Editor's note: The following text from the catalogue
for the exhibition In Nature's Temple: The Life
and Art of William Wendt, on view at the Laguna
Art Museum November 9, 2008 - February 8, 2009,
was reprinted in Resource Library on November 28, 2008 with permission
of the Laguna Art Museum.
If you have questions or comments regarding the text, or wish to obtain
a copy of the catalogue from which it is excerpted, please contact the Laguna Art Museum directly through either this phone
number or web address:
A Chronology on the Life
of William Wendt
by Janet Blake
-
-
- 1865
-
- William Wendt is born 20 February in the village of Benzin
(aka Bentzen) in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (today, part of Germany)
to William Wendt and his wife, Williamina Ludwig. His father is a livestock
trader.
-
- 1865 to 1880
-
- Wendt attends school and for a time is apprenticed to
a cabinetmaker.
-
- 1880
-
- The fifteen-year-old Wendt receives assistance in immigrating
to the United States by an uncle. He settles in Chicago, probably taking
up residence in the North Side where many German immigrants live. Wendt's
experience as an apprentice to a cabinetmaker gains him employment in a
commercial shop "as a staff painter."
-
- 1885
-
- Wendt receives professional instruction at the Bromley
School of Art with John Franklin Waldo (1835-1920), a painter known for
large, epic landscapes.
-
- 1886
-
- Wendt paints Sunshine and Shadow, oil on canvas,
10 x 14 inches (fig. 2). In a label on the back of the painting, his address
is listed as 212-214 E. Randolph St, Chicago. This is several blocks from
the Art Institute of Chicago.
-
- 1887
-
- Julia Bracken (1871-1942) arrives in Chicago and begins
studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She becomes the
studio assistant of noted sculptor Lorado Taft (1860-1936).
-
- 1889 to 1890
-
- Julia Bracken has a studio on Wabash Avenue. Wendt has
a space directly across the hall, and they meet, becoming friends.
-
- 1891 to 1894
-
- Wendt takes evening classes at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago, an Antique Class in 1891-92, and a Life Class in
1892-93 and 1893-94. One of his instructors is Charles Edward Boutwood
(died 1917). It is likely that during this period he also meets artist
Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920) who is teaching at the Art Institute.
Browne will become an influential friend, often mentioned in Wendt's letters
to artist Samuel Harkness McCrea (18671941), written between 1896
and 1901. Only the letters written in 1901 are sent to McCrea in Chicago,
which is likely where the two artists first met. The others are sent to
him while he was traveling in France, Germany, and Italy. Originals owned
by Edenhurst Galleries, copies in the archives of Laguna Art Museum.
-
- 1893
-
- Wendt gives up his commercial job and concentrates solely
on painting in his studio. The World's Columbian Exposition (aka The Chicago
World's Fair) opens on May 1. Julia Bracken is one of several student assistants
to Lorado Taft working on sculptural decoration of the Horticultural Building.
-
- Wendt receives the Second Yerkes Prize (and $200) from
the Chicago Society of Artists Fifth Annual Spring Exhibition held
at the Art Institute of Chicago. (The two Charles T. Yerkes Prizes were
for oil paintings; the first prize awarded to the best figure composition,
the second to the best landscape.)
-
- 1894
-
- Wendt and fellow artist Gardner Symons (1861-1930) travel
to Santa Barbara, California.
-
- Wendt exhibits one work in the Seventh Annual Exhibition
of Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, October 29 to December
7, no. 333, The Day After the Storm. In the exhibition catalogue,
his address is listed as 14 No. California Avenue. He is also listed as
a member of the Chicago Society of Artists.
-
- 1895
-
- In the fall, Wendt accepts a teaching position at Mt.
St. Joseph College in Dubuque, Iowa. (Today this is Loras College.) He
returns to Chicago in late October, and then travels again to California-to
Santa Barbara and to Los Gatos near San Francisco.
