Alonzo Myron Kimball (August 14, 1874 – August 27, 1923) was an American portrait artist and illustrator. A native of Wisconsin, Kimball received his art training in Chicago, New York, and Paris. Early in his career he specialized in portraiture, especially paintings of female subjects, but during the first decade of the 20th century he also became one of the leading book illustrators in the United States as well a cover artist for national periodicals such as Scribner's Magazine, Collier's, and The Saturday Evening Post. After 1914, Kimball began applying his talents increasingly to commercial advertising, which included designing theatrical posters for the film company Pathé and illustrating newspaper and magazine promotions for a variety of products.
Early life and art training
Born in 1874 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Alonzo was the younger of two sons of Myra Barnes (née Mahan) and Alonzo Weston Kimball, a native of Massachusetts, who later became a very successful, highly paid insurance executive in Chicago.[2][a] In 1882, when Alonzo was only eight years old, his mother died. Two years later his father married Ella Celestia Peak of Otsego, New York, and they resided in Evanston, Illinois, located a short distance north of downtown Chicago.[2][3]
Alonzo demonstrated a keen interest and ability in art as a child. Later, during the early 1890s, he studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York in Manhattan, and in 1894 he traveled to Europe to study with several renown artists.[4][5] In France, Kimball trained with Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian in Paris, with Gustave Courtois, and in 1899 he exhibited at the Salon at the Académie des Beaux-Arts.[6] He was also greatly influenced by the work of fellow American artist James McNeil Whistler.[7][8] That influence was likely gained in Paris as well, at the Académie Carmen, an art school that Whistler founded in the French capital in 1898 and operated there until the facility's closure in 1901.[9][10]
Career
One of eight covers Kimball produced for The Saturday Evening Post between 1907 and 1911
In 1902, after returning to the United States from Europe, Kimball married and he and his wife Madeleine lived briefly in Evanston before they relocated to New York City.[6][b] There he established himself professionally, quickly gaining a reputation for excellence in portraiture, especially for his oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels of female subjects or "American Beauties".[11] He was commissioned for such works by both private and corporate clients, including major publishers. While still continuing his portrait work, Kimball also became one of the nation's leading illustrators during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Between 1903 and his death in 1923, he illustrated books for many of the nation's top writers. He also produced eight front covers for Saturday Evening Post as well covers and illustrations for assorted short stories and articles in other widely read weeklies and monthlies in the United States.[12] Among those periodicals are Scribner's Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Holland's, Collier's, Metropolitan, Judge, The Ladies Home Journal, and "Sunday Magazine", which was a regular syndicated supplement to Sunday editions of The Boston Post, the New-York Tribune, Chicago Tribune, and various other newspapers across the country in the early 1900s.[13][c]
Paintings and illustrations
Kimball's artwork exhibited unique qualities according to some reviewers of his paintings and drawings in the early 1900s. In a profile of him in the archives of The Saturday Evening Post, comments about those qualities in 1905 by art critic H. E. Bane are quoted:
Even in magazine illustrations he goes deep beneath the mask of features. In his work laughter is something more than a turning up of the corners of the mouth; manliness is more than a gray eye and a square chin; beauty is more than a perfect contour.[12]
Kimball produced his original works either on canvas with oils or on illustration boards with varying combinations of charcoal, soft and hard pastels, gouache, and transparent watercolors. In a 1914 newspaper interview, he shared a few details about the "recipe" of procedures and techniques he used to achieve the distinctive, idealized appearance of the subjects in his portraits.[14] For one, he stated, "'I first place my model in every possible light until I find the one most becoming to her, and I leave out the little shadows about the eyes and mouth, which may be there because she's tired.'"[14] He then outlined other refinements he makes in a portrait's development, such as enlarging the subject's eyes, defining the mouth, and adding important highlights. "'High-lights'", he explained, "'that trickle down the face in a broken line striking the eyelids, the eyeballs, the corners of the eyes, a tiny speck on the lower lid, one on the teeth and one on the lips, give a look of perfect health.'"[14]
