[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

LEFLER, Heinrich [1863-1919] and Joseph URBAN [1872-1933]

“St. Georgius” / “St. Leopold” / “Returning from the Field” / “St. Stanislaus” / “St. Hedwig of Silesia”

1899

color lithographs / each 9 inches by 9 1/16 inches

Where is the line betwixt fine art and graphic design? Perhaps, in an ideal world, there is none.

From the set Österreichische Kalender Monatsbilder, each image illustrated a calendar month. These are characteristically “Secession”, the Viennese contribution to the European-wide Art Nouveau movement usually identified with France and Belgium. The contribution of each artist is still a matter of research. Agincourt has had a remarkable link with Austria through the Wassermann-Kolb family.

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

DAWSON, Nelson Ethelred [1859-1941]

“Two Sailboats at High Sea”

ca1910-1930

color etching on paper / 20.6 cm by 22.5 cm (plate)

Nelson Ethelred Dawson — does it take something special to live your life as an Ethelred? — was an English member of the Arts & Crafts. Though he worked in etching and woodcut, it’s comforting to know that his first studies were in architecture and painting. The colors of this captivating woodcut suggest the ’30s. It might easily have illustrated a novel by Herman Melville.

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

PEDERSON, E. [dates unknown]

“Jewels of the Night”

ca1930

oil on canvas / 27.4 inches x 18.3 inches (image)

Chicagoans will easily recognize this view of their city, principally the tower of the Chicago Temple, home of First United Methodist Church, at the corner of Washington and Clark Streets. Two blocks beyond is a station on the Wabash stretch of the Loop, elevated railway. For business and cultural connections—higher education, for example—America’s “Second City” may have been a greater influence than Des Moines or Omaha.

The artist, identified only as “E. Peterson”, is unfamiliar and may have been associated with the former artists’ colony at Sturm & Drang. The work itself was acquired at an estate sale.

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

GADEYNE, Jules Julien/Juliaan [1857-1936]

Beach / Sunset / Boats

ca1900

oil on wood panel / 9 3/4 inches by 14 1/4 inches (overall); 5 1/2 by 10.25 inches (image)

Gadeyne — a Flemish artist born at Blankenberge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium — is known primarily for his marine subjects: boats, coastline, dramatic weather conditions. How this tiny work found its way to Agincourt is a lingering question.

Blankenberge is a community a few miles up the coast from Ostend (and just four miles from Brugge), a landscape which might well be represented in this painting.

[See: https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/genealogie_nuijs_hoogers/I45837.php%5D

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

NORTON, Elizabeth (1887–1985)

“Lioness”

color woodcut / 3 3/16 inches by 6 inches (image)

1922

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

RUZICKA-LAUTENSCHLÄGER, Hans [1862–1933]

Cityscape / Tightrope Walker / Seiltänzer

oil on canvas / 5 inches by 7 inches / signed

pre-1900

Austrian artist Hans Růžička-Lautenschläger is recognized for his land- and cityscapes, painted in Italy, Austria, and elsewhere. His work in a late-Impressionist style has been mentioned favorably in several Austrian art journals, such as Der Merker. He exhibited in Vienna and Munich — and now in Agincourt.¹ This petite work emigrated to the United States with members of the Wasserman family, who settled in Agincourt in 1900.

“Tightrope Walker” may be a study for an intended larger work; it was likely painted at the scene. Despite the speed of execution, however — capturing the energy of the moment — there is little doubt of the wonder experienced by the spectators.

Hans Růžička-Lautenschläger / “View of the Pantheon in Rome”

Hans Růžička-Lautenschläger / “The ferris wheel in the Prater in Vienna by night”

¹ An inquiry has been made to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

E. L. [Etienne Laurent?] [dates uncertain]

Portrait of Gaius Plinius Tennant

ca1870

oil on board / 9.6 inches by 7.3 inches

Of the three Tennant Brothers, Pliny — full name Gaius Plinius Tennant — was a true 19th century Transcendentalist. Though he was an investor in the Agincourt Enterprise and may have visited the site early in its development, Pliny Tennant pushed ever farther westward in his search for self. If this is, indeed, a portrait painted shortly before he disappeared somewhere into the southwestern states, possibly Arizona or Utah, he has struck a wistful romantic pose borne out by his life’s subsequent pattern or lack thereof. He is remembered as the namesake of “Pliny’s Purse”, the compounded return of his investment in the Agincourt townsite and the subcutaneous good it has done for the community.

