October Day on Lake Kalamazoo

Painting

-

Saugatuck Douglas Historical Society

Name/Title

October Day on Lake Kalamazoo

Entry/Object ID

2023.03.01

Tags

Collecting the Art Coast

Description

Oil-on-canvas landscape painting in a wooden, gilt frame with carved, Acanthus details in the corners. The top half of the painting is a blue sky with high cloud formations. The bare sand peak of Mt. Baldhead (minus a tower) and the Big Pavilion are visible across Lake Kalamazoo in the middle distance. In the foreground are orange, yellow, red and green trees and a strip of grassland. Two tags on the back of the frame date the work as 1929. An alternate title is "Lake Kalamazoo with View of Saugatuck"

Type of Painting

Easel

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil

Subject Place

* Untyped Subject Place

Kalamazoo Lake

Context

A prime example of Hoerman's West Michigan landscapes with the bonus of the Big Pavilion. This painting hung in the Saugatuck Fruit Growers State Bank (and its many later iterations) for more than 90 years. According to an article in the November 8, 1929 Commercial Record newspaper, the work is "painted from the scenic shoreline of hte Gerber (Spencer) estate in Douglas looking across towards Saugatuck, showing, in the foreground the colorful raiment of fall in three and bush, with the distant wood-clad dunes in the hazy blue-green shadows of an afternoon sun with Saugatuck's land mark—the Pavilion—near the center."

Collection

Artworks, 1909 Big Pavilion -1960

Cataloged By

Winthers, Sally

Acquisition

Accession

2023.03

Source or Donor

Mize Rose Garden north side/Fruit Growers State Bank/Clapp's Grocery/Flint's Shoes/Walz Meat Market/Griffin/Tanner

Acquisition Method

Donation, unconditional

Made/Created

Artist

Hoerman, Carl 1885-1955

Date made

1929

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Signature

Location

lower right corner

Dimensions

Height

40-1/2 in

Width

46-1/2 in

Location

Room

2nd floor gallery/conference room

Condition

Overall Condition

Very Good

Research Notes

Notes

The painting appears on page 24 of the 1997 SDHC publication "Painting the Town" as "Big Pavilion from the Douglas Shore," 1949, with the following description on page 33: "In Michigan and Chicago he [Hoerman] is best known for his landscapes and dune scenes, with dramatic foliage outlined against a sky of swirling clouds. In a large painting of Kalamazoo Lake the viewer looks over the south bank of the lake, past fall-tinted foliage to the village of Saugatuck on the north bank where the Big Pavilion looks pink in the brightness of a morning sun. The sandy top of Mount Baldhead gleams in the distance."

Create Date

January 10, 2023

Update Date

May 14, 2025