BORN: June 4, 1887 Denmark, IA

DIED: February 23, 1954 Evanston, ILii

MARRIED: October 5, 1916 Anita Joy Biggs of Evanston

TRAINING

Primary and secondary schools, Downers Grove, IL and Chicago

1902 J. Francis Smith Art Academy, Chicago

1903, 1905 Summer; 1904-1905 Louis W. Wilson, Frank Phoenix; 1905 evening; 1905-1906 John H. Vanderpoel, Karl A. Buehr, Frederick W. Freer, Art Institute of Chicago

1906-1907 John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis

1906-1907 Winona Technical Institute, Indianapolis, degree in lithography

1908 Evening illustration; 1908-1909 Antonin Sterba, Harry M. Walcott, Fred D. Schook, Thomas W. Stevens; 1909 Oliver D. Grover; 1909-1910 Stevens, Walcott; 1910 Louis Betts, Allen E. Philbrick; 1910 evenings, Art Institute of Chicago

1908-1909 University of Chicago

1909 Barcelona, Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida (summer trip with Dudley Crafts Watson, Chicago artist)

1912-1913 Weinhold and Eisengraber School of Painting and Munich State Gewerbe School

1912-1913 Munich with Ludwig Hohlwein

ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT

1910 Mural panel, John M. Smyth School, Chicagoiii

1911-1912 Head of art department, Dean-Hicks Co., publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan

c.1914 Designer, Western Banknote Co., Chicago

1915 Poster stamp illustration, Eleventh Annual Convention of The Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, Vollard Poster Stamp Company, Chicagoiv

1916 Poster illustration, Independent Society of Artists, Chicagov

1916-1918 Illustrations for U. S. Navy, Red Cross, Liberty Loan, Salvation Army, U. S. Department of Agriculturevi

c.1918-ca.1920 Advertising illustration, Charles Daniel Frey, Co., Chicago

1921 Director, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MIvii

1922-1923 Head of illustration department, Bellows-Reeve Co., Chicago

1925-1927 Editor of educational department Poster Magazine

1933-1934 Lincoln and Greenwich Village projects, A Century of Progress, Chicago

1934 Works Progress Administration Mural, Father Marquette’s Winter in Chicago, Legler Library, Chicagoviii

Illustrated natural history subjects for Encyclopaedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopedia and free-lance illustrator for national companies

Indian illustrations for calendar, Mosinee Paper Co., Wisc.

Commercial illustration accounts including Wilson Packing, Wilson Sporting Goods, Max Factor, Armour Meat Co., Searle Laboratories, Goodyear Tire and Rubber, Sun Oil

TEACHING

1910-1911 Assistant to Thomas W. Stevens, Art Institute of Chicago

1918-1921 poster illustration, 1924-1925 costume illustration, 1929-1930 layout, Art Institute of Chicago

1922-1925, 1937-1939ix Chicago Academy of Fine Arts

1929-1930 National Academy of Art, Chicagox

1931-1954 American Academy of Art, Chicagoxi

RESIDENCES

1887-c.1893 Denmark, Iowa

c.1893-1897 Downers Grove, Illinois

1897-1911 Hyde Park, Chicago

1911-1913 Grand Rapids, Michigan

1913-1954 Evanston, Illinois

TRAVEL

1906 American West to paint Pueblo Indians

1908-1913 various trips to England, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, North Africa

1920s Saugatuck, Michigan (summers)

MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES

Art Students League, Chicago (president 1909-1911); Artists Guild of Author’s League of America (Guild of Free-Lance Artists, Chicago, president 1925,xii charter member); Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors; Chicago Business Men’s Symphony Orchestra (founder); Campfire Club, Chicago; Chicago Watercolor Club; Cliff Dwellers Club; Delta Beta Rho (Daubers’ society); Delta Pi Sigma; Grand Rapids Art Students League (president 1911-1912); Hoosier Salon; Izaak Walton League (fly fisherman's organization); National Association of Amateur Chamber Music Players; Palette & Chisel Club

HONORS

1904 (two), 1905 (four), 1905 (three), 1908 (two), 1909, 1910 Honorable Mentions, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

1910 Third Frederick Magnus Brand Memorial Prize, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

1910 United States representative, Prix de Rome competitionxiii

1914 Book Prize, Art Students League of Chicagoxiv

1931 Honorable Mention, Woman’s Club of Evanston, Annual Exhibition of Evanston and North Shore Artistsxv

JURIES SERVED

All American Exposition, Chicago, art committee 1919

Art Institute of Chicago, American Watercolors 1918

Art Institute of Chicago, Posters for National Service 1917xvi

Chicago Herald and Examiner School and College Cover contest 1926

Garden Street Theater, St. Louis, national poster competition 1925

Posters For National Service 1917

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Art Institute, Chicago & Vicinity 1919, 1921, 1931

