Lawton S. Parker (1868-1954): Parts 1 & 2

Part 2:

Traveling as frequently as he did between school terms, he commented, “As much as I like Chicago, I am not prepared to settle down just yet, though I have promised to return here next December. Art conditions in the West are far from discouraging.” [1] Students remarked he was a “first rate teacher,” critic Edward Holden said he was an “important factor in art instruction.” [2] Parker went to France for the summer where he found pleasant weather just off the Brittany coast in Pont-Aven, [3] and visited Holland. [4] We know from the diary and unpublished book by Medora Clark that Parker, Alson Clark, Frieseke and Guy Rose traveled through Brittany that summer as well. [5] Parker took time to visit other Chicagoans in the area including the wealthy Mrs. E. J. Martyn who had come to Brittany for the art instruction and encouragement of her daughter Hazel. [6]

Upon his return from France in December 1903, [7] he was given a reception at an Academy housewarming. They had recently moved to new quarters and taken 14,000 square feet to have enough space to meet demand of new incoming students. [8] During the winter term he again gave criticisms to the advanced students. [9] Always in demand for a comment on art education, Parker was quoted as saying, “One of the essential things in an artist is the ability to make a pleasing arrangement.” While stating the obvious, he was trying to comment on the importance of both composition and technique. [10]

In January, the annual exhibition of Chicago artists opened at the Art Institute. Parker had returned to Chicago to complete his important portrait of Martin Ryerson [11] for the University of Chicago. The piece was lent to the exhibition by trustee Charles Hutchinson. Critic Lena McCauley, said the piece “dominated” the main gallery, with its “place of honor” on the West wall. [12] Director French considered lending a photograph of it to the magazine World To-Day to illustrate an article by Will Low on the Art Institute. [13]

Parker’s spent a disappointingly short time in Chicago as he was called to New York to take charge of Francis Luis Mora’s (1874-1940) class at the New York School of Art. Mora was in St. Louis working on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (properly known as the Universal Exposition). [14] There appears to have been some misunderstanding as the students at the Academy in Chicago thought he was to open a class throughout the Winter and Spring, as intimated in an earlier November advertisement. [15] It is probable he stood to earn quite a bit more teaching at the well established New York school than at the newly formed Academy. This time, the newspapers reported, it was the Paris students who anxiously awaited “the coming of Lawton Parker.” Alluding to the success of his school in Paris, he was in an enviable position of triangulating his teaching between three schools and regular portrait commissions. As the critic said, “And yet some say artists have no business qualification.” [16] This prescient comment by Vernon, was a small item on the future of Lawton Parker and his business acumen and later accumulation of money and a life of leisure.

The Universal Exposition, which opened on April 30 in St. Louis, brought Parker a Silver medal, along with his American friends in Paris, Frederick Frieseke, Richard E. Miller (1875-1943), George Charles Aid (1872-1938), Henry Salem Hubbell (1870-1949) and Alfred Henry Maurer (1868-1932). Three of Parker’s works were accepted including his portrait of Ryerson, lent by the University of Chicago. As had become his custom, he left that summer for Paris, [17] and then traveled a bit from there, arriving in Venice where he met up with Alson Skinner Clark, before returning to Paris. [18] The Clarks apartment became a sort of meeting place for several American artists including Parker, Frederick Frieseke, Will Howe Foote (1874-1965) and Eugene Ullman. [19]

By at least February 1905, Parker was again a regular teacher at the Academy in Chicago. [20] He had returned to both teach and complete the increasing flow of portrait commissions. [21] One might make the analogy that he was becoming Chicago’s John Singer Sargent. We surmise he was in Spain during the summer 1905, although his activities there, other than the probable study of works by the great Spanish painter Velázquez, are unknown. [22] He was back in Chicago by August 1905 to “execute commissions for portraits,” although he hadn’t yet located a studio. [23]

In the fall, while working in Chicago, he received another major prize. A Gold Medal at the International Exposition in Munich was awarded his painting Une Anglaise or An English Girl. [24] It had been chosen for the Munich show from among those exhibited at the 1905 Salon Société des Artistes Français where it had been hung in the Gallery of Honor. [25] The image explored in this painting is of a well dressed woman peering in the mirror. [26] Her face is not shown to the viewer except through reflection in the mirror. Author Jean Stern points out the use of this motif by Alson Clark in 1905 with his wife Medora, as the model. Later in 1906, Medora posed of Parker on “several occasions.” A comparison of Parker’s work with Clark’s Les Colliers shows clearly Medora is not the model for the prize-winning picture. [27] Parker gained a significant amount of coverage from this one painting. [28] The painting traveled to numerous venues and was shown as late as September 1919 at the annual American show in the St. Louis Art Museum. Parker obviously enjoyed the fourteen-year run of publicity the painting must have garnered. [29]

Parker was connected well enough in Paris to have the influence of French Minister of Art, Andre Saglio in persuading the Art Institute to allow him control of installation of the exhibition by contemporary French artists. [30] It is more than likely that Parker was the one who selected the works in Paris for the exhibition. [31] The show received favorable reviews in the press, but possibly due to Parker’s influence, director French was less than enthusiastic in his letter to Saglio. [32] Already at odds with Parker and his large influence with the trustees of the museum, the feud between the two influential men would continue to intensify until French’s death in 1914. It is an important indication of Parker’s influence that his introduction of French atelier teaching methods had a large, and almost complete influence upon the Art Institute. [33] In this respect, like it or not, Parker’s influence upon the school which William French guided, would be long lasting. [34]

The final written confirmation of the severing of relations between French and Parker came as Parker was seeking another teaching position at the school:

“I ought, perhaps, in honesty to say that I am not willing, for the present, to have you connected with our school. Whether the troubles we had before were intentional on your part or unintentional, there would be risk of their recurrence, and that risk I think I should be foolish to incur. I would never be guilty of endeavoring to injure you in any way, but it appears to me too much to ask that you should be engaged as a teacher in the school again.” [35]

We do not know exactly what these “troubles” were. There was never a mention in the Press and a thorough search of French’s correspondence added no light. French believed Parker was pushing to be named general director of the Art Institute and would use his teaching position to achieve this in lock step fashion. [36] French had been on the job for some thirty years and likely would have retained other responsibilities. This clearly put the two at direct odds with each other. They had enjoyed a cordial and active relationship dating back to 1888. A position as head of the country’s largest school and an important museum would certainly secure Parker his much sought-after permanent residence in Chicago.

Following this refusal, he opened a special portraiture class in spring 1906, at the Academy. [37] His importance to that school was such that his name was listed first in its advertisements among the fifteen other teachers. [38] As was his norm, he left for the summer, this time for Spain, then most likely back to Paris. [39]

Several contemporary sources have put Parker’s appearance in Giverny sometime between 1902 and the summer 1906. [40] It seems probable that the latest date is the earliest he arrived as it would be fours years after 1906, when he first exhibited works showing the new light motif. It is more likely he arrived in Giverny somewhere between 1908 and 1910. Also, he was in Spain during the summer 1906. “Giverny is a quaint little peasant village an hour out of Paris. The houses are all on one road, with a great hill, very decoratively laid out in small fields, banking one side of the road, and the beautiful country of Eure, through which flows the Seine, on the other.” [41] The Giverny experience must have made Parker think long and hard. Never one given to rash acts, always thoughtful and concerned about the business implications of his work, he must have experimented and experimented further, until he felt safe in exhibiting canvases with this new color palette. This brand of American Impressionism, painting in the out-of-doors in bright Plein-air sunlight, was far, far removed from his primarily portrait work with models indoors under indirect light.