-
- Wendt exhibits one work in the Eighth Annual Exhibition
of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists at the Art Institute
of Chicago, October 22 to December 8, no. 334, Birches. In the exhibition
catalogue his address is listed as 302 Wabash Avenue. He is also listed
as a member of the Chicago Society of Artists and the Cosmopolitan Art
Club, Chicago.
-
- 1896
-
- Wendt exhibits with the Eighth Annual Spring Exhibition,
Chicago Society of Artists, April 7 to 21, at the Art Institute
of Chicago. He shows five works: no. 84, The Oaks; no. 85, To
Join the Brimming River; no. 86, While the Day Is Young; no.
87, Where Limpid Waters Flow; and no. 88, Peacefulness. In
the catalogue he is listed as vice-president of the group. His residence,
however, is listed as Los Gatos, California.
- In the summer, Wendt teaches again Mt. St. Joseph College.
He lives with a Mr. and Mrs. Duggan.
-
- Exhibits one work in the Ninth Annual Exhibition of
Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists at the Art Institute
of Chicago, October 20 to December 6, no. 357, At Sunrise. Wendt
states the size as 28 x 40 inches in a letter to McCrea, 15 December 1896.
-
- Returns to Chicago on November 14 and on December 1 (through
May 1), leases a studio on the eighth floor of the Athenaeum Building.
-
- Exhibits four works -- all California subjects-in the
First Annual Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists at the
Art Institute of Chicago, December 15 to 27, no. 213, In the Cañon;
no. 214, Orchard in the Foothills; no. 215, Returning the Tide;
and no. 216, Haunt of Trout. His address is listed as 26 E. Van
Buren Street, Chicago. Wendt writes to McCrea about the exhibition and
review, 15 December 1896. In the same letter he notes that a "woodland
stream" (Haunt of Trout) had been exhibited in San Francisco.
He also tells McCrea that the exhibition will travel to St. Louis, Cincinnati,
Indianapolis, Detroit, and Cleveland.
-
- Sends a letter resigning from the Chicago Society of
Artists. Wendt to McCrea, 15 December 1896. In the letter Wendt expresses
discontent with the politics of the art community in Chicago.
-
- 1897
-
- Exhibits seven works at the Exhibition of Works by
Chicago Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago, January 26 to February
21, no. 98, The Brook; no. 99, The Road through the Grove;
no. 100, At the Bay of Monterey, California; no. 101, A Poppy
Field, California (Loaned by Dr. A. J. Ochsner); no. 102, On the
banks of the Mississippi; no. 103, The Boundary Line-Eucalyptus
Trees; and no. 104, The Glory of Autumn. For his work, he receives
a complimentary review in the Chicago Times-Herald on January
24.
-
- He receives the Young Fortnightly Club Prize for On
the Banks of the Mississippi, 1896. (An ink sketch of the painting
entitled On the Mississippi is reproduced in the Chicago Daily
Tribune on February 14. The caption beneath the painting reads: "Awarded
Young Fortnightly Prize.") Wendt gives another painting of the Mississippi
to the Duggans. (The painting is bequeathed to Monsignor E. L. McEvoy
in 1981 who then gave the work to the Sisters of the Blessed Mary. Both
paintings are currently not located.)
-
- In February, Wendt exhibits at the West End Women's Club.
-
- In April Wendt exhibits A Frozen River in an exhibition
of Chicago artists that traveled to Nashville, Tennessee. Julia Bracken
is one of the jurors.
-
- In the summer, at the invitation of Gardner Symons, Wendt
travels to California. (They would remain in California until the following
spring. ("Art," Chicago Daily Tribune, July 25, 1897,
p. 31.) They live and paint at Rancho Topanga Malibu Simi Sequit. (In 1892
Frederick Hastings Rindge (1857-1905)and his wife, May Knight Rindge, purchased
the 13,330 acre Spanish Land Grant called Rancho Topanga Malibu Simi Sequit
or Malibu Rancho. Their original Malibu Canyon home was destroyed by fire
in 1903. After Frederick Rindge's death in 1905, his widow built her home
on Laudamus Hill, also in Malibu.)
