Beatrice Tonnesen – Photographer & Artist

Here are the latest additions to my collection of beautiful artwork by Beatrice Tonnesen.  All were created from photos by Tonnesen, and she also served as the illustrator for at least one of them.  Here’s what we know about the gorgeous images shown in the slideshow at right.  In order, they are:

“Winona,” signed Beatrice Tonnesen.  The signature indicates to me that Tonnesen painted, as well as photographed, this scene.  Probably published as a calendar print around 1925, it is very similar to another of Tonnesen’s Indian maiden prints titled “Whispering Waters.”  (See Catalog Album#1.)  The model, whom I believe to have been Chicago beauty queen Mary Simmonds (1896-1976), wears the same dress in both prints, and sits on the same grassy, flower-dotted ledge.

“Annette,” appearing on a 1919 calendar published by J. Baumgarth Co., Chicago.  The dress and chair identify this as a product of Tonnesen’s studio.  This woman appears in other verified photos by Tonnesen taken around 1915 – 1918.

“Better Sox Mills,” a blotter, probably produced around 1920.  The company apparently produced a series of these family-themed blotters, several of which featured artwork from photos by Tonnesen.  Mother and child scenes were also Better Sox favorites.  The toy cradle and rug are Tonnesen Studio props.  Tonnesen was fond of showing children playing “grown-up,” and sometimes added spectacles to illustate the theme.

Three Religious-Themed Postcards.  The next three images were obviously created during the same photo session.  The original photo of the young girl with the Easter lilies is part of the Tonnesen Archive of the Winneconne (WI) Historical Society.  The model appears to be Virginia Waller (1913-2006).

“Perfection in Munsingwear,” copyright 1920, The Munsingwear Corporation, Minneapolis. This print appeared on a calendar.  The model is believed to be Eva Grady (1899-1934), who became a Ziegfeld Follies star.  The Oshkosh (WI) Public Museum has an original photograph by Tonnesen, showing her in what appears to be this same underslip, holding yellow roses.  I believe this print to have originated from that same photo session.  I also believe, but cannot be sure, that Tonnesen was the illustrator of  this print.  The soft, dark sky and trees are typical of her background work.

Hand Tinted Photo of Mother and Child.  The original photo is part of the Tonnesen Archive of the Oshkosh Public Museum.  I have not seen this woman in any of Tonnesen’s other photos.  But I recognize the child from some of her other photos thought to date to the mid -to- late 1920′s.  The stunning art deco styling of the frame supports my feeling that this was probably published around 1930, making it one of Tonnesen’s latest works. The image is behind curved glass and I didn’t want to remove it for scanning, so some reflection appears.

Copyright 2013 Lois Emerson

“The Inland Printer,” a leading graphic arts journal of its time, devoted the cover of its January, 1898 issue, and several interior pages, to the art of Beatrice Tonnesen.   The magazine, which described itself as “a technical journal devoted to the art of printing,” was based in Chicago.  In researching the publication, I came across the website MagazineArt.org, which describes its impact as follows:

The magazine was an extremely important influence in popularizing Art Nouveau and a general improvement in the artistic quality and design of printed materials in the United States, beginning in the 1890′s.

(Actually, I found other online references to its existence ranging from 1883 to 1974.)

In an article titled “Photography for Advertising Uses,” the editors opined that the time had come for professional photographers to try new ideas and to “throw more art into (their) calling.”  And they hailed Beatrice Tonnesen’s recent introduction of photographic art into advertising as an example of just such an achievement.  To demonstrate their point, they included illustrations and half-tones of several of her art photos, as well as several of her advertising suggestions – sample ads built around photographs created for commercial purposes.  I’ve found examples of Tonnesen’s art photos, as well as ads run by the Tonnesen Sisters touting their own advertising work, in other issues of “The Inland Printer.”  But, I’ve never found such an extensive presentation of her advertising art.  I feel very lucky to have been able to acquire this issue, and am happy to be able to share its feature story and the very rare images that accompany it, via the slideshow at right.  (Note:  For easier reading of the feature story, see the reprinted text below.)