Back in Chicago again by fall 1906, Parker was hard at work on portrait commissions in new quarters at the Tree Studios. [42] “The difference between a successful and unsuccessful portrait is that one renders character and the other is a mere map of features...,” expounded Parker. He continued that by painting his subjects in their own home, not holding any specific pose, he could grasp characteristics which he could then blend into a portrait. [43] The natural light of their home was where their friends were accustomed to seeing them, not in the “strong studio light.” Parker described the intricate process of painting all canvases first in shades gray before the portrait was begun, and grounding paints so female skin would be fine and painting thin pigment diluted to a glaze. He found it “safest to paint first in tempera then lightly glaze with oils,” all to prevent the dulling of colors over time. This method was his solution to premier coup, or the French method which tends to darken, of painting directly upon the white canvas. In summary, the artist had to both be a keen observer of character and wise to the use of his tools and chemicals and paints. [44] One would think Whistler had a strong effect upon Lawton Parker. Portrait commissions continued to come, and he seemed to have developed a penchant for “university men.” [45]

When William French wrote to Parker about whether The English Girl should be in competition for awards at the Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago January 1907, he was as detached as possible. [46] French was trying to imply Parker had asked the painting not to be considered for prize competition, which seems unlikely. The painting garnered a significant amount of press coverage when it was give a “place of honor” in the largest gallery. [47] One article noted it was “Among the works most discussed by the jurors…” [48] Another noted at $2,000, it was the highest priced work in the exhibition. [49] In an evening of burlesque by students of the Art Institute to raise funds for a Mardi Gras float, a caricature of the painting was “knocked down for 25 cents.” [50] Despite the request by Parker regarding competition, the Chicago Society of Artists voted the painting its highest honor. Parker was the fourth artist awarded the annual silver medal by the organization which was in control of the most important art activities in Chicago. [51]

Another notable portrait was recognized in the newspapers. Most likely written by regular art critic Lena M. McCauley, the subject was a successful interpretation of Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson. Parker’s earlier portrait of Mr. Ryerson was shown at the Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists show in 1904 and Salon Société des Artistes Français in 1905. At the Fall 1907 exhibition of American artists, he won the Martin B. Cahn prize for the best work by a Chicagoan for his portrait of Mr. Ryerson. [52] The husband-and-wife piece was the result of his integration of Mrs. Ryerson with her husband, a subject Parker knew extremely well. His familiarity with the subjects must have been the impetus for a fine work. Seen at Thurber Gallery, McCauley said of the piece it, “…exhibit s the maturity of Mr. Parker’s art.” She used phrases such as “strength” and “dignity” to describe the likeness with “an element of repose and beauty.” [53]

It was clear Parker was now planing to continue shuttling between Paris and Chicago now that a permanent position was not available in his favored city. To benefit this arrangement, he proposed the Franco-American Art Committee. The purpose of the committee was to promote the exhibition and sale of French artists’ works in the United States. Parker had his taste of the possible success the prior year at the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture where his French selections were accorded a small gallery. The Art Institute trustees had been aggressive and avid collectors of French art, something which is reflected today in the strength of the museum collection. Other members of the committee included Art Institute of Chicago trustee and chairman Charles L. Hutchinson, trustee Stanley McCormick of the powerful McCormick family in Chicago and wealthy industrialist and retired businessman painter Frederic Clay Bartlett. [54] It is unclear why Parker pushed the formation and promotion of the organization, ever the businessman, it is possible he saw an opportunity to represent sales in this country. [55]

In October 1907, Parker reportedly left Chicago for Philadelphia ostensibly to join William Merritt Chase for the winter. [56] However, it is likely the reporter was slightly misinformed as Chase was in New York and only commuted to Philadelphia once a week to teach at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. By November, it is confirmed he was in New York, and Newton H. Carpenter of the Art Institute was questioning his residency. Carpenter quoted “some of the artists” who said, “you told them you were leaving the city for good.” [57] But a newspaper account said, “Mr. Parker himself, however, declares he is a Chicago man… He, however, considered this his headquarters and home, and even now that he is engaged in teaching with Chase in New York, retains a studio here, and expects to return.” [58] He finished his portrait of then deceased Nelson Morris from studies made earlier in the Spring. One critic commented, “Even the hands are expressive.” [59]

Parker’s address for the next few years was Paris at 7 Passage Stanislas, oddly enough next to the site of Whistler’s Académie Carmen where he had studied in 1898, at #6. However, he must have been in Chicago to paint the portrait of Norman Waite Harris, which was exhibited in the Fall 1908, Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture. [60] The painting had previously been shown at the Salon Société des Artistes Français. Mr. Harris was a wealthy Chicago banker and the founder of the prize after his name which carried a $500 award at the American show. The papers reported the piece was given Parker’s usual place of honor in the center of the wall. [61] Early the next year he was back in Chicago, most likely to work on more portrait commissions. [62]

An investment in artist studios on the fourth floor of the Beil & Hermant building, 19-21 E. Pearson, encouraged Parker to spend more time in Chicago and less time in Paris. As early as 1902, there had been an overriding demand for more apartment/studios in the city. [63] Carl Beil and Leon Hermant were architectural sculptors who occupied at least the first floor of the building and leased the top fourth floor to Parker. Beil was exceptionally well known as he had been the superintendent of sculpture for the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. “The building is attractive... the upper floor enjoys an unobstructed north light.” [64]

Parker must have been thoroughly impressed by then famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They no doubt met as early as 1895 when Wright built his Oak Park studio on the same block where Charles A. Purcell lived, son-in-law of W. C. Gray, not far from the Gray’s own residence. [65] Wright rarely (a handful) executed interior spaces, and then only for wealthy clients. Wright and Parker probably came into close contact through many avenues, including Wright’s 1907 interior commission for Browne’s bookstore, in the Fine Arts Building. Parker had shared a studio in the building with Browne’s brother, Chicago painter Charles Francis Browne, earlier in 1902 and had also spent considerable time there conducting classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. [66] The earliest plans are dated May 24, 1908. Subsequent plans show a sophisticated two-level studio and living space with much of the beauty of Wright’s Prairie School architecture. [67]

Parker took one of the upper studios and gave the other to Wellington Jarard Reynolds (1866-1949), who only stayed one year. [68] Remaining units were rented to other artists. The units consisted both of a studio and living quarters, like the popular Tree Studio Building nearby which housed a thriving artist colony. [69]

“Mr. Parker lives in an interesting and unusual studio in Pearson street. The interior is most ingeniously divided and subdivided so that Mr. Parker has a collection of seven or eight different rooms or cells clustering about his fair sized studio. [70]

He attracted wealthy society women, who were painters and his private students, to rent space, including Mrs. John Alden Carpenter Rue Winterbotham [71] (c.1880-1931), [72] Mrs. Cecil Clark Davis (1877-1955), [73] Mrs. (Marshall) Virginia Keep Clark (1878-1962), and Mrs. (Arthur) Emily Maria Borie Ryerson (1863-1939). [74] Others who took space in the studio building were music critic James Whittaker, Mrs. George Kretzinger and her artist daughter Clara (1883-after 1940), painter Martha Susan Baker (1871-1911 ), Poetry Magazine staff member Eunice Tietjens (1884-1944), artist Raymond Jonson (1891-1981), [75] artist Grace Hickox Harrison (dates unknown), [76] sculptress Nancy Cox McCormack Cushman (1885-1967), [77] Art Institute professor and friend from Giverny Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952) [78] and head of decorative design at the Art Institute, Louis J. Millet (1856-1923).

