The Prodigal
Paintings
By Phyllis Taylor
That which was
lost has been found. The next time you enter
the main lobby of Mather Lodge, look to your left, and you will spy two oil
paintings, each measuring approximately two feet by two feet, freshly and
smartly reframed for display. The first painting is named Section of the Lodge (original front of Mather Lodge), and the
second one is View from Lodge (the
view behind the lodge looking across the canyon). According to Park Interpreter B.T. Jones, "If
you go to the right spot, the view is the same all these years later."
That would now be 76 years later, and until
2012 had been 75 years gone and forgotten. The two paintings were commissioned
through the CCC (Civilian Conversation Corps) and painted by one of the
original "starving artists," George Gordon Snyder, who painted them on
construction tile in 1937. George Snyder
then dutifully shipped them off to a warehouse operated by The Department of
Treasury in Washington D.C. It was his
final shipment which included19 other pictures he painted of Petit Jean State
Park, bringing the overall park total to 29. The plan was that the pictures
would be distributed to other public tax-payer funded buildings and
administered through The Department of Treasury.
Alas, by
September of 1937, the CCC art program lost funding; it follows, therefore,
that G.G. Snyder lost his employment as well.
He had just turned 64 and more than likely the oldest CCC artist on
record. G.G. Snyder had married late in
life at the age of 50; his wife Carrie was 28 when they were wed, and there are
no records to indicate that the couple ever had children. Not a great deal is known about the two after
he left Petit Jean, except that they lived in Bentonville a few years, then
later moved to the home of George's deceased mom in Lincoln, Nebraska. Additional information about G.G. Snyder and
other CCC artists is available on: *newdealblog.com,
under "Idle Artists of the Great
Depression," (sponsored by Ms. Kathleen
Duxbury).
What with the
rapid and radical changes the world was experiencing during the depression,
much of the artwork of the CCC artists such as G.G. Snyder was all but
forgotten-- until some 75 years later (2012), when a few pieces of the puzzle
fell into place re-connecting at least one man to his art, and re-placing that art to its origin. The "origin"
was not just a location, but an era of challenges and the re-shaping of a
nation-- growing pains that needed to be captured on canvas.
In fact, in1934
at the program start, Mr. Edward Rowan, the Assistant Technical Director with
the Treasury Department Section of
Painting and Sculpture, defined the CCC Artist mission as follows: "I
want to stress to the artists that the purpose of sending them to these camps
is to secure a pictorial record which will be of some value not only in the
present, but in the future, of the life and activities of these camps." (11/17/1934)
G.G. Snyder's
story is interesting on its own, but the two paintings' return passage to
Mather Lodge and the Park is magical; it is a tale of history and mystery,
packaged up neatly with a happy ending.
The happy ending to this remarkable narrative was made possible by the
humanitarian qualities of two generous and thoughtful people, Kathleen Duxbury
(Ridgewood, N.J.) and Mark Humpal (Portland, Oregon). Take either one of them out of the equation,
and Arkansans would not even be aware of the paintings or the legacy.
Kathleen Duxbury
and Mark Humpal had never met before the summer of 2012. Mark is an art expert as well as an art
gallery owner in Oregon. Kathleen is an author who has been compiling data on
CCC Artists; she had been traveling by motor home across most of the country
accumulating information for her book, Idle
Artists of the Great Depression -- A Pictorial Record of the Civilian
Conservation Corps. One of her
scheduled stops was in Portland, Oregon, where she, Mark Humpal and a
University of Oregon art instructor were to be part of a team to lecture on
PWAP (Public Works of Art Project) Master-Wood-Carver, Art Clough. Mr. Clough's work is a collection held by the
University library at Oregon University.
Concluding their
organizational meeting for the Clough lectures, and just as all were packing up
to leave, Ms. Duxbury changed her slides over to the CCC Art that she had
gleaned in her research. When the
Smithsonian Slide from Devil's Den, Bridge
Builders by G.G. Snyder popped up, Mark Humpal instantly recognized
Snyder's painting, and for a very good reason.
