Elmer Wachtel

Elmer Wachtel (American, 1864–1929)

Moss Beach, Monterey, California, Pacific Coastal Landscape, ASL NYC, Benezit.

Presented in an ivory mat.

An early 20th-century landscape showing a view of the coastline at Moss Beach in Monterey County, with slate-blue skies overhead and a view towards a stand of windswept Monterey Cypress with a view of the cobalt blue ocean beyond. A particularly fresh and bright example, kept until recently in a portfolio.

A prominent California landscape painter of the late 19th and early 20th century, Elmer Wachtel specialized in panoramic coastal scenes and desert and mountain landscapes using impressionist brushstrokes. His early works were tonalist in mood, and his later paintings were more decorative and light-hearted.

Elmer Wachtel was an American artist who holds a high place in the early California school of Impressionism. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 21, 1864. He received his artistic training at the Art Students' League of New York under William Merritt Chase, and the Art School in London 1901–02. While in California he resided and maintained studios in Los Angeles and Pasadena.

In 1904, Elmer Wachtel married the artist Marion Kavanaugh (1876–1954) in Chicago. Husband and wife were frequently seen painting the Southern California landscape and were known to have traveled by horseback over the San Marcos Pass to the Santa Inez Valley. They traversed and painted the coastline between Gaviota and Conception Lighthouse (just north of Santa Barbara, California), the Cooper Ranch (north of Santa Barbara), Matilija Canyon and Ojai, California. Venturing south, the couple made it to the San Luis Rey River (near present day Oceanside) and the Cerisa Loma Ranch (near San Diego). In 1908, they trekked to the arid deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, painting the historic pueblo villages on the Moki and Navajo reservations.

During their marriage, Marion specialized as a general rule in watercolors while Elmer stayed with oils. In 1906, a Los Angeles Times critic noted, "Elmer knows Southern California perhaps more intimately than any other artist. He paints her directly, simply, truthfully, and yet never with topographic hardness and realism...". (with thanks to Lawrence Beebe Fine Art).

Monogrammed and dated lower right, also signed and inscribed verso

Thieme/Becker Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Kunstler, Vollmer Supplement vol. 35/36, p.5.

E. Benezit Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, vol. 14, p.379.

Davenport's Art Reference and Price Guide 2009/2010, p.2637.