CLARENCE HINKLE

Born on June 19, 1880, in Auburn, California
Died on July 20, 1960, in Santa Barbara, California

Clarence Keiser Hinkle was born on June 19, 1880, in Auburn, California. His parents were Amos H. Hinkle, a carriage designer, and Roberta Keiser Hinkle. When he was a young child, Clarence was kicked in the head by a horse. This injury left a deep, life-long scar on his forehead.

Hinkle studied art under William F. Jackson (1850-1936) at the Crocker Art Gallery School in Sacramento. Thereafter, he studied with Arthur F. Mathews (1860-1945) at the San Francisco Art Association, and with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) and John Twachtman (1853-1902) at the Art Students League in New York City.

In 1904, he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1906, he won the prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship at the Pennsylvania Academy, an award which allowed him to spend six years in Europe, studying in Holland and France. Upon his return, he moved to San Francisco in 1913, and began to exhibit in local Bay Area shows.  Hinkle’s early work is strongly influenced by Post-Impressionism and Pointillism. Later, his style was considered avant-garde and audacious, favoring elements of Modernism and Cubism.

In 1917, he moved to Los Angeles and taught at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. While teaching there, Hinkle met a young student from Canada, Mabel Hunter Bain, who had arrived in Los Angeles to study art and photography. They were married on June 8, 1921, in Los Angeles.  The Los Angeles School of Art and Design closed in 1921. Fortunately, the Chouinard School of Art opened that same year and Hinkle was among the first instructors hired.

In 1921, he was a founding member of the Group of Eight, a loose association of modernist and progressive artists who exhibited together. In addition to Hinkle, the Group consisted of Mabel Alvarez (1891-1985), Henri De Kruif (1882-1944), John Hubbard Rich (1876-1954), Donna Schuster (1883-1953), E. Roscoe Shrader (1878-1960), Edouard Vysekal (1890-1939), and his wife Luvena Buchanan Vysekal (1873-1954). The Group of Eight peaked in 1927, with an exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art. It dissolved the following year.

He visited Rockport, Massachusetts in 1930 and painted several views of the harbor. By the early 1930s, Hinkle was living in Laguna Beach and continuing his teaching in Los Angeles. In 1935, he moved to Santa Barbara, where he built a home overlooking the harbor. He remained in Santa Barbara and was an active, well respected member of the local art community. Clarence Hinkle died on July 20, 1960, at the age of eighty, and was buried in Santa Barbara Cemetery.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine

MARION K. WACHTEL

Born on June 10, 1870, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died on May 22, 1954, in Pasadena, California

Marion Kavanagh (born Kavanaugh) Wachtel was born on June 10, 1870, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Her parents were James Thomas Kavanaugh and Jane Johnston Kavanaugh.  She was raised in a home that encouraged artistic pursuits, as her mother and her great grandfather, who had been a member of the Royal Academy in London, were artists.

Marion Kavanaugh studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and in New York with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916).  For several years, she taught at the Art Institute and in the Chicago public schools.  By the time she returned to Milwaukee, she had established a reputation for child portraits and figure studies.

In 1903, she won a commission from the Santa Fe Railroad to paint murals in their San Francisco ticket office.  With the benefit of a pass from Santa Fe, she set off to California sketching at every opportunity along the path of the railroad.

Also in 1903, Marion visited the Cooper Ranch in Santa Barbara, and stayed as a guest for a few months.  The Cooper Ranch was owned by Ellwood Cooper (1829-1918), a brilliant agriculturist and horticulturist who published several treatises on California produce.  On his ranch, Cooper grew olives, grapes, English walnuts, European almonds, oranges, lemons and Japanese persimmons.  He was the first farmer in the United States to produce and market olive oil.

Soon after her stay in Santa Barbara, Marion travelled to San Francisco.  In October, 1903, she showed several of her watercolors at the home of Mrs. Oscar K. Cushing.  The show consisted of landscapes painted in and around Santa Barbara and the Cooper Ranch, as well as a series of small portraits, all in watercolor.  The display was reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle of Monday, October 19, 1903.  In all, the show was well received, and the writer stated that “She handles watercolors in a free, fearless way, more like a man than a woman.”

Once in San Francisco, she familiarized herself with the city by visiting art studios and galleries.  It has been often stated that Marion met and took classes with William Keith (1838-1911), and that Keith introduced her to his friend Elmer Wachtel (1864-1929), who lived in Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, there are no extant sources to verify these two events.  By contrast, there is no doubt that Keith and Elmer Wachtel were indeed friends, as Elmer had studied with Keith in San Francisco between 1892 and 1894.