Buher and Parker had been friends for many years from Chicago. Buehr rented from Parker in Giverny and the two of them painted the same models and in one known instance, Le dejeuner sur l’herbe, by Buehr and Midsummer Idyll by Parker, painted almost identical pictures of a woman seated at picnic in the grass with her tea set and parasol. [79]

The proximity gave these society women ample access to Parker’s instruction. [80] Mrs. (Robert) Grace Farwell McGann (1868-1949) was also under Parker’s tutelage. Among the wealthiest Chicagoans she and her family lived in the former Farwell mansion at 120 E. Pearson, just down the street, where they used the old ballroom as a studio. [81] An apt description of such increasingly common studios was mentioned in comment on a new studio Mrs. McGann was planning to build:

“The principal feature is the lofty studio with the balcony at one end. The work shop (to give it a homely, practical name) is generally high enough to permit two stories of small rooms to be built back of it for the apparatus of living, the studio being large enough to serve, if necessary, as a living room and dining room…These east and west streets are necessary in order to insure the required north light for the ateliers.” [82]

Throughout 1910, Parker’s usual portraits of important persons were shown, including one of Mrs. Norman Waite Harris, whose husband he had painted two years earlier. [83] Heretofore, this was all he had exhibited; paintings of persons in various stages of quiet meditation, in regal poses or among their favorite possessions at home. The study of Mrs. Harris had been called “one of the best portraits exhibited…of unusual quality.” [84] January, though, brought the first hint of change in Parker’s public exhibition. At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he showed A Modern Eve and Four Leaf Clover; titles evocative of outdoor painting. A March commentary by critic Lena M. McCauley announced the coming of a change in his work. While his portrait of Mrs. Norman W. Harris was to be “accepted as the fulfillment of the artist’s promise in portraiture of former years,” the palette was “not so somber as that of the portrait of Mr. Harris painted earlier.” This and a painting of Miss Potter, “show the advance that Mr. Parker has made in recent times toward a more fluent expression.” [85] The Sunday Record-Herald carried a short note saying Parker was back in town in his new studio building with decorations designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. [86] He had been working the past summer on Plein-air nudes to create a series of outdoor portraits. [87]

April 4, 1910, was a monumental day in the career of Lawton Parker, his one man exhibition, which had been preceded the prior month by that of Karl Anderson (1874-1956), another adherent of the Plein-air nude, opened to rave reviews at the Thurber Art Gallery in Chicago. Displayed there for everyone to see were his canvases bursting with sunshine, pure colors bright and vibrant. Walter Scott Thurber was one of the most progressive people in the Chicago art scene. He started in the art business as a salesman for O’Brien Art Gallery. [88] His gallery space on the top floor of the old Chicago Musical College Building, with its entrance through the Fine Arts Building, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. [89] He used the modern space to exhibit “modern” artists.

Critic McCauley said that since his return, Parker was regaling his patrons with stories of his garden in Giverny, which he shared with Frederick Frieseke. She ably described his activities in France and his garden space:

“Fruit trees and water plants bend over the running water and flowers and shrubs bloom in profusion on the slopes. The small house is used as a shelter, and when portrait painting hours are over in Paris, Mr. Parker hastens to the country, unlocks the little door in the high wall, and, closing it behind him, enters the circles of devotees of plein air.”

“Here his model poses under the trees, or basks in golden sunlight amid the shrubs and flowers. Pure color vibrates in the breezy atmosphere and the painter, unrestrained by studio conventionality or artificial lights, lets the impulse direct his brush with happy results in a gallery of artistic compositions - ‘A Modern Eve,’ ‘A Bather,’ ‘Landscape With Nude’ and studies of landscape and figures.” [90]

In a later article, she lauded Parker because his show marked “an epoch” in what she called a “phase of art.” She wanted other local painters to take note and hastened to add they were slow to move in this new direction. McCauley continued to praise Parker comparing his portrait of Newell Dwight Hillis to Whistler with its “spiritual presence.” [91] Apparently Parker had spent the entire summer in outdoor work, and it showed in his output. [92] He and Frieseke had been working at the same motifs as well, as evidenced by their depiction of a robed figure in a row boat or the same figure along the shore. [93]

The nucleus of a new American school of painting was what the Sunday Record-Herald called it. [94] This group included Guy Rose (1867-1925), Edmund W. Greacen (1877-1949), Richard Miller, Frieseke, Anderson and Parker. [95] While the paper failed to mention Alson Clark, Parker’s friend had made the transition after an extensive trip through Spain with Francis Mora. Clark had exhibited the results of his bright sun-filled intensely colored canvases in March 1910, at Chicago’s O’brien’s gallery. [96]

“The watchword of these young men is life, and light, and humanity. Their language of expression is achieved through the medium of a happy, fleeting vision of things real yet delightfully intangible. Direct contact with the open air is their gospel of inspiration.” [97]

The Thurber catalogue was brief but described the movement as taking a “more rational view of modern impressionism.” [98]

Chicago Tribune critic Harriet Monroe was even more descriptive of the wonder at this new style of painting from Chicago’s most prominent portrait artist:

“These pictures, which are chiefly studies of the nude out of doors, seem to me by far the best work he has ever done. emphasis added They show that he has taken a wonderfully fresh start, and that he is sensitive to the elusive beauty of light, color, atmosphere to a degree which I, for one, never suspected. He has been able to throw off the rather cold formalism, the somewhat labored effect, of what might be called his studio manner, and develop all of a sudden a style as free and spontaneous as the delicate will-o’-the-wisp subjects he has been studying.”

Parker added to the discussion:

“We had a wonderful place to paint. A secluded walled garden more beautiful than Monet’s we thought, because it was more wild; with a rivulet running through it toward the Seine, making two little quite pools shaded by foliage. There we could work all day without fear of intrusion.”

In a very telling description of their technique and discounting many theories that the paintings were constructed completely outdoors, he said: “But we had to keep running back and forth to the house with our canvases because effects which seemed brilliant out in the sun would look black in doors and require change.” [99]

Parker “refused” to call these Plein-air paintings “serious.” [100] Monroe noted he was almost afraid to exhibit them. The deliberate and hard-working Parker would have cause for concern as his small fortune had already been made on society portraits and teaching techniques which were anything but out-of-doors painting. While he may have been in Giverny a few years earlier than summer 1909, he either didn’t paint in this mode or he decided it was time to show the public what he had been up to. It is a matter of interest that Karl Anderson, also a society portrait painter, showed his Giverny work at the same time. Alson Clark had been in Giverny earlier, yet his outdoor work from Spain wasn’t shown until just before Parker’s. Could there have been some very careful planning by the three friends? Had Parker painted these canvases or ones similar over several years and hid them from view? Monroe called for Parker to “forget” about being serious, to be “gay” and predicted if he would how “good it would be for his fame.” [101]

In December, the Madison Art Gallery, New York, [102] opened the exhibit Impressionist landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits by Guy Rose, Frederick C. Frieseke, Lawton S. Parker and Richard Miller. For the first time this group of hard working artists was exhibiting together representing the new school of American Art. Most of the reviews of the show were very favorable with one critic offering, “These men are impressionistic painters of the very best sort. Their work is on a par with the older and better known men.” [103] That they worked together on subject matter was evidenced by In A Garden, a work each of three artists submitted by the same name. [104] Critic Henry McBride offered that should these works be shown at the National Academy it would give a “jolt” to the annual show there and help to cure The Ten of their “chronic anemia.” [105] This show was the culmination of the many activities for Parker that year and marked the turning point of his career. Other contemporary publications have made much of this exhibit and extolled the virtues of the work. The most salient adjectives used by the many critics to describe Parker’s work included: “astonishing progress;” “changed for the better” and “palpitating colors.” [106]

Several scholars have maintained Parker was living at Giverny for somewhat of an extended period. However, the evidence says otherwise. One letter was addressed to him at Giverny, par Vernon, on September 15, 1910, but three months later another was addressed to his Paris address at 7 Passage Stanisla. [107] It is clear from the vast material assembled and from the many exhibition records which required an address that Parker was spending winters in Paris and Chicago and summers in Giverny, possibly going back and forth between the city and the country all summer long. [108] Critic Harriet Monroe had visited him and his friends that summer in Giverny where she commented on the group poking fun at the modernists by taking turns painting works by “Matisse” or “Gauguin” [109] Near this time Parker had sold a work to the wealthy artist William Singer who lent it to the international exhibition in Rome. The painting Breakfast in the Garden (Singerheimen, Olden, Norway) was evocative of Parker’s impressionist spirit at the time. [110] Monroe wrote in June 1911 Parker had been absent Chicago for over a year with his time spent “chiefly in Giverny and Paris.” He was ready to come home, however: “I got thoroughly tired of Paris that winter and hope I may be able to stay a long while now on this side of the water.” [111] The timing for his return from some brand of boredom couldn’t have been better. Parker had become Chicago’s de facto commentator upon the American art scene in France. [112]