-
- The Cincinnati Art Gallery receives Wendt's painting
To Join the Brimming River, selected and given by the Artists' Fund
from the Society of Western Painters exhibition. "The picture was
selected by a committee of artists as representing the drift of the Society
of Western Artists' First Annual Exhibition." As reported in The
American Art Annual, 1898, Florence N. Levy, editor, p. 177.
-
- 1898
-
- While in California, Wendt writes to his friend, artist
William A. Griffith (1866-1940) in which he extols the wonders of nature,
especially in spring. "The perfection of this Spring day and the gladness
thereof make one think of Genesis when the earth was young and the morning
stars sang to each other. . . . The warm green of the grass, sprinkled
with flowers of many hues, is a carpet whereon we walk with noiseless tread."
Quoted in William A. Griffith, Foreword to the catalogue of the William
Wendt Retrospective Exhibition, Los Angeles County Museum in Exposition
Park, Los Angeles, February 14 to March 12, 1939. Also, printed in its
entirety in John Alan Walker, Documents on the Life and Art of William
Wendt, 18651946 (Big Pine, Calif.: Privately printed by John Alan
Walker, Bookseller, 1992): 106.
-
- In The American Art Annual, 1898, Florence N.
Levy, editor, p. 497. Wendt's address is listed as 26 East Van Buren St.,
Chicago, Ill. On p. 328, his painting Fallen Leaves is listed as
painting number 566.
-
- Exhibits eight works in the Exhibition of Works by
Chicago Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 1-27, no.
222, Home of the Wood Dove; no. 223, The Hillside Rendezvous;
no. 224, By the Domain of Neptune; no. 225, Within the Sound
of the Ocean; no. 226, Nature's Garden; no. 227, In the Cañon
Called Ramiraz [sic]; no. 228, Swept by Ocean Winds; and no.
229, On the Brow of Laudamus Hill. Numbers 224 through 229 are listed
as loaned by F. H. Kindge [sic]. (This is Frederick Rindge. See note in
1897. Ramirez Canyon and Laudamus Hill are in Malibu.)
-
- Wendt and Symons return to Chicago in June, then, after
two weeks depart for England. He paints in Cornwall and also works in the
studio of J. Noble Barlow (1861-1917), a colleague of his friend from Chicago
Charles Francis Browne.
-
- Wendt sends season's greetings "To my Friends, the
McCreas" from St. Ives, Cornwall, England on December 21.
-
- 1899
-
- Wendt remains in Cornwall, sending a letter dated March
12 to McCrea from St. Ives.
- In May the Chicago Daily Tribune reports that
Wendt and Symons are in Paris after spending six months in England, Wales,
Norway, and Sweden. It notes that the two are on their way to Italy. It
further reports that Wendt exhibited two works at the Royal Academy of
Arts in London: one, a landscape depicting a field of red poppies, the
other described by its title, Cool and Shady Woodland. Chicago
Daily Tribune, October 15, 1899, p. 46.
-
- Wendt writes to McCrea on May 8 that he has been in Paris
for nearly two weeks.
-
- Wendt exhibits two paintings in the Salon of the Société
Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, no. 1462, La Rivière de roches,
and no. 1463, Mèlodie d'automne. Listed in the Catalogue
illustrè du salon de 1899, Société National des
Beaux-Arts. South, "William Wendt," p. xx, n. 41.
-
- Wendt sends letter dated May 19, 1899 to McCrea from
Cornwall. He tells him that he decided not to go to Barbizon or Naples,
but rather return to England to work on "unfinished canvasses."
His gives his address as Gwithian, Hayle-Cornwall, England.
-
- Exhibits forty-six paintings -- from his trip to England
and an earlier trip to California-at the Art Institute of Chicago, simultaneously
with the Twelfth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by
American Artists, November 6 to December 17. The exhibition receives
a laudatory review in the Chicago Daily Tribune, November 12, 1899,
p. 34, and the artist sold sixteen works at the opening and nearly half
by the end of the exhibition. (South, n. 48) One of the buyers is architect
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959), an autumn landscape with trees, now in
the collection of the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust.
