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About Lawton Parker
What prompted John Wesley Parker to move Sarah Ann Sawyer Parker, his wife, and his family from Fairfield, Michigan to Kearney, Nebraska around 1873 is unknown. Nevertheless, it was during his youth as a farm boy near Kearney that Lawton’s talents were first recognized. In response to an amateur art competition announced in 1886 by a Dr. W. C. Gray in the pages of his religious magazine, Interior, young Parker sent a sketch to Chicago where it was awarded first prize. Lawton’s father was persuaded to allow him a period of art instruction, sponsored by Dr. Gray, under *John H. Vanderpoel, a professor at the *Art Institute of Chicago. Thanks to Vanderpoel, Parker progressed rapidly through the standard academic curriculum, which included drawing from plaster casts and live models. At the end of his first year, the school presented him a medal for his work. Then Parker’s "free" tuition expired but he wished to continue his art training. According to one source, he gathered funds for this purpose by traveling to Kansas City where he painted portraits, ". . . for $5 apiece, doing, when business was brisk, sometimes three a day. . . . Another thing he did in Kansas City was to paint a big decoration on the outside of a building. . . . He was payed [sic] a huge sum for this — $75. . . ."
After this artistic adventure, Lawton Parker returned to Chicago for a short period and then in 1888 the aspiring painter set sail for France. In Paris he passed the strict entrance exam to enroll in the *Ecole des Beaux-Arts, which meant that he had an excellent knowledge of the French language as well as French and ancient history, and some mythology. At the Ecole he was trained in the rigorous academic system that guaranteed technical excellence, which would permit him to compete in the world of Salon painters. Parker listed his teachers as *Bouguereau and the more sympathetic *Tony Robert-Fleury. Shortly, however, the lure of the more progressive type of art and perhaps a basic need to be around Americans prompted him to enroll at the private but competitive *Académie Julian. He joined countless other Americans who scrambled for easel space to sketch the live model and to complete outside assignments that required visiting museums and galleries.
By 1890, Paris was the center of most all art movements of the late nineteenth century and Parker was aware of most, including the Salon style, *Bastien-Lepage’s *plein-air method, the *juste milieu manner, and *Claude Monet’s impressionism. The various *post-impressionist movements were also under way, which meant impressionism was being challenged, and modernism was just around the corner. Parker exhibited a portrait in the Salon of 1890. By that time he had absorbed about as much as possible and returned to America.
In New York, Parker became a pupil at the *Art Students League to receive critiques from *William Merritt Chase, *Henry Siddons Mowbray, and *John La Farge. French impressionism had already appeared to the New York public in 1886 when *Paul Durand-Ruel furnished canvases for exhibition, funded by the *American Art Association. It was surprisingly well accepted by the press and the public. Numerous well respected painters in New York were succumbing to the effects of impressionism, including Parker’s teacher Chase, but Parker would not assimilate the basic tenets of the French aesthetic for another decade. According to one account, his progress at the ASL was rewarded with a $250 prize in 1891. It seems that Lawton enjoyed the student environment, however for reasons unclear but possibly on a visit to Chicago, Parker accepted a position as instructor at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts of which *Halsey C. Ives was director. After a year, he accepted a more lucrative post as director of Fine Arts at Beloit College in Wisconsin. He began his duties there in 1893, the year in which Ives directed the monumental tasks of the Fine Arts Section of the *World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Many of Parker’s associates and acquaintances such as *Robert Reid were involved with the organization or planned to exhibit works in the art galleries. Parker remained in Beloit for more than two years, following which he apparently returned to New York after a brief delay in Chicago.
Knowledge of Parker’s activities during this general period is scant. In any case, he resumed his status as a pupil at the Art Students League, and in 1896 he received the John Armstrong Chaloner European Scholarship (or Paris Prize), which amounted to $5,000. This allowed him to return to Paris where he enrolled for a second time in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts as well as at the Académie Julian. At Julian’s he received yet another school prize for portraiture and the promotion to the rank of hors concours. A similar but more traditionally prestigious award was presented around 1897: the Prix d’Atelier, which Jean-Léon Gérôme himself announced. Also, at the *Académie Colarossi, Parker won a bronze medal. Parker may have returned to New York briefly in 1897 but some time after his Prix d’Atelier, Albert Besnard (1849-1934), then one of France’s important painters, requested that Parker assist him in the mural decoration of the Cazin Hospital at Berck-sur-Mer, just south of Etaples on the English Channel. Besnard, sympathetic to impressionism, was an influence in Parker’s stylistic development, as was *Whistler from whom he apparently requested advice at the *Académie Carmen. Parker exhibited portraits and other works in the Salons of 1897 and 1898. Recognition of Parker’s comet-like success was imminent even across the Atlantic. While working in Paris, Parker received a U.S. government scholarship for American students living in Paris but by 1898 he was ready to return home to America.
