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, Garden Art

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

Huntington Bank, Douglas

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

Interpretative Labels

Label

Carl Hoerman 1885 - 1955 October Day on Lake Kalamazoo 1929 | oil on canvas “In Michigan and Chicago, Hoerman is best known for his landscapes and dune scenes with dramatic foliage outlined against a sky of swirling clouds. In this 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.”1 1Lane, Kit. Painting the Town: A History of Art in Saugatuck and Douglas. Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society, 1997. Collection: Saugatuck-Douglas History Center Gift of: Huntington Bank Accession: 2023.03.01

Label

From “Seasons at the Lakeshore” at the History Center 2024-2025 Carl Hoerman 1885-1955 October Day on Lake Kalamazoo 1929 | oil on canvas For more than 90 years, this painting by Carl Hoerman delighted lovers of art visiting Saugatuck’s Fruit Growers State Bank on Mason Street. Painted on October 26, 1929 from the southern shore of Lake Kalamazoo in Douglas, Hoerman created a harmonious landscape ablaze with fall foliage and a sky of swirling clouds. Comparing the view from 1929 to today, the middle ground of the composition reveals changes in Saugatuck’s landscape, including a treeless Mount Baldhead, the Big Pavilion (burned 1960) and Saugatuck Fruit Exchange (demolished 1999). SDHC Collection Gift of Huntington Bank Accession number 2023.03.01

Label

From "Collecting the Lakeshore" 2025-2026 at the History Center main floor gallery Carl Hoerman 1885-1955 October Day on Lake Kalamazoo 1929 | oil on canvas For more than 90 years, this painting by Carl Hoerman delighted lovers of art visiting Saugatuck’s Fruit Growers State Bank on Mason Street. Painted on October 26, 1929 from the southern shore of Lake Kalamazoo in Douglas, Hoerman created a harmonious landscape ablaze with fall foliage and a sky of swirling clouds. Comparing the view from 1929 to today, the middle ground of the composition reveals changes in Saugatuck’s landscape, including a treeless Mount Baldhead, the Big Pavilion (burned 1960) and Saugatuck Fruit Exchange (demolished 1999). This painting along with Autumn Symphony was on view at Mason Street bank from November of 1929 until Huntington Bank donated them to the Saugatuck-Douglas History Center in January 2023. Huntington Bank donated two additional paintings by Carl Hoerman to the Saugatuck Center for the Arts where they are on public view. Gift of Huntington Bank Accession 2023.03.01

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

September 15, 2026