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St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts
1889 Catalogue of the Exhibition
of Decorative Burnt Wood Panels
by J. William Fosdick

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St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts 1889 Catalogue of the Exhibition of Decorative Burnt Wood Panels by J. William Fosdick Courtesy of The Richardson Library, Saint Louis Art Museum, One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

Decorative Portrait, BEWARE! (listed as No. 2 in the catalogue above) by J. William Fosdick, Paris, circa 1888 Pyrography on wood panel From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Beware" Adapted from a black-and-white photograph in the July 1897 Puritan Magazine, p. 224.

Evening (listed as No. 5 in the catalogue above) by J. William Fosdick, circa 1888 Pyrography on wood panel Image adapted from a very small black-and-white photograph in the 1896 Century Magazine article Burnt Wood in Decoration by J. William Fosdick.

Lady Godiva (listed as No. 16 in the catalogue above) by J. William Fosdick, Paris, 1888 Pyrography on wood panel Image adapted from a black-and-white photograph in the 1904 Arts & Crafts Magazine, Vol. 1–2, published by Hutchinson and Company, London.

The original research for the above catalogue was for the purpose of locating a work (at least to see what it looked like) by J. W. Fosdick that was commissioned by the museum in St. Louis. That work—a portrait of Queen Elizabeth—was referred to in a December 1891 biography of Fosdick that followed an article by him in the Art Interchange Magazine:

"During the last two years, Mr. Fosdick has exhibited a collection of burnt wood work in New York, Washington and St. Louis and he has decorated many of the richest homes of America, principally in New York and St. Louis. The management of the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts in 1890 commissioned Mr. Fosdick to burn a decorative portrait of Queen Elizabeth which forms a part of the permanent carved wood department of the museum."

As it turns out, his exhibition in St. Louis was actually in 1889, which therefore preceded his 1890 commission for the Queen Elizabeth portrait. Although disappointing for lack of pictures, the catalogue was nevertheless a great find in terms of knowing what works he had done by that date, and identifies many panels of which the E-Museum was heretofore unaware. Note also that the last two works listed, nos. 29 and 30, were not by Fosdick but by his predecessor Ball Hughes. Note that no. 30, the panel of the Witches from Macbeth by Ball Hughes can be viewed at the link here to the illustration in the 1896 Century Magazine article by Fosdick.

The works listed in this catalogue are the ones shown in Fosdick's final exhibition in Paris before returning to New York in 1888, as well as his earliest exhibition in New York, according to the Franklin Smith article in 1892:

"After the exhibition in Paris Mr. Fosdick decided to accept the advice of his father and his teachers. He discontinued his studies in painting and returned to the United States. He repeated his exhibition in St. Louis and New York. The same generous appreciation that had been bestowed in Paris upon his "Lady Godiva," the head of a Fury, the series of panels illustrating the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," was accorded them in these cities. There was no one to dispute their beauty. In the field of decoration they were unique."

In an 1893 book by Henri Clarise, the author makes mention, on p. 77, of panels in England of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow without noting the artist. It is thought perhaps they are the ones by Fosdick whose panels in this motif, cited above in the catalogue, are illustrated in the 1892 Franklin Smith article Etching With Fire exhibited here in the E-Museum.

Finding this catalogue after having discovered Patty Thum's 1891 article was also most helpful in demonstrating that, as expected, the history she introduced in the first paragraph of her article she had learned from the catalogue of J. William Fosdick's exhibit—in her article she noted having seen the St. Louis exhibit of his works. That history was already known to be by Fosdick from his later December 1891 article in the Art Interchange Magazine.

The E-Museum wishes to acknowledge and thank Clare Vázquez for the scans of the catalogue provided from The Richardson Library.

UPDATE—04 October 2008: Thanks to an illustration and caption of J. William Fosdick's Lady Godiva—in an ostensibly unrelated article on the use of coloring over gilding—in a 1904 Arts and Crafts Magazine, we now have the old photograph exhibited above of this early work by J. Wm. Fosdick that was shown in Paris in 1888, in St. Louis in 1889 (listed as no. 16 in the catalogue above), in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and in exhibitions of the Architectural League of New York. Currently owned by Sathya Designs, Fosdick's Lady Godiva panel can be viewed at this link in the E-Museum.

UPDATE—27 August 2011: J. William Fosdick's panel Evening is now on display at this link in the E-Museum. It is from the private collection of Tamara Kijanowski.

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Curator's note: On the last page (p. 4) of the above catalogue, the date of 1883 is given for J. William Fosdick's first commission for the panels in a frieze. That date is believed to be in error and should be 1884, according to various other sources, including a panel inscribed by Fosdick himself—his 1884 panel dedicated to E. D. Adams.

If you have either any questions to ask or any information to offer regarding this catalogue of J. William Fosdick's 1889 exhibition in St. Louis, or any of his works, please e-mail the E-Museum Curator.

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1889 Catalogue of the Exhibition
of Burnt Wood Panels by J. Wm. Fosdick

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