When Parker reached New York in 1898 he found the city excited about a newly organized group of American painters, mainly impressionists, who called themselves *the Ten. Parker’s relationship with William Merritt Chase undoubtedly resulted in the younger painter’s appointment as president of the *New York School of Art (Chase School). In his typical restless manner, Parker kept the appointment only one year and prepared to return to Paris, supposedly to obtain the lecturing services of *Carolus-Duran, the teacher of *John Singer Sargent and others, for the school. By 1900, then, Parker was back in Paris completing work for the *Paris Universal Exposition; however, he did not end up exhibiting there. A frequently repeated story is that one of his canvases was accidentally damaged and there remained only one week to execute a replacement for the annual Salon. Working non-stop, he finished My Model, a composition that was awarded an Honorable Mention, his first important prize. But more than this, the painting was somewhat different from previous works in its subtle brushwork, delicate color modulation, and unusual lighting of the face and arms, which reflected the influence of Besnard. Later in 1900 he founded the Parker Academy in Paris, which from most accounts was reasonably successful for a short time. In any case, he was in a position to have his parents reside with him in Paris, an experience enthusiastically recounted by his mother in later years. It was also the beginning of a series of trips to Madrid where Parker spent many hours studying in the Prado Museum.
In 1901, Parker accepted a teaching job at the Art Institute of Chicago. This was a temporary position that lasted only eight weeks, though he continued there as a non-resident professor until January of 1902, the year of his father’s death. Although Parker made his home in Chicago, he traveled extensively that year and took time to visit Kearney in the summer. While in Chicago, he received the message that his stunning, Sargentesque full-length Portrait of Mrs. Leonard Wood had received a third-class medal in the 1902 Paris Salon. In the following year he served as principal of the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, a position he hoped would allow him to introduce teaching methodology more closely aligned with the French atelier manner. He had previously lamented that:competition — the keynote of the whole question — is generally disregarded . . . . [The student] is so hampered by the petty jealousies of his instructors , all of whom take a try at correcting his work. . . . The atelier system, where each professor can have the absolute direction of his own classes, and where competition is made the basis for advancement, is, I think, the only sensible and practicable one to be employed.
This comment parallels the debate within the old French Académie over the atelier system in the late eighteenth century and it implies Parker’s own need to regenerate motivation through competition.
When Parker moved to *Giverny in 1903, not far from Monet’s estate, any personal reluctance to convert to impressionism was abandoned. There he met *Frederick Frieseke and soon shared the well known walled garden, which served as a backdrop and setting for so many of their paintings. Indeed, Giverny was dominated by Americans who from the time that *Willard Metcalf, *Theodore Robinson, and *Theodore Earl Butler first went there, made it an expatriate impressionist *artists’ colony. During the following summers Parker worked side by side with *Karl Anderson, *Richard Miller, *Edmund Greacen, and *Guy Rose. Parker, like *Gari Melchers, maintained several studios in subsequent years; he listed addresses in Giverny, Paris, and Chicago. The artist made an ample income from portraits, many of which were commissioned in Chicago, but he submitted works in a decidedly impressionistic style to exhibitions. In 1904, he received a silver medal at the *St. Louis Universal Exposition and a gold medal at the Munich International a year later for his canvas An English Girl (Kearney Public Library).
During the remainder of the decade, Lawton Parker’s impressionism became more distinctly personal. Characteristically he juxtaposed contrasted pigment in dashing strokes to depict young women in various stages of attire as they posed candidly in his garden. Parker continued to win awards, such as the first medal from the Chicago Society of Artists in 1908, and to maintain an active exhibition schedule across the nation. One critic observed during a joint exhibition of works by Parker, Miller, Rose, and Frieseke how the first three: have, in the years, completely changed their style, choosing to throw their lot with the impressionistic school. . . . Mr. Parker offers the figure of a standing girl in an arbor. . . . The woman has been painted in brilliant color and with great freedom of brushwork, in touches of palpitating colors wherein the values have been well observed and the arrangement given a highly pictorial setting.