Mr. Humpal just happened to own a couple of them, View Near Lodge and Section
of the Lodge. They were paintings
that he had purchased in 1996 at an estate sale in Portland. How the "lodge" paintings wound up
in that estate sale-- well that is the most fascinating part of this strange
turn of events:
Miraculously, a
construction worker retrieved them from a dumpster outside The Department of
Agriculture Building in Washington D.C. The daughter of the construction crew
member told Mr. Humpal that her dad had rescued the paintings in the 1950's or
60's during the time the Agriculture building was being renovated, and
apparently much of the CCC Artists' works were tossed. Shockingly, it is believed that because of
the expanding diversities in mediums and subject matter emerging in art at that
time, that the artistic outputs of the 1930's were seen as inferior and
therefore disposable.
Mark Humpal,
however, had never viewed the "lodge" paintings as inferior, and had
made numerous attempts to identify both the artist and the location. But since his efforts at discovery went
unrewarded, he had carefully conserved and stored the two paintings; that was
sixteen years before his chance encounter with Kathleen. Now he knew the "from where" along
with the "to where," and both turned out to be the same place--
Mather Lodge. The paintings weren't just
returned to the lodge, they were hand delivered by Ms. Kathleen Duxbury
herself, on October 19, 2012-- a great day for the park.
It was also a
pretty sweet experience for Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism Executive
Director, Richard Davies as well, who along with park interpreters B.T. Jones
and Rachel Engebrecht, Park Superintendent Wally Scherrey, Kathleen Duxbury and
her husband Garner Yeaw, that the paintings were returned. The presentations took place in the Mather Lodge
CCC Room. It seems Richard Davies had
received a little treasure of his own in the process of the paintings' research
and return. The one commendable
exception (to anyone showing interest in the status and return of the paintings),
was none other than his grandfather, Superintendent of V-1781 CCC Camp at Petit
Jean, Samuel G. Davies.
Most of you know
that Samuel G. Davies later became the first Arkansas State Park Director. But during the interval that he was the
Superintendent of the CCC Camp in 1937, it was discovered through Ms. Duxbury's
CCC Artists' research, that Davies (Samuel) had written no less than two
letters requesting the return of ten G.G. Snyder paintings for park display. Sadly, there was never any feedback. Nonetheless, Samuel G. Davies' stewardship to
the park is laudable. For Richard
Davies, Samuel G. Davies foresight was probably no surprise, but more than
likely, there was a smile on his face when he shared his feelings about his
grandfather: "When Kathleen told me
that my grandfather had attempted to get the paintings returned to the park
back in the 1930's, I was pleased to know that at least he tried."
Samuel G. Davies
had asked for ten of G.G. Snyder's Petit Jean Park paintings. Under the circumstances, the Park was most
fortunate to get two. How many of the
approximately 64 other titles of paintings shipped to Washington D.C. by G.G.
Snyder re-surfaced? At this time there seems to be only The Bridge Builders painted at Devil's
Den State Park and housed at the Smithsonian, View Near Lodge, and Section
of the Lodge, at Mather Lodge. Snyder's
Newcomer was presented to 1930's
Arkansas Governor F.W. Futrall, but no location has yet been specifically named
to support its survival.
George Gordon
Snyder would probably have been unhappiest about the loss of the paintings from
Petit Jean. Of the 66 paintings of his,
Snyder had remarked in a letter to Mr. Edward Rowan, head of enrollment of the
CCC Program, that the Petit Jean Paintings were some of his better ones. G.G. Snyder's art output in Arkansas
indicates that for over a period of three years, he worked for two government
agencies: PWAP and the CCC; and in three different locations: Hot Springs, Devil's Den, and Petit
Jean. He worked for about three months
in Hot Springs, two years at Devil's Den, and nine months at Petit Jean.
The bulk of G.G.
Snyder's work may be forever lost to us. But by displaying View Near Lodge and Section
of the Lodge at Mather Lodge, the circle of the original intent, according
to Mark Humpal has been completed:
"I believe strongly that taxpayer-funded art in taxpayer-funded
venues holds to the spirit and intent of our federal art programs of the
1930's. Ultimately, the work needs to be
seen by the public, and what better way to accomplish that end than to place
these two works in the lodge where they will finally be at home."
*The information was compiled from articles contributed
by Kathleen Duxbury from her blog (newdealblog.com) and from her contributions
to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, written
by Linda S. Haymes and printed on June 30, 2013.