It was during this time Parker took a young talented artist under his wing, Louis Ritman (1889-1963). As noted earlier, in the fall 1909, Parker was in Philadelphia with William M. Chase. Ritman studied with Chase there at the same time, probably at the urging of Parker. In early 1910, Ritman was in Paris and by the summer, Parker had invited him to Giverny, gaining quarters for him with a local farmer and lending him his studio and model. Leon Makielski (1885-1974) recounted, “Parker said to me that he is going to see that Ritman makes the mark with his talent.” It is possible Parker advanced the financially strapped Ritman the money for an entirely new set of clothes as Makielski saw him in a “new outfit from head to foot” wearing a “smile you never saw before.” [113] Under Parker’s influence, Ritman would soon become another member of the Giverny group and a noted success in Chicago. An account of Ritman’s ascendancy was written by critic Harriet Monroe:

“Mr. Parker speaks with great interest of two young students from Chicago, who this year make their debut at the Old Salon. Louis Ritman, who is still under 20, was born in the Ghetto of Russian Jewish parents, and began his artistic career as a sign painter. He saved up money enough to take lessons at the Chicago Fine Arts academy, where he won some prizes, and began to paint portraits for a few dollars a head. The chance advice of an instructor caused him to risk starvation by going to Paris, where clever work in making copies, portraits, etc., has enabled him to subsist while he painted a more ambitious picture of two women at their toilet. This was accepted for the Salon, where it now hangs on the line, balancing one by Harrington Mann, and receives encouraging praise from artists and critics.” [114]

The portrait formula, which worked so well for Parker was not really abandoned, just modified. As this continued to represent a sizeable income, he was not really at liberty to jolt the expectations of his patrons too much. Parker was now also in the real estate business with his studio building. He had much greater cause to remain in Chicago and critic Harriet Monroe, who had seen him in Giverny the summer 1910, [115] said he spent the summer 1911, in the Chicago suburbs, painting outdoors. [116] One painting titled, Salvia, Lake Geneva, indicates he was also at the resort town just north of Chicago in Wisconsin. [117] Lake Geneva was and remains today a place for wealthy Chicagoans to spend their summer lounging by the cool lake and enjoying clement summer evenings.

He exhibited three paintings at the next Art Institute Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture in the fall. One portrait depicted a relatively new motif; the female patron sat in a large chair while she leaned across one arm. The blending of whites lent a rich, low tone to the dress of the sitter one might imagine again any number of Whistler portraits. [118] During 1911, his works were shown at the Pennsylvania Academy and Carnegie annuals and at the Salon Société des Artistes Français, [119] as well as an exhibit of American artists living in Paris at the city’s Devembez Gallery. [120] The exhibit was part of an art exchange between American and French artists, that had its first showing of French works in Chicago in 1905, under the significant influence of Parker. This had been followed in 1908 by another Art Institute of Chicago exhibit featuring six American artists who were resident in France. [121] The press said Parker was one of two “permanent” members of the selection committee. It’s likely the entire concept was thought up by Parker and no doubt he contemplated some angle to make money at it. Important support for the series was gathered from U. S. Ambassador to France Robert Bacon as well as the French Minister of Art and important French artist Henri Charles Etienne Dujardin-Beaumetz (1852-1913). [122]

The most extraordinary aspect of Parker’s life in the summer of 1911 was that it was spent in Chicago, not France. Parker’s friend, writer Henry Kitchell Webster, held an exhibition of Parker’s works at his large home in Evanston where the event was news for local society. [123] With this exhibition of Giverny works from the previous two summers it was clear his transformation of style was complete. Critic Harriet Monroe was effusive in her praise of this private exhibition. Exhibits at homes were rarely given any press coverage but apparently this one was difficult to miss. Twenty-two paintings in all were shown: “Most of the pictures are studies of women out of doors in Giverny gardens or verandas or beside pools, lit by dappled sunlight… painted last summer, others the summer before, when Mr. Parker first fell in with Richard Miller, Frederick Frieseke, and other Americans of the plein air school who use the little French village as their summer headquarters… Never did a painter effect a more complete revolution in style, nor with happier results. Giverny taught Mr. Parker to throw away the heavy and somber secondary tones…The result is a series of fresh, clear, finely inspired pictures…The exhibition…is one of the most important offered here by any Chicago painter and an amazing advance over his previous work. [124]

The summer stay lasted through the winter, which was filled with some society activities, including a fantastic benefit pageant where Parker played a role as part of the English Group. [125] As the winter melted away, the most important local exhibition of his career was about to open. His one man show at the Art Institute was heralded with the headline, “Parker Paintings Catch Glint of Summer. Sunshiny Canvases Now at the Art Institute,” and opened to strong reviews on March 5, 1912. [126] Parker announced his own works by saying in the subheading:

“I Paint in the Vast Outdoors, in the Mists and in the Shadows.” [127]

About his fresh approach Parker went on to say in the newspaper:

“I love morning, noon and evening, and I paint these moods of nature. I respond to the rising light of the forenoon, to the glory of the sunshine at high noon, to the declining light of the afternoon. Light and sunshine give to foliage corresponding notes of beauty. No artist would dare to paint the true vividness of foliage when bathed in an effulgence of sunshine; such a venture would be termed grotesque and spectacular. Being an artist endowed with prudence, I do not impart the climax of vividness that sunshine gives to leaf and flower.” [128]

His works were hung in one gallery and those of Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925) were hung in an adjoining space. Parker showed both “forceful” portraits and paintings depicting women outdoors at tea tables, lounging nude among the foliage or dressed in summer attire. Critic Harriet Monroe said of the group, “…the sunshine and shadows seem to ripple and shimmer like a running brook…” [129] Lena McCauley said that if a Winter weary art student would go into the gallery “his sensations would be stimulated to fresh enjoyment and his ideas startled…” with a “thought provoking experience.” [130] She waxed poetically about how paintings could touch one’s soul and wove into her critiques references to Liszt and Bach; how the subjects were revelations of beauty. Harriet Monroe spoke of a “deeper motive than beauty” in his mind. [131]

The people of Chicago had just recently been exposed to this brilliant brand of American impressionism. So much of it was new there was a search for the inner depths of the artist who carried so much beauty and vitality to the public. The impact on the press was whole, completely they were taken by these paintings and creator and would continue to bring them forth for years until it became exactly what they expected. This exhibition was the culmination of an introduction of new subjects, new thought, and new spirit to Chicagoans. The critics constantly reminded the public of Parker’s academic training and great skill in pointing to the success at which he carried off these new canvases. His work could be more readily accepted by the public, despite that he painted what he saw, for as the catalogue said:

“The canvases make a refreshing contrast to much of the modern impressionistic work in their sanity, their moderation and their admirable draughtsmanship, while they full equal, if they do not actually excel their rivals in the amount of illumination gained.” [132]

The only other record of his works exhibited in 1912 was at the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Institute and the Brooklyn Art Association in a loan exhibit.

