The Charcoal Club in Baltimore, Maryland, is the second oldest art club in the country. In its heyday in the early 1900s, it was known for its fancy balls, its pranks, and its Salon des Refuses. The club was as much about socializing as about drawing and making art.
Perhaps its most famous prank is its creation of Ignatius Loyola Glutz, the club’s most famous member. He died of starvation in a Paris garret surrounded by fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and cheese that were meticulously arranged for the still life he was painting. His works – like Red Mullets in Love, a still life of entwined fish, and Love’s Embrace, featuring two sausages – were posthumously displayed and caused a sensation. He was purported to have been born on April Fool’s Day. He preached that painting should be as direct and spontaneous as kissing a pretty girl. He was a total hoax.
The club started in 1883 when a group of forward-thinking artists hired a model to pose nude, a practice unheard-of at the time. The conservative citizens were mortified, but the practice persisted. The club’s goal was to provide art instruction and to encourage art appreciation by the sharing and showing of painting and sketches. For nearly twenty years, the Charcoal Club was the only place in Baltimore where students could sketch or paint from live nude models.
The club was dedicated to promoting local artists. They applauded the opening of the Baltimore Museum of Art in 1923, but they were irritated when the museum held its first juried exhibition of Maryland artists and excluded many Baltimore artists. They quickly organized a Salon des Refuses featuring many of the works of art spurned by the Baltimore Museum of Art. In their catalog they stated that juried shows “have created and maintained a high standard of mediocrity and have, almost without exception, suppressed unknown talent.” The Salon des Refuses was repeated in 1934.
Through the years, the club members may have grown more sedate than their predecessors, but their commitment to realism and the ways of the classic European masters has stood firm.
Currently the club holds a monthly meeting, when a member puts on a “mini show” of about a half-dozen works. A speaker might also be invited to talk about some aspect of art, like the latest methods for making prints. According to the club’s records, past speakers have included the daughter of renowned Baltimore photographer Audrey Bodine and Baltimore Sun editorial cartoonist, Richard “Moco” Yardley. The club also holds nude figure drawing sessions.
Source:
Kirwin, Lisa. (1985). Back to Bohemia with the Charcoal Club of Baltimore. American Art Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 / 2. 41-46.
Suzanne Hill - Suzanne Moniea Hill studied art history and studio art and has been passionate about art all her life. She believes that people should ...
Join the Conversation