Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/287

 VOLK

VONNOH

sculpture, and devoted his leisure to drawing and clay-modeling. He modeled a bust of Henry- Clay, the first bust made west of the Mississippi. He was married, April 28, 1852, to Emily Cla- rissa, daughter of Dr. Jonathan King and Honor (Douglas) Barlow of Bethany, N.Y., and cousin of Stephen A. Douglas, under whose patronage he studied art in Italy, 1855-57. On his return in 1857, he established himself in Chicago, 111., where he modeled a bust of Stephen A. Douglas, the first bust ever made in Chicago. He contin- ued his work in Italy, 1868-69 and 1871-72. He was a member of the Cliicago Academy of De- sign, which he helped to organize, 1867, and served as its president for many years. He or- ganized the first art exhibition of Chicago, 1859; exhibited at the Paris exposition, 1867; and the "World's Columbian exposition, 1893. His portrait busts include the following subjects: Stephen A. Douglas (1857); Abraham Lincoln (1860), the original marble being destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871; Henry Clay, Zachariah Chandler, Dr. Daniel Brainard, and Elihu B. Washburne; statue of Gen. James Shields in the statuary gallery, capitol at Washington; life mask of Lincoln (1860); the Douglas monument (1868), Chicago, 111.; life-size statues of Douglas and Lincoln (1876), in the Illinois state capitol; the statuary for the Henry Keep mausoleum, Watertown, N.Y., and various soldiers' monu- ments. He died in Osceola, Wis., Aug. 19, 1895. VOLK, Stephen Arnold Douglas, artist, was born in Pittsfield, Mass., Feb. 23, 1856; son of Leonard Wells (q.v.) and Emily Clarissa (Bar- low) Volk. He lived in Chicago, 1858-70, studied in Rome, Italy, 1871-73, where he worked from nature, and in " Gigis " night school and other galleries, and under Gerome in Paris, France, 1873- 78, exhibiting at the Paris Salon, 1875-78, revisiting the United States in 1876, and exhibiting at the Philadelphia Centen- nial exposition. He was married, June 25, 1881, to Marion Brewer, daughter of William M. and Mar- garet (Knight) Lar- rabee of Chicago, 111. He was an instructor in portrait-painting. Cooper Union, 1879-84, and after 1894; in drawing at the Art Students" league, 1894-99, in portrait-painting at the latter from 1903, and a frequent lecturer on art in- struction in the public schools, and on the re-

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vival of handicraft. He was elected a member of the Society of American Artists, 1880, and was its secretary, 1899; a National Academician, 1900, and organized the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts. 1886. His exhibit of Mending the Canoe, TJie Puritan Maiden and Portrait of Mrs. X. re- ceived a medal at the World's Columbian ex- position, 1893, of which he was a member of the national jury; his figure-painting. Woodland Maid, was awarded the Shaw prize by the Society of American Artists, 1899, and in the same year, his Colonial Youth won the first prize offered b}- the Colonial exhibition at Boston, Mass., also medals at the Buffalo Pan American and Charles- ton expositions. His other canvases include; En Bretagne (1875); Miss T. (1878); Miss H. (1880); The Captives (1882); Accused of Witch- craft, now in the Corcoran art gallery, Washing- ton (1884); Autumn (1893); Floicer of the Colony (1894); Motherhood (1895); The Puritan Mother, owned by the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg (1897); Tlie Maiden's Reverie, now owned by the Pittsfield, Mass., Museum (1897); The Song of the Pines (1898); The Boy with the Arroio (1903), which received the Carnegie prize at the exhibition of the Society of American Artists in New York city (1903). He is the author of a monograph on Art Instruction in the Public Schools (1894).

VONNOH, Robert William, artist, was born in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 17, 1858; son of William and Frederika Vonnoh, who came from Germany to the United States in the fifties, settling in Hartford, Conn., and later removing to Boston, Mass. He attended the public schools in Boston; the Massachusetts Normal Art scliool, 1875-79; was an instructor in painting and drawing in the latter school, 1879-81, and a student in the Acad- emie Julien, Paris, 1881-83. He was an instructor at Cowles Art school, Boston, 1884-85; principal instructor in portrait and figure painting, Mu- seum of Fine Arts, 1885-87; studied and painted abroad, 1887-91, and was principal instructor in portrait and figure-painting, Pennsylvania Acad- emy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1891-96. He was married, first, July 7, 1886, to Grace D., daughter of John R. and Caroline (Bickford) Farrell of Boston, Mass., who died in 1899; and secondly, Sept. 17, 1899, to Bessie O. Potter (daughter of Alexander C. and Mary Elizabeth Potter of St. Louis, Mo.) an artist and sculptor of consider- able reputation. Mr. Vonnoh exhibited at the Paris salon, 1883, and 1888-91, receiving honorable mention in 1888, and a medal at the Paris exposi- tion of 1899; exhibited at Munich, 1890-91; at the World's Columbian exposition, 1893, where he also received a medal, and at the International exposition at Stockholm, 1896. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design, 1899; a member of the Society of American