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Sir Luke Fildes (1843-1927), The Village Wedding, 1883.
Fildes himself was married to the artist Fanny Woods |
When I was young and slightly less foolish, I once had a brief fling with an extremely talented woman painter from one of those Western European countries who told me, “Don’t get your hopes up.” So I didn’t. I’ve always done what a woman tells me to do, starting with my mother. This artist went on to an exciting career back home and I stayed lost in a fog stateside. Probably would have been a mistake anyway. I never had another such golden opportunity to enjoy the constant companionship of another painter. I assume it must be nice to talk about art with a spouse who really understands what you are talking about.
But I may be absolutely wrong. It would be hell if you didn’t share the same feelings about painting techniques and painters. And a competitive spouse would be worse. Perhaps it’s more important to marry an investment banker who just wants to show you off at Park Avenue parties and is willing to keep you supplied with endless tubes of cobalt violet. Or to wed a gainfully employed practical woman who can stop the bleeding when you cut yourself with the edge of a sharp palette knife, bake a cherry pie, vacuum the place once in awhile and tell you what a nice little picture you have just painted, when you know all you’ve produced in the last millennium is simply crap. I don’t know anything about anything. That’s what I’m good at and well-known for. Or so I’m always told. Man, it’s hot in New York City these days!
So I’m eminently unqualified to discuss the subject of artists’ marriages, but I’ve come across a few from days gone by in which both painters were able to continue having successful art careers during their years of connubial bliss. Even if it wasn’t bliss, I don’t want to know about it. That soap opera saga I got caught up in when writing about Dame Laura Johnson Knight and Harold Knight and, tangentially, my sullied hero A.J. Munnings, wore me out. Blogging, like painting, should be fun, not hard work. I’m not Pliny the Elder for gosh sakes!
So here’s my brief list of equally talented painters who survived and thrived as married couples:
Herman Wessel (1878-1969) and Bessie Hoover Wessel (1889-1973), Cincinnati-based Impressionists. The Wessels followed in the footsteps of their teacher and mentor, Frank Duveneck, one of several famous Cincinnati painters. They
were leading figures in the town’s art scene for many years. Herman and
Bessie were married in 1917 at Duveneck’s cottage in Gloucester, MA. They had one child, a son. I love Bessie Wessel’s portraits and still lifes. And some of her boldly colored, patchwork landscapes are novel and very interesting. They
were painted on dark green canvas window shades, and she used their
dark color to good advantage in the interstices between her patches of
color. All of her work is full of vitality, with bold brushwork, gorgeous color and solid form. Some of Herman’s work is also excellent, but I prefer her paintings overall.
Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931) and Lilian Westcott Hale (1881-1963), Boston Impressionists. They were married in 1902. She
was the more successful artist, judging by the volume of her portrait
work and all the awards she won, but he was an influential instructor
and art critic who championed the Boston School of painting. He did a couple of paintings I really like. In
a biography about the couple written by Nancy Hale, their only child, I
enjoyed the story about a woman who had been painted years ago by
Lilian with her bare knees showing and now wanted them covered. Lilian said she would do it if the woman would bring her some lace so she could paint from the actual material. The Boston
painters wanted everything just right and in place before they started
to work – no spur of the moment lucky accidents for Paxton et al.
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| Philip Leslie Hale, The Crimson Rambler, 1908 |
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| Philip Leslie Hale Painting a Model |
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| Lilian Westcott Hale, L'edition de luxe, 1910 |
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| Lilian Westcott Hale, Child with Yarn |
Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947) and Elizabeth (1859–1912) Armstrong Forbes,
Realist painters working in the plein air style of naturalism developed
by Jules Bastien-Lepage and others in France in the late 19th Century. They were the founders and guiding lights of the magical Newlyn School in Cornwall, England. They were married in 1889 and had one child, a son, who died in battle in the First World War. They both had mastered the craft of painting. Elizabeth was Canadian by birth and studied at The Art Students League before moving to Europe for good with her mother. She died of cancer in 1912, and three years later Stanhope married a former student and family friend, Maudie Palmer. Stanhope
is one of my favorite painters of all time for his honest, accurate and
sensitive handling of scenes of daily life, both outside and inside the
studio. His figure work is just outstanding. What a wonderful draughtsman he was. And Elizabeth painted some remarkably good paintings herself in the same style.
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| Stanhope Forbes, Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach |
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| Stanhope Forbes, To the Health of the Bride |
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| Elizabeth Forbes, School is Out, 1889 |
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| Elizabeth Forbes, her son, Alec, Age 12 |
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| Elizabeth Forbes, Blackberry Gathering, 1912 |
Elmer Wachtel (1869-1929) and Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel (1875-1954), California Impressionist landscape painters. She and Elmer married in 1904. They had no children. During
their marriage, she painted in watercolor, out of deference to him, I’m
sure, but switched to oils upon his death. In a newspaper review of her
watercolors in 1903, the writer said, “She handles watercolors in a
free, fearless way, more like a man than a woman." It’s
hard for me to tell the difference between the two of them in their
oils, both of them painted so much alike on similar scenic landscape
views. Elmer Wachtel’s early works were tonalist in mood, but he lightened his palette later on. Marion studied in Chicago at the Art Institute and in New York with William Merritt Chase before moving to the Far West. Elmer trained and performed professionally as a violinist before taking up painting. He also studied with Chase at The Art Students League in New York. The
Wachtels were inseparable companions and traveled to their various
painting locations by foot, by horseback or in a motor car specially
outfitted for their painting needs.
