August Petrtyl

I've been staring
at the portrait
of August Petrtyl (1867-1937)
in the P&C dining room
for 20 years now
without knowing
much about him,
except that he was
President of the Club
in 1906.







Until the owner
of the above watercolor
kindly sent us
its image







Then, some research
revealed that Petrtyl
could be found
all over the internet,
especially
as the illustrator
of some pulp fiction
in his era.






Some of these books,
like Oswald Langdon
can be found
reproduced online
in their entirety.




















And he did a credible job
with historical fiction
in a series about
Alexander the Great
















He also did
a deck of tarot cards





and some patriotic
political cartoons
for a Czech publication





No one seems to appreciate America
more
than an immigrant
from somewhere else.

Petrtyl
was one of several
Bohemians
in the early P&C.

A man of many talents,
he also designed
the curving roads and organically shaped lots
that filled an additional 60 acres
that were added to

Bohemian National Cemetery
in 1902.


(BTW -- the statue
on its current homepage
was modeled by
Albin Polasek
another member of the Palette and Chisel)