six children, two girls and four boys: Frederick Church (born 1888), Arthur Warren (born 1890), Paul Howard (born 1892), Otto Emil (born 1894), Catherine (birthdate unknown) who died as a toddler, and an unnamed daughter, who died in infancy. The Freer children also became common subjects for his brush and inspired many intimate domestic scenes of mothers and children.[54]

During the last years of the 1880s, Freer diligently pursued his professional career, painting extensively and exhibiting frequently in New York, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Philadelphia and St. Louis. It was at this time that he also began to develop a reputation as a painter of “beautiful women.” Like many of his American contemporaries in the late nineteenth century, Freer painted numerous pictures of graceful, elegant, ageless young women meditating, reading, playing music, or talking in quiet, richly furnished rooms.[55] In contrast to some of his compatriots, however, a number of Freer’s paintings go beyond simple depictions of idealized women in decorative poses to suggest an underlying narrative. His “fair-women series” was very popular and he became so closely identified with these kinds of images his other work was often eclipsed. As one contemporary pointed out:

“Despite the fact that he is an admirable watercolorist, etcher, pastelist and portraitist, Freer is commonly known in art circles as the painter of beautiful women’s faces.”[56]

One ample demonstration of Freer’s successes with other media and subjects is the number of commissions for illustrations he obtained in the late 1880s.[57] In 1887, Freer was asked to illustrate three small booklets of poetry based on popular hymns for the F. A. Stokes Publishing Company in New York.[58] Each of the booklets was illustrated with four photogravures after designs by Freer. These works are his only known overtly religious images, aside from a watercolor painting of Dominican nuns titled Mater Dolorosa (location unknown).[59] The following year he helped illustrate James Russell Lowell’s The Vision of Sir Launfal along with Bruce Crane (1857-1937), R. Swain Gifford (1840-1905), H. Siddons Mowbray, Walter Shirlaw and F. Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915),[60] as well as providing images for editions of Daniel Deronda by George Eliot and Fair Ines by Tom Hood.[61]

In 1889, Freer’s painting Nude Study (location unknown) was accepted for exhibition at the Universal Exposition in Paris,[62] and he was invited to serve on the selection committees for the eleventh exhibition of the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design Annual. Freer relocated to the famous Tenth Street Studio building at 51 W. 10th St. early in 1890 where he shared space with such well-known American artists as J. G. Brown (1831-1913), William Merritt Chase, John La Farge (1835-1910) and Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910).[63]

Despite his continuing success in New York, Freer decided to return to Chicago in 1890, most likely drawn by family ties and other associations as well as the growing art scene in Chicago. Before leaving New York, Freer held a sale of almost 200 of his works at the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms on May 15, 1890.[64] It is difficult to characterize Freer’s style at various periods because much of his work has not been located or is not dated. However, study of contemporary reviews, articles and the extant works from his New York years, reveal that his portraits generally continued to follow his Munich style, while his genre scenes and “beautiful woman” pictures exhibited a more colorful palette.[65] Several works, like his Lady in Black (Nassau County Museum of Art) and Lady with Yellow Roses (Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts), were composed around varying tones of a single color.[66] Freer apparently also created a number of paintings based on classical themes during his New York years such as Morning (location unknown),[67] Nymph in the Woods (location unknown) and Nereid (location unknown).

By the fall 1890, Freer had settled into his new studio at the Art Institute of Chicago and was accepting private students.[68] He continued to follow the routine he had established in New York, exhibiting widely in both the Chicago area and the rest of the country. He also actively participated in a number of Chicago artist clubs while maintaining ties with the New York clubs to which he belonged. Freer was a particularly prominent supporter of the Chicago Society of Artists which he had helped found in 1887 while still in New York. When the Society was forced out of its headquarters by a fire in 1892, the group took up temporary quarters in Freer’s studio at the Art Institute.[69] Freer also became involved in the 1892 controversy over prize and membership restrictions within the Society, particularly the requirement that prizes could be awarded only to Chicago residents.[70] In protest, a number of artists broke away from the Chicago Society of Artists and formed the Cosmopolitan Art Club; Freer was one of its founding members. Though the Cosmopolitan Art Club passed a resolution stating their members could not continue to be members of the Chicago Society of Artists,[71] Freer and several others continued to exhibit in the Society’s annual shows.

Freer began teaching at the Art Institute in 1892 as a replacement for Oliver Dennett Grover (1861-1927) and remained an instructor there for the next sixteen years. He was coming into the position fresh with the fame of having sold a painting entitled Virgin [location unknown] for a reported $15,000, a princely sum at the time.[72] He and John H. Vanderpoel (1857-1911) were the Institute’s senior and most influential professors and were in charge of the advanced students. It was said he cut “a conspicuous [and commanding] figure in the schoolroom; in respect to height and proportion.”[73] There is some evidence that the relationship between Freer and Vanderpoel had a competitive edge. In a 1902 letter to Freer, William R. French, director of the Art Institute wrote “As you know, Vanderpoel always wants his work equalized with yours. It may be necessary therefore to let him have your all-day class at some period ”[74]

Freer’s students described him as an inspiring teacher, a tactful critic and a kind, gentlemanly man. One student wrote:

“Mr. Frederick Freer was my favorite teacher, in fact I have never had one I considered as fine, although later I studied in Paris, for five years, under Jacque Blanche and others… He was the most considerate and kindest teacher I have ever had and if anything I ever paint is worth while [sic], it is due to his criticism…”[75]