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| Elmer Wachtel |
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| Elmer Wachtel, Santa Anita Canyon |
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| Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel, Mount Whitney, Oil on Canvas |
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| Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel, Watercolor |
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| Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel, Laguna Canyon, Oil on Canvas |
Well, that’s my little list. I’ve only included artists whose realist work I like very much. There are many other artists’ marriages that make for interesting study, including the well-publicized, stormy marriage of the painters Edward Hopper and Jo Nivison Hopper. She kept diaries detailing the ups and downs in their highly competitive 42-year marriage. But I’m pretty exhausted by the whole subject of this blog post, to be honest with you.
There are plenty of other images on the Internet for the artists on my list, all of whom have earned a somewhat lasting reputation among lovers of representational art.
And there is plenty of biographical information on websites and blogs.
Is there anybody in America who isn’t writing a blog today? You can even find stuff about Pliny the Elder on the Internet!
And that, no doubt, is more entertaining than most of the fluff about painters that gets posted.
Why should I do all the research?
That’s the Internet’s job and yours, not mine.
I’m feeling overwhelmed right now by the glut of images available for popular artists from any period, in multiples, with your choice of small, medium or large resolutions.
“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll take six of those small resolution images, please.
I much prefer that indistinct thumbnail size.”
And then there are all the websites and blogs of today’s painters who post images of every 6 by 6 inch painting of three strawberries that they “create” and will undoubtedly sell to people who put stuff like that on their kitchen walls.
And then there are artists who post every blessed mark they make on paper on a daily basis.
And look at me whining away while I produce even more drivel during this sultry heat wave we are experiencing here in the Center of the Universe.
You have to laugh at it all.
But moving right along, I think it must be nearly impossible to live together in a marriage as true creative equals. One spouse will always adopt, at the very least, a slightly different creative approach to avoid being in direct competition with the other. Consider how few such unions there are among classical music composers. Who do we have there? Maybe Robert and Clara Schumann, although she was more famous as a pianist and for promoting her husband’s work. Anybody else? Wagner’s second wife, Cosimo, the daughter of Franz Liszt, was certainly a great help in promoting his career, but probably didn’t prune any notes from the Ring Cycle. Painters like Renoir had their wives washing their brushes. Now that’s what every painter wants, someone to wash their brushes!
The marriage of Carl Larsson (1853-1919) and Karin Bergoo Larsson (1859-1928) is a case study in what usually happens when two painters of unequal talent marry, in my considered opinion.
Carl
and Karin met in the Scandinavian artists’ colony in the village of
Grez outside Paris. They were married in 1883, and the first of their
eight children was born in 1884.
Karin immediately stopped painting.
She
and the children were Carl Larsson’s favorite models for his
world-famous watercolors extolling domestic happiness and the virtues of
the Arts and Crafts Movement.
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Carl Larsson, Crayfishing, 1897
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| Carl Larsson, Name Day Celebration, 1895 |
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| Carl Larsson, Christmas Eve, 1904 |
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| Carl Larsson, Now Is It Christmas Again, 1907 |
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| Carl Larsson, Mamma's and the small girls' room, 1897 |
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| Carl and Brita |
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| Karin and Kersti |
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| Karin Bergoo, Still Life, 1877 |
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| Karin Bergoo, Mother Morot |
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| The Drawing Room at Lilla Hyttnas |
Karin proceeded to devote full time to the family and their home.
That’s the natural law for most women artists whose husbands are more gifted than they are.
But she was no docile servant for Carl.
She became his chief critic for his paintings and was the principal decorator for their influential arts and crafts home, which was so charmingly depicted in Carl’s paintings.
Named Lilla Hyttnäs, the cottage was a gift of Karin’s father.
Lilla Hyttnäs, in Sundborn, Sweden, was like a mutual art project for Carl and Karin, growing piecemeal in accordance with the couple’s shared aesthetic taste.
Karin was also an innovative textile designer, who designed and wove many of the textiles that played a prominent role in the decoration of the house and in Carl’s paintings.
Did she resent giving up her own painting career?
The Swedish playwright August Strindberg, a former champion of Carl Larsson’s work, decidedly thought she did, calling their seemingly happy marriage just one big lie.
There aren’t many examples of her paintings to be found anywhere, and those few examples are inconclusive regarding her talent.
Was she truly content with the choices she made?
In an early letter to Carl, she wrote, “My dear idiot! Thank goodness I had the idea of getting engaged to you.
It’s the best way I could think of to get away from that confounded painting!”
In “Carl and Karin Larsson, Creators of the Swedish Style,’’ the editors recount the story of a former housekeeper who remembers a ritual the couple had of standing together in front of
Carl’s latest painting, their arms around each other, discussing lines and colors for quite some time.
Eventually, Karin would say, “Don’t touch it any more, Carl -- it’s fine.”
The former housekeeper said she “didn’t mean to watch all this.
But it was so beautiful that I couldn’t help it.”
In the end, it really doesn’t matter why Karin gave up painting.
Her marriage to Carl turned out to be far more significant for both of them than if she had just remained his easel partner through life.
She found her own identity by creating the family and the environment at Lilla Hyttnäs that enabled Carl Larsson to thrive as an artist and ultimately gain world fame with his joyously colored and beautifully drawn watercolor journals of an idyllic life together.
If your own childhood was miserable, you couldn’t help but envy their impossibly utopian vision of domestic bliss -- a happy home filled with children and love and clean curtains and backyard picnics under the shade of birch trees and the best of times forevermore. That’s the world Karin and Carl Larsson gave to the rest of us, and it shines as bright today as when it was created.
She always told people she was “the happiest woman in the world.”
I believe she wasn’t lying.
