Frederick Carl Frieseke: Professional Success

"Afternoon Tea on the Terrace" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"On his return to Paris at the end of May 1904, Frederick Carl Frieseke learned that the director of the Luxembourg Museum had selected one of his Salon nudes for purchase by the French government. The triumph must be celebrated with a dinner at Lavenue, a cafe-restaurant in a first-class hotel near the Montparnasse railroad station. Fred invited a party that included the Clarks and William Merritt Chase, who was in town.

Frieseke, who had begun to work in larger scale, exhibited three sizable canvases at the spring Salon. Fortunately, he now had enough money to devote his studio space exclusively to painting, because he had to plan and execute an even larger-scale composition - the mural project for the Hotel Shelburne in Atlantic City. The mural, designed as a single composition, but completed in seven segments, depicts a beach scene with figures, principally elegant young ladies, although a few children, an occasional male, and even a donkey also appear. Sadie was the model for many of the figures. The mural was installed under his supervision in February 1906. 

Frieseke's professional life was booming. His entries to the Saint Louis World's Fair of 1904 had earned him a silver medal. A large nude submitted to the ninth Internationalen Kunstausstellung in Munich in 1905 was awarded the gold medal. That same summer he made what may have been his first visit to Giverny. 'I am leaving in a few days with Young,' he wrote Sadie. She had gone back to Pennsylvania to help her sister Kitty with a new child. 'Giverny is where Monet paints, and MacMonnies lives. You'll like the Youngs.' Frieseke was at least a month in Giverny during the summer of 1905, but what or how he painted there is not recorded."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: All for Sadie

"Through the Vines"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The O'Bryans had returned to Paris in October 1903. They took an apartment in a rather opulent new building just by the boulevard du Montparnasse. Frederick Carl Frieseke lived a mere ten-minute walk away. Sadly, Judge O'Bryan died rather suddenly on March 1, 1904, following an operation for appendicitis. The family was obliged to pack, parcel their belongings out among friends for safekeeping, vacate the apartment, and accompany O'Bryan's body on its return to the United States for burial. Fred had spent the hours of watching with the family, and he accompanied them on their voyage.

He had other business in America - business that may have had as its motive the desire to qualify as a husband for Sadie O'Bryan. The previous year he had begun to provide illustrations and marginal decorations for the 'North American,' a Philadelphia newspaper owned and managed by the Wanamakers' eldest son. He pressed Frieseke to come to Philadelphia as an advisor to the art department and to provide more drawings for both the paper and the Wanamaker stores. Though Frieseke was provided with ample studio space, it amounted to an office job, and it did not agree with him. 

By Spring Frieseke was decidedly out of sorts. He complained to Sadie:

'I want to paint and, honey, the longer I stay the harder it will be for them to get on without me. Oh, dear, if only I were not ambitious... As a great compliment and favor they are going to give me a full-page ad, 'The American Girl by Frieseke.' Well, I hadn't the heart to refuse. They meant it so kindly. But to think I'd ever do such a thing! I've drawn the girl, though, and they are pleased to death with her. And this is fame, dearie. I'm an ungrateful little slob.' 

True, Fred and Sadie were of the same national origin, but after that there were significant differences. Sadie was elegant and tall, almost six feet; Fred was short and dumpy, a condition he could alleviate only by good humor. He concluded one letter with 'I send you all the love that's possible from a person of my size.' Sadie's family was militantly Catholic, while his approach to religion was tangential. Sadie's family enjoyed an ostentatious display of wealth, while Fred was poor and of a family whose economic status could be described as 'comfortable' at best. Fred was modest, determined and introverted. Sadie was dramatic, gregarious - and probably even more determined. As it worked out in due course, they were married in Paris on October 31, 1905. It proved to be an excellent match." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: John Wanamaker's Patronage

"The Birdcage" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"At the end of May 1903 Frederick Carl Frieseke wrote:

'I had a call one day from John Lavery, Joseph Pennell and two other members of the International Society in London. They wanted me to send three of my Salon pictures over there to their exhibition in June - but they are all invited to America so I don't know what to do.'

