Edward G. Eisenlohr (1872-1961) | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

One of Texas's best-known, early artists, Edward G. Eisenlohr was born in Cincinnati but moved here in 1874. His father and uncle opened Eisenlohr Drug Store in downtown Dallas, and the successful business allowed the family to temporarily live in Germany while Edward attended boarding school. For seventeen years after graduation, Eisenlohr worked for the American National Exchange Bank. In his spare time, he studied with two leading artists in the burgeoning Dallas arts scene, Frank Reaugh and Robert Jenkins Onderdonk. With their encouragement he pursued opportunities to have his paintings exhibited in local and national venues, eventually earning a spot in the Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of American Art at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Though this achievement came when he already had an established career in finances, Eisenlohr abruptly quit his position at the bank and devoted himself to producing and writing about art. His contributions to the arts community within Dallas were well-established at this point. Four years earlier, in 1903, Eisenlohr (along with his teachers) helped found the Dallas Art Association (DAA), the predecessor of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Apart from his years of study with Reaugh and Onderdonk, Eisenlohr attended the Art Students League summer course in Woodstock, New York, and spent a year at the Gran-ducal Academy in Karlsruhe, Germany. He returned to his hometown in 1908 and spent the remainder of his life in his parent's home, 324 Eads Avenue in Oak Cliff (annexed by Dallas in 1903). For more than sixty years, Eisenlohr advocated for the visual arts in Dallas. After participating in the founding of the DAA and displaying his art at their first annual exhibition, he held a position on the Museum's Board of Trustees for thirty-seven years. As an art critic, lecturer, and private teacher, he assisted younger artists in the southwestern United States. Between 1916 and 1926 he divided his years between Dallas and New Mexico. In Taos and Santa Fe, he met other artists attracted to the region's unique light and color effects (including Ernest Leonard Blumenshein, whose work is also represented in the Permanent Collection, 1960.145).

Eisenlohr's style, one of painterly realism influenced by Impressionism, carried on the tradition of the Onderdonks and won him an important place in the history of art in North Texas. Devoted to the Texas landscape, Eisenlohr claimed, "If you can't find a landscape worth painting within ten miles of where you are, no matter where you are, then you shouldn't be a painter. There is so much to paint here. Dallas sits waiting for her artists to put her on canvas." [1] He continued painting throughout his life, but also became an accomplished lithographer after learning the medium in 1930. In addition to other local art groups, Eisenlohr joined the younger generation of Dallas artists as a member of the Lone Star Printmakers (1938-1942). In 1950 the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (which became the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983) honored Eisenlohr with a one-man show, and a group of his friends commissioned Allie V. Tennant to produce a bronze portrait bust (1952.16) in commemoration of his unyielding support for local arts.

[1] Edward G. Eisenlohr, Dallas Times Herald, August 28th, 1949.

Drawn from

Steven Nash, DMA Acquisition proposal (1982.86 and 1982.87), 1982
William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1959.166), July 2005
Jerry Bywaters, Seventy-Five Years of Art in Dallas: The History of the Dallas Art Association and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (Dallas, TX: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1978),4-9.
Sara Woodbury, "Edward G. Eisenlohr: biographical notes," DMA research document (1991.360.2), Collection Records Object File, May 2011.

NOTES

Removed TMS tag to Tennant's portrait of Eisenlohr because I added him to that object record as the DEPICTED INDIVIDUAL.

The following sources could be added to the bibliographies for all Eisenlohr objects:

Library Artist file, call number ARTIST FILE
Edward G. Eisenlohr Collection, Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/smu/00238/smu-00238.html
"E.G. Eisenlohr Collection," Dallas Historical Society Report, July 1983, volume 8, number 2, unpaginated.

DIANA CHURCH (1943- ) b. Beatrice, Nebraska; lives in Dallas.

Diana Church, "EISENLOHR, EDWARD GUSTAV," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fei02), accessed March 03, 2015. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Diana Church, Edward G. Eisenlohr: Paintings, Drawings, Prints, exhibition and catalogue, The Art Center, Waco, TX; September 7- October 20, 1985.
Diana Church, "Edward G. Eisenlohr: The Education of an Artist," Heritage News (Dallas County Heritage Society Incorporated), Summer 1984, volume 9, number 2, pages 4-6, 10.

**has In the Mexican Quarter on cover- spire of First Methodist Church in background. 1982.87

OTHER SOURCES or EXHIBITIONS:

Diana Church and Gayle Fogelson, Scenes of Santa Fe, exhibition (not sure if there is a catalogue?), toured 1986-1987, Longview Arts Center, Gallery Four, Fine Arts Division, J. Erik Jonsson Central Library (Dallas), Museum of the Southwest (Midland, TX)
The Joseph Sartor Galleries present An Exhibition of Lithographs by Edward G. Eisenlohr, 1933 (in Box 5, Folder 19, Diana Church research collection on American and Texas artists, Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University.)

Geographies added to constituent record:

Raised in: Dallas, TX (1874- 1887) Eisenlohr family moves to Dallas in 1874 and his father, Rudolph Eisenlohr, opens Eisenlohr Drugstore (later Market Drugstore and a second location at 954 Elm Street named Trinity Drugstore) at 816 Main Street in 1876. The family lived above the Main Street store.
Trained in: Rapperswyl, Switzerland (August 1887- October 1887) Walenstadt boarding school for two months.
Trained in: Zurich, Switzerland (October 1887-May 1888) Attended The Concordia boarding school.
Trained in: Karlsruhe, Germany (May 1888- Summer 1889; 1907-1908) As a teen, he attended the Karlsruhe Academy to be in the same city where his parents were living. When he decides to pursue art full-time, he returns to the city and enrolls in Gran-ducal Academy of Fine Arts to study under Gustave Schoenleber. During his second stay in Karlsruhe he also took classes with Hans Thoma and Wilhelm Truebner.
Trained in: Dallas, TX (1889-1907) While employed at the American National Exchange Bank, Eisenlohr takes private classes from Frank Reaugh and Robert Julian Onderdonk.
Worked in: Dallas, TX (1889-1961) Returned from education in Switzerland and became a bookkeeper and teller for the American Exchange National Bank (1889-1907). His address was 324 Eads Avenue, where his parents had lived. He was a founding officer of the Dallas School of Fine Arts in 1899, a member of the Board of Trustees for the Dallas Art Association at its inception in 1903. He remains a Trustee for the DAA and then DMFA from 1903-1921 and 1941-1959. He quits his bank job in 1907 and becomes a professional artist.
Trained in: Woodstock, NY (Summer 1907) Enrolls in the Art Students League summer program studying under Birge Harrison.
Worked in: Europe (1907-1908) Travels to Belgium, Holland, Paris, Italy and other countries to visit museums and study works by famous artists including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Kokoschka, and die Brücke.
Worked in: Santa Fe, NM (1916-1926) Eisenlohr lived in Dallas but spent six months of each year in Santa Fe.

USE FOR PROVENANCE:

Artist's younger sister Valerie (1876-1961) married Karl Helmle (1873-1941). The artist's niece, Miss Gertrude Helmle (Dallas, TX, 1909-1997) became the executor of his estate after his death in June 1961. (Other collections list Mr. Edward Helmle of Houston as a donor of Eisenlohr objects.)

Eisenlohr wrote three books on art appreciation?

DATE WORKS- (based on exhibition catalogue for Edward G. Eisenlohr: Paintings, Drawings, Prints)

1910-1920- began watercolors

1930- Eisenlohr printed his first lithograph; 1930-1940 he used a stone, and after that he used a transfer method because stones were difficult to transport and expensive. His printer was Thomas Cuno of Philadelphia. His early prints had editions of 35 and later were editions of 50.

Notes on FUN FACTS- there were two conflicting citations for the claim that Eisenlohr had first Christmas tree in Dallas. The one listed in the Fun Fact as is, comes from the SMU Eisenlohr papers summary. Woodbury's 2011 DMA research document lists the sources as Dallas Morning News, December 24, 1946.

The following two exhibitions appear in Piction as Data files and do not have a UMO for me to link with this CC:

E.G. Eisenlohr Exhibition, May 18- June 22, 1952

Exhibition ID: 10744

E.G. Eisenlohr Memorial Exhibition, 11 June- 9 July 1961

Exhibition ID: 11046

ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS

Dallas Art Association

Art Students League (New York, NY)

Tennant, Allie (American, 1892 or 1898 - 1971)

Texas Centennial Exposition and Art Exhibition (1936)

Realism (style or movement)

Impressionism

Onderdonk, Robert Jenkins (American, 1853-1917)

Reaugh, Frank (American, 1860-1945)

Art Students League (New York, NY)

AUDIO ASSETS

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

E.G. Eisenlohr, Dallas artist and Museum trustee for more than 37 years. Photo reproduced on page 11, 75 Years of Art in Dallas (1978); 1959.166 SHOWN IN PHOTO

Cover photo from the 1950 exhibition catalogue.

Photo of Eisenlohr taken in 1909 by Dallas photographer Charles Arnold. Reproduced in Church, Heritage News, page 6 with credit given to the DMA. IS PHOTO IN ARCHIVES?

For now, I am attaching a portrait of Eisenlohr (object photography) as the illustration for this CC.

WEB RESOURCES

Edward Gustav Eisenlohr~Read Diana Church's biographical essay in the Handbook of Texas Online (published by the Texas State Historical Association).
The Edward G. Eisenlohr digital collections~Look through Eisenlohr's drawings, prints, and paintings in the collections of the Dallas Public Library and Southern Methodist University.
Edward Gustav Eisenlohr art work and papers~Read about the impressive collection of archival resources on Eisenlohr available through the Bywaters Special Collections, Hamon Arts Library, Southern Methodist University.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

Catalog includes the following exhibitions: British Portraits of the 18th Century; The Neighbors of Texas; Texas-Painting, Drawing, Pastels and Sculpture; [E. G. Eisenlohr Exhibition], October 8-23, 1938, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Includes: essay, list of artists and artworks in the exhibitions, selected images. - Added object numbers to Piction record.

