|
ARTIST UPDATES
(Updated 6/2010)
Unless otherwise
noted, this information here was researched and compiled
by Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director, Southold Historical
Society, Southold, New York. (c) COPYRIGHT 2009 Southold
Histoeical Society - All Rights
Reserved.
NEW BIOGRAPHIES
This section includes new biographies of
recently discovered artists who worked or depicted
scenery on the North Fork of Long Island.
Shepardson, Benjamin E. (1898-1954).
Painter. Born and raised in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, son of George E. Shepardson, a prominent
merchant in the milling industry. He attended Columbia
University and served in the Navy during World War I.
In 1910 Benjamin was the Superintendent of a Boy's Club
in New York City and lived on Avenue A. By 1930 he was
married and working for Chase Manhattan Bank while
living in Tuckahoe, Westchester County, New York. He
was eventually promoted to second Vice President at
Chase. His last residence was located in Bronxville,
New York. Shepardson was apparently a regular exhibitor
at the Salmagundi Club, where he was given a
sole exhibition for his recent paintings of Bermuda in
1952. An identified painting depicting "Nassau
Point, Long Island, Oct. 1926" in the Salmagundi
Club's collection confirms he was working here on the
North Fork of Long Island. Sources: CENSUS, NYT,
SALMAGUNDI, MUELLER.
MISSING BIOGRAPHIES
While working on any publication, some
material gets edited out - sometimes for the better and
sometimes not. In this section we will report any
biographies that should have been in the biograpical
section but for one reason or another never made it into
the published version.
Beers, Orlando Hand. -
Coming soon!
UPDATES TO BIOGRAPHIES
Kurth, Otto J. (1883-1965).
Kurth was born in Munich, Bavaria to
Otto and Francisca (Hillgartner) Kurth on Christmas
Day 1883. He spent his youth through high school in
Germany, enrolling at the Art Academy in Munich
under Franz Stuck. After emigrating to America he
took further study at the Art Students League in New
York with Arthur Bridgeman. He became a naturalized
citizen in 1923. He took work at the New York
Times as a newspaper artist from 1908-1922. From
1923-1950 he was Assistant Art Director for Liberty
Magazine as well as consulting art director for
Literary Digest and Colliers History of World War I,
which he coauthored. He also wrote and illustrated
for all of the aforementioned publications as well
as Harper's Pictorial History of World War I.
Historical and travel maps were also a specialty of
his. At the time of his admission to the
Salmagundi [Club] he was married to Lydia (Goodall)
and had two sons — Otto William and Reinhold Walter.
Some online sources have him married to Helen
Kroeger as early as the 1930s and establishing
Anchorage Studio as a couple, yet Kurth himself
lists his wife as Lydia Goodall in 1950. He
settled in Mattituck and the family became members
at the Mattituck Presbyterian Church. The church has
work by Otto on display in the hall of their
building. His hobbies included color
photography, maritime history — as evidenced in his
many paintings of tall ships — and graphic arts.
Otto Kurth was also a freemason (Forest Hill
Chapter 892) and an alumni of the New York State
Maritime College. Biography update
courtesy of Robert Mueller.
CORRECTIONS
We will post corrections to information
included in our book here. Like any publication,
there are always minor errors as well as new information
discovered which corrects some data previously
published.
Kurth, Otto J. (1883-1965).
In fact, most of the information on this artrist is
incomplete (see above) or wrong - especially concerning
his long relationship with fellow painter Helen Kroeger.
His descendant, grandson Galen Kurth, sets it right in
the following email to Mattituck resident and Salmagundi
Club Curator, Robert Mueller:
"Thank you for the
exhaustive reply concerning my grandfather, Otto J
Kurth. There was quite a bit of information there that I
didn't have. It's an interesting coincidence that you
live in Mattituck. To flesh out what you have, some
family information. Grandfather was trained as a
barber/hair dresser, the family business. Obviously,
that's not what he wanted to do with his life, and his
choice of an artist's career didn't sit well with his
father. That led to the emigration to the U.S. He
couldn't come directly from Germany at that time, so he
went to London, where he met Lydia Goodall. After some
time, he managed to get a quota to come to Canada, where
he worked as a barber at the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec
with his brother. He was finally able to enter the U.S.
and at that point sent for Lydia. An early
accomplishment was helping persuade the Passion Players
of Oberamagau, Germany to come to the U.S. in the 1920's
to raise famine relief funds for their area of Bavaria.
He made a trip back to Germany and apparently
established a relationship, or called upon an existing
one, with Anton Lang, who played Christ in the passion
play. The play had never been performed outside Bavaria
before that time. His relationship with the NY State
Maritime College (King's Point) was through his son
Edward, who was a graduate. MANY interesting stories
from that part of the family. Eddie apparently inherited
the artist's talent in the family, judging from a few
sketches I've seen from his voyages around the world.
Eddie was sadly killed in a traffic accident in Miami on
New Year's Eve, around 1937, but Grandfather remained a
supporter of King's Point. The relationship with Helen
Kroger [Kroeger] was, frankly, the family scandal.
Grandfather was separated from Lydia in the early '50's,
but never divorced. He shared quarters with Helen for
many years, always referring to her as his "landlady."
They were not married until very shortly before he died,
after Lydia's death. A bit Bohemian for a Bavarian, I'd
say, but he and Helen were happy together, so what the
heck.... I remember Grandfather coming out to Hunterdon
County, NJ, where we lived (Otto W was my father) and
going painting with him along the Delaware river when I
was very young. He would find something along the river
which appealed to him, set up his easel, and paint while
I kept myself amused. On more than one occasion, if he'd
painted a public house of some sort, he'd sell it to the
owner while it was still wet. Again, thank you for your
detailed response to my query. I'm glad you enjoy my
grandfather's work, and that some of it is still on view
in his adopted town. Late in life Helen let a great
number of his paintings simply disappear with some
unscrupulous "caregivers," which should be a cautionary
tale for all artists."
NEW INFORMATION
As reported in our book, John William
Casilear (1811-1893) came to work in Peconic, Long
Island during the 1880s. Exactly why he came was a
question - until now. We now know that one of his
children, a son, was living here, as noted in the
Brooklyn Daily Eagle in July of 1885:
"J. W. Casilear, who has not taken a
long
vacation in two or three years, and who is very
fond of the cosy quarters in his studio, where he often
sits until the small hours reading after supper, has
gone to Peconic to remain for some weeks. His
son, a young man of artistic proclivities lives there.
Mr. Casilear before leaving finished a delightful summer
landscape, with cattle entering a river and standing in
the cool shadows pf sturdy elms that grow along its
banks. A serene sky, flecked with cirro cumuli, spreads
overhead, and. beyond the stream are enticing glimpses
of hill and field. He also painted a view of
Mont Blanc, from a roadway back of Chamouni,
commanding a fine view of the
monarch mountain, with its silver shining snows."
As early as 1881 Casilear was visiting
Peconic. We now know his son, John W. Casilear Jr.
(c.1867-1939), was living here during this period and
was the likely reason for his first visit. The son
may have been apprenticed to someone out on the North
Fork as he was still a teenager at the time.
Junior married in the early 1890s and returned here to
vacation with his wife. They lived in Brooklyn for
most of their married lives.
Do you have new information?
Send us an email!
|
