The Church and Dwight Collection - Materials and Techniques
In the later 19th to early 20th century, there was a rapid exchange of ideas and techniques between artists and craftsmen. The influx of knowledge coupled with the rise of industry and technology led to the development and mass production of artists materials, one such material being the collapsible paint tube in 1841 by American portrait painter John Geoff Rand. Artists materials such as these were now being bought by artists and sold with ease by manufacturers, known as colormen, such as Winsor & Newton, F.W Devoe & Company, and George Rowney & Company. These companies were producing and selling everything an artist could need from pre-primed canvases to varnishes. Some of these names may seem familiar and can still be bought at your local artist and craftsman's shop. This development of new tools and materials allowed for artists to create paintings more quickly and for commercial means, like the production of the dog and bird paintings by John Henry Hintermeister and Gustav Muss-Arnolt for collectible trading cards included in the baking soda boxes sold by what is now Church & Dwight Co., between 1888 and 1966.
Four of the paintings had a label on the back for Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company, either as a sticker on the stretcher bar (fig. 1) or as a handwritten inscription on the canvas (fig. 2). Collectors note that Church & Dwight Co. commissioned Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company to produced calendars between 1922-1927. In the 1977 publication The Treasure of the Sierra Manhattan, Robert Arbib notes that when Louis Fuertes was commissioned to create 90 paintings for 3 different bird series, the Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Company reproduced the paintings as cards. Our research also found prints that have a Forbes Lithograph logo on the lower right corner. It’s likely that Forbes was also one of companies that transformed these paintings into the chromolithograph cards.
Fig. 1 Forbes Lithoraph Mfg Co. sticker on the verso of Bassett Hound
Fig. 2 Forbes Lithoraph Mfg Co. written on the verso of Champion Rockwood Jr.
In our treatment of the 30 paintings used to produce trading cards, we discovered that only 4 were painted by John Henry Hintermeister (see fig. 3a-d) and the remaining 26 were painted by Gustav Muss-Arnolt (see fig. 6a-z). Although there were many series of trading cards, in this grouping, we only have paintings belonging to four of the different series: 16 from the 1902 Championship Dog series, 5 from the 1904 Game Birds Series, 5 from the 1908 New Series of Birds, and 5 from the 1910 New Series of Dogs.
The Artists and their Materials
John Henry Hintermeister
John Henry (Hy) Hintermeister (1869-1945) was born in Winterthur, Switzerland and studied at the University of Zurich. He started as a commercial illustrator in a lithography factory. He quit that position after the Park Place Disaster in New York City on August 22, 1891 to pursue a career of painting and illustrating. He depicted historical scenes, nature, landscapes, and the occasional humorous illustrations. His son, John Hintermeister, was also an artist, and both artists signed their paintings as ‘Hy Hintermeister,’ but only John Henry worked on the trading card designs. Of the paintings that we are treating, all four of the Hintermeister paintings were part of the 1908 New Series of Birds set. It was the fourth series of bird trading cards released by Church and Dwight Co. in Arm & Hammer baking soda boxes and consisted of 30 cards in total.
Fig. 4 Pelican, verso, normal illumination
One interesting discovery is that the four paintings by John Henry Hintermeister all were manufactured and sold by F.W. Devoe & Co., known by the distinct stamp on the back of the canvas. F.W. Devoe & Co., which originated as a paint shop opened by William Post in New York in 1754, was dedicated to the manufacturing and supplying of artists materials until 1964 when it was bought by Celanese Corporation. At its height, it had factories in New York City, New Jersey, and Chicago and was among the largest supplier of supports, paints, and varnishes to American artists. Among the artists that frequently used the supplies of F.W. Devoe & Co. are Childe Hassam, William Morris Hunt, and William Bradford. In 1885 the ‘Hints and Notes’ section of Vol. 12, No. 5 of The Art Amateur favorably compared Devoe's tubes of paint to those of German and French manufacturers. This article claimed that Devoe's tubes of paint ‘yellowed’ less than competitors and are recommended by one artist for “strong, bold work.”
