The Charcoal Club has been an arts club in Baltimore

Baltimore

Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, USA, on an intermittent basis since 1883.

History

Started as the Sketch Club in 1883 by a group of male artists in Baltimore who "desired to draw and paint from life" (meaning nude models), the Charcoal Club was incoporated in 1885. The founding officers included Adalbert J. Volck

Adalbert J. Volck

Adalbert J. Volck was a dentist, political cartoonist, and caricaturist born in Bavaria. He was known for supporting the Confederacy during the American Civil War, doing so through his political cartoons , smuggling items for the Confederate army, and personally assisting President Jefferson Davis...

 and Joseph Evans Sperry

Joseph Evans Sperry

Architect Joseph Evans Sperry was born in 1854 in Georgetown, South Carolina. He later relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, where he partnered with James Bosley Noel Wyatt to form the architectural firm Wyatt and Sperry. Their affiliation lasted from 1878 to 1887. The two probably became acquainted...

. The Club held exhibitions of local and national artists and its "annual juried exhibition of contemporary American art [was]...from 1911 to 1926...the high point of Baltimore's brief art season". The Club was also known for its wild annual "Bal des Arts".

Primary sources

• Charcoal Club Records, 1888–1970, Maryland Historical Society http://www.mdhs.org/findingaid/charcoal-club-records-1888-1970-ms-1792