Whatever it was that brought Marion Kavanaugh and Elmer Wachtel together, the two artists fell in love and were married in Chicago in 1904.  Thereafter she signed her name “Marion Kavanagh Wachtel.”

Returning to Los Angeles, the couple built a studio-home in the Mt. Washington area.  They remained there until 1921 when they moved to the Arroyo Seco area of Pasadena.  As inseparable painting companions, they traveled throughout Southern California and the Southwest.  Originally trained as a portrait artist, Wachtel painted portraits of the Hopi on a trip to Northern Arizona and New Mexico in 1908.

Perhaps so as not to compete with her husband who favored oil painting, Marion worked primarily in watercolor throughout their marriage.  She earned a reputation as one of the very best watercolorists in California.  Her paintings display remarkable dexterity in the handling of the medium, which could be quite unforgiving even to the most skilled.  She received high praise for her works, as delicate, lyrical interpretations of the landscape, in a manner that showed her masterful control of tone and color.

Still, at all times, Marion was a great artist, showing a studied approach to the sensitive character of natural light and a love for elegant forms.  She was popular on both coasts and exhibited in New York as well as California.  She was elected to the New York Water Color Club in 1911, was elected an associate of the American Water Color Society in 1912, and was a founding member of the California Water Color Society in 1921.  She also held memberships in the Pasadena Society of Artists and the Academy of Western Painters.  Her works were exhibited jointly with her husband’s as well as in solo exhibitions in Los Angeles.  One-person exhibitions of her paintings were held at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art in 1915 and 1917.

After her husband’s death in 1929, Marion Wachtel temporarily lost interest in painting.  She resumed working around 1931, painting landscapes around her home on the Arroyo Seco, the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, and several views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, many of which are done in oil paint.  Marion Wachtel died at home in Pasadena on May 22, 1954.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine

Elsie Palmer Payne

Born on September 9, 1884, in San Antonio, Texas
Died on June 17, 1971, in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Elsie Palmer was born on September 9, 1884, in San Antonio, Texas. She was the daughter of English immigrants. In 1886, the family moved from Texas to California, first to Los Angeles, then settling in Oakland. Her father, William Palmer, was of aristocratic descent and had been a breeder of horses before coming to the United States sometime about 1880. Her mother, Amelia Lake Palmer, taught art, piano and voice. Elsie was the youngest of eight children in the household.

In 1899, the Palmer family moved across the bay to San Francisco, and in 1903, Elsie began art training at Best Art School, founded by Arthur William Best (1859-1935) in San Francisco. At the same time, Elsie worked for an advertising company, producing advertisements, catalogs and signs. In 1909, she met Edgar Alwyn Payne (1883-1947), a young artist from Chicago, who was on a sketching trip in San Francisco. The next year, Elsie moved to Chicago to take a position as a commercial artist. Soon thereafter, she encountered Edgar and a romance ensued. They were set to be married on the morning of November 9, 1912, but early that day, Edgar reached Elsie to ask that she call all their guests and reschedule the wedding for later that afternoon, as “the light was perfect”. Elsie understood the artistic value of perfect light and readily complied.

For the next five years, the Paynes lived in Chicago and Elsie developed her style as she assisted Edgar in his mural commissions. Elsie’s paintings show an approach based on solid forms and active, elegant line. To avoid comparison to her husband’s work, Elsie limited herself to painting in water-based media, principally gouache. In 1914, their first and only child, a daughter named Evelyn, was born.

In 1915, the Payne family visited California, to see her parents in San Francisco and to attend the Panama Pacific International Exposition. Later, they traveled south and stayed in Santa Barbara. By 1917, they were back in Chicago where Edgar accepted a significant commission to paint murals for the Congress Hotel. The job was huge, and involved over 11,000 square feet of canvas. To facilitate the task, the Paynes rented an old factory in Glendale, California, where all of the work was done. The project allowed them to move permanently to Southern California, settling in Laguna Beach in 1918. Elsie and Edgar were among the founding members of the Laguna Beach Art Association. Over the next thirty years, she exhibited there many times, showing gouaches and sculptures, and later, oil paintings.

In the summer of 1922, Elsie, Edgar and Evelyn traveled to Europe. From 1922 to 1924, they painted in Paris, Provence, Brittany, Venice, and Switzerland. Elsie loved the local color and the daily life of these areas and captured them in her gouaches. In 1925, Elsie and Edgar returned briefly to Laguna Beach before moving to New York, in 1926, where Edgar’s paintings were selling well.

