The California Art Club (CAC) is one of the oldest, still active arts organizations in California. Founded in December 1909, it originally evolved out of The Painters' Club of Los Angeles, a short-lived male-only arts organization that lasted from 1906–1909."The Painters’ Club, which was started a few years ago, was last year merged into the California Art Club." (Antony Anderson, Art and Artists, L.A. Times, January 29, 1911. The new organization was more inclusive, as it accepted women, sculptors and out-of-state artists.Antony Anderson, Exit the Painters’ Club, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1909, III17
Most of the major early California painters belonged to the CAC, including Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Edgar Payne, Julia Bracken Wendt, and William Wendt.Bischoff, Borg, and the Wendts were among the club's founders. Antony Anderson, Art and Artists, Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1910Edgar Payne served as the 9th President of the CAC, from May–December 1926. CAC Archives As the members of the first generation of California Plein-Air Painters aged and died, the membership was filled by younger professional painters, including Millard Sheets,Sheets joined the CAC in September 1954 - CAC Bulletin. Mabel Alvarez,Alvarez participated in CAC exhibitions from 1918–37. Emil Kosa Jr.,Kosa, Jr. exhibited in 35th Annual (1944) and watercolorist Rex Brandt,Brandt joined the CAC in October 1954 - CAC Bulletin. along with amateur painters and commercial artists. Other notable members include Sir Winston Churchill,Churchill was voted in as a CAC member of honor and sent a gold medal and scroll of membership in 1954 by CAC President Philip Paval; Churchill accepted and the medal now resides in Chartwell House, U.K. Dean Cornwell,Cornwell joined the CAC in April 1932 - CAC Bulletin Nicolai Fechin,Fechin participated in An Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Fifty Members of the CAC (Stendahl Art Galleries, Los Angeles, 1944); Fechin is also listed in the 1984 Roster and By-Laws of the California Art Club, Inc., 75th Anniversary Edition Sam Hyde Harris,Harris is listed in a 1964 CAC Roster and participated in CAC exhibitions from the 1920s–1970s. Alfredo Ramos Martinez,Ramos joined the CAC in July 1932 - CAC Bulletin, CAC Archives. and Richard Neutra.Neutra joined the CAC in February 1929 and the following month was elected as Second Vice President (Mar. 1929–Apr. 1930, CAC Bulletins, CAC Archives) Today its membership consists of representational artists and sculptors, but it is broadly inclusive and includes many women painters as well as painters and sculptors who emigrated to the United States from Europe and Asia. The CAC hosts an annual Gold Medal Exhibition each year along with a number of other smaller public and special museum exhibitions. Headquartered in one of the large bungalows that was part of the historic Vista del Arroyo Hotel in Pasadena, the California Art Club has a number of chapters throughout California.As of July 2016, there are ten CAC Chapters throughout California. http://www.californiaartclub.org/about/cac-chapters
Origins The history of the California Art Club begins with an earlier organization, The Painters' Club of Los Angeles. On the evening of March 10, 1906, a number of painters who lived in the Los Angeles area met together with the purpose of forming a club. Soon afterward, on the evening of March 17, eleven of these same men met at the studio of William Swift Daniell (1865-1933). After some discussion, it was unanimously decided to form a club then and there, and the Painters’ Club of Los Angeles was born with the goal to arrange exhibitions and further the fine arts in Southern California.Antony Anderson, Art and Artists, Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1906; 6,2,5 The eleven founding Charter Members included Antony E. Anderson (1863-1939), Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947), William Henry Cole (1870-1955), Albert Clinton Conner (1848-1929), Frank C. Conner, William Swift Daniell, David H. Dunn, Frank Elwin Evans, Frank Rennsselear Liddell (1864-1923), Hanson Duvall Puthuff (1875-1972), and George Thomas Winterburn (1865-1953).Minutes, March 17, 1906, Painters' Club of Los Angeles, CAC Archives According to the membership roster, the Painters' Club grew and eventually numbered around 42 members.Membership Roster, Painters' Club of Los Angeles, CAC Archives After several years and a number of exhibitions it became apparent to the members that the scope of the organization, which was open only to male painters, was too limited and a consensus arose to dissolve the organization in order to form one that was wider in scope. The Painters' Club of Los Angeles was disbanded in December 1909, but there would be a new group to follow, "to be called the California Art Club."Anderson, Antony, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1909, III17 A core group of members from the Painters' Club - Charles Percy Austin (1883-1948), Franz Bischoff (1864-1929), Carl Oscar Borg, Benjamin Chambers Brown (1865-1942), Frank Rennsselear Liddell, Hanson Puthuff, and William Wendt (1845-1946) - would be instrumental in laying the groundwork for the nascent California Art Club, as well as supplying its first three presidents.
