LA CROSSE ON CANVAS
Landscape Paintings: 1900's
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Our Exhibition
La Crosse on Canvas is an exhibit that showcases the natural beauty found in our city of La Crosse. This exhibit features artists such as Lillian Pettingill, Carl Rau, and Paul Stollenwerk, all talented painters who found the nature of our area beautiful enough to store on canvas forever. These painters depicted a variety of scenes in La Crosse from the forested bluffs to the rocky shores of the Mississippi River. The majority of these paintings were created during the early 20th century. They provide us nature enthusiasts with a glimpse into what the landscape of La Crosse looked like 100 years ago. We also include a section dedicated to Lillian Pettingill, a painter from New York who moved to La Crosse and created many pieces of artwork that feature the landscape of La Crosse.
While looking around the exhibit, remember that all these scenes are accessible to you with a few nature walks throughout town thanks to the preservation of our forests. With deforestation ravaging many forests throughout the world, we should consider La Crosse lucky to be kept as green as it is. So far, around 80% of the world's forests have been destroyed or damaged irreparably. That is why we have also included a link to the World Wildlife Fund. WWF is an organization that helps fund the protection and conservation of wild species and their habitats, any donation will be appreciated.
Bluffs, 1900
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Bluffs
Bluffs
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: F.L.Feyround
Nationality: Unknown
Birthdate: Unknown
Date: 1900
Materials: Oil on canvas
Catalogue Number: 2018.fic.593
Description: This painting captures the natural beauty of La Crosse and stores it on a canvas in oil. Created in the early 1900s, not much is known about the artist who created it. It is simply signed “F.L. Feyround.” However, this artist depicts the bluffs during sunset with beautiful orange colors representing the sunlight bouncing off the clouds and the bluffs. Before the bluffs is a trail which leads to a single tree, and a few cabins resting at the base of the bluffs. Feyround may have lived in a much smaller La Crosse which was more of a rural area than it is today. This painting is a window in time to a completely different La Crosse than we see today.
Painting of Grandad Bluff, 1910-1920
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Painting of Grandad Bluff
Painting of Grandad Bluff
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Charles Loveland
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1881-1951
Date: 1910-1920
Materials: Oil painting on canvas,
Catalogue Number: 1981.056.01
Description: This painting by Charles Loveland depicts a woman and three children dressed in all white picking flowers in a large field. Grandad bluff of La Crosse fills the background of the painting. At the bottom of the bluff, small white buildings, presumably houses, can be seen. This painting is simply titled “Painting of Grandad Bluff” and is undated but is speculated to have been made between the years of 1910 and 1920. At the time when this painting was created, the eastern edge of La Crosse consisted of mainly open fields and farmland. This means that it is possible that this painting is a portrait of his family in a field near their new home near the bluff. Though, it is also possible that this painting is nothing more than a scene from Loveland’s imagination. Either way, this painting is a comforting depiction of La Crosse as a young city nearly 100 years ago.
Path Through the Bluffs, 1920
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Path Through the Bluffs
Path Through the Bluffs
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Carl Rau
Nationality: German American
Birthdate: 1858-1940
Date: 1920
Materials: Oil painting on canvas
Catalogue Number: 2004.022.03
Description: Carl Rau migrated from Germany in 1871 and was inspired to paint this hiker travelling on a path through a field that disappears into the woods of Grandad Bluff in 1920. In the background, a large mountain can be seen. The warm clothes of the hiker paired with the orange and green colors of the leaves suggest this painting is of La Crosse in the early stages of fall. On the back of the frame is a letter written by Carl Rau to Judge E. C. Higbee when he gifted the painting that reads “Dear Mr. Higbee, Kindly accept this picture as an appreciation of your kindness and the many courtesies you have extended to me, with my best wishes for the Holiday season. Yours Sincerely, Carl Rau, Dec. 25th 1920.” This painting was donated by Judge Edward Higbee’s granddaughter Nancy Higbee Pollock.
The Landscape, 1963
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
The Landscape
The Landscape
(Official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Paul Stollenwerk
Nationality: German
Birthdate: 1898-1974
Date: 1963
Materials: Canvas
Catalogue Number: 1986.046.01
Description: This painting of a local scene was done by Paul Stollenwerk, an immigrant from Dusseldorf, Germany. Born in 1898, Stollenwerk attended art school in Dusseldorf before traveling to the Americas and painting churches in North and South America. Stollenwerk moved to La Crosse 1927 and opened 2 art studios in the area, the Studio of Art Work and Stollenwerk Studios. While in La Crosse, Stollenwerk painted many things including the courthouse, St. Francis Hospital (now Mayo Clinic), and this painting of the bluffs. It is believed that this oil painting could by a depiction of the Mindoro cut, a bluff formation in the La Crosse area.