A second trip to Europe took place in 1928. Once again, the Paynes visited and painted in Italy, Brittany and Paris. In 1929, they visited the Canadian Rockies, and painted in Lake Louise, Alberta. In 1932, they returned to California, buying a studio-home on Seward Street in Los Angeles. Soon thereafter, a bitter argument resulted in a marital separation between Elsie and Edgar, but no divorce was filed.

At the age of 48, Elsie found herself on her own, both as an individual and as an artist. No longer in Edgar’s shadow, she turned her attention to painting the urban scene of Los Angeles in a bold and direct style, and in oil paints. To supplement her income, she began offering art classes, eventually opening the Elsie Palmer Payne Art School in Beverly Hills, in 1936.

In 1946, Edgar was diagnosed as having cancer. Elsie reacted with love and immediacy. She closed her studio and moved back with Edgar at his Seward Street house. She nursed him through his final months until his death on April 8, 1947. Thereafter, Elsie undertook a new mission in her life: to perpetuate Edgar’s memory by organizing exhibitions of his paintings. She staged a large number of exhibitions and lectures on the art and life of Edgar Payne. In 1952, Elsie was asked to create a bronze relief plaque of her husband for the Laguna Beach Art Museum. By the late 1950s, Elsie’s health was in decline and her eyesight was failing. In 1969, she moved to Minneapolis to be with her daughter Evelyn and her husband Jack Hatcher. She died peacefully on June 17, 1971.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine

EDGAR PAYNE

Born on March 1, 1882 (or 1881, or 1883), in Washburn, Missouri
Died on April 8, 1947, in Hollywood, California

Edgar Alwyn Payne was born in Washburn, Missouri, but there is uncertainty as to whether he was born on March 1, 1882, as is recorded on his marriage certificate in 1912, and his draft registration in 1942, or 1881, or 1883, as recorded in other sources. His parents were John Hill Payne and Nancy Ellen Reed. He was the second of eight children.

Essentially a self-taught artist, Payne left home around 1902 at the age of nineteen. He traveled for a number of years throughout the South, the Midwest, and in Mexico, taking various jobs as a house painter, sign painter, scenic painter, and portrait and mural artist. He settled in Chicago in 1907, where he enrolled in a portraiture class at the Art Institute of Chicago. Dissatisfied with the class, he left after only two weeks. At this time he began landscape painting in the form of murals and small easel works. He exhibited with the Palette and Chisel Club, from which he sold some of his paintings.

Payne visited California in 1909, and spent some time painting in Laguna Beach. He also visited San Francisco, where he met his future wife, artist Elsie Phillippa Palmer (1884-1971), who was working as a commercial artist. He visited California a second time in 1911, and upon his return to Chicago, he again met Elsie who had moved there to take a position as an artist in a commercial art firm.

Soon thereafter, a romance ensued. They were set to be married on the morning of November 9, 1912, but early that day, Edgar reached Elsie to ask that she contact all their guests and reschedule the wedding for later that afternoon, because “the light was perfect.” Elsie understood the artistic value of perfect light and readily complied. On January 12, 1914, their only child, a daughter named Evelyn Phillippa Payne, was born in Chicago.

On a visit to Santa Barbara, in 1916, Payne took a side trip to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and marveled at the beautiful, unspoiled beauty he encountered. This would be the first of countless trips to the Sierra and he would earn a solid reputation as the “King of the Mountains.”

The Paynes lived in Chicago until 1917, during which time they became well established in the local art community. Payne exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Palette and Chisel Club. He painted commissioned murals and made annual trips to California. In 1921, Payne won the Martin B. Cahn Prize, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In the summer of 1917, Payne accepted a significant commission for murals in the Congress Hotel in Chicago. The job was huge, requiring over 11,000 square feet of canvas. To produce these murals, Payne rented an old factory in Glendale, California, where the murals were painted. For this project, Payne hired Conrad Buff (1886-1975) as an assistant. In 1918, when the project was completed, they moved to Laguna Beach. Payne became active in the art colony there and was a founding member and first president of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918.

Payne was a ceaseless traveler, who painted throughout California, Arizona, and New Mexico, as well as in Canada. No locale was too remote, and he spent a great deal of time in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, living for weeks at his elaborate campsites. Payne Lake, a lake high in these mountains, is named in his honor.