Founding The California Art Club was founded in December 1909, immediately after The Painters' Club of Los Angeles was disbanded. Although the date and location of the first club meeting is unknown, the second was held February 5, 1910 in Franz Bischoff's Studio, located at 320 Pasadena Avenue, South Pasadena.Antony Anderson, Art and Artists, Los Angeles Times, February 13, 1910 Among its founding and earliest members were Hector Alliot (1862-1919), Antony E. Anderson (1863-1939), Charles Percy Austin, Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Benjamin Chambers Brown, Mauritz DeHaaff (1877-1948), Allen Durand (1865-1939), Aaron E. Kilpatrick (1872-1953), Frank Rennsselear Liddell, Everett Carroll Maxwell, William A. Matern (1867-1923), Frederick Roland Miner (1876-1935), John Hubbard Rich (1876-1954), Rob Wagner (1872-1942), Jack Wells [or Welles], William Wendt, and most likely Wendt's wife, sculptor Julia Bracken Wendt (1868-1942).See Julia Bracken Wendt's response (Open Letter, Los Angeles Times, January 1910) to Antony Anderson's Art and Artists column from December 12, 1909.Antony Anderson, Art and Artists, Los Angeles Times, February 27, 1910
One of the main objectives behind the founding of the new club was to expand its membership and encourage others to participate - "No longer limited to male painters based in L.A., the Club opened its membership to women, sculptors and artists living as far away as New York." By the time of the club's Second Annual Exhibition in 1911,Held November 22 – December 6, 1911 at Blanchard Hall, Los Angeles; exhibition pamphlet, CAC Archives membership had increased by about thirty members, including nine women: Helena Adele Dunlap (1876-1955), Helma Heynsen Jahn (1874-1925), Mary Ann Van Alstine Bartow (1848-1924), Alma May Cook (1884-1973), S. Henrietta Dorn Housh (1855-1919), Helen Hutchinson (1866-?), Louise Elizabeth Garden MacLeod (1857-1944), Lydie G. Price, and Elizabeth Waggoner.Second Annual Exhibition Pamphlet, 1911, CAC Archives By early 1912 Xarifa Hamilton Towner (1881-1918) would also join.Antony Anderson, Art Notes, Los Angeles Times, February 4, 1912, III18
Frank Renssellear Liddell served as the first club president from 1909-10. Liddell was succeeded by William Wendt who filled the office of president twice: from 1911-14 as the second president, and from 1917-18 as the fourth. Wendt's terms bookended the club's third president, Benjamin Chambers Brown, who held that office from 1915-16.Antony Anderson, California Art Club, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1915, III28 The organization grew quickly in prestige under Wendt and Brown, connecting itself with the newly formed Museum of History, Science and Art in Exposition Park. The Art Committee of the new museum's Gallery of Fine Arts included at least four CAC members, including Everett C. Maxwell, who was both an Honorary CAC Member as well as Curator of the County Museum Art Gallery. The club began holding its annual exhibitions in the new space less than a year after the new museum was founded and would continue to do so for more than two decades.Antony Anderson, Fifth Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 13, 1914, III10; Anderson, Fifth Annual Exhibition, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 1914, III10; Anderson, Fifth Annual Exhibition Again, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 18, 1914, III6Antony Anderson, American Painters, Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1913, III5; This City as a Center of Art, Los Angeles Times, November 7, 1913, II3)
As the CAC was being founded, California Impressionism was just beginning to emerge in Southern California. Many club members had studied overseas in European ateliers like the Académie Delécluse, the Académie Julian, and the École des Beaux-Arts. Benjamin Brown studied at the Académie Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921) and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902); Rob Wagner was also a student at Académies Julian and Delécluse. John Hubbard Rich spent four years at the Art Students League in New York City, then spent time at the School of the Boston Museum as well as two years studying in Europe. Along with classical atelier painting, the influences of French Impressionism were starting to be felt. Helena Dunlap studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) in New York City and André Lhote (1885-1962) in Paris, and Charles Percy Austin was a pupil of John Twachtman (1853-1902). Others like Julia Bracken Wendt, William Wendt, and Edgar Payne studied at schools like the Chicago Art Institute.Julia Wendt at CAI - McKay, James, The Dictionary of Sculptors in Bronze, Antique Collectors Club, London, 1995Hughes, Edan, Artists in California 1786 – 1940 Through the work of its artists and its annual exhibitions, the CAC was greatly responsible for popularizing the Impressionist style in California. Authorities like Professor William Gerdts have long identified California Impressionism as a regional variation of American Impressionism which was a very broad movement that was loosely bound to the French style. Most American and California Impressionists adopted the painterly brush work, brighter palette and colored shadows of French Impressionism and the elementary practice of sketching outdoors, directly from nature or en plein air.
Early years and California Impressionism From its first exhibitions, the California Art Club became identified with Impressionism. In 1913, in the national magazine Arts Journal, the writer E.C. Maxwell wrote that "From a dozen different writers upon subjects pertaining to the development and trend of art in the west, the word has gone forth to the world that California, that land of golden light and purple shadows, is destined in the course of the next few years to give us a new school of landscape painting...Conditions seem right for a renaissance of art in California...If this art epoch of golden prophecy does not come to pass, it will not be the fault of the California Art Club." The activities of the California Art Club were chronicled in the pages of the Los Angeles Times, the Herald Examiner and the Pasadena Star News. The art columnist for the Times, Antony Anderson was a founding member of the club and he was lavish in his praise of its exhibitions and its leaders, men like William Wendt, Benjamin Chambers Brown and Jack Wilkinson Smith.