Copyright 2013 Lois Emerson

Text of “Photography for Advertising Uses,”  The Inland Printer, January 1898:

Photography at present has many votaries. From the “button presser” with his five-dollar camera, content to snap at everything in sight and let the other fellow “do the rest,” to the most enthusiastic professional, equipped with the latest and costliest paraphernalia, the field is well taken up with varying grades of photographic talent. To the amateur who loves his art “for art’s sake,” who labors diligently to perfect himself in its many charming intricacies, must be ascribed the honor of a goodly numberer of the discoveries that have given photography such a forward impetus. Not that the professional does nothing in this direction. Far from it. But the amateur very often has the time, the inclination, and the money to devote to experimenting which the professional finds utterly impossible to attend to in connection with his regular work.

The time has come, however, when even the professional, or, more correctly speaking, the working photographer – the one who depends upon his daily work for a living – must get away from the everyday routine of studio work and in some way throw more art into his calling, or take up new lines that others have not attempted, if he would lead in his profession. “Non-studio photography” is one of the means by which this can be accomplished. Flash-light pictures of people can by this plan be taken in their own homes, in the midst of those accessories that make a photograph so animated and realistic. Out-of-door groupings can be made on the lawn or porch of the summer home, or in other paces where natural surroundings lend picturesqueness and artistic opportunities. Non-studio photography is not, however, the only means by which renown and a fair remuneration for one’s services can be secured, and it is not always convenient to take up non-studio work. Proper study and work in the studio, with the assistance of the best models, backgrounds and accessories can accomplish much. This very thing is being successfully done in Chicago, my Miss Beatrice Tonnesen – a young lady not yet twenty-four, who has introduced such novel ideas into her work that she has challenged public attention and bids fair to shorty occupy a unique position in the art of photography.

Miss Tonnesen came to Chicago about two years ago from Wisconsin. She learned the rudiments of the art and obtained her first lessons in business in the towns of Oshkosh and Menominee. Yearning for a location where her talents could find wider scope, she selected Chicago as an inviting field for operation. She came, bought out a studio and entirely reorganized the business. Her regular studio work has always been signally successful, for no one has given more thought and study to posing, lighting, draping and the important points for attaining satisfactory results than she. While making a specialty of women and children, her work is by no means confined to these, and she has numbered among her sitters men who are famous in business, politics, and religion. The work with which this article deals more particularly, however, is Miss Tonnesen’s achievements in the way of introducing art pictures for commercial purposes, displaying in the good points of an article, and throwing into the back ground or entirely eliminating the bad ones – if there be such. For this purpose she employs number of models, each selected with the utmost care for the particular work intended, and costumed and posed to illustrate most effectively the subject for publicity. The results are uniformly pleasing. The reproductions of a few of the pictures shown herewith speak for themselves and exhibit the excellencies of her work. Some of the cleverest illustrated magazine advertisements today are made conspicuous by her efforts, for the photograph is often mightier than the pen or type in attracting attention.

She is ably assisted in her work by her sister Mrs. Kirkpatrick, who directs the business management of the establishment in a most energetic way, leaving Miss Tonnesen free to attend to the details of the studio and other matters of artistic import, without the distracting worries of business.

A number of examples of Miss Tonnesen’s work are presented in connection with this notice, all very clearly exemplifying the scope of her work; otherwise will be found in another part of the magazine. Attention is also called to the illustration upon the front cover, and to the half-tones in the headings on page 459 and on the editorial page.

Year after year, calendar art chronicles the life of the American people -  their changing interests, fashions, experiences and current events.  During World War I (1914-1918) and the years immediately following, with the country immersed in the war effort, art publishers turned to related themes.  Beatrice Tonnesen was among the many prominent artists who provided poignant scenes of  soldiers departing for or returning from war, families waiting for news of their loved ones, and stirring scenes of heightened patriotism.   The slideshow at right shows several examples of WWI era calendar and wall art created from photos by Tonnesen.

1. “Keep the Home Fires Burning.” Calendar print circa 1918, from an original photo in the Tonnesen archive of the Winneconne (WI) Historical Society.
2. “Daddy Is Home Again.”  Sheet music, copyright 1919, Chas. A. Roat Music Co.  Mom, who wears one of Tonnesen’s dresses, and Dad were frequent Tonnesen models.  The chair, table and foot stool were Tonnesen props.
3. “When They Meet Again.”  Note the soldier is the same model seen in the previous image.  Other models are Janie Berghauer (1916-1994) and a model identified on other images as “Jean Blackwell,” about whom I have no information.  The props are Tonnesen’s.
4. “The Waiting Welcome.”  Postcard copyrighted in 1915 by Gartner Bender.  Tonnesen models appear in this scene with Tonnesen’s props.
5. “A Child’s Prayer at Twilight” Copyright 1919, Chas. Gustrine, Chicago.  Gustrine (1870-1966) was an illustrator and publisher of patriotic themed images from about 1900 until the 1940′s.  This image contains furnishings from Tonnesen’s studio.  Mom wears a dress seen often in Tonnesen’s photos.
6. “Her Boy’s Coming Home. ” Another 1919 print by Gustrine.  I’m not 100% sure that this originated as a Tonnesen photo, but I’d be very surprised if it didn’t.  The boy is Tonnesen model William Redmond (1908-1992) and the woman wears a costume that, though quite generic, appears to be one used in other scenes by Tonnesen.
7. Untitled, circa 1918.  This is typical of the popular  “Lady Liberty” themed prints, featuring beautiful women draped in the American flag and/or surrounded by patriotic symbols, that were used for recruitment or other promotion of the war effort. In this scene, the woman wears the same dress as shown in “A child’s Prayer at Twilight.”

Other WWI images by Tonnesen appear in this site’s Tonnesen Catalog, in Albums #4 and #15.  Also see the post titled “Seven Tonnesen Models Gather for One WWI Photo.”

Copyright 2013 Lois Emerson

Two new additions to my Tonnesen collection, both original photos copyrighted by the Tonnesen sisters, feature notations that appear to be the handwriting of Beatrice Tonnesen.  I’m showing the photographic images and the notations found on the back of each in the slideshow at right.  You can compare the handwriting for yourself, by clicking on the link to “Beatrice Tonnesen’s Restored Scrapbook” near the bottom left of this page, and browsing through the many pages that contain dates and other information written by BT herself.

The first photo shown at right is titled “Have A Taste.”  I purchased it from Christopher Wahren Fine Photographs of New Haven, CT.  Mr. Wahren states that it is a “gelatin-silver print … perhaps with platinum admixture.”  The word “print” in this context refers to a photo made from the original negative.  The photos marked “Tonnesen Sisters” originated early in Beatrice Tonnesen’s career, before she used “T-numbers” – a capital “T” followed by a number – to identify her works chronologically.  The few numbers I’ve found on other photos by Tonnesen Sisters have not appeared to be chronological.  So I am unsure as to what the “114″ found on “Have a Taste,” which was copyrighted in 1902, represents. The images marked “Tonnesen Sisters” were produced between approximately 1896 and 1903.

The second image showing the beautiful young girl holding bunnies in her apron, is a hand-colored photo.  Brush strokes can be seen in some areas, and the lines on her blouse appear to have been added with a silver-tinged paint.  There is no publisher listed, and it does not appear to ever have been part of a published calendar.  So, believing it possible that it might have come directly from Tonnesen, I removed it from its frame and discovered the numbers “93″ and “4″ handwritten on the back.  I could be wrong, but these look like Tonnesen’s handwriting to me.  She is known to have been in the habit of making several photos for her own use from each negative at its time of creation.  My guess would be that the “4″ designates this as “Number 4″ among those photos.

