Douglas Volk
Encyclopedia
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit four-year and postgraduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, MCAD currently enrolls approximately 1,000 students offering curriculum that includes...
. After 1904 he and his wife Marion created an artists' retreat at their family home, Hewnoaks, in Maine. She became active in the production of woolen textiles and rugs by traditional processes, and formed a group called Sabatos.
The son of the noted sculptor Leonard Volk
Leonard Volk
Leonard Wells Volk was an American sculptor. He is notable for making one of only two life masks of United States President Abraham Lincoln. In 1857 he helped establish the Chicago Academy of Design and served as its president until 1865. He made several large monumental sculptures, including the...
, he was named after his mother Emilia (Barlow) Volk's maternal cousin, the politician Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
Early life and education
Douglas was born to Emily Clarissa King (Barlow) and the sculptor Leonard Wells Volk. He was named after her maternal cousin Stephen A. DouglasStephen A. Douglas
Stephen Arnold Douglas was an American politician from the western state of Illinois, and was the Northern Democratic Party nominee for President in 1860. He lost to the Republican Party's candidate, Abraham Lincoln, whom he had defeated two years earlier in a Senate contest following a famed...
.
After studying in the United States, Douglas Volk went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
in Paris and also studied in Rome.
Marriage and family
In 1881 Volk married the artist Marion Larrabee, the first instructor at the Minneapolis School of Fine ArtsMinneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit four-year and postgraduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, MCAD currently enrolls approximately 1,000 students offering curriculum that includes...
, now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. It originally served mostly women students.
Their children were the following:
- Wendell (1888–1953), printmaker and woodcarver, who married Jessie J. McCoig, also an artist (b. ?-2004)
- Marion, who married Mr. Bridges.
- Lawrence
Career
Volk was a working artist and teacher. He taught at Cooper UnionCooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
, the New York Art Students’ League, and the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He also taught at the Society for Ethical Culture established by Felix Adler.
He was a founder of the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, now known as the Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
Minneapolis College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit four-year and postgraduate college specializing in the visual arts. Located in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, MCAD currently enrolls approximately 1,000 students offering curriculum that includes...
. He participated in the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition and won his first major award there. Volk became noted for his figure and portrait paintings.
Sabatos and Hewnoaks
Volk and his family started going to Maine for the summers. By the turn of the century, Marion Volk had started to work on traditional area looms to weave textiles and rugs. Rather than using cotton, she became known for her handwoven woolWool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
en work, created with her daughter Marion Volk Bridges. As part of a communal effort with residents of Lovell Centre, they made what collectively were known as Sabatos Rugs and Textiles. They hand-dyed the wools with fruit and vegetable dyes, such as the bark of apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
trees, yellow oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
and maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
; goldenrod
Goldenrod
Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America. There are also a few species native to Mexico, South...
, barberry, St. John's wort and madder
Madder
Rubia is a genus of the madder family Rubiaceae, which contains about 60 species of perennial scrambling or climbing herbs and sub-shrubs native to the Old World, Africa, temperate Asia and America...
root. Their designs were based on motifs from Native American art. Wendell Volk made a handprinted treatise on the Sabatos work from his hand presses. He also created silkscreen prints for the wool designs. His wife Jessie McCoig Volk also participated in making the handwoven works.
In 1904 the Volks bought a farmhouse and property on Kezar Lake at Lovell Centre in western Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. They renovated the house and added to it, calling it Hewnoaks. They eventually built four more cottages and an artist's studio for Douglas, with space for their artist friends and craftspeople. Numerous people came to study with them over the years, and they had a wide network of friends among artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
. Among them were J. Alden Weir
J. Alden Weir
Julian Alden Weir was an American impressionist painter and member of the Cos Cob Art Colony near Greenwich, Connecticut...
, Frank Benson
Frank Benson
Frank Benson may refer to:*Frank Benson , British actor-manager*Frank Weston Benson , American impressionist artist*Frank W. Benson...
, John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens
John Calvin Stevens was an American architect who worked in two related styles — the Shingle Style, in which he was a major innovator, and the Colonial Revival style, which dominated national domestic architecture for the first half of the 20th century...
, Childe Hassam
Childe Hassam
Frederick Childe Hassam was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums...
, Steven Douglas, William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase
William Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
, John Scott Bradstreet, Felix Adler, and the Swedish woodcarver Karl A. von Rydingsvärd and his American wife, the former Annie Mary Brown. (In 1906 Von Rydingsärd was awarded the Life Membership prize of the National Society of Craftsmen.)
The Volk family held the large property for 100 years. Jessie McCoig Volk, Wendell's widow, was the last to live there. After her death in 2004, the property was bequeathed to the University of Maine
University of Maine
The University of Maine is a public research university located in Orono, Maine, United States. The university was established in 1865 as a land grant college and is referred to as the flagship university of the University of Maine System...
and a portion of the family records to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
. University officials arranged for an auction of much of the property's contents and family papers, including art and craft work by the Volks and art which they had collected. In October 2006, the contents grossed more than $700,000 at auction, drawing especially high prices for two paintings by the illustrator Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
and photographs of Native Americans by the Norwegian
Norwegians
Norwegians constitute both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegian people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in United States, Canada and Brazil.-History:Towards the end of the 3rd...
Frederick Monsen (1865–1929).
External links
- "Douglas Volk", artnet.com
- "Douglas Volk", The Famous Artists