Despite his increasing freelance work in commercial art after 1905, Kimball continued to accept portrait commissions from private clients and to exhibit periodically in museums, galleries, and salons. In the spring of 1910 he traveled once again to Paris to submit personally two of his paintings for consideration by the Salon. His works then, as in 1899, were accepted for exhibition. Both 1910 paintings were portraits. One depicted his wife; the other, Madame Marguerite Lemon, who was identified as "formerly of the Metropolitan Opera Company". News writer and art critic Kathrine Douglas commented on Kimball's paintings while covering the annual art exhibitions in the French capital. In a feature titled "Americans in Paris Salons", which was published in The Detroit Free Press on May 8, 1910, Douglas describes the painting of Madame Lemon, noting that "She wears a gorgeous Persian costume and is in a dancing pose—a filmy scarf falling from her raised arm."[15] Douglas also comments on Kimball's presence in Paris at that time: "This artist has devoted all his attention to illustrating of late years and has now settled in Paris with the intention of spending most of his time painting."[15][d] Another example of Kimball's continuing interest in participating in public displays is his submission of illustrations in 1912 to the John Herron Art Institute for an exhibition in Indianapolis, Indiana. The institute accepted two of his works for the event held in March and April that year, an event devoted exclusively to showcasing the "Original Work by American Illustrators".[16]
Kimball's illustration in the short story "Pattie" by Margaret Doane Gardiner, 1905
Kimball's portfolio of illustrations is extensive. A sampling of his pictures, which printers reproduced by photogravure or lithographic processes, provides some perspective on the style and diversity of artwork he furnished to publishers and to writers, many of whom were female authors. Some examples of his illustrations can be found in the short story "Pattie" written by Margaret Doane Gardiner and published in the June 1905 issue of Scribner's. Others decorate pages and portray plot scenes in Edith Wharton's 1907 novel The Fruit of the Tree and in her short story "The Pretext", which is presented in Scribner's August 1908 issue. Additional novels and short stories illustrated by Kimball include Edith Macvane's The Duchess of Dreams, released in 1908; "Grantham's Limitations" by Mary Heaton Vorse for the November 1908 issue of Scribner's; the 1911 novel Uncertain Irene by Katharine Holland Brown; Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy's novel World's End, published in 1914; the 1916 novel Kildares of Storm by Eleanor Mercein Kelly; and the 1918 novel Camilla by Elizabeth Robins.[13]
Kimball's artwork in advertising
Painting by Kimball in soap advertisement, 1916
Between 1905 and the early 1920s, Kimball's artwork was used in newspaper and magazine advertisements throughout the United States to sell cameras, soaps, Torrington vacuum cleaners, men's and women's clothing, and a host of other products. An early example of Kimball's illustrations in advertising is an upperclass family scene he drew specifically for Kodak, one that shows children unwrapping one of the company's box cameras next to a Christmas tree. The advertisement with this illustration is in the December 2, 1905, issue of Collier's.[17] In commercial advertising, clothing became Kimball's forte. Two examples of his work in that area are his depiction of a man fashionably attired in a 1909 newspaper advertisement for D. J. Kaufman's "The Men's Store" in Washington, D.C., and a large illustration that same year of a smartly dressed couple in a newspaper advertisement for "The Home of Quality Clothes", the King-Swanson Company of Omaha, Nebraska.[18][19] The Detroit-based business Weil & Company, a large furniture retailer that also publicized itself as "outfitters" for men and boys, announced in newspapers in April 1911 that "one of America's most prominent illustrators" had agreed to furnish the store a series of original artwork for its advertisements. "Mr. Kimball", Weil & Company noted, "is particularly excellent in his delineation of men, creating strong types of unique character and individuality."[20] One more example of Kimball's commercial work is a far more elaborate, full-color 1916 advertisement that includes his painting of a young woman and her attentive male companion to promote John H. Woodbury's facial soap. Published in The Ladies Home Journal and in other periodicals, the "A skin you love to touch" advertisement offered readers a cake of soap with a print of Kimball's "new" painting "ready for framing" for "ten cents in stamps or coin" ($3 today)[21]