It’s exciting to find these little glimpses into the long-ago creation of these works of art!  A good winter-time project for me might be to remove a few more of my treasures from their frames and see what hidden bits of information I might find.

Copyright 2012 Lois Emerson

Nora Hudson Goddard Wolfenden, aka “L Goddard”. (Click for larger version)

[Update:  12/6/2012:  The portrait at right is of Leonora Woolfenden.  It belonged to the late Betty Lou Salisbury, daughter of Woolfenden's aunt, Lucy Bate Rowe Salisbury, whose granddaughter, Elissa Ball Hamlin, found it this week among the family heirlooms.  She photographed it and emailed the image to her cousin, Jeff Salisbury, who forwarded it to me.  At some point, Betty Lou Salisbury added important identifying information to the back of the portrait.  What she wrote further confirms that the woman who began life as Nora Hudson became Leonora Woolfenden, known both for her work at the James Arthur Studio in Detroit and as the woman behind the acclaimed illustration art pseudonym "L. Goddard."  Salisbury's message, so helpful to today's collectors,  states:  "Nora Hudson Goddard Wolfenden; Chosen one of the ten most Beautiful Women in the world - Photographic Convention- Paris 1910 (I think).  James Arthur - Photographer - Detroit and 'friend'."  Many thanks to Elissa Ball Hamlin and Jeff Salisbury for providing this image and its accompanying information!
-Ed.]

The prints signed L. Goddard are probably the best known examples of the technique of photo illustration produced during the Golden Age of Illustration, about 1900-1940.  In fact, it was because I was familiar with L. Goddard’s art, reportedly a collaboration between Detroit-based photographer Leonora Woolfenden (1877 – 1955) and Chicago-based artist Rudolph Ingerle (1879 – 1950), that I first began to wonder if some works by artist R. Atkinson Fox (1860 – 1935) might have resulted from a similar collaboration with photographer Beatrice Tonnesen.

Of course, since then, we’ve learned that, not only did Fox sometimes paint from Tonnesen’s photos, Tonnesen, herself, sometimes painted from them.   And so, over the years, I’ve found myself wondering to what extent the same was true of Woolfenden.  An advertising blurb found on one 1920′s calendar does indicate that she sometimes painted from her photographs, but it is unclear as to which works she painted or what signature she used.  Collectors have been frustrated by a lack of information about how and where she worked, as well as about her personal life.  Though Rudolph Ingerle’s life and career as a Chicago- based landscape artist was well-documented, little was known about Woolfenden, except that she worked with the James Arthur Studio in Detroit for decades, becoming instrumental in its continued success following the death of James Arthur in 1912.

Awhile ago, I spied a Tonnesen model in a print by Goddard and it re-awakened my curiosity about Leonora Woolfenden.  Did the model commute between Detroit and Chicago, I wondered?  Did Woolfenden?  So, over the past year, I’ve been trying to track Woolfenden on Ancestry.com and other online archives.  To make a very long search into a (relatively) short story, here are the highlights of what I found:  (Note the many variations on her first and last names which complicate matters!)

In the 1900 US Census, Lenore Goddard , born November 4, 1877, can be found living with her widowed mother, Mary Jane, age 46, and her brother Walter, age 11, in Detroit.  Lenore listed her occupation as “artist.”  A 1901 city directory indicates her employer was “James Arthur.”  (The spelling of “Lenore” is my best guess after viewing the original record.  It might also say “Lenor” or “Lenora.”)