-
- On December 9, the director of the Art Institute of Chicago,
William M. R. French (1843-1914) writes to Wendt, inviting him to have
a painting in a gallery until December 28, noting that the Institute "will
continue to make sales as well as we can." It appears that French
decided to keep the exhibition on view an addition eleven days. Walker,
Documents on Wendt, 47.
-
- 1900
-
- January 1, leaves for California; travels in the San
Francisco area, Santa Barbara, and Catalina Island. Chicago Daily Tribune,
December 31, 1899, p. 31.
-
- Exhibits twenty-seven works in a Special Exhibition
of Oil Paintings by Mr. William Wendt at the Saint Louis School and
Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition travels to the Cincinnati Art Museum,
under the auspices of the Cincinnati Museum Association, opening there
on February 25.
-
- Writes to McCrea on July 1, postmark, Montecito, California
-
- "Some Recent Landscapes by William Wendt,"
by Charles Francis Browne in Brush & Pencil, September 1900.
This article references Wendt's 1899 exhibition at the Art Institute.
-
- 1901
-
- Exhibits twenty-four works in An Exhibition of Works
by Chicago Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago, January 21 to February
24, 1901. His address is listed as Tree Studio Building, Chicago. He is
awarded a prize from the Catholic Woman's National League "for his
entire collection of pictures." (AIC Twenty-second Annual Report of
the Trustees, June 1, 1902, p. 31. Full listing of works in Walker, Documents
on Wendt, 84.
-
- Travels to New York, Boston, and Ogunquit, Maine
-
- Exhibits Cornish Coast, 1899, in the Society
of American Artists exhibition in New York. "'Cornish Coast' shows
that Mr. William Wendt is a follower of the open air painters. Renoir or
Montenard could not lavish strong greens, purples, and yellows with a freer
hand." New York Times, March 31, 1901, p 2.
-
- Letter to McCrea, dated May 5, 1901, sent from 23 Hancock
Street, Boston. In this letter he discusses his visit to New York City
(likely in March/April) and visiting several artists there. He reports
visiting Tonalist painter Alexander Harrison's studio while looking for
his brother, Birge Harrison (1854-1929 -- the Art Institute of Chicago
had exhibited paintings by Birge Harrison in 1900.) On May 5 (the date
of the letter), he visits Birge Harrison in Plymouth (Massachusetts) who
had "lately returned from New York."
-
- Letter to McCrea, dated May 15, 1901, sent from Ogunquit,
Maine, He reports that the Ogunquit coast is "quite similar"
to Cornwall, but "lacks the solitude, the grandeur of the old cliffs
where I enjoyed such good times with you . . . " While in Ogunquit
he meets Charles Herbert Woodbury (1864-1940) "who has a house and
studio here." (Woodbury founded the Ogunquit Summer Art School of
Drawing and Painting in 1898 and taught there until his death.)
-
- Exhibits three works in the Pan-American Exposition,
Exhibition of Fine Arts in Buffalo, New York, May 1 to November 2,
no. 81, Los Floras Cañon (Lent by Charles L. Hutchinson,
Esq.); no. 82, Hillside with Poppies (Lent by by Charles H. Conover,
Esq.); and no. 197, The Lone Oak (lent by W. O. Goodman, Esq.).
In the catalogue his address is listed as 710 Sedgwick Street, Chicago.
Wendt receives a bronze medal.
-
- 1902
-
- Exhibits nineteen works in An Exhibition of Works
by Chicago Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago, February 4 to March
2. In the catalogue his address is listed as 224 East Ontario Street, Chicago.
Full listing of works in Walker, Documents on Wendt, 85.
-
- 1903
-
- Travels to England and paints in Cornwall and St. Ives.
He is there from May until January 1904.
-
- 1904
-
- Travels to Hamburg, Munich, Amsterdam, and Paris.