By 1915, Kimball's commercial success as a portrait artist and illustrator had drawn the interest of executives in America's rapidly expanding motion picture industry. Pathé, a film studio with production facilities in Fort Lee, New Jersey, contracted Kimball to design theatrical posters for some of the company's releases and to sketch portraits of the studio's most popular female stars at the time, including Pearl White, Florence Reed, Jackie Saunders, Jeanne Eagels, and Ruth Roland.[22] Kimball's likenesses" of those actresses proved to be so well received by moviegoers that Pathé offered individual copies and sets of his drawings for sale. In December 1915, the New York trade publication The Moving Picture World announced the studio's intentions:
Exhibitors [theater owners] everywhere have been loud in their praise of the one-sheets [posters] advertising Pathe Gold Rooster plays. These are portraits of the leading women players in the various productions, and are all painted by Alonzo Kimball, whose fame as a painter of women's heads extends beyond the boundaries of the United States. For years he has been in demand by those magazines whose beautiful covers light up the newsstands and which covers undeniably help sales. The Pathe posters made from his sketches are beautiful enough to be framed, and their advertising value to the theater that shows them is unquestioned.[23]
Kimball continued his work in commercial advertising in the years just prior to his death. By 1920, he and his wife Madeleine had moved from New York City to Ohio, where they lived in downtown Cleveland in an apartment building on Euclid Avenue. In the federal census for that year, Alonzo confirms his occupation in Cleveland, simply identifying it as "Artist/Advertising".[24]
One other commercial by-product of Kimball's artistic training and success as an illustrator and portrait painter was the development of his reputation nationwide as an expert in haute couture and in upper- and middle-class daily apparel for both men and women.[25] Given his artist's eye for detail and the fact that the vast majority of the subjects in his paintings and drawings were portrayed in the most current and expertly tailored clothing, Kimball gained over the years a keen sense of style and practical experience depicting subjects of different body types in attire that he deemed the most flattering. That ability was greatly enhanced by his work in advertising, especially for large and select clothing establishments.
By 1912, Kimball's fashion advice and commentaries on the latest trends in men's and women's apparel were being featured and widely quoted in newspapers and magazines. In a newspaper interview with columnist Marguerite Mooers Marshall in March 1912, Kimball shared his opinions about the basic deficiencies in the styling of women's clothing at that time, most notably in their excesses. "'The freakish fashions of today are quite indefensible'", he observed, adding "'And yet I don't know that even the hobble is as bad as the hoop-skirt used to be.'"[25] As an artist whose commissioned oil portraits needed to remain appealing to viewers for generations, Kimball chose clothing for his female subjects that had simple, timeless lines. He therefore preferred selections of attire in 1912 that, in his words, "'could have been worn equally well in the year 1812, and, presumably, in 2012.'"[25] The following year, in a feature in The St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlighting his ideas about summer fashions, he recommended that more women should forego the norm of wearing heavier, fully enclosed shoes and enjoy instead the cooler comfort of sandals.[26] Kimball also advised both men and women in 1913 to wear more white linen suits for "'artistically effective'" reasons as well as for improved comfort in the seasonal heat. "'White linens for either sex'", he explained, "'show off excellently against a background of green grass or blue ocean.'"[26]
Kimball imposter, 1907–1908
Kimball's standing in art circles and his popularity with the reading public had achieved sufficient status by 1907 that at least one man took advantage of his celebrity and for many months successfully impersonated the artist. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post in March 1908 reported the hoax, which was perpetrated on the most prominent citizens of Asheville and Hendersonville, North Carolina.[27][28] In a news item titled "Tricked Society Set", The Post on March 13 shared with its readers a report from Asheville about the imposter:
About two months ago a prepossessing young man registered at one of the principal hotels [in Asheville] as "Alonzo Kimball, New York." His arrival was announced in the society columns of the local papers...Some drawings were shortly afterward displayed by "Kimball" in a show window, together with some pen and ink sketches. "Kimball" was eagerly sought after by society people here. He was dined and feted, and a round of affairs were given in his honor... He had a good tenor voice, and would sing at afternoon teas and other social affairs. He also sang in the churches, and the First Baptist Church, the largest Baptist church in the state, engaged him as a soloist and a special choir of fifty voices was organized... "Kimball" did some odd things at times, but these eccentricities were attributed to his artistic temperament. On one occasion, when invited to a very select tea, he created dismay by bringing with him a very young woman whom he had met in Asheville, but who was not a member of "the society set" and had not been invited.[28]
The number of towns visited by the "imitation" Kimball and the duration of his fraud remain undetermined, although it was also reported that in the fall of 1907 he stayed briefly in Edneyville, North Carolina, where he "skipped out" on his $14 food bill ($475 today) and absconded with a shotgun and a prized hunting dog named "Shell".[29] It is also undetermined whether the man's visits were limited to North Carolina. Additional reports in North Carolina in 1908 state that the man, whose real identity remained unverified, also spent the summer and early autumn of 1907 in Hendersonville, but his travels prior to that are unknown.[29][30] The pretender, however, quickly disappeared after March 1908, once it was announced in the press that the real Alonzo Kimball in New York responded to telegraphic inquiries and categorically denied ever being in North Carolina.[31]
Kimball painting at his home in New York City, 1905
Personal life and death
Kimball married only once, in 1902, to Iowa native Madeleine Williams.[e] She and Alonzo remained together until his death, and during their marriage they had one child, son Weston, who was born on November 9, 1905, in Flushing, New York.[32]
Kimball's health in the spring of 1923 began to decline considerably over several months due to cardiovascular disease.[6] Although he and Madaleine were still residing in Cleveland that year, Alonzo died from a heart attack in August in Evanston, Illinois, while visiting his stepmother Ella Celestia Kimball.[7] He was survived by his wife, his 17-year-old son, and his half-sister Marjorie (née Kimball) Hall. In its August 28 obituary for Kimball, The New York Times reports that after funeral services were held for the artist in Evanston, his body was transferred to Cooperstown, New York, for cremation.[f]
Partial list of books and short stories illustrated by Kimball
The Fruit of the Tree by Edith Wharton, 1907Pastel portrait in Brian Hooker's The Right Man, 1908Kimball cover, 1913"The Golf Cure" in Scribner's, 1917
"The Golf Cure" by Lawrence Perry in Scribner's Magazine (June 1917)
The Man Who Tried To Be It by Cameron Mackenzie (1917)
His Little World: The Story of Hunch Badeau by Samuel Merwin (1903)
Notes
^Alonzo and his older brother, Theodore Mahan Kimball, and their half-sister, Marjorie Weston Kimball, grew up in an affluent household. Their grandfather, Alonzo Kimball (1808-1900), was the mayor of Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1871 and 1873. It was there where the siblings' father, Alonzo Weston Kimball, began his career in insurance as a district agent for Wisconsin. His success in that occupation during the late 1860s and 1870s led to his move with the family to Chicago after 1880. There he established Kimball & Norton, the region's leading agency for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
^According to the Annual Art Annual: 1903-1904, edited by Florence N. Levy and published in 1903 (Part II—42), Alonzo Kimball is listed as a painter and living [1902-1903] at 502 Lake Street in Evanston, Illinois.
^Kimball's travel to France and stay in Paris in 1910 explains why he and his family are not found in the United States census for that year.
^Obituaries of Alonzo Kimball in 1923 identify his wife "Madeline" being from Danville, Kentucky, but in the federal census of 1920 either Madeleine or Alonzo cited Iowa as her "Place of birth." Additional census records, however, do document that her mother was born in Kentucky; her father, in Massachusetts. Official and unofficial documents also show variations in the spelling of Madeleine, sometimes being cited as Madeline, Madaline, Madalin, Madalen, and Madalaine. In her personal signature on a June 2, 1924 affidavit for her son's passport application for the U.S. State Department, she clearly spells her name "Madeleine".
^Alonzo Myron Kimball's father was buried in Lakewood Cemetery in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1905. The record "Illinois, Cook County Deaths, 1871-1998" available in the database FamilySearch states that Alonzo's remains after the 1923 funeral service in Evanston were intended for transfer to Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, but searches there show no entry for Alonzo Myron Kimball. Kimball was reportedly very close to his stepmother Ella Celestia (née Peak) Kimball); and, as cited, he was visiting her in Illinois when he died in 1923. Later, when she died in 1930, Ella was also buried in Cooperstown, New York.