In the summer of 1922, the Paynes went to Europe, painting over a two-year period in France, Switzerland, and Italy. His favorite painting locations were the Alps and in the fishing ports of Chioggia, Italy, and Concarneau, in Brittany, France.

Chioggia is an ancient port located on a small island at the southern entrance to the Venice Lagoon off the Adriatic coast of Italy. For several centuries, Chioggia has served as one of Venice’s “farm islands” and was the source of much of the food consumed in Venice. Among other commodities, Chioggia furnished large quantities of domestic wine to the island city. Indeed, a number of Edgar’s Italian boat paintings bear titles as “Italian Wine Boats” and show the vessels loaded with rows of wine barrels.

Concarneau is one of the biggest ports in France. Situated along the Brittany coast, it has historically been home to a sizeable tuna fishing fleet. In keeping with age-old tradition, the fishermen of Concarneau still use huge nets of a distinctive blue color to haul in their catch.

In Switzerland, Payne was irresistibly drawn to the majestic Alps. His painting of Mont Blanc entitled The Great White Peak received an honorable mention at the Paris Salon in the spring of 1923.

After their return to the United States on September 22, 1924, the Paynes spent some time again in Chicago, then returned to Laguna Beach. Over the next several years they lived in California, Connecticut, and New York and made painting trips to the California Sierras, Utah, and New Mexico.

In 1928, another trip was made to Europe where Payne painted in the harbors of Chioggia and Brittany, this time staying only about three months. Upon his return, he continued to paint the California Sierra Nevada Mountains, a subject which earned him national renown. Payne’s long infatuation with the Sierra Nevada Mountains is documented in a film he produced entitled Sierra Journey.

In 1932, Edgar and Elsie separated but did not divorce. That same year, after a heated argument, Edgar parted from his long-time dealer and friend, Earl Stendahl (1888-1966). On February 9, 1935, Evelyn married John Burton Hatcher, in Los Angeles.

In 1946, Payne was diagnosed with cancer. His wife, Elsie, from whom he had been separated since 1932, reacted with love and immediacy. She closed her own studio and moved back with Edgar at his Seward Street house. She nursed him through his final months until his death in Hollywood, on April 8, 1947. Edgar Payne is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.

The perpetuation of Edgar Payne’s memory became the life mission of his widow, Elsie. She did this by organizing a large number of exhibitions of his paintings. In 1952, Elsie, who was also a sculptor, created a bronze relief plaque of her husband for the Laguna Beach Art Association Gallery, now the Laguna Art Museum.

Edgar Payne was a member of the California Art Club, the Painters and Sculptors of Southern California, the Chicago Art Club, the Laguna Beach Art Association, the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago, and the Salmagundi Club in New York City. His works were exhibited in Chicago and New York. His many awards included the Martin B. Cahn Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, 1921; a Gold Medal, California Art Club, 1925; and the Ranger Fund Purchase Award, National Academy of Design, 1929. In 1939, Payne was elected president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Society for Sanity in Art. In 1941, he wrote Composition of Outdoor Painting, a book which is still in print.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine

THOMAS L. HUNT

Born February 11, 1882, London Ontario, Canada
Died April 17, 1938, Santa Ana Valley Hospital

Thomas Lorraine Hunt was born in London, Ontario, Canada, on February 11, 1882. His was parents were Canadian artist John Powell Hunt and Phoebe Hogarth Hunt. He was the second of four children.

Hunt first studied with his father, John Powell Hunt (1854-1932), and later with Hugh Breckenridge (1870-1937) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and in the summer, at his school in East Gloucester, Massachusetts.

In 1910, Hunt married Blanche Smith, in London, Canada. By 1917, when he registered for the World War I draft, he was settled in Cleveland, Ohio, working in construction and painting in his spare time. In 1924, he came to California, living in Hollywood and in San Bernardino. In 1927 he established himself in Laguna Beach. He was a member of the California Art Club, the Laguna Beach Art Association and the San Diego Art Guild.

Thomas Hunt gradually evolved from Impressionism to a distinctive and unique form of Post Impressionism. His mature works are visual statements characterized by almost flat areas of vivid color arranged in representational patterns, resulting in bold, dramatic canvases that celebrate color. He was uncommonly modernistic for the period in which he worked and thus found it difficult to sell his works.

Thomas L. Hunt died on April 17, 1938, at Santa Ana Valley Hospital resulting from complications following an ulcer operation.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine