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Frederick Melville DuMond
Frederick Melville DuMond American painter
Frederick Melville DuMond (July 16, 1867 - May 24, 1927) was a fine-art painter working in a range of themes and styles popular in his time, who also applied his art in illustration, tourism advertising, and entrepreneurial projects. He is known especially for works painted in the American Southwest and California between 1910 and 1924.
Quick Facts Born, Died …
Frederick Melville DuMond
Portrait by his daughter, Camille DuMond
Born Frederick Melville DuMond July 16, 1867 Rochester, New York, United States
Died May 24, 1927 (aged 59) Monrovia, California, United States
Nationality American
Education Rochester Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology); Académie Julian, Paris; École des Beaux-Art, Paris
Known for Painter and illustrator esp. in the American Southwest
Movement Muralist; Illustrator; Tonalism; Decorative Art; American Landscape
Spouses Louise Adele Kerr (1873-1894; m. 1891-death); Clémentine Theulier (1869-1937; m. 1899; divorce 1912); Pauline S. Williams (1875-1936; m. 1915; annulled)
Children Jesse William DuMond (1892-1976); Camille DuMond (1900-1986)
Early life, education, and family
Frederick Melville DuMond, born July 16, 1867, in Rochester, New York, was the younger of two sons of Alonzo DuMond, a manufacturer of sheet metal architectural corniches. Frank Vincent DuMond, his older brother, was also a painter . Frederick Melville DuMond began his formal art studies at twenty-one, attending the Académie Julian in Paris along with his older brother, accompanied for the first year by their mother, who kept house in Paris for the two boys. Later, he attended the École des Beaux-Arts. He had works shown in many Paris Salons, winning some prizes . He and his first wife, Louise Adele Kerr DuMond—also a painter whom he met at the Académie Julian and who died in her twentieth year—had a son, Jesse DuMond (1892-1976), who went on to have a distinguished career in physics . Camille DuMond (1900-1986), a daughter by a second wife, Clémentine Theulier DuMond, lived with the artist until his death and was also a painter.
Career Relocating from France to the United States in 1908, DuMond lived and worked in New York City but struggled to make sufficient income from his art. While there he converted to Christian Science. To extend his career, the artist undertook a series of painting trips in the American Southwest during summers between 1910-1914. This period of creativity found special recognition in a show of 34 paintings at the American Museum of Natural History in 1912 . By 1910 DuMond had relocated to Monrovia, California, later building a home there that he called Le Château des Rêves, recently restored by its present owners . He painted there and in other Western locations until 1924. During two extended periods between 1924 and 1926, he again painted in France and Italy. A late work, The Dawn, was shown at the Paris Salon of 1927 as the artist lay on his deathbed .
Work Academic Training and the Genre Feroce, 1889-1908. Under the influence of his academy training and seeking his own special emphases, DuMond painted typically quite large canvases featuring historical/dramatic subjects of considerable action or even violence: Roman amphitheater scenes of animals in combat or animals attacking people. These were attributed to a small movement, the Genre Feroce . His Legend of the Desert (1894; Los Angeles Country Art Museum) features a biblical theme in a symbolist style and received a gold medal at the celebrated 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago .
Southwestern paintings, 1910-1924. DuMond is best known for his work of this period, in part due to his own extensive efforts to promote the 1912 show of 34 of his paintings at the American Museum of Natural History. He gave a number of interviews that appeared in newspapers and magazines, one written by noted journalist and aviator Harriet Quimby . He kept a diary of his first southwestern trip and recorded somewhat fictionalized accounts of his painting adventures in two manuscript drafts, one including a tale of lost treasure. A painting trip to the White House Ruin was funded by Lorenzo Hubbell . These accounts formed the basis for a True West Magazine article published after his death . One painting looks out from inside the Mesa Verde cliff dwelling ruins, where the artist camped for a few nights.
Frederick Melville DuMond worked in a number of popular art styles, sometimes quoting from others’ works. He sought to be modern in applying aspects from the decorative arts, especially from muralists, emphasizing design and pattern. While accurate to geology and archeology, his landscapes especially of mountains and native ruins heightened dramatic effects to convey grandeur and spiritual impact .
Book Illustrations and Entrepreneurial Projects. While the artist made his living from sales of his art, he also undertook various projects to make money. Typical of artists of the time, he sold many illustrations to magazines and for published books . In work for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and other enterprises, he engaged in tourism promotion as undertaken by other artists of the time, evoking themes of scientific and archeological exploration and celebration of the vanishing west . He became a founding member of the art colony at Laguna Beach, California, receiving a prime lot at Arch Beach Heights in exchange for four paintings that the promoters used for billboards . DuMond assisted his brother Frank Vincent DuMond in some art projects , notably the illustrations to Mark Twain’s 1896 novel Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, in co-teaching and co-directing summer schools for young American artists, and in painting especially the animals for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition murals. The artist proposed to do a panorama of the Grand Canyon and to build a hotel in Los Angeles hills modeled on ancient Indian ruins .