The honor, which Frieseke was able to accept with a suitable submission, came before the artist had reached his thirtieth birthday and established his rise to the height of recognition among his peers. Founded in 1899 the exclusive International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London had Whistler as its president. Its membership included John White Alexander, Albert Besnard, Gustav Klimt, Frederick MacMonnies, James Jebusa Shannon, Fritz Thaulow, Henri Fantin-Latour, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet,  Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Félix Vallotton, and Edouard Vuillard.

To this success was added a stroke of economic good fortune. John Wanamaker guaranteed to purchase every year a certain number of Frieseke's paintings for the fixed amount of $2,500 - then a princely sum. Wanamaker had started buying from the Salons during his frequent trips to Paris in the 1880s. He was hard-nosed, civic-minded, opinionated, and successful. And he knew what he liked. 

'He was attracted to canvases where the landscapes were gay. He wanted his skies bright, his trees honestly green, and the girl standing in the field beside the river not too drably dressed. He expected a picture to tell a story... He did not like nudes. His women had to be clothed. and he was emphatic is his belief that disgusting realism had no place in art or literature.' 

As he commenced collecting, he took back with him across the ocean works that embodied his aesthetic principles; that art in its highest sense is the expression of ideal beauty, and that it should depict the beautiful or teach a lesson. So he amassed works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Rose Bonheur, William Bouguereau, Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet, and many more.. He purchased 250 paintings from the 1903 Salons alone.

There is no indication that Wanamaker's tastes had a direct effect on Frieseke's production, short of encouraging him. But his patronage cannot have failed to make itself felt. For one thing it gave the young man hope that he could demonstrate himself to be a good financial risk."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Jeanne Blazy

Detail from "Jeanne" by Alfred Maurer

"In Paris again at the end of November, Frederick Carl Frieseke settled into a new living and working space at 6, rue Victor Considerant. His rooms were above the apartment of Alson and Medora Clark, who for the next few years would provide familial stability and comradeship. The three shared meals and evenings of Parcheesi or bezique. Medora sewed his buttons on and frequently posed for the two men; she is the model for Frieseke's 'The Green Sash.' Also and Fred spent much time together, whether playing billiards, visiting exhibitions, or buying new top hats in time for the opening of the Internationale exhibition.

Once settled in, Frieseke engaged the services of a model from heaven, Jeanne Blazy.

'I've had a nice model. She's as useful as anything in other things besides posing. Brings my things for luncheon and cooks them before she leaves, hunts up anything I wish and is always cheerful. Always late but works on as long as I wish. She has posed for Whistler and lots of the big men. Posed for MacMonnies' statue in the Luxembourg.'

Given her essential contribution to the work of many artists, Jeanne Blazy might qualify for her own exhibition. In addition to the talents Frieseke discovered, Jeanne, it seems, could also stand on one foot for a long time while balancing an infant on her arm, as she apparently did for MacMonnies' 'Bacchante with Infant Faun.' Alfred Maurer's 'Jeanne,.' painted around 1904, presents a very different image of the same woman who appears in Frieseke's 'Sleep,' shown at the Salon in 1904. Maurer's interpretation won a gold medal at the 1905 Internationalen Kunstausstellung in Berlin."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Business Back at Home

"The Gold Locket" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"In the late spring of 1902 Frederick Carl Frieseke returned to the United States. He had been away five years. He had family matters to keep up with and it was also time for him to tend to the American side of his career. It had become the practice in some parts of the American art establishment to defer to the jury systems of the Paris Salons. An American artist who had been accepted by the Société des Artistes Français or the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was more than likely to be invited to the annual exhibition of the Art Institute of Chicago the following October, and thence to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was prudent for the young artist to build upon his European success. If he was to make a living at this business, his paintings must be not only seen but also sold.

 'I'm going to bring all my pictures home,' Frieseke wrote, 'and with the stuff I shall paint there during the summer, try to arrange for some exhibitions in different cities... I"ll stay in America until next fall in time for the Internationale show here.' So, leaving his four submissions hanging at the Salon, he sailed for home. During the next seven months he managed to spend time in Owosso, transact business in New York and Chicago, continue the regular supply of drawings for Wanamaker, and see Sadie in New York. A series of meeting with William R. French [sculptor Daniel Chester French's brother], director of the Art Institute of Chicago resulted in a special exhibition of eight of his paintings, which were hung together in Chicago's annual exhibition.

