This Old Palette: September 2006

Lili Auer

The above fountain (lovingly maintained by Rich Morrow) in the P&C's courtyard garden is as familar to every member as the identity of its creator remains a mystery.

We know that her name was Miss Lili Auer -- but beyond that, the only information I could find is what follows:

*Born in Munich, 1904
*Studied at the Woodcarving Trade School, Kunstgewerbeschule, Academy of Fine Art 1920-1930
*Art Institute Chicago Vicinity Show, 10 times 1930-1945
*Municipal Art League Prize, 1941

*1936 - served as juror for the annual American Paintings and Sculpture exhibit, juried in New York (by C Paul Jenewein and Chonzio Maldarelli) and Chicago (Raoul Josset, Lorado Taft, Robert Jay Wolff) note: The two New York jurors were the two premier American public sculptors of the 30's, Josset was a French-born architectural art-deco sculptor, Wolff was a young abstract sculptor/painter who later led the Brooklyn Academy, and Taft, the dean of Chicago sculptors, would die a few months later.

1945 - Prize in Chicago Galleries Assoc. member show for "Repose"
1953 - Salem Lutheran church - exhibit of Modern Art
1954 - restored art objects at the James Deering estate "Vizcaya" in Miami

So she was a trained, professional sculptor who clearly had the respect of the city arts community --- but none of her work can be found on the auction websites.

As a woman, she could not become an artist member of the P&C -- but as a native German, she probably got along well with the many ethnic German men who were members -- and was probably considered "just one of the boys."

1924 "Haystacks", collection of Michael Todor

1932

1942, $100 Municipal Art League Prize

Allerton Park , University of Illinois, Monticello Illinois

Walter Marshall Clute

Have you ever heard of Walter Marshall Clute? Chances are, you haven't. But he was one of the earliest members of the P&C--president of the club, in fact, for two years before 1900--and he painted and drew like a dream.

Clute is listed has having exhibited two paintings in the Club's 1898 Salon de Refuse. He was born in Schenectady in 1870 and studied at the Art Students' League in New York City as well as the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He lived in Park Ridge in this home until he moved to California, where he died shortly after in 1915.

Clute's death was noted in the Cowbell--the P&C newsletter published in 1913, 1915, and sporadically thereafter--of April 1915. We learn from the death notice that Clute was the president of the P&C in 1898 and 1899; in 1900 he went to Paris to study for a year. On his return to Chicago, he worked as an instructor at the Art Institute. From the biographical information in the Union League Club of Chicago Art Collection, we learn that Clute also worked as a sketch artist for the Chicago Daily News and co-founded the Oxbow Summer School in Saugatuck, Michigan.

There is a staggeringly beautiful painting done by Clute at the Union League Club. It depicts his wife and daughter at their home in Park Ridge; the mother is reading to the girl.

Clute's work is also at the Vanderpoel Memorial Museum in Beverly, and the Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco has a number of his pen and ink drawings.

Here is an old black and white photo of one of his paintings; for some reason, the photographer set up the shot with the painting upside down.

Here is a picture of Clute's Park Ridge home, known as "The Birches." Apparently, the home still exists. If you are from Park Ridge, let me know if the building is still there. It's supposed to be at the corner of Fairview and Garden. I hope it's still there, but a quick look at Google Earth suggests that the intersection may no longer be a garden with a fair view.

Exhibit: Richmond Jones & Christine Osada Jones

September/October 2006

Richmond Jones "Spokes at Rest"

Richmond Jones "Rural Drive"

Paintings In The Library

The library has finally been hung with paintings ! -- many of them on the wall space that opened up when the bookshelves were re-configured -- and it's really a great improvement.

Hopefully, the identities of each picture in the following views will soon be posted.