He traveled to the artist colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut that summer, at the possible invitation of Metcalf, who he undoubtedly knew from Giverny and came in contact with again while their works were given space at the Art Institute. [133] Parker then traveled on to Giverny to work the remainder of the year and through the winter with Frieseke in their shared garden. [134] It is possible at this time he painted portraits of his garden mate. Two known works exist of Frieseke by the hand of Parker, one of which was used as the entry requirement for Frieseke’s induction into the National Academy of Design. [135] Their coterie of artists made a habit of sitting for each other. [136] The weather was apparently unseasonably rainy and he was forced to spend considerable time indoors at the adjoining house and his Paris studio. [137] There he worked on the most important painting of his career. One which took him four and a half months to complete, on which he labored by scraping off and painting repeatedly until he was satisfied. [138]

 [1] Op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 5/23/1903, p.14.

 [2] Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 6/14/1903, Part 5, p.39.

 [3] “Fall Comes in Paris,” Chicago Tribune, 9/13/1903, p.13. The port town is located 9 km inland on the Aven River.

 [4] Op. cit., The Sketch Book, September 1903, p.28, the article saying he went directly from Holland to Paris. In R. H. Love’s Louis Ritman, From Chicago to Giverny, (Chicago: Hasse-Mumm, 1989), p.87, he states, unfortunately without documentation, “During the summer of 1903, Parker devoted much time to painting in Holland. He also went to Giverny, where he stayed briefly before leaving with Guy Rose, Alson Skinner Clark, and Frederick Frieseke on a painting trip to Brittany.” Mary Louis Kane implies Parker arrived first in 1906, in op. cit., A Bright Oasis, The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, p.26. It is doubtful either are correct as discussed later.

 [5] Gean Stern, Alson S. Clark, (Los Angeles: Petersen Publishing Company, 1983), p.16.

 [6]“Wins Fame In Art: Hazel Martyn of Chicago Applauded by Foreign Critics,” Chicago Tribune, 10/25/1903, p.1.

 [7]He arrived in the U. S. on 11/28/1903, having departed from Southampton, England. Passenger Record, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

 [8]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 8/29/1903, p.8. The article also mentioned he needed to continue work on local portrait commissions.

 [9] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 12/12/1903, p.10. An advertisement in the Sketch Book announced he was leaving Paris in November to carry on portrait commissions and instruct classes. Advertisement, Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 3, November 1903, p.4A.

 [10] “In The Field Of Art: Art’s Demands,” Chicago Tribune, 1/3/1904, Part 4, p.30.

 [11]The Sketch Book, Vol. III, No. 4, December 1903, p.123. He was also working on a portrait of Miss Hazel Martyn. “Hazel Martyn was the daughter of a Chicago industrialist of Irish descent. In 1904, she was on holiday in Brittany, where she met British artist John Lavery, thirty years her senior, who had been a widower since 1891. Hazel was engaged to a Canadian doctor (Trudeau), who died shortly after their marriage; and, in 1910, she married John, becoming Lady Lavery in 1918 when he received his knighthood.” Quoted from www.findagrave.com. 

 [12] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/30/1904, p.8.

 [13] Letter to Charles L. Hutchinson from French, French letter archives, 1/25/1904, p.823.

 [14] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/6/1904, p.10. Mora was in St. Louis working on the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. See also: “New York School Of Art,” The Sketch Book, Vol. 3, No. 5, January 1904, p.143.

 [15] Op. cit., Advertisement, Sketch Book, November 1903, p.4A.

 [16] Op. cit., Vernon, Chicago American, 2/14/1904, pp.8, 14.

 [17] His works Portrait Mlle. Wilder #1383 and Portrait Mme. Shreve-Badger #1384 appeared in the 1904 Salon Société des Artistes Français.

 [18] Jean Stern, “Alson Clark,” California Light 1900-1930, (Laguna Beach: Laguna Art Museum, 1990), p.117.

 [19] op. cit., Stern, California Light 1900-1930, p.117.

 [20] Carol Aus student record, Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, February through May, 1905, IHAP Library.

 [21] James W. Pattison, “Chicago Artists Are Keeping Busy,” Chicago Daily Journal, 9/16/1905, p.8. The article said he and some other artists (most likely Alson Clark) from Paris would locate in Chicago and that he was working nominally from the Tree Studio building. “Mr. Parker paints chiefly at the residences of his patrons, in order to secure the atmosphere and environment.” At this point, Parker had taken residence in Evanston, just north of Chicago, which would have been located close to his patrons on the North Shore.

 [22] Maude I. G. Oliver, “Gossip of the Artists,” Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 6/8/1913 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 30, col. 1, p.125. He had almost claimed a second-class medal at the Salon Société des Artistes Français with his painting English Girl, executed c.1905, but he had traveled to Spain instead of remaining in Paris to champion his own cause.

 [23] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 8/12/1905, p.7.

 [24] “Lawton Parker,” Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 10/15/1905, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 21, col. 2, p.87. His picture is illustrated with the article. She was identified as “Miss Mabel Gains” Gaines, in Bulletin Of The Art Institute Of Chicago, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1912, frontice. Apparently, Alfred H. Maurer also won a gold medal at the same exhibit.

 [25] “American Works in Salon,” New York Times, 4/29/1905. “Two Paintings Shown At Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 1/30/1907, illustration, p.3. The German government had offered to purchase the work. Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 22, col. 2, p.84. Parker knew it was a masterpiece and it is certain expected to benefit more from exhibiting it around the United States than selling it. The work had been exhibited at the 1905 Salon Société des Artistes Français, #1450. Nicholas Kilmer, “Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography,” in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001) incorrectly states Frieseke won the Gold Medal in 1905 on p.31; however, Frieseke won the Gold Medal at the same exhibition in 1904.

 [26] Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906. The work was hung in the gallery of honor in Paris. “American Works In Salon,” New York Times, 4/29/1905.

 [27] Op. cit., Stern, California Light 1900-1930, pp.117-122 and illustrations 116, 121, 122. Parker’s painting is owned by the city of Kearney, Nebraska.

 [28] In January 1906, it was invited to the annual exhibit at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; May 1906, invited to the American annual at the Cincinnati Art Museum; January 1907 saw it return to Chicago for the Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists at the Art Institute where it helped Parker win the Chicago Society of Artists highest annual award, the Silver Medal. In April 1907, the painting garnered an Honorable Mention at the annual exhibit of the Carnegie Institute: “Paintings Awarded Carnegie Prizes At Pittsburgh Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 4/12/1907, p.3. In December 1907, the painting was shown at the winter exhibit of the National Academy of Design. The painting seemed to follow the artist around. It was exhibited at the portrait show for the benefit of Passavant Hospital at the Art Institute in 1910 and then directly afterward when his one man exhibition opened at Thurber’s galley in Chicago.

 [29]In 1921, the Kearney library board inquired about purchasing one of his paintings. Parker instead made the gift of this valuable painting to the library to be hung “In memory of my father and mother who loved the Home Town and all associated with its early history from the time they settled on the farm…” Quoted from op. cit., Freeman essay, p.10. A slightly different version of the quotation, with the same meaning, appears in Margaret Stines Nielsen, “Looking Back On Kearney’s Anniversaries,” Buffalo Tales, Buffalo County Historical Society, Vol. 21, No. 1, Jan.-Feb. 1998, p.5. The work now hangs in the Museum of Nebraska Art. In 1914, it was shown at the summer exhibit of the Chicago Society of Artists at the Art Institute and in 1915, it was exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In 1918, the painting appeared at the Detroit Museum of Art for the annual American exhibition.

 [30]See the exhibition catalogue Paintings of Contemporary French Artists, at the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago. The show opened 10/19/1905.

 [31] “Art Exhibits In Chicago,” New York Herald, 10/29/1905 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 21, col. 3, p.97: “… are represented by works chosen from the Paris exhibitions of last season by a special representative of the Institute.” The reporter said other critics pronounced them “a revelation.”

 [32] Letter to Andre Saglio, Ministere des Beaux-Arts, from French, French letter archives, 10/23/1905, p.234.