Fellow instructors were impressed by Freer’s versatility, flair for color and careful technique and he was felt by all to be an important influence on the direction and reputation of the school.[76] Freer’s teaching activities continued during the summer. In 1896 he began teaching an outdoor summer sketch class at Riverside, Illinois with Martha Susan Baker (1871-1911), a fellow professor at the Art Institute.[77] The classes continued for several years, moving to Lakeside, Illinois in 1897, Geneva, Illinois in 1898 and returning to Riverside in 1899.[78]

Like most Chicago residents, Freer was caught up in preparations for the World’s Columbian Exposition during much of 1893. He was honored by being asked to serve on the National Art Selection Jury and contributed three works to the exhibition of American painting, winning a medal for his Lady in Black.[79] Other awards soon followed. At the Chicago Society of Artists annual in 1894, Freer won first mention (essentially third place) for the Charles T. Yerkes prize, the most prestigious art prize awarded in Chicago. A number of his portraits also were featured in a special exhibition at the Art Institute including his family portraits, portraits of a number of Chicagoans and his painting of the artist, Edward Kemeys.[80] In 1896, his painting Sympathy (Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts) won the Thomas B. Clarke cash prize for “the best American Figure Composition painted in the United States by an American Citizen” at the National Academy of Design annual exhibition. It was also during this period Freer relocated his studio from Wellington Avenue to the Studio Building at State and Ohio Streets.

When the new Tree Studio Building at State and Ontario was opened in 1896, he moved once again. Freer and his sister Cora shared adjoining studios in the new building. One contemporary noted: “It is a family party one meets in these two studios, for not only Mrs. Freer, but the little folks as well, serve for models.”[81] At the grand opening of the building where thirty artists welcomed the public the press noted that Freer was one of the two best known residents.[82]

From 1897 to 1899, Freer pursued a particularly heavy exhibition schedule, including a number of shows in the Chicago area as well as shows in New York, Cincinnati, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Omaha and Nashville. In addition, he held positions on several juries and served on the advisory committee for the Art Association of Chicago, which was organized in 1897. Also in 1897, Freer was honored by being invited to submit works to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual and to the Tennessee Centennial and International Exhibition in Nashville hors concours, without having to submit his works for approval by the selection committees.[83] From 1899 to 1901, he served on the jury for the Carnegie International Exhibitions with such artists as Winslow Homer (1836-1910), John White Alexander (1856-1915), Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951), Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and Robert W. Vonnoh (1858-1933).

Extant works from the 1890s and descriptions of works not located from the same period, indicate Freer began creating oil paintings in an impressionist style after his return to Chicago. Freer had visited Paris in the 1870s and early 1880s during the height of French Impressionism and also had been in New York in April 1885, when the landmark Durand-Ruel exhibition of French Impressionism was held at the American Art Association Galleries. Furthermore, he was in regular contact with a number of the American Impressionists, such as William Merritt Chase. Despite these influences, it currently appears Freer did not experiment with impressionist techniques in oil until he returned to Chicago in the 1890s, though reviewers often described the watercolors he exhibited in New York as “impressionistic.”[84] What motivated the change is not clear.

Freer was unwilling to label himself as an Impressionist painter, though. When asked in an interview in 1901 he replied:

“For a long time after I followed my own individual bent, they used to call me an impressionist. Some of my work even now savors of impressionism, as indeed I think the work must of any man who undertakes to put on canvas his own views of life and nature.”[85]

Although Freer employed the bright light, clear unblended colors and outdoor settings favored by the Impressionists in many of his works, he never seems to have been comfortable truly dissolving the boundaries of his forms; his loosest passages of impressionist brushwork are usually found in the backgrounds of his paintings. It is also important to note Freer never exclusively pursued an Impressionist style. Other extant works from the 1890s include detailed, realistic genre scenes, dark Munich-style portraits and numerous pictures of beautiful women painted in a rich, Beaux-Arts style emphasizing color, texture and fine detail.

It is also during the 1890s that Freer’s reputation as a portrait painter blossomed. In Chicago that he received some of his most prestigious commissions from elite patrons such as Mrs. Potter Palmer’s request for portraits of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Honore (location unknown). Freer also painted a number of portraits of his friends and fellow teachers at the Art Institute. He was praised for his ability to capture the individual characters of his sitters. As one critic commented:

“His portraits are most satisfying in that they preserve the individuality of the person… The work is most exquisitely done, every detail is carefully given, the coloring is natural, the finish is perfect and yet the pictured face is eloquent with the expression and the character of the original.”[86]

Freer continued his active career into the new century. He joined the Municipal Art League when it formed in 1900, continuing his prominent participation in Chicago’s art societies. He also exhibited in a two-man show at the O’Brien Art Galleries in Chicago entitled “Out of Door Work”[87] and in the annual exhibitions at the Art Institute, as well as shows in Cincinnati and Boston. In 1901, he was interviewed by the writer Frederick Morton for the magazine Brush and Pencil. In the article Freer discussed his working method leaving one of the few surviving firsthand records of his thoughts about his art. In it he said:

“The essential thing in all my work is, that I arrange my composition carefully and then with the simplest sort of palette, just a few primary colors, I work out my ideas until the finished result satisfies me. One often hears of authors allowing their tales to grow under the pen. Well, I often follow the same practice… [W]hen oil painting engrossed my attention, I worked with a small palette and short brushes. Now I prefer to tack my palette to the easel and work with a brush four or five feet long so as to be almost as far from the canvas as from the model.”[88]

Later in the article Morton described and illustrated Freer’s first and only sculpture, a plaster cast titled Ideal Head (location unknown), created that year in response to a challenge from a fellow artist.[89]

Also in 1901, Freer won a bronze medal for painting at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York and was awarded the prestigious Martin B. Cahn prize for his painting The Old Gown (location unknown) in the American Annual exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago.[90] In addition, he was commissioned to paint three memorial portraits of Art Institute trustee Charles W. Fullerton by Fullerton’s sister, Mrs. Hill. The Art Institute chose one of the portraits (a half-portrait, Art Institute of Chicago) for their collection and it was hung in Fullerton Memorial Hall.[91] The portrait also hung in a place of honor on the east wall of the east gallery during the 1901 Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists at the Art Institute.