Continuing his predictable *subject matter as an unswerving member of the so-called "third generation" of American painters in Giverny, Parker was joined by artists such as *Louis Ritman. At the Art Institute of Chicago, Parker’s works were presented in a one-man show in the spring of 1912.
When New York was shocked by the cubists at the Armory Show, Parker won a gold medal from the *Société des Artistes Français for his masterpiece, La Paresse (Idleness; location unknown) at the Salon. He executed the work during the previous summer when a rainstorm forced him and his model indoors. Art critic George Breed Zug related that:
In spite of its apparent spontaneity, the arrangement of this beautiful picture is consciously worked out even to the least line of the kimono. . . .
In the broad movement of tones there is a subtle use of color, a harmony in lavender, and the play of light from before and behind, as it falls on face and figure. . . ."
In the ensuing years great emphasis was placed on the fact that Parker, an American, received the gold medal at the "old Salon," even though *Eugene Vail had done so earlier in 1889. During that period, Parker’s portraits done in a more traditional manner, continued to assure a comfortable income. In 1915 he won the prestigious Medal of Honor at the *Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. This was followed by his election to the *National Academy of Design as an Associate in 1918.
Yet for all this success, Parker battled constantly with exhibition jurors and others, beginning in 1914 when his award-winning La Paresse was removed temporarily from the *Carnegie International Exhibition by its director, *John Wesley Beatty after being accepted by the jury. Similar situations with incompetent juries and outmoded exhibition practices prompted Parker’s outspoken criticism, particularly in Chicago. The painter finally left Chicago for New York where he was involved in the construction of the Rodin Studios with the architect Cass Gilbert (1859-1934), the designer of the Woolworth Building. Parker was the president of the syndicate of artists who owned the new studio building. Parker continued to paint portraits, and produced and exhibited beautiful examples of Giverny *intimism. Parker could not stay away from France for long, and he seemed to accomplish more in the company of Frieseke and his American comrades in Giverny. During the 1920s, Parker lived with his wife, Beatrice Snow Parker, and their son, Larry, at their studio-residence, Château d’Andecy at Pailly-sur-Oise, approximately twenty miles northeast of Paris, where he had an additional studio. At first, thanks to fortunate investments in AT&T, he had little trouble supporting his family and remained there through the early 1930s. Yet Parker found decreasing demand for his work and devoted more time to graphic art. One reviewer praised Parker’s "tour de force" nudes in 1935. In his late sixties, Parker finally slackened his pace and was frequently disappointed by the criticism of his work. He was able to remain in France until the outbreak of World War II and the German Occupation, which forced him to send his family to America (Pasadena). He himself escaped, disguised as a Basque peasant, in 1942, but he lost numerous works of art.
Settled in California, Parker purchased a residence along the Upper Aroyo and resumed painting. His works were exhibited at the Pasadena Art Institute in the spring of 1945. His remaining years were spent creatively but with little notice. He died at the age of eighty-six and his remaining works and memorabilia were auctioned off in 1974. A devoted collector was responsible for a major exhibition of Parker’s work at Baxter Art Gallery at the California Institute of Technology, two years later.
REF.
Parker, 1902; Pattison, 1913-A; Sheldon, 1914; Webster, 1914; McCauley, 1915; Zug, 1915; "No Apartments in the City to Suit Them," 1916; Warshawsky, 1931, pp. 97, 111; Kospoth, 1935; Sellin, 1982, p. 220; Quick, 1983, pp. 41, 128; Gerdts, 1984, p. 270; Weinberg, 1984, p. 107; Zellman, 1987, p. 622; Preato, Langer, and Cox, 1988, pp. 60, 81; Fink, 1990, p. 377; Gerdts, 1990, vol. 2, p. 316; Rosenblum, 1990; Trenton and Gerdts, 1990, pp. 42, 47; Gerdts, 1992-B, pp. 192-194; Gerdts, 1993, pp. 179-184, 195-196, 219; Freeman, 1994; Love and Miller, 1995; Weber, 1995-96, pp. 7-9, 14-15, 40-42, 57, 63; Love and Marshall, 1999, pp. 62-63. |
Paintings by Lawton Parker
| Landscape with a Lake |
| oil on paper mounted on canavs: 7 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches |
| unsigned |
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| Woman in Dress |
| oil on canvas: 16 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches |
| estate stamp reverse |
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| Woman Seated at a Tea Table |
| pastel and pencil on paper: 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches |
| estate stamp reverse |
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