 [33] This influence is very clear in, Letter to Mr. Frederick H. C. Sammons from French, French letter archives, 8/28/1906, p.405. “Mr. Parker has the ear of the people most influential in the Art Institute…”

 [34] Letter to Professor E. Woodward, Newcomb College, from French, French letter archives, 1026/1905, p.254.

 [35] Letter to Parker from French, French letter archives, 2/8/1906, p.647.

 [36] Letter to Miss C. Caroline D. Dupee Wade from French, French letter archives, 10/26/1906, p.751.

 [37] “Educational,” advertisement, Chicago Tribune, 3/1/1906, p.7. Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-Herald 3/18/1906. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/3/1906, p.9. He did not teach again in 1907, as noted in the Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/29/1907, p.10, although he judged a scholarship contest for the school that year. One author has said he later became president of the Academy in 1915, however, no evidence of this can be found and the commentary, unfortunately, does not carry a footnote, see: Richard H. Love, The Paintings of Louis Ritman (1889-1963), (Chicago: Signature Galleries, 1975), p.208.

 [38] Artists’ Blue Book of Chicago, (Chicago: S. R. Winchell, 1906), p.12.

 [39] Op. cit., Sunday Record-Herald 3/18/1906. Op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 3/3/1906, p.9. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/10/1906, p.5.

 [40] No published sources offer footnotes for substantiation of his arrival in Giverny. The author has contacted many of these authors and each has confirmed they are not sure of the date. Mary Louise Kane states that Guy Rose purchased a cottage at Giverny in 1904, Frederick Frieseke was there by 1905, and Parker arrived in 1906. Op. cit., A Bright Oasis, The Paintings of Richard E. Miller, p.26. Frieseke’s grandson says that his grandfather arrived in 1900. Nicholas Kilmer, A Retrospective Exhibition Of The Work Of F. C. Frieseke, (San Francisco: Maxwell Galleries, 1982), p.14. Ilene Susan Fort recounts Parker was there first in 1904, to paint the model outdoors. “The Cosmopolitan Guy Rose,” op. cit., California Light 1900-1930, p.97. Richard H. Love gives his arrival in Giverny at 1903. Op. cit., Louis Ritman, From Chicago to Giverny, p.87. William H. Gerdts relates that Parker had settled in Giverny in 1903. Monet’s Giverny: An Impressionist Colony, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p.179. David Sellin states he arrived in Giverny “around 1902.” Americans in Brittany and Normandy 1860-1910, (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1982), p.220. Sellin later incorrectly states (confirmed by Sellin) that Parker purchased a house in Giverny: David Sellin, “Frieseke in Le Pouldu and Giverny…,” Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.78. Meredith Martindale said he was there in 1906. Lilla Cabot Perry: An American Impressionist, (Washington, DC: The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990), p.65. Helen Schretlen states he arrived in 1902, “The William & Anna Singer Collection,” American Art Review, Vol. XIX, No. 1, 2007, p.101. Most reliably, though, is George Breed Zug’s account in 1915: “Always a student… Parker could not rest content… and hence his move a few years ago to Giverny…” Op. cit., International Studio, December 1915, p.42. A “few” means four or five years at most, not ten.

 [41] Karl Anderson, “Anderson’s Impressions,” The Bellman, Vol. VIII, No. 190, Minneapolis, March 5, 1910, p.292.

 [42] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/19/1907, p.11. He was expected to remain in Chicago through the spring and had let his studio in Paris to fellow artist Harriet Blackstone. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/23/1907, p.5.

 [43] Perhaps the portrait he painted of architect Louis Sullivan was one such figure piece. Parker later offered to donate the portrait to a hall of fame for architects. “Plan ‘Hall Of Fame’ For Chicago Architects,” Chicago Tribune, 6/9/1915, p.6.

 [44] Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/2/1906.

 [45] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 11/17/1906, p.12. His portrait of Henry Pratt Judson of the University of Chicago was hung in Thurber’s Art Gallery and had achieved positive remarks from all “that have visited it.”

 [46] Letter to Lawton Parker from William French, French letter archives, 12/7/1906 – 8/2/1907, no date, p.350.

 [47]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 2/2/1907, p.7.

 [48] Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 1/29/1907, p.3.

 [49] “Art Exhibit To Open,” Chicago Record-Herald, 1/29/1907, p.3.

 [50] “Art Students Use Novel Plan to Raise ‘Mardi Gras’ Fund,” Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1907, p.5.

 [51] The prize was offered from 1903 to 1925, twenty-three times. Two prize winners moved from Illinois and five were sculptors. Of the remaining prize winners, ten are featured in this book with essays. It was announced as the “gold medal” in op. cit., McCauley, Chicago Evening Post, 2/23/1907, p.5.

 [52] The prize piece was illustrated in the regular news, not in the art sections, by the Chicago Daily News, 11/18/1907, p.4, and Chicago Tribune, 11/20/1907, p.5.

 [53] Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/13/1907, p.7.

 [54] Bartlett would later donate the now famous work by Georges Seraut’s, Un dimanche après-midi à l’île de la Grande Jatte, among other noted French masterpieces.

 [55] Letter to J. H. Gest from Lawton Parker, Cincinnati Art Museum Archives, 5/7/1907 and 5/21/1907.

 [56] Lena M. McCauley, “Art,” Chicago Evening Post, 10/5/1907, p.7.

 [57] Letter to Lawton Parker from Carpenter, French letter archives, 11/6/1907, p.609.

 [58] Isabel McDougall, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 11/24/1907 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 23, col. 3, p.106. Director French was apparently one of those pushing for Parker to declare himself not a Chicagoan. In his letter to Adam Albright, regarding the same residency issue with Louis Betts, he claims “Parker was blamed” for taking a prize reserved for Chicago artists and continues to discuss Betts standing as a Chicago artist. Betts had removed his works from competition and didn’t show at the 1908 Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists where Albright was a juror. Letter to Albright from French, French letter archives, 1/30/1909, p.279.

 [59] Isabel McDougall, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 12/8/1907 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 23, col. 4, p.110. Nelson Morris (1838-1907) was the protégé of John B. Sherman, founder of the Chicago Union Stock Yards. Morris became the leading live-cattle trader in the country and the largest cattle feeder and processor in the world.

 [60] That he had been in France is confirmed the fact he arrived in the U. S. from Cherbourg, France on 11/29/1908. Passenger Record, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc.

 [61] “Annual Art Exhibit Ready,” Chicago Tribune, 10/20/1908, p.3. Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 10/24/1908, p.4. Harris founded the Harris Trust and Savings Bank, one of Chicago’s largest banks, and was one of the city’s wealthiest men.

 [62]Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 1/16/1909, p.4.

 [63]“Artists Desire A Home,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/9/1902, p.5.

 [64] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/26/1909, p.6. A small site plan of the building may be found in Insurance Maps of Chicago, (NY: Sanborn Map Co., 1910), Vol. 2, Reel 11, p.121, Chicago Public Library. The building no longer stands.

 [65] Op. cit., Hammons, “Biographical Notes: William Cunningham Gray (1830-1901),” 1985

 [66] For details on interior works by Wright see: “Interiors By Wright,” Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 4, Fall 1993, pp.10-13. Wright would later work on two commissions in the Fine Arts Building, W. Scott Thurber Gallery (1909), where Parker opened his one-man show in Chicago in 1910, and the Mori Oriental Art Studio (1914). An image of the Thurber Gallery is found in Elia W. Peattie, “The Fine Arts Building In Chicago,” International Studio, Vol. 43, April 1911, p.XLVI.

 [67]Project plans numbered 0923.001, 0923.002 and 0923.003 were provided to the author for study review by Penny Fowler of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. On 9/22/1909, Wright entered a contract with Hermann Von Holst to complete Wright’s work while he was to travel in Europe. A list of works under construction, in hand and probable, does not show the Parker studios which confirms earlier newspaper accounts that the project was finished around June 1909. Anthony Alofsin, Frank Lloyd Wright The Lost years, 1910-1912, A Study Of Influence, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp.27-28, 311-312. Source courtesy of Penny Fowler. In exhibition catalogues from the Art Institute of Chicago Parker listed his address as 19 E. Pearson from 1910 to 1916.