During Winter 1901-1902, Freer became ill and had to temporarily relinquish his teaching duties.[92] His illness may have been one reason why he moved his studio to the Freer family home at 224 East Ontario Street in 1902 where his sister Cora joined him.[93] Fellow Chicago artists William Wendt (1865-1946) and Frank Charles Peyraud (1858-1948) were also in the building, called Holbein Studios. His home had for years served as a studio as Freer acknowledged in 1894: “Studio?… why bless you, I haven’t any studio. I paint all over the house - dining room, kitchen, roof when I can get on it, anywhere the fancy strikes me.”[94]

In 1902 Freer won a silver medal at the South Carolina Inter-State and West Indian Exhibit for his painting Nursery Rhymes (also known as Mother and Child Reading, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts).[95] He was also awarded the Silver Medal, designed by William Wendt’s wife Julia Bracken (1871-1942), by the Chicago Society of Artists for Portrait (Also known as Self Portrait, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts) at the Art Institute Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists. The medal was a particular compliment as it was awarded by vote of the artists in the Society. Freer also participated in the 1903 Carnegie annual, exhibiting his Self‑Portrait (Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts).[96] The following year, he won a bronze medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis and he was commissioned to paint a number of portraits of university dignitaries including Dr. Oliver Marcy of Northwestern University (Northwestern University) and Dr. James Burrill Orgell (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), president of Michigan University.[97]

Freer continued to exhibit with at the National Academy of Design (he was a juror in 1905) as well as with the Society of Western Artists, at the Art Institute and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art among other venues. In 1906 a retrospective of his work was held at the Art Institute from January 2 to January 21, 1906.

By March of 1907, Freer was once again showing signs of illness though he exhibited works at shows in Chicago, Boston, Buffalo and Cincinnati.[98] He also joined the Municipal Court of Art, a group formed to protect collectors from purchasing counterfeit Old Master paintings.[99] He spent that summer at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, teaching a summer sketch class and painting a series of watercolors of the surrounding landscape.[100] Several of these landscapes are highly impressionistic with passages approaching pure abstraction. Overall, the series is characterized by the use of a new, high‑toned palette of clear greens, yellows, pinks and blues.

On the evening of March 7, 1908, Frederick Warren Freer suffered a heart attack and died at home in bed. He was fifty-eight years old. In an unprecedented show of respect, his body lay in state at Fullerton Memorial Hall at the Art Institute and funeral services were conducted at the Hall on March tenth. Six of Freer’s students acted as pallbearers.[101] A memorial group of his paintings was shown at the Marshall Field and Co. galleries, Chicago in January, 1909,[102] the American Watercolor Society Annual in 1909 and a memorial exhibition of his work was later held at the National Arts Club in New York in January and February 1913.[103] Freer was survived by his wife and four sons. He left no will and apparently no appreciable estate.[104] The contents of his studio became the property of his wife, Margaret Freer. She relocated to Fairhope, Alabama around 1919 and in April 1936, she donated eighty-seven of Freer’s paintings to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Montgomery, Alabama.[105] The estate left upon her death in February 1946 listed no other artworks by her husband.[106]

The hallmark of Freer’s long and varied career as an artist was the ease with which he adapted to the shifting interests of his era. His style ranged freely from the realistic, genre scenes and dark portraits of the Munich school, to loosely painted, light‑filled impressionist scenes and lush Beaux-Arts style portraits.[107] No one style was ever in ascendance for long and even late in his career he created works that were reminiscent of his earliest days in Munich. Freer’s painting technique is also best described as versatile, shifting with apparent ease between a smooth, highly polished finish to loose forms composed of unblended daubs of color. Much of his work, however, occupies a technical middle ground and reflects his early training in Munich. On first appearance his paintings give the impression they were created effortlessly, but they reveal on closer inspection the underlying structure of brushstrokes and color modulations.[108] The technique and style chosen for each work shifted with time and subject. Freer himself stated: “My interests have changed and my methods have changed with my interests.”[109]

Frederick Freer was a consummate late nineteenth century American artist. He experimented with a number of different styles and media but his explorations were always tempered by classical modes of composition and traditional standards of technique. He was dedicated to his craft, his students and most notably to the progress of art in Chicago. As an artist, a teacher and an active participant in the Chicago art community, he contributed to the rising prominence of the city as an important center for American art. Throughout his lifetime he maintained a reputation as a man of character and an artist worthy of note. In an article written a year after his death, a friend summarized the key to his success:

“He had a well‑stored mind and gave lavishly of its treasures without the slightest suggestion of pedantry or magisterial pose… Throughout his long career as an artist, not once did he paint a gruesome picture or one dealing with tragedy or wretchedness. Always he believed that the function of art is to gladden life, not to perpetuate its miseries on canvas.”[110]

[1] The author would like to acknowledge the assistance of a number of individuals and institutions with the researching and writing of this essay. The author’s greatest debt is to Joel Dryer, Director of the Illinois Historical Art Project, for invaluable information on the history of Chicago and the Chicago art world, as well as for his edits and comments on this essay. The author also is indebted to Margaret Lynn Ausfeld and Pamela Bransford of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama for access to the Freer works in the collection as well as the associated registrarial and curatorial files. The author would like to acknowledge a particular debt to Diane Gingold, former curator of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and to her initial research on Frederick Freer which provided a solid base and a number of useful starting points for a more detailed history. The author also would like to thank the Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center Archives, Chicago, Illinois for primary biographical information on Joseph Warren Freer and the Freer family. Finally, the author would like to extend sincere thanks for the comments and other assistance with earlier drafts of this essay provided by Elaine D. Gustafson, Jean Nattinger, Kristin Collins and Charles Hodges. However, any omissions or errors of fact are solely the responsibility of the author.

[2] General biographical sources consulted for this essay include: W. Lewis Fraser, “The Century’s American Artist Series: Frederick W. Freer,” Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 48, May‑October 1894; Frederick W. Morton, “Frederick W. Freer, Painter,” Brush and Pencil, Vol. 8, No. 6, September 1901, pp.289‑300; Francis Cheney Bennett, A History of Music and Art in Illinois, (Paris: Societe Universelle Lyrique, 1904), pp.489‑490; Exhibition of Paintings by Frederick W. Freer of Chicago, January 2 to January 21, 1906, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1906); Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vol. 1, No. 3, April 1908, p.47.

[3] Joseph Warren Freer was born in New York State to Elias Freer and Mary Paine. Katherine Gatter was Joseph Warren Freer’s second wife whom he married in June of 1849. They had four children: a daughter Cora (1852‑1928) and three sons, Frederick (1849‑1908), Otto (1857‑1932) and Paul (1862‑1912). Joseph Freer’s first wife, Emeline Holden, died within a year of their marriage in 1845, after bearing him a son, Henry (dates unknown). The inadequate medical treatment she received during her illness inspired Joseph Freer to study medicine.

[4] Joseph Freer taught Descriptive Anatomy, Physiology and Microscopic Anatomy at Rush Medical College from 1850 until his death. His obituary is in the New York Times, 4/13/1877, p.1. He also did a number of early experiments on the preservation and storage of blood, which provided the foundation for today’s blood banks. For an extended discussion of Joseph Freer’s life and work, see his obituary in the Freer file, Rush Medical College Faculty Collection (1832‑1942), Rush‑Presbyterian‑St. Luke’s Medical Center Archives, Chicago.

[5] The Freer family’s relationship with Rush Medical College extended to another branch of the family. Joseph Freer’s brother, L.C. Paine Freer, was President of the Board of Trustees of the college from 1865 to 1892, and his son, Nathan M. Freer, also served as a trustee.

[6] Paul’s obituary is in the New York Times, 4/18/1912, p.13. Otto’s wife Martha has an obitiuary in the New York Times, 7/24/1939, p.13, Otto died in 1932.

[7] “Miss Cora F. Freer Who Excels in Figure Work,” Chicago Tribune, 1/10/1906, p.2.

[8] School records indicate Freer enroled on 10/24/1868.

[9] Obituary for Joseph Warren Freer, no date, Freer file, Rush Medical College Faculty Collection (1832‑1942), Rush‑Presbyterian‑St. Luke’s Medical Center Archives, Chicago, p.5.

[10] Michael Quick, Munich and American Realism in the 19th Century, (Sacramento: Crocker Art Gallery, 1978), pp.21‑36. For additional discussions of the instructors and curriculum of the Royal Academy see also: Michael Quick, American Portraiture in the Grand Manner: 1720‑1920, (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1981), pp.61‑76 and Michael Quick, An American Painter Abroad: Frank Duveneck’s European Years, (Cincinnati: Cincinnati Art Museum, 1987), pp.14‑15.

[11] Op. cit., Quick, Munich and American Realism…, 1978, pp.21‑36; op. cit., Quick, An American Painter Abroad…, 1987, pp.14‑15.

[12] Op. cit., Quick, American Portraiture in the Grand Manner, 1981, p.63.

[13] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.292. Cora studied with Alexander von Wagner and Johann Caspar Herterich. The author is indebted to the Illinois Historical Art Project for the information on Cora.

[14] Op. cit., Quick, Munich and American Realism…, 1978, pp.28‑29; op. cit., Quick, An American Painter Abroad…, 1987, pp.16‑17.

[15] Examples in the collection of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama include Politics (1891), Lady in Blue (1892) and Lady Cleaning Brass (1901).

[16] Catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition of the Chicago Academy of Design, (Chicago: Chicago Academy of Design, 1869), Chicago Historical Society. The work is listed as belonging to Freer’s father, Joseph Warren Freer. Antonio Canova (1757-1822) was an Italian sculptor, painter and architect.

[17] Op. cit., Obituary for Joseph Warren Freer, Rush Medical College Faculty Collection, p.6. An alternative version of this story, which has commonly appeared in recent writings on Frederick Freer, dates the family’s return to after the fire and gives financial troubles caused by the fire as the reason for their return from Europe. The source for this account appears to be a narrative on file at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts written by Elizabeth Metcalf, a former registrar, dated June 1, 1968.

[18] Op. cit., Obituary for Joseph Warren Freer, Rush Medical College Faculty Collection, p.6.