-
- Exhibits and receives a silver medal at the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition, St. Louis (The St. Louis World's Fair), April 30 to
December 1, 1904.
-
- Exhibits five paintings at The Seventeenth Annual
Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, October
20 to November 27, no. 411, Montecito; no. 412, A Glorious Day;
no. 413, Eventide; no. 414, The Stilly Night; and no. 415,
A Pearly Evening. His address is listed as 224 East Ontario Street,
Chicago. He receives the Martin B. Cahn Prize with a cash award of $100.00
for The Stilly Night. Wendt, who is in Cornwall, is notified of
the award in a letter, dated November 19, from the director of the Art
Institute, W. M. R. French. Walker, Documents on Wendt, 47. See
also Art Institute of Chicago Twenty-sixth Annual Report of the Trustees,
June 6, 1905, p. 20-21.
-
- 1905
-
- Wendt is a member of the jury of selection and hanging
committee for An Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists at the Art
Institute of Chicago, January 31 to February 26. He exhibits five works:
no. 262, The White Cloud; no. 263, Twilight, no. 264, A
California Landscape; no. 265, A House of Interest; and no.
266, Spring Sunlight. His address is listed as 224 East Ontario
Street, Chicago. He receives an honorable mention from the Chicago Society
of Artists for A California Landscape, which is illustrated in the
catalogue. (This award is listed in the catalogue for his one-person exhibition,
which opened on March 2, 1905.)
-
- Exhibits forty-three works in Exhibition of Paintings
by William Wendt at the Art Institute of Chicago, March 2 to March
22, 1905. Four paintings were sold during the exhibition, as reported in
the Art Institute's Twenty-seventh Annual Report of the Trustees,
June 6, 1905, p. 31. The exhibition is sent to the Detroit Museum of Art,
April 24 to May 12. See Art Institute of Chicago Twenty-seventh Annual
Report of the Trustees, June 6, 1905, p. 31. "During the
same period, from March 2 to March 22, a special exhibition of paintings
by William Wendt, 43 in number, was held in Gallery 30. Four pictures were
sold."
-
- On May 22, his painting Montecito (exhibited at
the Seventeenth Annual) is presented by "friends of the artist"
to the Art Institute of Chicago. See Art Institute of Chicago Twenty-seventh
Annual Report of the Trustees, June 6, 1905, p. 51. Also listed in
the 1907 Catalogue of Sculpture, Paintings and Other Objects, The
Art Institute of Chicago, February 1907. (Montecito, 1904,
oil on canvas, 60 x 75 1/2 inches)
-
- Sketches for four months in Laguna Canyon with Gardner
Symons. Purchases two lots in Arch Beach, Laguna, from Symon's father,
George Gardner Simon. (p. 2, Orange County Grantee Index, 1889-1908 [?recorded
as December 1906?]and South Coast News, September 8, 1944, section
1, p. 4-5; South Coast News, July 8, 1934, section 1, p. 4-5; )
-
- 1906
-
- Early in the year, painting in Santa Barbara. Wendt to
French in Walker, Documents on Wendt, 48.
-
- Exhibits six works in An Exhibition of Works by Chicago
Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago, January 30 to February 25,
1906, no. 259, Sunlight Solitude; no. 260, The White Moon;
no. 261, The Mountain; no. 262, Silence; no. 263, Creeping
Shadows; and no. 264, From Foothill Heights. His address is
listed as 710 Sedgwick Street, Chicago.
-
- In June, marries Julia Bracken in Chicago. Has an appendectomy
in July, and after he recovers, the couple move to Los Angeles. Reported
in the Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1906, sec. 6, p. 2.
-
- In September the Wendts purchase a house at 2814 N. Sichel
Street in Los Angeles from artist Elmer Wachtel (1864-1929) and his wife,
artist Marion Kavanagh Wachtel (1870-1954). (This address today is simply
2814 Sichel Street.) In the ensuing years, both he and Julia continue to
exhibit works at the Art Institute of Chicago and make frequent sojourns
to that city.
-
- 1907
-
- In February, exhibits work at his Sichel Street studio.