Only occasionally during his career is there any sign that Frieseke thought seriously of living and working in the United States. Nevertheless, he was encouraged by his reception in Chicago.

'The painters here all seem to like my things. I have been awfully well treated by them here and several have asked me to locate here, but I wouldn't live here for the world as - to show the art interest of the town - I may say that only two of the morning papers had any mention of the exhibition. I was well treated in both, but it makes one tired to see so little interest displayed. I but I am wild to get back to work.'"

So back to Paris he went! 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Inner Thoughts of an Artist

"Woman Before a Mirror"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The O'Bryans had gone back to the United States in February of 1901 and would not return to Paris until October 1903 - to Fred and Sadie's dismay - but to our profit, since the separation led to an enlightening exchange of letters. For this reason we are able to over hear the painter as he describes his progress with a painting and struggles with his definition of himself as an artist. He seems a man both modest and determined. As he wrote, 'My father told an aunt of mine once, 'Fred never says much but he does and gets what he wants.' Here are a few excerpts from these letters:

January 14, 1902: 'Am working hard on a picture and think it will come out pretty well... It's so hard to paint anything good - something that has artistic merit and is solid and well drawn and good color. It's maddening knowing what you want to do and not being able to do it. Perhaps I may some day. Who knows? Anyway, I get a little nearer all the time.'

January 20, 1902: 'Well, I finished my picture... I think it is pretty successful. Am sure it's better than last year's but can't hope for the same success to be repeated. It will probably be some years before other important steps will take place in my progress and it means so much hard plug and worry and disappointment that I lose courage when I think of it. This week I am doing nothing. Have no model.'

February 4, 1902: 'Things haven't been going well with me lately. Last week I destroyed my picture that I had been working five weeks on and it was the best one I had done in - only - just - because I couldn't get it to suit me quite. I lost my head and scraped the whole thing out. Have already started another of the same subject though and I hope to make it better than the last. If only I had someone to watch me and make me stop when I should I might paint much better things. I want you to come and watch me dear... I must hustle pretty hard or I won't have anything of importance for the Salon.'

February 18, 1902: 'I do so want to be a good painter and it's so beastly hard to do anything good. I'm most discouraged. One gets a thing done and is most pleased with it - for about a day - then you can't stand the sight of it any more. I just long for the time when I shall do something that I shall continue to like.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)  

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Calisthenics for the Artist

"Grey day on the river (Two Ladies in a Boat)"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke 

"Paris was no place for artists during the summer months. It was uncomfortably hot, and all of the other artists were gone. In the summer of 1901 Frieseke set off with a group of fellows for a three-months' stay in Brittany in the little fishing village )by this time also artist colony) of Le Pouldu. Excited by the series he had begun in the Luxembourg Gardens during the spring, Frieseke intended to concentrate on landscape.

His letters from Le Pouldu describe his surroundings and some of the summer's events:

We are staying in a private house, a fine old country house, part of it built in 1728, so it says on the sun dial... The country seems so lovely, and the sea and the river too... It seems so peaceful down here. The people are so slow and I like everything: the black and white cows, the narrow little lanes with the trees meeting overhead, the dunes with one lonely cottage almost hidden, and the farms, houses of stone with thatched roofs and surrounded by trees which the sea winds have blown and twisted in strange shapes.

I have to confess that landscape is by far the most difficult thing I have tackled and that I am utterly unable to grasp it so far.

Not long after his return from Brittany at the end of August, when Paris had begun to slide into the peculiar damp and sooty light of its winter, Frieseke began the first of a lifelong series of studio nudes. The study of the nude in the classroom atelier is as common to an artist as calisthenics are to an athlete. As a subject to command the attention of even an unruly student, the human body is hard to beat. It is straightforward, complex, varied, compelling, amusing, and measurable. And it is a valuable teaching tool since it either does or does not translate believably from three dimensions to a two-dimensional place. Its skin exhibits a surprising variety of colors in an excruciating sequence of almost indistinguishable shifts. 

But Frieseke was now out of the classroom and was looking to build a reputation. For him the nude subject must be not just a study but also a work of art." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)