Highlights

Featured Artist - Max Weyl

19th Century Fine Art Legacy

Max Weyl (American 1837 – 1914)

"All through the autumn, day after day, from early morning until dusk, Max Weyl, lover of nature and true artist that he is, could be found at work in the vicinity of Piney Branch. Indefatigably and earnestly he worked until the days grew too cold and the landscape desolate; the result is a studio filled with many charming and interesting impressions, rich in color, strong in design, and most picturesque; veritable symphonies of silver skies and golden trees with here and there a sombre note struck by some woodland pool. Artists are born, not made – the touch of the musician, the indescribable something which moves an audience to rapt silence, has its analogy in the touch of a painter. Mr. Weyl has such a touch – a quality that can never be acquired – it must be inherent. The products of those autumn days are full of charm ad show a deep sympathy with the beautiful." (Washington Times, January, 12, 1902)

As the above paragraph alludes, Max Weyl was known for his paintings of Rock Creek and its tributary, Piney Branch. "His work is marked by a richness of color and a sensitiveness to the beauty of tone in the manner of the French Barbizon School," as observed by a writer for the Washington Times in 1900.

Max Weyl was born in Muhlen-am-Neckar, Germany in 1837. After the family immigrated to Williamsport, Pennsylvania in 1853, Weyl worked as an itinerant watch and clock repairer. In 1861 he moved to Washington, D. C. and opened a jewelry store. At this time, he tried painting as a hobby and eventually hung a few of his small still life and landscape paintings in his shop window. One day, in a fortuitous stroke of luck, Samuel Kauffmann, the publisher of the Washington Evening Star and president of the board of trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, stopped in to have a watch repaired. Noticing the art work in the window, he bought a small landscape that had caught his eye – he was to become a regular patron of Weyl’s.

Needless to say, Weyl continued painting. An 1873 newspaper article in the Washington Evening Star mentions Weyl’s sketching tours into New York State, New Hampshire and Virginia “where he will find enough to keep the pencil busy for many a day”. In fact, by 1878 Weyl was listed in the Washington, D.C. directory as an artist.

His first exhibition was in 1879 which led to the sale of his landscapes; this was followed in 1879 by a trip to Europe where he visited art galleries and studied art in Paris, Munich, Vienna and Venice. Following his European travels and study, Weyl, who was self-taught and whose style prior to that time was more in the manner of the Hudson River School, now adopted the French Barbizon manner of painting. His new style was met favorably and he was dubbed “The American Daubigny,” a reference to the French Barbizon plein air painter Francois Daubigny (1817-1878).

However, it was Weyl’s paintings of Rock Creek area scenes and the tidal marshes of the Potomac River, executed in a painterly, poetic style akin to American landscapist and contemporary, George Inness (1825-1984) which comprised the bulk of his oeuvre from the 1890s to 1914. Rock Creek’s allure aside, Weyl accepted a number of invitations to paint at the Adirondack Mountain home of one his patrons, Brazilian minister, Senor Mendonca. During these stays produced many paintings of the area, two of which Senor Mendonca gave as gifts – one to his brother and the other for the Academy of Fine Arts in Brazil. This was followed later by the purchase of his landscapes by two first ladies, Mrs. Grover Cleveland and the first wife of Woodrow Wilson, for the White House.

In 1907, on Weyl’s 70th birthday, the Corcoran Gallery of Art held a retrospective exhibit in his honor, saying of him, "From the standpoint of art you have contributed works of genius that will stand for all time, while your bearing as a man, citizen and friend has been of that modest and yet far-reaching character that wins the love and retains the esteem of those with whom you have come in contact." In earlier years the Corcoran had purchased two of his paintings for their permanent collection.

In an interview in the Washington Times, published on January 2, 1914, Weyl says “Yes, Washington, and the nearby country is very paintable, I have found it an inspiration for more than thirty-five years.” His Rock Creek paintings were a topic of the interview, but also, his more recent paintings of the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he summers with friends. Max Wey, the shy, reserved, self-taught artist, painter of Rock Creek, died several months after this interview was published. Max Weyl, it can truly be said, left a “Capitol” impression.

Use only with permission of Bedford Fine Art Gallery.

References:

  1. Cosentino, Andrew, J. and Glassie, Henry, H., 1983, The Capitol Image: Painters in Washington, 1800 – 1915, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
  2. Falk, Peter, ed., 1999, Who Was Who in American Art, Sound View Press, Madison, CT.
  3. Gerdts, William H., 1990, Art Across America, Vol. I, Cross River Press, Ltd.
  4. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-dc-washington-evening-star-sep-12-1892-p-3./
  5. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-times-dec-23-1900-p-13/.
  6. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-times-jan-12-1902-p-16/.
  7. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-times-nov-04-1906-p-25/.
  8. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-times-nov-30-1907-p-5/
  9. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-dc-washington-washington-herald-dec-01-1907-p-10/.
  10. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-dc-washington-evening-star-nov-13-1912-p-5/.
  11. https://newspaperarchive.com/washington-times-jan-02-1914-p-11/.
  12. Zellman, Michael, David, 1987, 300 Years of American Art, Volume I, pg. 288, Wellfleet Press.

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