Lillian Pettingill
Lillian Pettingill
Lillian Pettingill was born in Le Roy, New York in 1870. She graduated from the Fine Arts College of Ingham University in 1887 at only 17 years old. At the age of 37, she married Claud Kenrick Pettingill in 1907 in Seattle, Washington. The couple moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin nine years later. During her lifetime, Lillian was an art teacher at Nyack, the Indianapolis Institute, and the Ohio Western Reserve University where she taught for 25 years, but it is her work as an artist that has put her name in the history books, at least locally. There are currently 28 objects listed under Lillian’s name in the La Crosse Historical Society’s archive, most of which are paintings or drawings. Watercolors and pastels seemed to be Lillian’s favorite mediums to create art with, and most of her artwork is landscapes of the La Crosse area. Sadly, there are no known pictures of the artist.
Here is a link if you are interested in looking at more paintings by Lillian Pettingill
https://www.lchshistory.org/the-artwork-of-lillian-pettingill
Wooded Trail
Wooded Trail
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Date: 1910
Materials: Unkown, possible oil painting
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.12
Description: This painting is one of the 20 pieces of artwork by Lillian Pettingill donated to the La Crosse Historical society by Pettingill’s sister-in-law. The painting shows a trail leading through a wooded hillside, possibly the La Crosse bluffs. However, Pettingill did live in Seattle around the time this painting is estimated to have been made, so the gloomy sky could be representative of the cloudy and rainy weather typically seen in Washington state. Pettingill having passed away in the year 1953, sadly took the secret of the location of the trail with her. Pettingill showcases this healthy forest that has not been tainted by human development except for a single trail.
Wooded Trail, 1910
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Watercolor of the Bluffs, 1910
Source: La Crosse County Historical Society
Watercolor Of the Bluffs
Watercolor Of the Bluffs
(Not official title)
Object Name: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Date: 1910
Materials: Watercolor on paper
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.02
Beach with Rocks, 1910
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Beach with Rocks
Beach with Rocks
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Date: 1910
Materials: Watercolor on paper
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.01
Mississippi River with Bluffs Background, 1910
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Mississippi River with Bluffs Background
Mississippi River with Bluffs Background
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Date: 1910
Materials: Oil painting on canvas
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.10
House on the Bluffs, 1910
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
House on the Bluffs
House on the Bluffs
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill, American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Date: 1910
Materials: Oil Painting on cardboard
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.25
Painting on a Card, 1910
Source: La Crosse Historical Society
Painting on a Card
Painting on a Card
(Not official title)
Object: Painting
Artist: Lillian Pettingill
Nationality: American
Birthdate: 1870-1953
Materials: Paint on a card
Catalogue Number: 1984.130.11
Description: This painting of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River was completed in 1910 on the back of a card only 3.25 inches tall and 5.5 inches wide. Small details painted on a small card compile a painting that justly captures the vast beauty of the La Crosse Bluffs as well as the Mississippi River as nature intended. The green hues of the leaves and other foliage suggest this painting is a depiction of La Crosse in the summertime on a partly cloudy day. On the other side of the card is a quote by Isaac Walton that reads “He that hopes to be a good angler must not only bring an inquiring, searching, observing wit, but a large measure of hope and patience.” This work is one of twenty donated by Lillian Pettingill’s sister-in-law Grace Pettingill Hogan Van Steenwyk to the La Crosse Historical Society.
WisCorps, 2022
Source: Wisconsin Conservation Corps
If you're looking to contribute to conserving the areas La Crosse prides itself on, then consider donating to WisCorps. Wiscorps is based in Myrick park close to the University of Wisconsin La Crosse campus. "The WisCorps mission is to develop leadership, self-confidence, and a strong work ethic in youth and young adults through the active stewardship of Wisconsin’s communities and natural resources."
Just Click The Picture!
World Wide Fund for Nature, 2019
Source: British Broadcasting Corporation
The World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF for short is an organization that prioritizes the conservation of wildlife species and their habitats. If you would like to donate any amount of money to help species and habitats all over the world, it would be much appreciated. More areas should be able to keep their natural scenes just as La Crosse does.
Just click the picture!
Just click the picture!
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