 [68] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/26/1909, p.6. Reynolds (1869-1949) had been one of the first teachers with Parker at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and later was a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago. Reynolds was also Louis Ritman’s most important instructor at both schools. This connection would later become important as Parker supported Ritman’s work. Parker also leased space to Chicago and Taos artist Walter Ufer, who is featured in this book with an extensive essay by Dr. Dean Porter. Stephen L. Good, “Walter Ufer (1876-1936), Munich to Taos, 1913-1918”, Pioneer Artists of Taos, (Denver: Old West Publishing, 1983), p.113. Mr. Good leaves the rest of the arrangement unclear. Ufer’s address after 1913, ceased to be on Pearson Street.

 [69] Tree Studios exists today at 4 East Ohio Street, though it has undergone significant renovation. Parker was resident at the studios in 1907 as witnessed by his address in Catalogue of the Twentieth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 10/22/1907), p.38.

 [70]Mme. X, “News Of The Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 6/8/1913, p.H2.

 [71]“Mrs. John Alden Carpenter Dies,” Chicago Tribune, 12/8/1931, p.1.

 [72]“In the World of Society: Mrs. John Alden Carpenter Opens Art Studio for Winter,” Chicago Tribune, 10/27/1909, p.11. She was the former Rue Winterbotham of one of Chicago’s most elite families. He and Mrs. Carpenter would later go on to organize the Arts Club of Chicago.

 [73]She was the first wife of wealthy Richard Harding Davis.

 [74]Several of these women were noted as socially prominent in “Art Institute Exhibit Causes Veritable Crush,” Chicago Tribune, 11/15/1913, p.10. In fact, Parker himself was noted a member of this society in the article. Clark later moved to the Tree Studio building in 1914. She had been divorced from her husband Richard Harding Davis around 1910. Addresses for artists are found in the various exhibition catalogues of the Art Institute. A compilation may be found in Peter Hastings Falk, editor, Art Institute of Chicago, The Annual Exhibition Record, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990). Mrs. Ryerson’s and Davis’s studios are noted in “Gay New Year’s Day for North Side Society,” Chicago Tribune, 1/2/1914, p.15. Mr. Ryerson was lost on the Titanic after giving his life vest to their maid.

 [75]Letter to Birger Sandzen from Raymond Johnson, 5/3/1917, Birger Sandzen Gallery Archives.

 [76]Op. cit., Letter to Alice Gerstenberg from Nancy Cox-McCormack, Spring 1951, pp.38-39.

 [77]McCormack researcher Nancy S. Weyant, Andruss Library, Bloomsburg University has located a letter from McCormack stating she and Lawton Parker later 1915 visited Wright’s home in Wisconsin, Taliesin, where Parker painted her sitting under an apple tree; two years later McCormack completed a bas-relief of Parker.

 [78]Letter to Karl Buehr from Faye Williams Young, c.1920.

 [79]Buehr was also close friends of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hubbell. Letter to William H. Gerdts from Mary Smart, 8/26/1991, p.5, IHAP Library. Smart’s information is compiled from the papers of Mary and Frederick MacMonnies. Smart authored A Flight with Fame, The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937), With a Catalogue Raisonne of Sculpture, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1996). Parker installed a press at the house and was then engaged by Mary C. Wheeler to teach printmaking. David Sellin, “Frieseke in Le Pouldu and Giverny: The Black Gang and the Giverny Group,” in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.85. Sellin’s information comes from numerous conversations with now deceased Janet Johnston Farr whose father William B. Johnston purchased the house after Buehr had finished renting it. Information on Buehr’s painting came from Eric W. Baumgartner, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, in a letter to Joel S. Dryer, 9/23/1996. Information on Parker’s painting came from Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, where the Parker painting was lot #67, in the 4/23/2015 sale.

 [80] “What Society People Are Doing,” Daily Inter Ocean, 2/4/1914, p.4. In 1917, noted modernist Raymond Jonson, was also resident there. He called his place “The Little Studio.” Letter to Birger Sandzen from Raymond Johnson, 5/3/1917, Birger Sandzen Gallery Archives.

 [81]“News Of The Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 5/4/1913, p.H3. Mme. X, “News Of The Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1913, p.H2. McGann and her friends Mrs. Edward Adams and Miss Julia Thompson painted in the dining room. Mme. X, “News Of The Society World: Portraits Interest Society,” Chicago Tribune, 11/16/1913, p.D2.

 [82]Op. cit., Mme. X, Chicago Tribune, 6/1/1913, p.H2.

 [83] His works were shown at the Art Institute in an important loan exhibition for the Benefit of the Passavant Memorial Hospital. Harriet Monroe, “Many Famous Portraits Will Be Shown in Hospital Benefit Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, 2/27/1910, p.B6, and “Portrait to Be Shown at Art Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1910, p.7, which had an illustration of Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson, published again in “Chicago Society Women As The Portrait Painters See Them,” Chicago Tribune, 2/5/1911, p.9. At the Corcoran Gallery of Art biennial, he showed On The Balcony, presumably an indoor-outdoor scene. And at the Art Institute Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture he showed the portrait of Mrs. Harris. He also exhibited at the Milwaukee Art Society, American annual.

 [84]Fred W. Sandberg, “If Artist Benson Had Not Been on the Jury He Would Have Won a Medal and $1,000,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, 10/23/1910, part 9, p.6.

 [85] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/5/1910, p.6. An example of a more relaxed pose for his sitter Mary Potter Kerr, was illustrated in “Has The Ever – Present Camera Hindered Pen and Ink Artists’ Development,” Chicago Tribune, 6/11/1911, part 8, p.7. The painting was illustrated in the catalogue and in James Spencer Dickerson, “A Western Art Exhibition,” The World To-Day, Vol. 20, January 1911, p.67.

 [86] Wright was then at the height of his powers as a Prairie School architect. He was probably the most sought-after architect in Chicago. Working for almost exclusively wealthy clients, this project would not have been inexpensive. As Parker sought to attract society women who were painters, he probably wanted to create as “rich” a space as possible to lease.

 [87]“Gossip of the Artists,” Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 3/20/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 2, p.67.

 [88]James William Pattison, “The Loss of W. Scott Thurber,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 29, November 1913, p.684, and “Friend of Art and Artists Lost When Veteran Passed,” Chicago Evening Post, 9/26/1913, p.5.

 [89]Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 11/7/1909 in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 25, col. 3, p.126.

 [90] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/2/1910, p.6.

 [91] Lena M. McCauley, “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 4/16/1910, p.8.

 [92]Mildred Giddings Burrage, “Art And Artists At Giverny,” The World To-Day, Vol. 20, March 1911, p.350.

 [93]See for example Misty Morn by Frieseke, illustrated in E. A. Taylor, “The American Colony of Artists in Paris,” International Studio, Vol. 43, No. 172, June 1911, p.270, and Parker’s The Orange Parasol, in the Frigon collection.

 [94] This may have been taken directly from the small catalogue accompanying the exhibit: “The work of this particular group of artists is recognized abroad as rapidly forming an American School…” Paintings by Lawton Parker, (Chicago: Mr. W. Scott Thurber, 4/4/1910), Beloit College archives.

 [95] “Among the Local Galleries,” Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 4/3/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 4, p.76.

 [96] Op. cit., Chicago Evening Post, 3/5/1910, and op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/6/1910, p.7.

 [97] Op. cit., Chicago Sunday Record Herald, 4/3/1910.

 [98] Op. cit., Paintings by Lawton Parker, 4/4/1910.

 [99] “Most Recent Work of Lawton Parker Adds Luster to Fame of This Artist,” Chicago Tribune, 4/3/1910, Part 8, p.10.

