biography of William WENDT (1865-1946)

Birth place: Bentzen, Prussia

Death place: Laguna Beach, CA

Addresses: Chicago, IL (immigrated 1880); Los Angeles/Laguna Beach, CA from 1906

Profession: Landscape painter

Studied: AIC (evening school); mostly self-taught

Exhibited: Chicago, 1893 (prize); AIC, prizes in 1897, 1904, 1910, 1913, 1922; SNBA, 1899; Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (medal); St. Louis Expo, 1904 (medal); Chicago SA, 1905 (prize); Wednesday Club, St. Louis, 1910 (medal); Corcoran Gal biennials, 1910-41 (5 times); PAFA Ann., 1911-12, 1916-18, 1933; SWA, 1912 (prize); Pan-Pacific Expo, San Francisco, 1915 (medal); San Diego Expo, 1915 (prize); Calif. AC, 1916 (prize); Pan.-Am. Exhib, Los Angeles, 1925 (prize); Stendahl Gal. Los Angeles, 1926 (first solo); Pacific Southwest Expo, Long Beach, 1928 (gold, prize); Pasadena AI, 1930 (prize); Laguna Beach MA, 1977 (retrospective)

Member: ANA, 1912; Chicago SA; NAC; Soc. Western Artists; Calif. Laguna Beach AA; AFA; Calif. Art Club (pres., 1911)

Work: LACMA; Laguna Art Mus.; Oakland Mus.; Cincinnati Mus.; AIC; Herron AI; H.S., Richmond, IN; Cliff Dwellers Club., Chicago; Des Moines (IA) Assn. FA; Univ. Club, Seattle

Comments: He was a good friend of Gardner Symons (see entry) in Chicago and in 1894 took the first of several trips to California with him. In 1906, he married the sculptor Julia Bracken Wendt (see entry), and they settled in Los Angeles that year. In 1918, he built a studio in Laguna Beach. He was of a modest, religious, and even melancholy nature, but his firm belief in faithfully rendering the shapes and colors of nature served as inspiration and guideline for many other plein-air painters.

Sources: WW40; Hughes, Artists in California, 597; 300 Years of American Art, 596; Falk, Exh. Record Series. For discussion of religious and Neo-Platonic elements in Wendt"s work, see John Alan. Walker, William Wendt's Pastoral Visions and Eternal Platonic Quests (priv. printed, Big Pine, CA, 1988); and, John Alan Walker, Documents on the Life and Art of William Wendt (priv. printed, Big Pine, CA, 1992; includes bibliography and catalogue raisonnÈ).