Name/Title
Krehbiel letter, August 1940Entry/Object ID
2023.50.75Scope and Content
Transcript of a letter from Krehbiel to his son Evan, Monday Aug. 5[?], 1940
Thanks for your letters. Am enclosing twenty dollars for you with your mother's check. I've gone busted so often in the summer that some years ago I had Armour Institute pay my salary in 12 installments. I got the check in Sat morning & just before my class on Sat. I got the enclosed draft but the day was so full that I had no chance to send it before the last mail left. Before I left Chi. in June I paid both installments of my real estate taxes to the County Treasurer by draft. Haven't had a word about the receipt. If you have it let me know.
In my Sat talk at 10 I hadn't an idea what I was to say or draw. Coming out of the bank a stranger asked me for a direction of street. I apologized saying that I too was a stranger here. Used that for my text in my talk. Had often told the students I knew nothing about what was art, knew nothing what was in their heads and that all the fun in teaching was in that which they received.
Then I went back to what the ancients had to say in their short period and drew structural designs that they left in their efforts as strangers in this earth. Then gradually turned the thought to the modern point of view with an abstract containing a half doz. figures. These talks set them going so that Sat, and Sundays are working days too.
But yesterday I had to make a dragon's head in color on a six x four foot piece of plywood, so I did not see much of the class. Here they have Sea Scouts instead of Boy Scouts. On Wed. night they are to have a festival on the river after dark. The Scouts wanted a figure head of a dragon for their boat. I painted one side of the board and then cut it out with a saw and painted another dragon on the other side. They resembled each other only in that the eye was just opposite each other in case they wished to cut it out for electric light. I took it out after dark last night to see where the red and orange and black could be seen at night and found that the part I had left of the plywood shone like silver when cars passed by which was lucky.
Who in Hades ever invented summer teaching in summer classes? I'm sick and tired of it all. Never leave the environment, as there is always someone to see me. It has kept me out of a lot of mischief as I am always in bed by nine so as to be fit for the next day's toil. It has also been a blessing in escaping long dinners, long rides and the many other things inflicted upon mankind by well-wishing people. I tell them that I am a descendant of Pokagon, a wonderful chief of the Pottawattomie. That the studio is the chipping station where one must ever watch what went up and down the river. Truly the studio was a part of Pokagon Inn; forty years ago. When it burned the studio escaped and was moved across on the ice to the place it now stands. From its spacious window one can cue all the traffic on the river.
Bodholdt's failing, if he had one was to see each student return to the atelier with a sketch which often echoed Bod more than the student. I will stand behind a student for a half hour and direct rather than do. I might do it in ten minutes and save time. Teaching is directing. there is enough of the American spirit left to wish to do a job byself. If I could only sell out to an enterprising teacher I would be happy. More & more I recall the words of Bert Taylor, "Life is the same damn thing. Getting up in the morning; doing a days work & going to bed dead tired." Could anyone here express the idea better, to fit one of seventy. Still there is lots of fun. Dr. Rowland never tolerates the serious side. Each evening we are together. He introduced me to Mrs. Wicks on the street the other night who was delighted to hear that I was again in town and I have been at her domicile for the past seven weeks. I'm the only one allowed to eat out & my trail through the rear door through a garden filled with birds & flowers means that I seldom see those at the entrance to the Inn. The short cut to the studio is through the garden. Sat. night I came in via the front door at nine pm. Mr. Wicks said that a man in a racing machine had been looking for me all evening. Rowland suggested it might be the sheriff. I went to bed immediately and locked my door for once.
Though I like to fish at night, this year I haven't even a fishing license. Fishing, to do it right, is just another day's work. Like painting, one must be conscious of that wonderful thing called Leisure, which may be the headline of a new adventure. I'm thinking of squatting on a piece of government land. All one has to do is to put up a shack & live in it for three years. A locality is ideal facing west to the lake. A wonderful place for sunsets & it is said that sunsets sell when done in watercolor or oil. With your help I could roll the logs across the sand and build a shack for two. I've been standing for so many years that one's body seems to fit any bench at twilight. Think this over. I'm not trying to rob you of your natural bent which you alone know. It might be an outing for both of us. Still outings must come to an end in this business world.
Must hurry this to the mail before class begins at nine.
Dein [Yours, in German].
ALContext
Albert H. Krehbiel (1873-1945) originally from Iowa, then Kansas, taught art at Armour Institute and, for more than 10 years, at the School o f the Art Institute of Chicago. He was an instructor at the Summer School of Painting at Ox-Bow 1926 to 1930, when he left to begin The AK Studio in a small building on the river just north of the Tourist Home (now the site of Ship `n Shore). This letter is addressed to his 26 year-old son, Evans, who lived with his mother (Krehbiel 's estranged wife, artist Dulah Evans) at Park Ridge, Illinois. Krehbiel lodged in Saugatuck with Frank and Carrie Wicks at the Maplewood Hotel on Butler Street and was apparently the only one to rent a room that was not required to take all of his meals at the Maplewood. The Bodholdt referred to in the letter was Arne Bodholdt, a Chicago artist and art teacher. The night festival, for which he made the dragon for the Scouts was a version of Venetian Night, a popular summer event on the Kalamazoo River at Saugatuck that featured a parade of lighted boats. The Gallinipper, an old iron life boat used by the Saugatuck Sea Scouts, is currently under restoration by a team of Historical Society members.Collection
SDHS NL Inserts, Artists, Nature, ecology, the landscape, Festivals, events, parades, celebrationsCataloged By
Winthers, SallyAcquisition
Accession
2023.50Acquisition Method
Found in CollectionNotes
SDHS Newsletter insert pages 151-152Location
* Untyped Location
Digital data in CatalogItRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Krehbiel, Albert Henry 1873-1945, Saugatuck Sea Scouts, Venetian Festival, Pokagon Resort/Inn 1899-1901, Ox-Bow Village Studio/AK Studio, Wicks, Caroline Jane "Carrie" (Millar) Stillson 1884-1983, Wicks, Frank Herman 1883-1961General Notes
Note
This information was OCR text scanned from SDHS newsletter supplements. A binder of original paper copies is catalog item 2023.50.01Create Date
November 24, 2023Update Date
November 24, 2023