 [100] Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 4/10/1910, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 26, col. 1, p.84.

 [101] Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 4/3/1910, Part 8, p.10. Important to note is that her article describes in detail several of the works.

 [102] Located at 305 Madison, the gallery was opened in 1909 by Clara S. Davidge as part of her decorating business. Painter Henry Fitch Taylor, who had been in Giverny in the late 1880s, managed the gallery and considered the work of these Giverny artists to be progressive. For reviews of this exhibition see: Henry McBride, “Seen in the World of Art,” New York Sun, 1/8/1911, Sec. 3, p.4; The New York Herald, “American Painters In ‘Four Man’ Show,” 12/21/1910, p.13; Florence B. Ruthrauff, “Art Notes,” The Morning Telegraph New York, 12/21/1910, p.4c; “News and Notes of Art World,” The New York Times, Magazine Section, Part V, 12/25/1910, p.15. The exhibition closed 1/6/1911.

 [103] Op. cit. Ruthrauff, The Morning Telegraph, 12/21/1910, p.4.

 [104] Op. cit., The New York Herald, 12/21/1910, p.13.

 [105] Op. cit., McBride, New York Sun, 1/8/1911, Sec. 3, p.4. The Ten included such notable artists as Childe Hassam, Frank Weston Benson and William Merritt Chase.

 [106] New York Evening Globe, 12/23/1910 quoted in Paintings By Lawton Parker, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 3/5/1912). An extensive review of the show is found in “News And Notes Of Art World,” New York Times, 12/25/1910. The reviewer was less than kind to Parker’s output.

 [107] Letters to Lawton Parker from French, French letter archives, 9/15/1910, p.116, and 12/19/1910, p.718. In the latter letter French expresses concern that Richard Miller was holding a grudge against the Art Institute for a slight at a previous exhibition.

 [108] Letter to Charles Dahlgreen from Leon Makielski, Archives of American Art, roll 3953, frame 591, 10/16/1910. As previously mentioned, evidence of his sojourns in Giverny cannot be confirmed prior to the summer of 1909. While it is conceivable that he visited there a few times beginning in 1903 or 1904, Parker was always purposeful and would have painted had he stayed any length. He exhibited no pictures of Giverny until 1910, all completed the summer of 1909.

 [109] Harriet Monroe, A Poet’s Life. Seventy Years in a Changing World, (New York: MacMillan Company, 1938), p.224.

 [110]Information courtesy of Helen Marres – Schretien, biographer of the Singers.

 [111]Harriet Monroe, “Chicago Artists Prepare For Interesting Summer Vacations,” Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1911, p.B7.

 [112] A few years later art in France skidded to a halt due to the outbreak of World War I. Parker was already established in his hometown when many American artists were scrambling to return and re-establish themselves

 [113] Op. cit., letter to Dahlgreen from Makielski, 10/16/1910.

 [114]Op. cit., Monroe, Chicago Tribune, 6/4/1911, p.B7.

 [115] Harriet Monroe, “Do We Really Underestimate the American Artists?” “The Giverny Colony,” Chicago Tribune, 5/28/1911, p.B5.

 [116] Harriet Monroe, “Four Art Institute Shows,” Chicago Tribune, 3/5/1912, p.3. Karl Albert Buehr began renting Parker’s studio in Giverny probably beginning in the fall 1911, through at least the fall 1912. Letter to William H. Gerdts from Mary Smart, 8/26/1991, p.5, IHAP Library. Smart’s information is compiled from the papers of Mary and Frederick MacMonnies. Smart authored A Flight with Fame, The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies (1863-1937), With a Catalogue Raisonne of Sculpture, (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1996). Buehr also listed a Giverny address for the Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910 and 1911.

 [117]Op. cit., Paintings By Lawton Parker, 3/5/1912, catalogue entry number 21. We are assuming this is one of the works he exhibited from the previous summer.

 [118] James W. Pattison, “The Annual Exhibition of American Art,” Fine Arts Journal, Vol. 26, January 1912, p.31.

 [119] Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 5/27/1911, p.6. Other artists in Giverny who showed at the salon included Richard Miller and Chicagoans Clara Kretzinger and Pauline Palmer.

 [120] Stacey B. Epstein, Alfred H. Maurer: Aestheticism to Modernism, (NY: Hollis Taggart Galleries, 11/30/1999), p.33.

 [121]Paintings and Sculpture by 6 American Artists Resident in France: H.O. Tanner, Myron Barlow, F.C. Frieseke, H.S. Hubbell, A.H. Maurer and P.W. Bartlett, Art Institute of Chicago, 1/7/1908.

 [122]American Salon In Paris: Artists from United States Contribute Their Works,” Chicago Tribune, 2/19/1911, p.A1.

 [123]“Society, Clubs and Entertainments,” Chicago Tribune, 6/21/1911, p.8. “News Of The Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 6/26/1911.

 [124]Harriet Monroe, “Lawton Parker’s Paintings on Exhibition,” Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1911, p.A9.

 [125]“Society, Meetings and Entertainment,” Chicago Tribune, 12/22/1911, p.8. “Society To Show Old World Pomp,” Chicago Tribune, 12/24/1911, p.3.

 [126] Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912, in AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 29, p.4. All Examiner entries are referred to their place in the scrapbooks. It must not have been easy for Director French to withstand the probable pressures from the trustees to grant Parker this show and to print the expensive catalogue, fifteen paintings were illustrated, and thus, the catalogue provides an excellent record of this period of his work.

 [127] Op. cit., Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912.

 [128] Op. cit., Chicago Examiner, 3/7/1912.

 [129] Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 3/5/1912. His Mother and Child was illustrated in the article.

 [130] “Art and Artists,” Chicago Evening Post, 3/7/1912, p.6.

 [131] “Exhibit By Metcalf and Parker of Great Interest to Art Lovers,” Chicago Tribune, 3/10/1912, Part 2 (Editorial), p.3.

 [132] Op. cit., Paintings By Lawton Parker, 3/5/1912.

 [133] Records of the Lyme Art Association show he exhibited there in 1912. Later, after land for an art gallery was purchased in 1917 from Florence Griswold, Parker would chair the building committee working with the same architect, Charles A. Platt, who had designed Freer Art Gallery in Washington , D.C. and the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London , CT. “Lyme Art Association History,” http://lymeartassociation.org/history.php accessed 4/8/2011.

 [134]Parker had let his apartment studio in Chicago artist Abram Poole, a member of another local prominent family, during the winter of 1912-1913. “News of the Society World,” Chicago Tribune, 2/9/1913, p.H3.

 [135]Nicolas Kilmer dates the painting 1912-1913, Nicolas Kilmer, “Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography,” in Friederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.33. The painting is also illustrated in: William H. Gerdts, Monet’s Giverny, An Impressionist Colony, (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p.183. Parker had said he liked to paint portraits of people with their favorite things or in their most enjoyable activities. He depicts Frieseke sitting in a wicker chair doing just that, relaxing and reading. The other work is in a private collection in California.

 [136]Op. cit., Kilmer, Friederick Carl Frieseke: (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), p.33.

 [137]Critic George Zug states this was during the Summer 1912, op. cit., The International Studio, December 1915, p.43. The painting is illustrated on p.41. Critic Maude Oliver quotes two French critics reviewing the Salon in her column, op. cit., Oliver, Chicago Sunday Record-Herald, 6/8/1913. Parker also complained of foul weather, for some six years running, as his reason for remaining in Chicago the summer of 1913. Op. cit., Chicago Tribune, 5/4/1913, p.H3.

 [138] Op. cit., Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 8/19/1913, p.6. He was known to work laboriously on a painting as evidenced by one which he repainted an area of wall space over twelve times. Eunice Tietjens, “Lawton Parker,” The Little Review, May 1914, p.34. There is little in this article which wasn’t appropriated from articles by previous writers in magazines and newspapers.