William Woodward: American Impressionist

208 Pages·2011·59.178 MB·English

by  Robert Hinckley, George Schmidt, J. Richard Gruber, Jessie Poesch, Judith Bonner

W I L L I A M
W D
OODWAR
American Impressionist

W I L L I A M
W D
OODWAR
American Impressionist
EDITED BY ROBERT HINCKLEY
with essays by
George Schmidt, Richard Gruber, Jessie Poesch,
Judith Bonner, and Ray Bellande
(Opposite Page) Plate 1
Dome of the St. Louis Hotel in the Rain; 1915; oil crayon on board; 28¼ x 22¼ inches
New Orleans Museum of Art: Gift of the Art Association of New Orleans
William Woodward
American Impressionist
©Copyright 2009 by Robert C. Hinckley
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Essays written by Judith Bonner, Richard Gruber, Jessie Poesch,
and George Schmidt are copyrighted by their authors.
First Edition - August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-615-29840-5
Published by Robert C. Hinckley
Designed by Dean Cavalier and Phillip Collier
Phillip Collier Designs, Inc., New Orleans, LA
Printed by MPress, New Orleans, LA
Table of Contents
7
INTRODUCTION
by Robert Hinckley
BIOGRAPHY
8
excerpt from Some Notables of New Orleans.
Biographical and Descriptive Sketches of the Artists of New Orleans and Their Work.
13
PREFACE
by George Schmidt
17
“William Woodward, New Orleans and the Art of the South”
by J. Richard Gruber
39
“William Woodward: Training that Shaped His Career
as Teacher, Artist, and Advocate of the Arts”
by Jessie Poesch
67 “William Woodward: Muse to the
Preservation Movement in the Vieux Carré”
by Judith H. Bonner
147
“Coasting: The Retirement Years of
William and Louise G. Woodward at Biloxi, Mississippi”
by Ray L. Bellande
196
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
202
PLATE INDEX
207
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I
NTRODUCTION
by Robert Hinckley
William Woodward had a dynamic, profound, and lasting impact on Southern art and the New Orleans
art community. The articles that follow–written by George Schmidt, Judith Bonner, Richard Gruber,
Jessie Poesch, and Ray Bellande, prominent and knowledgeable experts in their respective areas–attest to
the many contributions William Woodward made to the arts and to the communities in which he lived.
Woodward was an extraordinarily influential force in Southern Impressionism, the New Orleans Arts and
Crafts movement and Newcomb Art School, and the French Quarter preservation movement. His paintings
also document scenes of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where he retired, as well as scenes from his travels
abroad and across the country.
It is unfortunate that Woodward did not receive the recognition that was rightfully his while he was alive
and actively teaching and painting. And, even though many institutions own a significant number of his
works, there is no place one can go to see more than a handful of those works on permanent display. For
these reasons, I have decided that it would be a tribute to Woodward and a service to those interested in his
art to assemble in a book a substantial body of his work.
The goal of this book is to present Woodward’s art to those interested in seeing it. It is hoped that
the reader or viewer will recognize the diversity of his work–the different methods, styles, and genres he
used–and thus appreciate the breadth of his talent and the innovative and creative approaches he undertook.
Woodward chiefly painted in oils, but also in watercolors. In Europe, he discovered the novel medium of
the Raffaelli oil crayon that he used to paint scenes and buildings in and around New Orleans as an act
of historical record and in order to advance the cause of their preservation. He invented a new dry etching
process, fiberloid, in his later years when he could not walk and needed a simpler, and safer, etching process.
Additionally, Woodward painted a large mural for the United Fruit Company and portraits, including those
of the founding professors at Tulane, where he taught Fine Art and Architecture. Simply put, thanks to
William Woodward and his many talents, the art world is much the richer.
(Opposite Page) Plate 2
Self Portrait; 1906; oil on canvas; 30 x 25 inches
Newcomb Art Collection, Tulane University
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B
IOGRAPHY
In 1896, May W. Mount published a book entitled, Some Notables of New Orleans.
Biographical and Descriptive Sketches of the Artists of New Orleans and Their Work. A section
of the book was devoted to William Woodward who in the relatively brief twelve years since
his arrival in New Orleans had risen to fame and prominence in the field of art education
and as a practicing artist.
William Woodward was born May 1, 1859, in the little town of Seekonk, Massachusetts, and passed
a pleasant childhood under the strong inspiration of the wholesome country life of New England. His
attendance at the district school was directed by his mother, who had been a successful school teacher, and
who continued one of the supports of the local circulating library. Good books were always at hand, and
also, as perhaps the first awakening of instinct toward the practice of the graphic arts, were the sketches and
admirable crayon portraits of his mother’s youngest brother, George Carpenter, who died in the service of his