Collections and Exhibitions DuMond's work is in the permanent collections of the following institutions: • Langson Institute and Museum of California Art • Los Angeles County Art Museum • Hubbell Trading Post National Monument, Arizona • Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad DuMond’s exhibitions include: • Paris Salons, twenty-one works between 1889 and 1908; one work in 1927 • Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 — Legend of the Desert (gold medal) • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1894, 1900, 1901 • Wanamaker’s Store, Philadelphia, 1894 • Blanchard Gallery, Los Angeles, June-July, 1907, and May-June, 1908 • American Museum of Natural History, March 9-23, 1912 — 34 works painted in the southwest, hung in the West assembly room) • Santa Fe Railroad, Spring Street Office Gallery, Los Angeles, 1909 and 1910 • Portland Art Association and the Museum of History, Science, and Art, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, 1914-1915 — Paintings by artists who had contributed to the murals at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, including ten works by F. M. DuMond.
References 1. “Who’s Who in American Art,” photocopy of an article from page 517 of an unidentified publication dated September 24, 1910, perhaps Graphic (Los Angeles), a review article that compares DuMond to his brother Frank Vincent; see reference 2, p. 77. 2. Richard Panofsky, Art and Ambition, 1887-1927: Frederick Melville DuMond, An American Painter of his Time (Lulu, 2010), Amazon 0557625807. Revised edition in progress. 3. Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky, “Jesse W. M. DuMond 1892-1976: A Biographical Memoir,” in National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs, 52 (1980), pp. 160-201. 4. See Kate Gatewood / Zoe Beckley (same article, different bylines), “.... Arizona No Sinecure,” New York Times, 1912 (exact date unknown); Harriet Quimby, “Land and Homes of the Ancient Cliff Dwellers: Reproductions of Notable Pictures Painted by F. Melville DuMond, the Only Artist Who Has Put These Curious Scenes on Canvas,” Leslie’s Magazine, July 11, 1912; Flynn Wayne, “Distinctive American Art,” The National Magazine, XXXIX, October 1913-March 1914 (Boston: Chapple Publ. Co.), pp. 851-852; and show catalogue in reference 2, p. 68. 5. Patch, “A Gem Forgotten,” https://patch.com/california/monrovia/a-gem-forgotten-2 and “Photos: 2012 MOHPG Tour,” https://patch.com/california/monrovia/2012-mohpg-tour-homes-selected; Jim Wigton and Sheila McCarthy, “Monrovia’s Castle of Dreams,” Preservation Conversation (Newsletter of the Monrovia Historic Preservation Group), Volume 18, Number 6 (June 2010), pp. 1, 5; John L. Wiley, “Home of Internationally Known Artist In Monrovia Unknown Treasure House,” Monrovia Daily News (exact date unknown); “Monrovia Artist is to Sell Home and Live Abroad,” Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1925. 6. Evelyn McDowell, “The Paris Salon,” Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1927, which notes, “This picture had already received a medal from a previous exhibition”; “Frederick DuMond, Painter, Dies at 60,” New York Times, May 25, 1927; also Los Angeles Times (May 26, 1927 and July 3, 1927). 7. From a black and white reproduction in a contemporary magazine article, artist’s proof copy. 8. Sadakichi Hartmann, A History of American Art (New York: Tudor Publishing Co., 1932/1934; original edition, L. C. Page, 1901). Cites DuMond as “the only adherent of the genre feroce which America has produced.” 9. Collection of Hubbell Trading Post National Monument, Arizona. 10. Archive of Lorenzo Hubbell’s personal correspondence and records, University of Arizona Library, Tucson, AZ; Martha Blue, Indian Trader: The Life and Times of J. L. Hubbell (Walnut, CA: Kiva Publishing, Inc., 2000). 11. Eleanor Bradley, “An Artist’s Two Years Alone in the Desert,” True West Magazine, September-October 1978. 12. See Gail S. Davidson, Floramae McCarron-Cates, Barbara Bloemink, Sarah Burns, Karal Ann Marling, Frederick Church, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape (New York and Boston: Bulfinch Press, 2006). 13. “Arch Beach Progress Means Popular Resort: Noted Artist to Build Home…,” Los Angeles Herald, XXXVII, Number 288, 16 July, 2011; “Laguna called Riviera Many Years Ago,” Laguna Beach Life, August 20, 1926; and reference 2. 14. The Harmony of Nature: The Art and Life of Frank Vincent DuMond 1865-1951, Old Lyme, CT: Lyme Historical Society, 1990. On the summer schools, see pp. 7-8; on the Pan American Exhibition paintings, see pp. 14-17. 15. Rene T. De Quelin, “Among the Artists,” Graphic (Los Angeles), reviews of DuMond shows on May 1908, pp. 18-19; June 27, 1907, p. 25. 16. Rucker, Kathryn. “Art by Kathryn Rucker.” Los Angeles Herald, July 4, 1909, p. 8. 17. “Unique Cliff Dwellings.” The Hotel World 95 (October 7, 1922): 1.
Sources • Archives of letters, paintings, sketches, personal writings, scrapbooks, proof sheets, contemporary news and magazine articles owned by descendants of the artist and communications with past and current owners of the artist’s work; see reference 2. • Communications with the Langson Institute and Museum of California Art; Los Angeles Country Art Museum; Hubbell Trading Post National Monument; and Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad.
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