Reported in Graphic, February 9, 1907, p. 29 and in the Los Angeles
Times, February 10, 1907, sec. 6, p. 2.
-
- The Wendts spend much of October, November, and December
in Chicago.
-
- Exhibits five works at The Twentieth Annual Exhibition
of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists at the Art Institute
of Chicago, October 22 to December 1: no. 428, Spring Rains;
no. 429, There Is No Solitude in Nature; no. 430, In the
Shadow of the Grove; no. 431, Boulder Strewn Hillside; and
no. 432, The Foothill Trail. Although a resident of Los Angeles,
in the catalogue his address is listed as 19 Tree Studio Building, Chicago.
-
- Exhibits five works in the Twelfth Annual Exhibition
of the Society of Western Artists, the Art Institute of Chicago, December
10 to 23, no. 132, Summer Days; no. 133, Beside the Summer Sea;
no. 134, A Rugged Hillside; no. 135, Verdant Hills, and no.
136, The Silent Wood. For the first time, his address is listed
as 2914 N. Sichel Street, Los Angeles.
-
- 1908
-
- In March, visits the Grand Canyon, accompanied by his
wife. Walker, Documents on Wendt, 48.
-
- Is invited and attends the August 4 meeting of the Painters'
Club in Los Angeles. He joins the club at the close of the meeting. As
this is a "men only" organization, Julia Bracken Wendt is not
invited to join. A few weeks later, on August 24, the club members spend
the evening at the Wendt's studio on Sichel Street. (The Painter's Club
was founded March 17, 1906. Its history can be found on the website of
the California Art Club, www.californiaartclub.org/history.)
-
- Receives a letter from W. M. R. French, dated September
14, confirming that there will be a joint exhibition for William and Julia
Wendt in January 1909 at the Art Institute of Chicago. French tells Wendt
that the exhibition will be in Gallery 27, referring to it as "the
prettiest gallery we have and is usually the most becoming to a private
exhibition." Walker, Documents on Wendt, 48.
-
- The First Annual Exhibition of the Painters' Club
is held at the Blanchard Art Gallery, October 7 to 22. Wendt exhibits three
works: Among the Hills, Sunlight and Shadow, and Givithian.
Wendt is appointed to a committee to discuss the future of the club.
-
- 1909
-
- Wendt and his wife have a joint exhibition at the Art
Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings by William Wendt and of
Sculptures by Julia Bracken Wendt, January 5 to January 24, 1909. Wendt
exhibits twenty-eight paintings, and Julia Bracken Wendt exhibits sixteen
sculptural pieces. The Wendts spend the month of January in Chicago.
-
- In February, Nature's Garden (no. 13 in the joint
exhibition) is shipped to New York for exhibition at the National Academy
of Design. Walker, Documents on Wendt, 48.
-
- In July, Wendt spends several days camping in Topanga
Canyon where he paints on canvases as large as 28 x 36 inches. Antony Anderson
of the Los Angeles Times reports on the sojourn in the Los Angeles
Times, which publishes a photograph of the artist at his easel. Anderson
reports that Wendt works "out-of-doors from start to finish . . .
a disciple of the Plein air school." Los Angeles Times, July
18, 1909, sec. 3, p. 2.
-
- Wendt exhibits work in Santa Barbara, as reported in
Graphic, October 2, 1909, p. 9 and the Los Angeles Times,
October 10, 1909, sec. 3, p. 10. Anderson in the Times notes that
Wendt is not participating in the Eleventh Annual Exhibition of Southern
California Artists because his "recent landscapes are being shown
in Santa Barbara." The exact location is not stated.
-
- The Second Annual Exhibition of the Painter's
Club is held at the Blanchard Art Gallery, November 1 to 13. Wendt exhibits
three works: Field Aglow, Sycamores, and The Oaks.
The club gives awards but it is noted by Antony Anderson in the Los
Angeles Times that William Wendt was "out of the running, because,
forsooth! he had already won honors elsewhere." November 7,
1909, sec. 3, p. 12.