12710937: UMO- tagged this CC because important one-man exhibition within State Fair.
exhibition ID 10205

Catalog from the art exhibition 'E.G. Eisenlohr: Paintings,' November 19-December 10, 1950, at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas, Texas. Includes: list of paintings, selected images, brief biography. Unpaginated, b/w illustration. Unnumbered.

Exhibition ID: 10684
12711433: UMO- tagged this CC because important one-man exhibition

'E. G. Eisenlohr: Drawings,' February 25-March 20, 1945, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts.

Exhibition ID: 10480
Checklist from the exhibition, 12058214: UMO
Application for One-Man Exhibit from the exhibition, 12058221: UMO
Resume from the exhibition, 12058228: UMO

Catalog from the exhibition, 'E. G. Eisenlohr: Paintings,' January 15-30, 1932, held at the Dallas Public Art Gallery. Includes: list of artworks

Exhibition ID: 10067
12710841: UMO

Lone Star Legacy: The Barrett Collection of Early Texas Art

Exhibition ID: 11755

FUN FACTS

Eisenlohr prepared the first catalogue of the Dallas Art Association permanent collection in 1916. The publication includes full information on the forty-two paintings then in the collection.
Gustav Wilhelm Eisenlohr, the artist's grandfather, immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1850. Gustav settled in New Braunfels, Texas, and became the Pastor of the town's First Protestant Church. Five years later, the Eisenlohrs moved to Cincinnatti, Ohio, where Edward spent the first two years of his life before the family returned to Texas in 1874.
In an article in the city's newspaper, Eisenlohr recalled that his family was the first in Dallas to have a Christmas tree. ["Christmas of '74 Featured by First Yule Tree in City," Dallas Morning News, October 1, 1935.]
Eisenlohr's earliest accolade for his artistic talents came from the State Fair of Texas in 1886 when his drawing of a map of Texas won first prize. He was honored again by the State Fair of Texas in 1938, for having exhibited one or more works in every Fair for its first fifty years.

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

apply to constituents where id equals 2391

Apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2391

General Description

One of Texas's best-known, early artists, Edward G. Eisenlohr was born in Cincinnati but moved here in 1874. His father and uncle opened Eisenlohr Drug Store in downtown Dallas, and the successful business allowed the family to temporarily live in Germany while Edward attended boarding school. For seventeen years after graduation, Eisenlohr worked for the American National Exchange Bank. In his spare time, he studied with two leading artists in the burgeoning Dallas arts scene, Frank Reaugh and Robert Jenkins Onderdonk. With their encouragement he pursued opportunities to have his paintings exhibited in local and national venues, eventually earning a spot in the Fourteenth Annual Exhibition of American Art at the Cincinnati Museum of Art. Though this achievement came when he already had an established career in finances, Eisenlohr abruptly quit his position at the bank and devoted himself to producing and writing about art. His contributions to the arts community within Dallas were well-established at this point. Four years earlier, in 1903, Eisenlohr (along with his teachers) helped found the Dallas Art Association (DAA), the predecessor of the Dallas Museum of Art.

Apart from his years of study with Reaugh and Onderdonk, Eisenlohr attended the Art Students League summer course in Woodstock, New York, and spent a year at the Gran-ducal Academy in Karlsruhe, Germany. He returned to his hometown in 1908 and spent the remainder of his life in his parent's home, 324 Eads Avenue in Oak Cliff (annexed by Dallas in 1903). For more than sixty years, Eisenlohr advocated for the visual arts in Dallas. After participating in the founding of the DAA and displaying his art at their first annual exhibition, he held a position on the Museum's Board of Trustees for thirty-seven years. As an art critic, lecturer, and private teacher, he assisted younger artists in the southwestern United States. Between 1916 and 1926 he divided his years between Dallas and New Mexico. In Taos and Santa Fe, he met other artists attracted to the region's unique light and color effects (including Ernest Leonard Blumenshein, whose work is also represented in the Permanent Collection, 1960.145).

Eisenlohr's style, one of painterly realism influenced by Impressionism, carried on the tradition of the Onderdonks and won him an important place in the history of art in North Texas. Devoted to the Texas landscape, Eisenlohr claimed, "If you can't find a landscape worth painting within ten miles of where you are, no matter where you are, then you shouldn't be a painter. There is so much to paint here. Dallas sits waiting for her artists to put her on canvas." [1] He continued painting throughout his life, but also became an accomplished lithographer after learning the medium in 1930. In addition to other local art groups, Eisenlohr joined the younger generation of Dallas artists as a member of the Lone Star Printmakers (1938-1942). In 1950 the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (which became the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983) honored Eisenlohr with a one-man show, and a group of his friends commissioned Allie V. Tennant to produce a bronze portrait bust (1952.16) in commemoration of his unyielding support for local arts.