Topics in Kansas History: Community & Daily Life

Essay on Arts & Literature

Kansas Artists

John Steuart Curry was born on a farm near Dunavant, Jefferson County, in 1897. Although he eventually left Kansas to attend art schools in the East and Europe, he never forgot his Kansas roots. Many of his most famous paintings, including Tornado Over Kansas and Baptism in Kansas, depict life on the Kansas farmlands. His style and subject matter made him a leader in the American Scene school of painting, along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton.

In 1937, Curry received the commission to paint the murals in the Kansas Statehouse. A controversy soon arose over his choice of subject matter and the way it was portrayed. Curry battled critics until 1942. He quit in disgust after his request to remove several "small pieces of Italian marble" from his mural area was refused. In protest, Curry never signed the murals. The controversy over his work had subsided by the time he died in 1946 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Robert Merrell Gage was dedicated to expressing strong American and Kansas themes in his sculpture. Born in Topeka in 1892, he graduated from Washburn University before attending prominent art schools in New York and France. There he studied under "American Theme" painters Gutzom Borglum, the man who carved the figures on Mount Rushmore, and Robert Henri. They left a lasting impression on his vision of art.

Gage returned to Topeka in 1916 and opened his own studio. His first public commission piece was a statue of Abraham Lincoln. Many other commisssions, awards, and honors followed in years to come.

From 1924 until his retirement in 1958, Gage taught at the University of Southern California. He died in 1981 leaving behind a vast collection of work. Two of his major works, the Lincoln statue and Pioneer Mother Memorial are still enjoyed daily by visitors to the Kansas Capitol grounds.

Although rather primitive in style, the paintings and drawings of Samuel J. Reader provide a valuable record of early Kansas history. Born in Pennsylvania in 1836, Reader immigrated to the Kansas Territory in 1855 and settled on a farm near Indianola. In a daily diary, which he kept religiously throughout his life, Reader recorded many social and political events in Kansas. He liberally illustrated his diary as well as recorded these events on canvas. His best known works are his drawings and paintings of territorial and Civil War experiences.

In Battle of Hickory Point, Reader expresses his disapproval of slavery which motivated him to participate in the battle in 1856. This was a two-day skirmish between pro- and anti-slavery forces near Ozawkie.

In Battle of the Big Blue, Reader depicts his capture in 1864 by General Sterling Price's troops. Kept with the Confederate force as they headed to Texas, Reader was able to make an escape while still in southeastern Kansas. He returned to his farm in Indianola where he lived until his death in 1914.

Although a talented artist and successful newspaper publisher, Albert T. Reid is probably best remembered for his political cartoons. Reid sold his first cartoon to the Topeka Mail & Breeze in 1896. For the next 30 years, his cartoons appeared regularly in Kansas City, Chicago, and New York newspapers and several national magazines. They remain today as a major contribution to the history of American politics. A large collection of his work is owned by the Kansas State Historical Society.

In the 1890s, Reid opened an art school in Topeka with George M. Stone, the state's foremost portrait painter. This school marked the beginning of the Washburn University art department. During his life, Reid also was an editor and publisher of newspapers in Topeka and Leavenworth, a prosperous businessman, a composer, and a painter of murals. He died at the age of 85 in 1958.

Frederic Remington is one of this country's best documentary artists of the Old West. Although he cannot be considered a Kansan, his years here did help shape and inspire his artistic vision of the American West.

Born in Canton, New York, in 1861, Remington went west at age 19. He was in search of frontier adventure and fortune. Instead he found the inspiration to become an artist. Remington was in Kansas from 1883 to 1885, working on a Butler County sheep ranch.

Virtually a self-taught artist, Remington was soon receiving national acclaim for his paintings and illustrations. In the early 1890s, he illustrated books and articles by such famous authors as Teddy Roosevelt and Francis Parkman. In 1895, Remington began sculpting the bronzes of cowboys and American Indians for which he is now legendary. He died at the age of 48 in 1909.

Sven Birger Sandzen remains one of the best known Kansas artists. A native of Sweden, Sandzen studied art in Paris. In 1894, at age 23, he accepted a position to teach art and language at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. He stayed in Lindsborg till his death in 1954.

Sandzen was a strong influence on the artists of Kansas and the middle-west. In addition to his painting and teaching, Sandzen helped organize the Prairie Print-Makers and the Prairie Water Color Painters in the early 1900s. His favorite subject always remained the Kansas landscape. It has been said that through his unique painting style, he was able to transform these scenes into "opalescent jewels of shimmering colors."

George M. Stone was born on a farm near Topeka in 1858. He studied art in Paris from 1887 to 1891. Upon returning to Topeka, he opened an art school with cartoonist-publisher Albert T. Reid. It later became the art department of Washburn University.

A talented landscape painter, Stone is best known for his portraits. He pursued a successful career painting many prominent individuals in Topeka and throughout the United States. His paintings of Kansas landscapes and farmers, however, earned him the title of "The Millet of the Prairies." His style was thought to be very similiar to that of the French artist Millet. Stone was also a talented muralist.

Born in 1825 in Liverpool, England, Henry Worrall eventually came to Kansas in 1868 on account of his health. A self-taught artist, Worrall became a regular contributor to eastern journals. His illustrations have been described as "journalism in pictures."

Worrall also worked in oils and wood. His most famous carving is that of the Kansas state seal. It was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 and is now owned by the Kansas State Historical Society. In 1878 his painting, Drouthy Kansas, drew much attention. It countered the popular image of the state as a dry wasteland. It is currently on exhibit in the Kansas Museum of History.

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