[19] Enoch Root, “The Late Art Reception,” Chicago Times, 6/27/1875, p.5. The review mentions that the paintings of Mexican subjects in the show “were not more than two years old.” Also, Freer participated in the 1873 and 1876 annual exhibitions at the new Inter-State Industrial Complex, but not in the 1874 or 1875 shows suggesting that he was out of town during this period. San Louis Potosi is the only town or region mentioned by name in the titles of Freer’s surviving Mexican works, though he may have visited other locations during his trip.

[20] The majority of these works are now unlocated. Those that have survived include several pen and ink drawings used as illustrations in an article by Edward King, “The Progress of Accuracy in Pictorial Art”, date and publication unknown, artist file, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery, Alabama). The Montgomery Museum also owns an undated oil painting most likely created during this trip, Untitled (A Seascape at San Luis Potosi).

[21] Op. cit., Root, Chicago Times, 6/27/1875, p.5. “F. W. Freer had a most superb collection of studies and pictures, both of German and Mexican subjects.”

[22] “Art in Chicago,” Daily Inter-Ocean, 7/8/1876, p.3. “Freer has two very fine portraits treated in different styles and which win for him a great deal of praise. In the portrait of himself there is a great deal that is masterly, vigorous and natural… Let Freer exhibit more portraits of the same tone and character and the public will soon be forced to recognize him as one of the leading Chicago artists. His art knowledge and abilities are now not second to any one here and greater than most artists.”

[23] Catalogue of the Third Annual Exhibition, (Chicago: Chicago Academy of Design, 1868). Each Academician was required to submit a self-portrait for the Academy’s permanent collection after his election. This self-portrait is unlocated.

[24] Autobiography of Modern Artists, 1901, Stevens Collection, Archives of American Art, microfilm #D34‑255‑257; Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.290.

[25] Op. cit., Quick, An American Painter Abroad…, 1987, p.35. Duveneck was in Munich by 1870 studying under Wilhelm Diez. He left Munich in 1873, returning in August of 1875. Currier had arrived in Munich in January 1871.

[26] Op. cit., Quick, An American Painter Abroad…, 1987, p.36. See also Ronald G. Pisano, The Art Students League: Selections from the Permanent Collection, (Huntington, New York: Heckscher Museum, 1987), p.22. Chase first arrived in Munich in November 1872 after Freer had returned to the United States. For a detailed discussion of William Merritt Chase’s years in Munich see Ronald G. Pisano, A Leading Spirit in American Art: William Merritt Chase 1849‑1916, (Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1983). Freer could have met Chase in 1873 if in fact Freer had returned to Munich.

[27] The paired paintings include portraits of Freer’s daughter, Catherine (Portrait of Catherine by Duveneck and by Freer both, Montgomery Museum of Fine Art) as a toddler and studies of birch trees, Birch Trees, (Montgomery Museum of Fine Art). The Montgomery Museum also owns a portrait of Freer painted by Duveneck (Portrait of Frederick Freer, 1936.23) and a portrait of Duveneck painted by Freer (titled Portrait of Man with Mustache, 1936.48). Though these paintings are not dated, the portraits of Catherine can be dated to the late 1880s or early 1890s, after Freer’s marriage. They also each painted a portrait of Freer’s mother when Duveneck was visiting Freer in Chicago. Freer’s work and comments on their efforts appear in “Their Portraits of Their Mothers,” Chicago Tribune, 3/15/1905, magazine section, p.4.

[28] Op. cit., Quick, An American Painter Abroad…, 1987, p.48.

[29] The Duveneck Boys were the group of American artists who studied with Duveneck in Munich and later in Italy.

[30] Freer served as a member of the jury for the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts school prizes in 1880. The Academy of Fine Arts was later renamed the Art Institute of Chicago.

[31] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.295.

[32] Freer exhibited in every National Academy of Design Annual from 1881 to 1892 with the exception of 1886.

[33] The American Watercolor Society was founded in 1866, the Society of American Artists in 1877, and the Salmagundi Club in 1871. The Salmagundi Club was the first to hold exhibitions devoted solely to drawings and graphics. Membership in all these societies was by invitation of the members. Freer also was a member of the New York Fencers, a gentlemen’s fencing club.

[34] The Boston Art Club: Exhibition Record, 1873‑1909, (Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1991), p.176. Dewing painted the figures and Freer painted the landscape. This work is now unlocated.

[35] Many of Freer’s etchings were included in the sale of his work at the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms in May, 1890.

[36] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.295.

[37] W. Lewis Fraser, “The Century’s American Artist Series: Frederick W. Freer,” The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Vol. 48, May-October 1894, p.158: “Frederick Warren Freer first became known to American art lovers early in the eighties by his watercolors, which, although narrow in their range of subjects, were attractive and taking, delightful in their color sense and always pictorial.” See also op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.292.

[38] For example, during the first two weeks of April 1884, works by Freer being exhibited in the National Academy of Design show were critiqued six separate times in four different papers.

[39] Katherine Metcalf Roof, The Life and Art of William Merritt Chase, (New York: Hacker Art Books, 1975), p.108; Ronald G. Pisano, A Leading Spirit in American Art: William Merritt Chase 1849-1916, (Seattle: Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington 1983), p.63. In her account, Katherine Roof calls Freer “Frederick Freer of Boston”. However, there is no listing for him in the Boston City Directories for 1882 or 1883 and there currently is no other evidence to suggest that he was a Boston resident in 1883.

[40] Keith C. Bryant, Jr., William Merritt Chase: A Genteel Bohemian, University of Mississippi Press, 1991, p.90.

