Palette and Chisel Academy of Arts

Yesterday before returning home from Chicago I went to the Palette and Chisel for the first time to take part in their 3 hour long pose study session. Everyone was very nice and the gentleman running that session was a cute older man with a jolly little smile. The other artists set up their easils to paint the subject and I set up a drawing horse to draw since I was there to get a feel how the sessions woud go.

The Palette and Chesil in Chicago was founded in 1895 and is the oldest art organization in the United States.

The founding members were principally evening students at the Art Institute of Chicago. Charles J. Mulligan, an assistant to sculptor Lorado Taft, was able to persuade Taft to rent the organization part of his seventh floor studio on Van Buren Street in Chicago.

The Palette & Chisel served as the artistic home of James Topping Walter Ufer, and Eugene Savage.In 1921, with the help of founding member, Fred Larson, who mortgaged his home for this purpose, the club purchased the mansion at 1012 N. Dearborn Street where it still resides. In 1933, the organization changed its name to the "Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art", as it became an educational, not-for-profit institution.

Some early members of note included:

• Carl Brandner (1898-1961)
• Benjamin Blessum (1877- 1954)
• Walter Marshall Clute (1870-1915)
• John Carl Doemling (1894-1955)
• Frank Dudley (1868-1957)
• J. Jeffrey Grant (1883-1960)
• Oskar Gross (1871-1963)
• Victor Higgins (1884-1949)
• Frank Holme (?-1904)
• Wilson Irvine (1869-1936)
• Thomas A. O'Shaughnessy (1870-1956)
• Karl Ouren (1882-1943)
• Edgar Alwin Payne (1883–1947)
• Emory Seidel (1881- )

Needless to say I plan to go back and eventually join the organization which will allow me to use the facility at will. they also have sculpting classes which interest me greatly!