The California Art Club (CAC) is one of the oldest and most active arts organizations in California. Founded in December 1909, it celebrated its centennial in 2009 and into the spring of 2010. The California Art Club originally evolved out of The Painters Club of Los Angeles, a short-lived group that lasted from 1906–09. The new organization was more inclusive, as it accepted women, sculptors and out-of-state artists.
Most of the major early California painters belonged to the CAC, including Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Edgar Payne, Julia Bracken Wendt, and William Wendt. As the members of the first generation of California Plein-Air Painters aged and died, the membership was filled by younger professional painters, including Millard Sheets, Mabel Alvarez, Emil Kosa Jr., and watercolorist Rex Brandt, along with amateur painters and commercial artists. Other notable members include Sir Winston Churchill, Dean Cornwell, Nicolai Fechin, Sam Hyde Harris, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, and Richard Neutra. Today its membership consists of representational artists and sculptors, but it is broadly inclusive and includes many women painters as well as painters and sculptors who emigrated to the United States from Europe and Asia. The CAC hosts an annual Gold Medal Exhibition each year along with a number of other smaller public and special museum exhibitions. Headquartered in one of the large bungalows that was part of the historic Vista del Arroyo Hotel in Pasadena, the California Art Club has a number of chapters throughout California.
Origins
The history of the California Art Club begins with an earlier organization, The Painters' Club of Los Angeles. On the evening of March 10, 1906, a number of painters who lived in the Los Angeles area met together with the purpose of forming a club. Soon afterward, on the evening of March 17, eleven of these same men met at the studio of William Swift Daniell (1865-1933). After some discussion, it was unanimously decided to form a club then and there, and the Painters’ Club of Los Angeles was born with the goal to arrange exhibitions and further the fine arts in Southern California. The eleven founding Charter Members included Antony E. Anderson (1863-1939), Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947), William Henry Cole (1870-1955), Albert Clinton Conner (1848-1929), Frank C. Conner, William Swift Daniell, David H. Dunn, Frank Elwin Evans, Frank Rennsselear Liddell (1864-1923), Hanson Duvall Puthuff (1875-1972), and George Thomas Winterburn (1865-1953). According to the membership roster, the Painters' Club grew and eventually numbered around 42 members. After several years and a number of exhibitions it became apparent to the members that the scope of the organization, which was open only to male painters, was too limited and a consensus arose to dissolve the organization in order to form one that was wider in scope. The Painters' Club of Los Angeles was disbanded in December 1909, but there would be a new group to follow, "to be called the California Art Club." A core group of members from the Painters' Club - Charles Percy Austin (1883-1948), Franz Bischoff (1864-1929), Carl Oscar Borg, Benjamin Chambers Brown (1865-1942), Frank Rennsselear Liddell, Hanson Puthuff, and William Wendt (1845-1946) - would be instrumental in laying the groundwork for the nascent California Art Club, as well as supplying its first three Presidents.
Founding
The California Art Club was founded in December 1909, immediately after The Painters' Club of Los Angeles was disbanded. Although the date and location of the first club meeting is unknown, the second was held February 5, 1910 in Franz Bischoff's Studio, located at 320 Pasadena Avenue, South Pasadena. Among its founding and earliest members were Hector Alliot (1862-1919), Antony E. Anderson (1863-1939), Charles Percy Austin, Franz Bischoff, Carl Oscar Borg, Benjamin Chambers Brown, Mauritz DeHaaff (1877-1948), Allen Durand (1865-1939), Aaron E. Kilpatrick (1872-1953), Frank Rennsselear Liddell, Everett Carroll Maxwell, William A. Matern (1867-1923), Frederick Roland Miner (1876-1935), John Hubbard Rich (1876-1954), Rob Wagner (1872-1942), Jack Wells [or Welles], William Wendt, and most likely Wendt's wife, sculptor Julia Bracken Wendt (1868-1942).