[41] “Art Babble,” New York Daily News, 6/29/1884: “The appointment of F. W. Freer in the place of C. Y. Turner is another good one. Mr Freer lacks little of the technical power of his predecessor, whose election to the presidency of the league deprives it of one of its most thorough and efficient instructors.”

[42] Catalog of the Art Students League, Season of 1884‑1885, Art Students League, New York.

[43] Clarke later acquired three other works by Freer: In the Looking Glass (location unknown) and Morning (1885, location unknown) in 1890 and Mother and Child (location unknown) around 1896. Other well‑known collectors of American art who purchased works by Frederick Freer include W. T. Evans, William O. Havemeyer and Albert A. Munger, a major Chicago collector. Munger later gifted much of his collection, including two works by Freer, to the Art Institute of Chicago.

[44] Frank Weitenkampf, American Graphic Art, (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1912), pp.340-341. See also Sale Catalog of Louis Prang’s Collection of Commissioned Christmas Cards, 1899, p.6, New York Public Library. Other artists who participated in the competition that year included Thomas W. Dewing, Will Low, Thomas Moran, J. Alden Weir and Dora Wheeler. Freer’s design was sold in 1899, along with other designs in the Prang Collection.

[45] Catalogue of the Paintings Exhibited by the Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago, Seventeenth Annual Exhibition, September 4-October 19, 1889, p.24, catalogue #126.

[46] Chicago Inter-Ocean, 3/9/1908, in the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 23. Several obits appear on pp.161-163. “Artist Freer Dies Suddenly,” Chicago Tribune, 3/9/1908, p.3.

[47] Margaret Keenan also had at least one sister, Sarah. See “Miss Sarah Keenan Dies,” Fairhope Courier, 7/1/1937, microfilm, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Montgomery, Alabama.

[48] Maria Naylor, editor, The National Academy of Design Exhibition Record 1861-1900, (New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1973).

[49] “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, 11/16/1890, p.36.

[50] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.298: “No one would suspect from a close inspection of his output for the last fifteen years or more that he has juggled with a single face and form and made a single model subserve the purpose of his artistic creations. That he has done this and done it successfully is no small tribute to his ability as an artist. The idea, the sentiment, the character he wished to depict was in Freer’s own mind a matter of strong conception. His model served but as a framework to clothe with an ennobling thought or a pleasing fancy and in this sense his work is unique.”

[51] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.297: “In every succeeding picture of what may be termed his fair‑women series he has renounced strict portraiture and assumed the painter’s license to modify or idealize as he chose. It is his wife that he painted in Consolation (location unknown), Young Mother (Illinois Historical Art Project), Thoughts of the Future (private collection, Philadelphia), In Ambush (location unknown), Pleasant Musings (location unknown) and in fact every other canvas in which he has undertaken to exploit the charms of womanly beauty or the traits of womanly character.”

[52] Variously known as Portrait of a Lady in Black and A Girl in Black. Freer created several etchings of the original painting and variations on the same theme (such as Behind the Fan, location unknown and The Token, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts). An etching of the original painting also was illustrated in The Art Gallery, Illustrated, date unknown and The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, May‑October 1894, New Series Vol. 26, p.57. A smiliar image appeared in “About The Studios,” Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XXI, No. 51, 5/14/1893, Part 3, p.23.

[53] American Art Annual, Vol. 9, 1911, p.44.

[54] Op. cit.,  Chicago Inter-Ocean, 3/9/1908, and Chicago Tribune, 3/9/1908, p.3. Children also are listed in most of Frederick Freer’s obituaries though in more abbreviated form.

[55] For a detailed and thoughtful discussion of the genre of “beautiful women,” their various permutations and the reasons for their popularity, see: Bailey Van Hook, Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876-1914, (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996).

[56] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.291. See also Sadakichi Hartman, A History of American Art, Vol. 1, (Boston: L. C. Page & Company, 1901), p.280 and Walter Montgomery, American Art and American Art Collections, (New York: Garland Publishing Col, 1889), reprinted 1978, p.207.

[57] Freer continued to create etchings throughout his career and though he produced fewer over the ensuing years, he maintained his reputation as a talented etcher. See Blanch Howard, “Society of Western Artists. Chicago Group,” Arts for America, Vol. 7 No. 7, March 1898, p.403.

[58] Nearer My God to Thee by Sarah Fuller Adams , Hark the Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley and Rock of Ages by Augustus Montague Toplady. Copies of these three pamphlets can be found in the Library of Congress.

[59] “Antiquity His Forte, Frederick W. Freer’s Beautiful Mater Dolorosa,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/9/1891, p.5. This work was exhibited at the New York Watercolor Society in January 1891.

[60] This edition was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company, Boston and New York. Freer contributed a single illustration Better the Blessing of the Poor.

[61] Several of these works are illustrated in Walter Montgomery, American Art and American Art Collections, (New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1889), reprinted 1978, pp.193-208.

[62] Annette Blaugrund, Paris 1889: American Artists at the Universal Exposition, (New York: Abrams Publishing Company, 1989), p.63: “Of the eight painters, only Frederick Freer did not give his work the aura of respectability lent by a classical or literary title.” This work appears to have been one of the few nudes Freer painted; it is now unlocated. There also were two oil paintings of nudes in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts collection, Nude (n.d. #1936.25) and Lady in a Mist (n.d. #1936.45); the location of the latter painting has been unknown since 1975.

[63] Annette Blaugrund, The Tenth Street Studio Building: Artist-Entrepeneurs from the Hudson River School to American Impressionists, (Southampton, New York: The Parrish Art Museum, 1997), pp.133-134. In the early 1880s, Freer’s studio was located in the University Building; from 1887 to 1890, he maintained a studio at 58 ½ W. 10th Street.