Art Institute of Chicago, American Watercolors 1910, 1911, 194, 1915, 1918

Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition by members of the Palette and Chisel Club 1916

Art Institute of Chicago, Posters for National Service 1917xvii

Art Institute of Chicago, Red Cross Posters By Chicago Artists 1917xviii

Hoosier Salon 1933-1937, 1939

Midland Hotel, faculty members of the American Academy of Art 1932xix

Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Exhibition by Chicago Artists1918

H. Revell & Co., Chicago, teachers at the National Academy of Art 1929xx

ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS

1924 Art Institute of Chicago, Watercolor Decorationsxxi

1934 Hoosier Gallery, Chicagoxxii

Cliff Dwellers Club, Chicago

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Chicago Commission for the Encouragement of Local Artxxiii

INTERESTING NOTES

He enjoyed golf, fly-fishing and played first violin in the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. From 1919 until his death he kept a studio at Tree Studio in Chicago.

He was considered the first to introduce German poster style art into America.

iThe author thanks the artist’s son William Babcock for help in compiling this timeline. See also entry in National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1956, p.78.

iiObit, New York Times, 2/23/1954.

iiiHe was one of several Art Institute of Chicago students who worked on this senior project. The others were Gordon Stevenson (Landing at Jamestown), Frank Makowski (Marquette), George Wesienburg (LaSalle), Dorothy Loeb, Beatrice Braidwood, G. Werveke and Nouart Seron. The mural is described and illustrated in Chicago Record-Herald, 6/26/1910 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, vol. 26. The work is illustrated in Mary Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.101. Mary Gray gives a different title to the work by Gordon Stevenson than that which was originally given. However, it is much more evident the landing is at Jamestown than that of “Pilgrims.” It is unknown how Gray arrived at the change in original title. She also fails to credit Ms. Seron and Messrs. Makowski and Wesienburg for their work.

ivThe convention was held in Chicago June 20-24. Information taken from www.eBay.com item 321771862258. See also Walden’s Stationer and Printer, 6/25/1915, Vol. XXXVIII, No.5, p.14.

vAgnes Gertrude Richards, “The Palette and Chisel Club Exhibit,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 34, May 1916, p.236.

viEleanor Jewett, “Art School to Be Reorganized Into Three Sections,” Chicago Tribune, 9/4/1918, p12.

viiHe was a director of the corporation that privately owned the school and property. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Architecture,” Chicago Tribune, 6/19/1921, p.G5.

viiiThe work is illustrated in A Guide to Chicago’s Murals, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), p.109.

ix“Ruth Ford Succeeds Werntz,” Chicago Daily News, 10/16/1937, Art, Antiques and the Artists section, p.24. See also: “Chicago’s New Head,” Art Digest, Vol. 12, 11/1/1937, p.29.

x“Spare Time Classes in Art Open Oct. 12,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 9/24/1929, p.11.

xiHe initially taught poster design. “New Poster Class,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/3/1931, p.4.

xii“Art Notes,” Chicago Tribune, 1/25/1925, p.H4

xiii“Five Artists Picked,” Chicago Record-Herald, 4/29/1910 in Art Institute of Chicago Scrapbooks, vol. 26. He was among ten competitors for the prize from the United States.

xivBulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, Vol. 8, No. 1, July 1914, p.7.

xv“Evanston Art Awards,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 3/31/1931, p.2.

xviLouise James Bargelt, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 6/24/1917, p.C7.

xviiLouise James Bargelt, “Thrills of War Animate Posters Hung at Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 7/3/1917, p.15.

xviiiLouise James Bargelt, “Art,” Chicago Tribune, 12/16/1917, p.C8.

xixEleanor Jewett, “Town Numbers Several Art Exhibitions,” Chicago Tribune, 8/7/1932, part 8, p.4.

xxEleanor Jewett, “American Artists Hold Annual Show,” Chicago Tribune, 10/20/1929, p.H8.

xxiEleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists: Babcock Vacation Sketches Are Like Refreshing Breeze,” Chicago Tribune, 8/3/1924, p.E3.

xxiiEleanor Jewett, “Adams Portrait Exhibition Will End Tomorrow,” Chicago Tribune, 11/23/1934, p.27.

xxiiiThe work The Golden Pheasant is unlocated. It was discussed in Eleanor Jewett, “Local Art Boomed; Commission Makes Annual Purchases,” Chicago Tribune, 12/30/1918, p.12.