The painter’s initials E. L. may stand for Etienne Laurent, a family friend from their origin in the Channel Islands.

[#1579]

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

LLOYD, Margaret Eleanor [1867–1912]

FODE, David G. [1968–2022]

“Punch & Judy”

Design for a Stencil / original size unknown; published at 5 5/8 inches

1905 (date of publication)

Stained glass window / 30 inches in diameter

2015 (date of execution)

–

The story of this collaborative project, between two artistically talented people born almost exactly one hundred years apart, is bracketed with tragedy. In 1905, the year Margaret Lloyd’s design appeared in The International Studio, a British art periodical, a kindergarten was built on the grounds adjacent to Saint Joseph-the-Carpenter Episcopal church. Operated on a non-profit basis to bring the educational philosophy of Friedrich Fröbel to the community, the Shingle Style building may be the first work of architecture by the sixteen-year-old Anson Tennant. It included a window opening to accommodate the “Punch & Judy” window, adapted from the British artist’s design. Though documentation is lacking, it’s believed Lloyd know of our intention to adapt her “stencil” as a window. It remained a project for a hundred and ten years, however, when David Fode of Waukesha, Wisconsin brought Lloyd’s vision, literally, to light.

Researching names and dates for this entry, we encountered another layer of coïncidence: stained glass artist Fode died in November 2022 at age fifty-four, while we learned that Ms Lloyd had passed in 1912, a casualty in one of Britain’s worst train accidents. She was forty-five. The window, a lighthearted work of charm, has become a memorial to both of its creators — despite its political incorrectness.

[#1578]

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

MAXWELL, Donald [1877–1936]

“Pook’s Hill, Little Dartmouth”

ca1920

lithograph / 6.8 inches by 10.9 inches / edition unknown

A charming early 20th Century chromolithograph, showing a view across Pook’s Hill, Little Dartmouth adds to the apt but unjust observation — in our estimation — that the Community Collection consists largely of “landscapes and livestock.” Artist Donald Maxwell may be better known for his considerable body of work as an illustrator:

“Maxwell trained in London at the Clapham School of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Royal College of Art. He was soon writing and illustrating extensively for The Yachting Monthly and other magazines. In about 1909, he became a regular correspondent for the Daily Graphic and the illustrated weekly The Graphic and continued so until the latter closed in 1932. In later life he wrote weekly illustrated articles for the Church Times.

“Most of Maxwell’s thirty or more self-illustrated books were about voyages in (Europe, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and India) and later about the sights of Southern England. He also illustrated books by many other authors, including Hilaire Belloc and also Rudyard Kipling, to whom his mother was related.

“Interest in Maxwell’s work as an artist has continued. Several of his topographical paintings were bought by the Southern Railway and displayed as prints in railway carriages. These have since become collectors’ items. A lithograph of a water colour by Maxwell showing Shap Fell in Cumbria, printed for the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, sold at auction for £517 in 1999, and a marine oil painting for £5520 in 1998. A folio of unframed drawings by Maxwell fetched £840 at auction in 2005.” [from Wikipedia, no less]

We are fortunate to have this delicate piece.

[From the Community Collection, a public trust in Agincourt, Iowa]

BENDIX, Maureen (née Florscheim) [1919–2006]

“Over the Moon”

ca1960

oil on canvas / 15.9 inches by 20.1 inches

The Bendix family established Agincourt’s first post-war housing development: Riverside Addition, where contractor William Bendix built one of the community’s finest examples of Mid-century Modernism, still standing at 216 N.E. Sixth Street. Bill had designed the house himself and lavished the best materials and craftsmanship on it. Several contemporary artworks graced its walls and the family were major donors to this collection. “Over the Moon” was painted by Maureen Bendix herself for their daughter Estelle.

A playful composition of rabbits defying gravity among clouds and stars, “Over the Moon” was a gift from Estelle Bendix Feldman, who now lives in Omaha.