[64] The sale included seventy-three watercolors, seventy-nine oils and thirty-four pen and ink drawings, pencil drawings and etchings.

[65] His Portrait of Frederick S. Church (1883, National Academy of Design), Woman Wearing a Red Cross (1884‑85, Art Students League of New York), Portrait of Charles Yardley Turner (1886, National Academy of Design) and his Self‑Portrait (1887, National Academy of Design) are examples of the continuation of Freer’s Munich portrait style while works such as Waiting (location unknown), Adagio (1884, location unknown) and Jeanette (1884, National Academy of Design) reveal his new interest in color. See: “The Fine Arts,” New York Herald, 3/25/1882, p.4; “Other Notable Works,” New York Herald, 4/8/1884, p.10 and Art Interchange, 4/24/1884, for reviews that discuss Freer’s use of color in these works.

[66] Deborah Fenton Shepherd, “Frederick Warren Freer,” The Quest for Unity: American Art Between World’s Fairs 1876‑1893, (Detroit: Detroit Art Institute, 1983), p.112: “Freer’s approach to portraiture reflects, in addition to his training in Munich, an awareness of the portraits painted by Whistler after 1870 and William Merritt Chase’s portraits of the 1880s.”

[67] “Seated upon a couch in her bower, a Greek maiden, in the dawning of womanhood, burns incense to the opening of the day. The picture is a harmony of colors subdued in brightness and warmed by the flush of morning.” Description of Freer’s Morning, Catalog for an exhibition of the Thomas B. Clarke Collection, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, October, 1891.

[68] “Two Lovely Ivories,” Chicago Evening Post, 10/24/1890, p.5. “The Fine Arts,” Chicago Tribune, IHAP Library, 12/14/1890, p.36: “Mr. Fred W. Freer, the well‑known painter, who has recently returned to his native home, has opened a most attractive studio in the Art Institute, where he shows many interesting works. In accordance with the almost universal custom in New York, Mr. Freer opens his studio Saturday afternoons to his friends and the public.” Freer used this studio until 1893 or 1894 when he moved to a new studio at 1701 Wellington Avenue. [A search of Chicago libraries did not prove successful in locating the exact page number]. A brief note on his teaching is found in: “Chance For Chicago,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/5/1890 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 5, col. 2, p.15.

[69] “Art Notes,” The Graphic, 5/7/1892, p.344.

[70] For an extended discussion of the art clubs and societies of Chicago see the section on Art Organizations in this book.

[71] Information provided courtesy of the Illinois Historical Art Project.

[72] “About The Studios,” Sunday Inter Ocean, Vol. XXII, No. 44, 5/7/1893, Part 3, p.22.

[73] “Students At The Art Institute,” Chicago Times-Herald, 6/2/1895 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 6, p.48.

[74] Letter to Frederick Freer from William M. R. French, French letters, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago, 10/25/1902.

[75] Mrs. Hallie Champlin Fenton, alumni reminiscences, Robert Harshe papers, Ryerson Library Archives, Art Institute of Chicago, 11/15/1922.

[76] Op. cit., Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1908, p.47: “For something more than fifteen years he has played a very important part in the school, not from any aggressive disposition, but from his professional and personal qualifications. He had a great love for color as such. While he was a thoroughly trained draughtsman, he loved the actual use of paint and enjoyed both the process and the result and his influence in this direction was most valuable. He was versatile also and his students executed miniatures and etchings as well as the usual academic studies of figure and portraiture.” See also “Students at the Art Institute,” Chicago Times-Herald, 6/2/1895, part 3, p.25.

[77] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/23/1896, p.10. It isn’t clear if Miss Baker joined him in this endeavor in 1896 or a year later in 1897.

[78] “Summer Schools,” Arts for America, Vol. 7, Nos. 9 and 10, June 1898, p.597 and Isobel McDougall, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/10/1899, p.8. Freer and Martha Baker taught separate classes in 1899, he in Riverside and she in Geneva, Illinois.

[79] “Some World’s Fair Winners,” New York Times, 8/19/1893, p.5 and “Chicago’s Art Awards,” New York Herald, 8/19/1893, p.10. The two other works Freer showed at the Exposition were Portrait (lent by Henry C. Champlin, location unknown) and Gold Fish (private collection, Chicago). An ink sketch of Lady in Black was published in the Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1893, p.25.

[80] Catalogue of a Loan Exhibition of Portraits of Men, Women and Children in the Art Institute of Chicago, under the Auspices of the Antiquarians of the Art Institute, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1/2-1/15/1894), pp.16, 32, 36-37, 46, 66, 72. In all, ten portraits by Freer were included in the exhibition.

[81] Harriet Hayden Hayes, “Some Chicago Studios,” The National Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 4, July 1897, p.353. Freer occupied studios 6, 14 and 28 during his five years at the Tree Studios. Capturing Sunlight: The Art of Tree Studios, (Chicago: Chicago Cultural Center, 6/17-9/26/1999).

[82] “Where Art Is Queen Of All,” Chicago Tribune, 2/23/1896, p.27.

[83] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post 11/20/1897 and “Art and Artists,” Chicago Inter‑Ocean, 4/4/1897, p.31. Both articles can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 9, p.71 and Vol. 8, p.101 respectively. For confirmation of the Tennessee Exposition see: Harriet Hayden Hayes, “Some Chicago Studios,” National Magazine (Boston), Vol. 6, July 1897, p.353.