References
^"United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," sworn affidavit by Alonzo M. Kimball of his birthdate and location, signed in New York City September 10, 1894; U.S State Department records, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.; digital copy of original application, FamilySearch database.
^ ab"Insurance Man Dies in Florida", Chicago Daily Tribune, March 26, 1905, p. 6. Retrieved via ProQuest, December 5, 2020.
^"Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934", Alonzo Weston Kimball and Ella C. Peak, 24 September 1884, Clinton, Ohio; reference R67, Summit County courthouses, Iowa. Retrieved via FamilySearch, December 8, 2020.
^American Federation of Arts. "KIMBALL, Alonzo", American Art Dictionary, 1980 (from R.R. Bowker 1913), p. 291.
^"United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925," Department of State, Washington, D.C.; applied in Otsego, N.Y. and issued September 12, 1894; microfilm image of original document signed by Alonzo M. Kimball on September 10, 1894. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington. D.C. Retrieved via FamilySearch, December 14, 2020.
^ abc"Alonzo Kimball Dead", The New York Times, August 28, 1923, p. 17. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.
^ ab"Alonzo Kimball Dead", New York Tribune, August 28, 1923, p. 11. Retrieved via ProQuest, December 16, 2020.
^"Alonzo Myron Kimball", artist's profile, askART, art auction subscription service. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
^Pennell, Elizabeth R. and Joseph. "The Académie Carmen", The Life of James MacNeill Whistler. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911, pp. 373-388. Retrieved via Internet Archive, December 21, 2020.
^ ab"Alonzo Myron Kimball", profile of Alonzo Myron Kimball, including cited quote by H. E. Bane in Public Opinion, Volume 39, 1905; Saturday Evening Post archives, Palm Coast, Florida. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
^ abNumerous examples of Kimball's illustrations for books and periodicals, including the cited publications, can be viewed in digital copies of full issues of the cited imprints within the given timeframe. Refer to the online archives of HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and the Online Books Page.
^ abc"Famous Artists' Recipes for Making Their Beauties / Alonzo Kimball", St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), June 14, 1914, p. B-20. ProQuest.
^ abDouglas, Kathrine. "Americans in Paris Salons: Artists From New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, And Other Cities Have Pictures In Spring Exhibitions", Detroit Free Press, May 8, 1910, p. F4. ProQuest.
^Catalogue of an Exhibition of Original Work by American Illustrators; entry for Alonzo Kimball, exhibit items 104-105, March 24-April [7], 1912. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Herron Art Institute, 1912, p. 13. Full digital copy of publication available on Wikipedia Commons. Refer to "File:Catalogue of an exhibition of original work by American illustrators, (IA catalogueofexhib00amer).pdf".
^"PATHÉ'S BEAUTIFUL POSTERS", Motography (Chicago, Illinois), January 1, 1916, p. 4. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved December 11, 2020.
^"Pathe Puts Out Beautiful Posters", The Moving Picture World (New York, N.Y), December 25, 1915, p. 2397. Internet Archive. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
^"The Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920—Population", digital image of the original enumeration page for Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, January 3, 1920. United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. FamilySearch database.
^ abcMarshall, Marguerite Mooers. "Is the Modern Woman Beautifully Dressed?" The Evening World (New York, N.Y.), March 13, 1912, p. 3. Chronicling America, Library of Congress (LOC), Washington, D.C. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
^ abMarshall, Marguerite. "The Perfect Summer Costume", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 31, 1913, p. 7. ProQuest.
^"Paraded As Alonzo Kimball", The New York Times, March 13, 1908, p. 1. ProQuest.
^ ab"Tricked Society Set", The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.), March 13, 1908, p. 9. ProQuest.
^ ab"Some Additional Light is Thrown on the Doings of Alon[z]o", The Semi-Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.), March 20, 1908, p. 4. ProQuest.
^"Asheville's Gold Brick", The French Broad Hustler (Hendersonville, North Carolina), March 19, 1908, p. 1. Chronicling America, LOC. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
^Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina), March 14, 1908, p. 3. ProQuest.
^"New York, New York City Births, 1846-1909"; Alonzo Weston Kimball, 9 November 1905, Queens, New York; digital image of original birth certificate, FamilySearch.
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