-
- A second exhibition by fifteen painters in the club was
held from November 16 to December 4, with Wendt again participating. Los
Angeles Times, November 21, 1909, sec. 3, p. 15.
-
- Antony Anderson announces that the Painters' Club is
disbanded, but there is to be a successor "to be called the California
Art Club." Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1909, sec. 3, p.
17. The founding year for the California Art Club has been listed by several
authors as 1909. However a careful reading about their history detailed
on the California Art Club website indicates that the actual founding year
is 1910. See www.californiaartclub.org/history.
-
- 1910
-
- In early January, the California Art Club holds its first
monthly meeting. This is the likely date for their first meeting, since
the second monthly meeting is listed as February 5, 1910, at which time
their constitution is adopted and an exhibition committee is formed. The
committee, of which Wendt is a member, is directed to secure a permanent
exhibition space for the club. The first four annual exhibitions (sometimes
called "Gold Medal Exhibitions") are held at the Blanchard Gallery
in the Hotel Ivins. See www.californiaartclub.org/history. Wendt will exhibit
with the California Art Club nearly every year from 1910 through 1938.
Exhibition listings can also be found on the California Art Club website.
See also Nancy Dustin Wall Moure, Publications in Southern California
Art 1, 2 & 3 (Los Angeles: Dustin Publications, 1984), B-107.
-
- February 5, the second monthly meeting of the California
Art Club is held on Saturday evening at the home of Franz Bischoff, 320
Pasadena Avenue, South Pasadena. A constitution similar to that of the
Society of Western Artists was adopted, "so that the club can send
its exhibitions over a circuit of cities in California." A permanent
Exhibition Committee was established, consisting of Wendt, Robert Wagner,
Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg and Charles Percy Austin. Los Angeles
Times, Feb. 13, 1910.
-
- Exhibits five works in An Exhibition of Works by Chicago
Artists, January 4 to 30: no. 310, San Antonio; no. 311, At
Sunset; no. 312, The Wash; no. 313, Sycamores Entangled;
and no. 314, A Wood Interior. Julia Bracken Wendt is also an exhibitor
with her address listed as 28 Studio Building, Chicago, whereas Wendt's
address is listed as 2814 N. Sichel St., Los Angeles, Cal.
-
- Although having legal residence in California since 1906,
Wendt is listed as being from Chicago, and both he and Julia Wendt are
listed as members of the Chicago Chapter.
-
- Exhibits five works in the Fourteenth Annual Exhibition
of the Society of Western Artists at the Art Institute of Chicago,
February 8 to February 27: no. 151, The Light of the Setting Sun,
no. 152, The Oaks, no. 153, Fields Aglow, no.
154, Moonlight, and no. 155, Sycamores and Live Oaks,
which is reproduced in the catalogue. The Wednesday Club of St. Louis gives
its annual honorary award of a silver medal (given to an active or associate
member of the society) to Wendt "of the Chicago Chapter." Noted
on p. 6 of the exhibition catalogue.
-
- NOTE: He did not receive the Fine Arts Building Prize
as noted in the Stendahl Art Galleries 1926 catalogue. The Fine Arts Building
Prize was awarded to T. C. Steele of the Indianapolis Chapter. This is
Theodore Clement Steele (1847-1926), who exhibited three paintings.
-
- Everett C. Maxwell begins a series of articles entitled
"Art and Artists in the great Southwest" for the Fine Arts
Journal. The April article is illustrated with reproductions of Wendt
paintings. Reported by Antony Anderson, Los Angeles Times, April
24, 1910, sec. 3, p. 16.
-
- Wendt spends several weeks painting in Topanga Canyon.
Reported by Antony Anderson in the Los Angeles Times, May 29, 1910,
sec. 3, p. 10. His work, In the Canyon, is reproduced in the article.
-
- Painting in the Grand Canyon in August. Reported in Graphic,
July 16, 1910, p. 9. Many years later it is reported that Wendt contended
that it was impossible to paint the Grand Canyon. For Art's Sake,
October 1, 1924, quoted in Walker, Documents on Wendt, 55.