[84]  See for example: “Frederick Warren Freer, Strong in Portraits,” Chicago Tribune, 1/10/1906, p.2.

[85] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.295.

[86] Francis Cheney Bennett, editor, A History of Music and Art in Illinois, (Paris: Societe Universelle Lyrique, 1904, p.189.

[87] The show was reviewed in “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/3/1900, p.8.

[88] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, pp.296-297.

[89] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.299: “Freer was appointed to serve on a jury with Miss Julia M. Bracken, who jocosely remarked that it was scarcely right to have a jury with but one sculptor on it. ‘There will be two sculptors on this jury, Miss Bracken,’ said Freer and he left the girl to divine the meaning of his words. He immediately went to his studio, secured the necessary material and set about making the case for the ideal head here reproduced.”

[90] The author would like to thank Joel Dryer of the Illinois Historical Art Project for information on the significance of the various awards offered at Chicago exhibitions.

[91] Chicago American, 8/10/1901 in Art Institute of Chicago scrapbooks, Vol. 14, p.93. [A search of Chicago libraries did not prove successful in locating the exact article title and page number].

[92] No title, no source, Art Institute of Chicago scrapbooks, Vol. 15, col. 3, p.60 and Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/1/1902, p.8.

[93] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/18/1902, p.16: “It is the home of Frederick W. Freer and the upper floors of lofty, spacious, well-lighted apartments are occupied as studios by a friendly little coterie of artists.”

[94] “Where Art Thrives,” Chicago Tribune, 1/28/1894, p.25.

[95] “Celebrated Artists Engaged By The Tribune For Special Paintings of Kirmess Dancers,” “Frederick WarrenFreer, Strong in Portraits,” Chicago Tribune, 1/10/1906, p.2.

[96] “Work of the Chicago Artists,” Brush and Pencil Vol. 11 No. 6, March 1903, p.456: “The likeness is singularly faithful and expressive - even to the cigarette, which is part of Mr. Freer’s daily attire - and is to be regarded as one of the very best canvases the artist has produced.”

[97] Op. cit., Bennett, A History of Music and Art in Illinois, 1904, pp.189-190.

[98] Letter to K [arl] A [albert] Buehr from William M. R. French, French archives, Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago, 3/25/1907, p.540. Freer apparently was suffering from the early symptoms of heart disease.

[99] Chicago Examiner, 3/2/1907, in the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, p.134. The other members of the group were Lorado Taft, William French, Hardesty Maratta, and John Vanderpoel.

[100] Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/8/1907, p.16. Approximately twenty-five of these watercolors are now in the collection of the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (Montgomery, Alabama).

[101] Op. cit., Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1908, p.47: “It was a genuine service of mourning, for all Mr. Freer’s acquaintances are agreed that a more serene and equable spirit, a more disinterested and unselfish man, they never knew.” See also: Chicago Record-Herald, 5/2/1911, Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 27. [A search of Chicago libraries did not prove successful in locating the exact article title and page number].

[102] “Art And Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/26/1908, p.4; Chicago Record-Herald, 1/3/1909, in the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 24, p.115 and Chicago Evening Post, 1/9/1909, in the Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, Vol. 24, p.120. Thirty-seven works were on view spanning Freer’s career from 1878 to his death.

[103] To date, no press coverage of this exhibition has been found mostly likely because it coincided with the opening of the Armory Show and its associated press furor. There are photographs of the exhibition in the National Arts Club records at the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

[104] According to the Probate Research Division, Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, there is no will or other estate papers on file for Frederick Warren Freer.

[105] Fairhope, Alabama, is a small resort town across the bay from Mobile, Alabama which attracted a large community of visiting Chicagoans during the early 1900s. Margaret Freer is interred in the Fairhope Cemetery. For a detailed history of this donation, see the narrative by former Registrar, Elizabeth Metcalf, Frederick Freer curatorial file, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama. The works donated also included one painting by William Merritt Chase, four paintings by Frank Duveneck and four by J. Frank Currier.

[106] According to the probate records on file at the Baldwin County Courthouse Probate Division, Bay Minette, Alabama, Margaret Freer was survived by two sons, Frederick and Paul, though the estate papers described Frederick as missing. Paul died in Tucson, Arizona in 1955 and was survived by a daughter Cora, who remained unmarried until her death in the early 1980s. The only assets mentioned are a car and two bank accounts.

[107] For a good contemporary discussion of Freer’s style see: Diane Gingold, Frederick W. Freer 1849~1908, (Montgomery, AL: Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, 1976); Deborah Fenton Shepherd, “Frederick Warren Freer,” The Quest for Unity: American Art Between World’s Fairs 1876‑1893, (Detroit: Detroit Art Institute, 1983) and Gabriel P. Weisberg, Women of Fashion: French and American Images of Leisure 1880‑1920, (Tokyo: Art Life Ltd., 1994).

[108] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, pp.294‑295: “It has been said of his work that his pictures are grateful alike to the professional and to the unprofessional eye because they have the rare quality of seeming to have been easily done. That this quality is a matter of seeming rather than an evidence of ease of achievement, no one is more ready to admit than Freer himself. He has worked for all he has attained and his facile brush‑work and apparently spontaneous composition are to be taken as witnesses of his devotion to his art and his painstaking industry in obliterating every evidence of crudity and removing all trace of studied change or correction.”

[109] Op. cit., Morton, Brush and Pencil, September 1901, p.295.

[110] Ricardo Moreno, Chicago Illustrated Review, March 1909.