country, early in the Civil war.
It is not known if any member of the family had been an artist, but this may well have been due to the
repressing influence of the stern Puritan life of the family for ten generations in the narrow limits of this
country town. The present generation, however, may be said to flower in art, as, beside his brother Ellsworth,
a cousin Louise Carpenter, of Berkley, California, is an artist, and contributed to the very creditable display
in the California State building at Chicago, during the Columbian Exposition. The first great milestone
of life was reached when his father took these two boys, who displayed a leaning toward the arts, to visit
the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876. With that visit opened the second epoch of life, and a
burning zeal for art education led William to join the R. I. School of Design, one month after that school
opened by energy and wisdom of an association of ladies of Providence, where the organization which had
sent a contribution to the centennial, was continued to make practical beginnings in art teaching.
The success attained by William the first year, even though hampered by a six mile drive back and forth to
his home, led to his being joined the next year by his brother Ellsworth, and thus a band already as strong as
human relation and sympathy could make it, was rendered doubly strong by community of practical interests,
and no one fact of success is so clearly set forth as the mutual helpfulness of these brothers who go forward
together in the great advance which art is making in this country.
The R. I. School of Design drew for its teachers on the Massachusetts Normal Art School at Boston,
then, as now, the best training school for art teachers in this country, and this led, in the course of seven
years continuous study, alternated with vacations on the farm, to the graduation of William at the latter
8
institution, in 1886, though meantime, he had cast his lot with the people in New Orleans, accepting a call
to Tulane University, on its reorganization as such by President William Preston Johnston, in 1884, and had
married, June1st, 1886, a gifted and lovely girl, Louise Giessen, of this city. Graduation was followed by a
summer’s study in the famous Julien’s Art School of Paris, after travel to Scotland and England.
The third epoch opened with the organization of classes in drawing at Tulane College and High School,
almost an unknown subject in the South at the time. These classes held a session each afternoon in the
gallery of the Government in the States building of the Cotton Centennial Exposition, in 1884-’5, at what
is now Audubon Park.
This led to a very intimate study of the education exhibits there gathered and was an important introduction
to the Southern country where for eleven years, the Tulane classes have been among the best known models
in graphic art education.
The next year a free drawing school was projected and gradually developed through ten years, until in 1894,
it closed with the removal of Tulane College to its present site, opposite Audobon Park. This school was open
to all who had finished schooling, and was attended by some thousands of men and women, on Saturday
and at night when the classes were held. These were days of heavy work, sometimes six days and six nights
per week including college and high school drawing, but the consciousness that no one was turned away who
desired to take advantage of the opportunity repays for all.
From the decorative art classes composed of women of the free drawing school, was formed by the “Art
League,” which, for several years, until much of its work was continued by other agencies, conducted mutual
art interests, in the form of a “Supply Store,” an “Art Pottery,” a cabinetmaker’s shop, reading and exhibition
rooms, etc. In this work Professor Woodward was enthusiastically seconded by his brother assistant, Professor
Ellsworth Woodward, who had been secured after the first year had demonstrated that a great work in art
education in New Orleans had been begun.
In 1887, President Wm. Preston Johnston, who was organizing the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College
for young women, entrusted the fitting of suitable rooms, the forming of the classes in the arts there, and the
selecting of necessary instructors, to Mr. Woodward, as University professor.
He called as associates his brother Ellsworth and Miss Gertrude Roberts, and they also continued to
assist in the free drawing school until the enlargement and removal of the H. Sophie Newcomb College,
when Professor Ellsworth Woodward was charged with the art interests of the latter, which under his great
guidance have developed great strength.
The great Columbian Exposition, held in 1893, at Chicago, found Prof. Woodward in active duty as joint
chairman of the committee on the art exhibits for the Louisiana organization. He helped to place a worthy
display in a specially prepared room in the Louisiana State building on the Exposition grounds, and also to
collect art works to be submitted to the National art jury for admission to the Art Gallery. The oil painting
of his which was hung in the Art Gallery, was the only one accepted from the Southern States.
9