-
- Exhibits three works at the Twenty-third Annual Exhibition
of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, at the Art Institute
of Chicago, October 18 to November 27: no. 237, The Land of Heart's
Desire; no. 238, Arcadian Hills; and no. 239, The Silence
of Night. The Silence of the Night receives an honorable mention
(awarded for the first time that year) and is illustrated in the catalogue.
The painting is subsequently purchased for the Art Institute. (Listed in
the Twenty-fourth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture
at the Art Institute of Chicago, November 14 to December 27, 1911)
-
- After an exchange of letters between Wendt and W. M.
R. French, the Art Institute agrees to exchange Montecito (accessioned
in 1905) for The Silence of the Night. (Wendt receives $500.00 for
the exchange.) Montecito is subsequently presented by the Art Institute
to the Cliff Dwellers Club in Chicago (founded 1907). Walker, Documents
on Wendt, 49.
-
- Antony Anderson reports on the acquisition of The
Silence of the Night in the Los Angeles Times, stating that
the work received "an honorable mention and a prize of $100 . . .
and has been purchased by the Art Institute for $800." Los Angeles
Times, December 18, 1910, sec. 3, p. 14.
-
- The Silence of the Night
is sent by the Art Institute of Chicago to Washington, D.C. for an exhibition
at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Third Exhibition of Contemporary
American Oil Paintings, December 13, 1910 to January 22, 1911.
-
- 1911
-
- Is profiled in an article by Antony Anderson in the Los
Angeles Times, January 1, 1911, sec. 3, p. 12.
-
- In March, Wendt is elected president of the California
Art Club. He will serve six years as president: 1911-1914; 1917-1918. Graphic,
March 19, 1911. His election is also reported in the Pasadena Daily
News on July 1, 1911, p. 8, which also mentions the club hosting a
party on the occasion. (The exact date of his election is therefore unclear.)
-
- Exhibits five works at the Fifteenth Annual Exhibition
of the Society of Western Artists, the Art Institute of Chicago, April
4 to 30: no. 206, Arcadian Hills; no. 207, Fallen Leaves;
no. 208, April Skies; no. 209, A Sycamore Screen; and no.
210, Declining Day. Fallen Leaves is illustrated in the catalogue.
-
- Long Beach High School purchases one of his paintings.
(Los Angeles Times, June 25, 1911, sec. 3, p. 22)
-
- In August, reportedly going to the Grand Canyon. Pasadena
Daily News, July 29, 1911, p. 9.
-
- During October, Wendt exhibits twenty works in the Daniell
Gallery in the Copp Building in Los Angeles. Artist William Swift Daniell
(1865-1933) had opened the gallery that year. (Los Angeles Times,
October 8, 1911, sec. 3, p. 18)
-
- The California Art Club holds its second annual exhibition
in November, and Wendt exhibits Arcadian Hills (fig. 17), which
Antony Anderson describes as "the Topanga hills in their glorious
summer prime. It fairly glows with light, and has a sky of beauty."
(Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1911, sec. 3, p. 25)
-
- Wendt also exhibits three works in the Daniell Gallery
in November: Topanga Hills, Spring in the Hills, and The
Pool. In his review in the Los Angeles Times, Anderson refers
to Topanga Canyon as Wendt's "favorite stamping ground." (Los
Angeles Times, September 10, 1911, sec. 3, p. 24)
-
- Exhibits two works in the Twenty-fourth Annual Exhibition
of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago,
November 14 to December 27, 1911: no. 384, When All the World Is Young
and no. 385, The Lake.
-
- Under his leadership, the California Art Club travels
their Second Annual Exhibition (November 22 to December 6, 1911) to the
San Francisco Institute of Art, December 22 to January 6, 1912. (www.californiaartclub.org/history)
The Third (November 1912) and Fourth (October 20 to November 8, 1913) annuals
also traveled to the San Francisco Institute of Art.
-