The 1910 US Census finds Lenora married to George R. Wolfenden and living in Detroit.  She lists her occupation as “artist” employed by “photographer,” and states she was born in England.
Continue reading “The “Other” Photo Illustrator – Tonnesen’s Contemporary, L. Goddard” »

Tags: Ingerle, L. Goddard, photo illustration

With the arrival of the Golden Age of Illustration, the period between roughly 1900 and 1940 when calendar art was at its height of popularity, calendar publishers and the artists they employed scrambled to meet public demand.  The technique of photo illustration, blending a photographic subject with a painted background,  was used by prominent artists to help them turn out  the most desirable images of popular subjects of the day. Photos of beautiful maidens, charming family groups, and exotically-costumed strangers could be blended and finished by the artist’s paintbrush.    As both artist and photographer, Beatrice Tonnesen was uniquely poised for success in the field.  Not only did she sell her raw photographic images to publishers and artists for their use, she sometimes painted from her own photographs to create the finished product herself.

Recently, I acquired a lovely scene of a young woman in a rural, outdoor setting, titled “Listening to the Birds.”  I suspected it came from a photo by Tonnesen because I recognized the woman as a Tonnesen model, circa 1900. But something else looked familiar.  It remained a mystery until, packing up my collection for a long-distance move, I spotted the rural scene I’d seen in “Listening to the Birds.”  But the print was an indoor scene.  And the outdoor rural setting I had recognized was shown as a mural on a parlor wall, in a family-themed print titled “A Difficult Step.”  So, somehow, this piece of interior home decor in one image became an entire outdoor setting in another.  I’m no photographic expert, so I have no idea how this was accomplished.  But I think it’s an amazingly clever device, by an amazingly clever artist.  Also of note:  It appears that the musician in the “Difficult Step” is the same young woman shown in “Listening to the Birds,” and I think she’s wearing the same dress.  The slideshow at right shows both prints.

(c) 2012 Lois Emerson

Back in 2009, an original photo by Beatrice Tonnesen was discovered at the Winneconne Historical Society in Winneconne, WI.  The photo showed a beautiful dark-haired woman dressed as an Indian maiden.  I recognized the image as one titled “Dawn of Woman” and attributed to illustrator Homer Nelson in a book about vintage calendar illustration. The find at Winnecone proved that Nelson had painted from a photo by Tonnesen.  Unfortunately, I did not have Nelson’s print in my collection, so the only way to show the image on this blog was to post the small black and white picture that was shown in the book.

Then, in 2010, I found three photos of a Chicago beauty queen, Mary Simmonds (1895 – 1976), as shown in 1921 in The Chicago Tribune in an online archive.  The images were not the best, but they were good enough to cause me to speculate that Simmonds had modeled for the Tonnesen photo that became Nelson’s “Dawn of Woman.”  So, I posted them.

And that was that, until recently, when I found and purchased a 1925 calendar with an original color print of “Dawn of Woman.”  Then, a few weeks later, while cleaning my hobby room, I discovered that I had an original issue of a 1921 Chicago Tribune showing two very clear images of the same photos of Mary Simmonds!  I had bought a stack of 1920′s papers years ago, and I guess I never really looked through them!  I’ve now scanned both the original calendar and the original newspaper photos and am thrilled to be able to share them in the slideshow at right.

Seeing these originals has made me even more inclined to believe that Mary Simmonds portrayed this Indian maiden.  I also believe she was the model for another beautiful Indian maiden print titled “Whispering Waters,” signed by Beatrice Tonnesen and shown in Album 1 of the Tonnesen Catalogue on this blog.  Census information shows that Simmonds married James O’Grady in November of 1921 and remained in Chicago, raising eight sons.  This gives me hope that there are some O’grady relatives out there somewhere, with some photos by Tonnesen as mementoes of their ancestor’s career!

For more on “Dawn of Woman,” including an image of Tonnesen’s original black and white photo, and on Mary Simmonds, see our two previous posts: June 8, 2009  “Homer Nelson Print Features Tonnesen’s Indian Maiden,” and June 26, 2010 “Indian Maiden May Have Been Chicago Beauty Queen.”

Copyright 2012 Lois Emerson