Fig. 5 Virginia Rail, detail of rust, normal illumination
Three of the canvases by Hintermeister use iron keys as opposed to the more common wooden keys. Keys are used in stretchers to maintain the tension of the stretched fabric support. In 1883, Connecticut painter Aaron Draper Shattuck designed and patented a new style of stretcher key, thereafter, referred to as "Shattuck keys.” These iron keys replaced the need for mortise-joined corners, while also resolving the issue of wooden stretcher keys falling out. The basic idea was that the screws holding the key could be loosened, allowing the artist to tap the back of the key to open the join, and then retighten the screws to hold the stretcher members at the new tension.
Cleaning old retouching and coatings off of Hintermeister’s Virginia Rail revealed rust marks in all four corners in the shape of Shattuck stretcher keys. This is a sign the paintings were at one point stacked on top of each other, and the keys from the upper painting left a corrosion stain behind.
Gustav Muss-Arnolt
Gustav Muss-Arnolt (1858-1927) was born in Germany. According to most sources online, Gustav Muss-Arnolt emigrated from his birth country of Germany to the United States around 1890, but our research shows him living in New York City by 1880, eventually settling in Tuckahoe, New York. His love for dogs translated from his personal life to his professional one. He painted many pet portraits for prominent families and had a particular interest in dogs. He served on the board of directors of the American Kennel Club between 1906-1909 and contributed over 170 illustrations for the American Kennel Club Gazette, a monthly periodical that has been in circulation since 1889. He also contributed articles and illustrations for Harpers Weekly. Of the Church & Dwight, Co. collection we are treating, the paintings by Muss-Arnolt were used for the 1902 Champion Dog Series and the 1910 New Series of Dogs trading card sets. For more on Muss-Arnolt, read our blog about him!
Apart from one outlier, 25 of the 26 Muss-Arnolt paintings were executed horizontally on 9 x 12-inch commercially stretched and primed canvases with the same grey ground layer. The stretchers had traditional wooden keys, many of which had been replaced during previous conservation campaigns. Seven have a stamp on the back, ‘THE PFLEGER PAT/PAT. FEB 2ND, 1886,’ indicating they are the stretcher design patented by Frank P. Pfleger on February 2, 1886. These stretchers are full mitered bridle joints with a single U-shaped key and were designed so that each member could be purchased separately and easily assembled to allow the artist to simply obtain their desired dimensions. This is why the stamp can be seen on each member. Even though these members have the Pfleger patent stamp, they do not have the U-shaped key associated with it. Instead, they have the now standard two wedge keys. It is likely that these stretchers are actually a design based on the Pfleger patent that was slightly modified to be a full mitered bridle joint with keys. A note from Richard Buck in Stretcher Design, A Brief Preliminary Survey states, “This design, except for the use of a single ‘U’ shaped key, follows U.S. patent #335383 issued to Frank P. Pfleger, Joliet, Illinois, on February 2, 1886. It has been available under various trade names and some variation in stock size in assorted lengths in American art supply stores for many years and has been used widely by American artists of the 20th century.” The difference between the two key types is that the single U-shaped key would expand the corner evenly, much like the Shattuck keys mentioned earlier, while the two wedge keys allows for a more targeted expansion of the stretcher.
When cleaning Champion Rockwood Jr., in addition to the pencil outline and writing on the lower right, we noticed faint writing underneath the paint layers. With our modified camera we were able to take an infrared photograph (IR) photo of the painting. The IR photo allowed us to see clearly the pencil writing below the paint surface. It seems that Muss-Arnolt planned this painting by writing out where he wanted to lay certain colors and some sketch lines (see fig. 7)
Fig. 7
The Outlier – Champion Granbian
While it is evident that both artists had materials that they liked to use, there is one painting in this grouping that is not like the others – the painting of Russian Wolfhound, Champion Granbian. This outlier, painted by Gustav Muss-Arnolt for the 1902 Champion Dog series, is smaller than the others, measuring in at 8 ¾ x 10 ½ inches compared to the 9 x 12 inches of every other Muss-Arnot painting in this grouping . The roughly cut stretcher members and simple bridle joints as opposed to the mitered mortis bridle joints of the commercially prepared stretchers suggest the support could have been made by the artist (see fig. 8b and 9b). The ground layer also differs from the others; it has a distinct pink/orange tint that stands out drastically when displayed with the rest of the group (see fig. 8a and 9a). Is it possible that this was one of the first paintings made for the series? Perhaps it was submitted in a bid to get the project?
These paintings were in our care for nearly 8 months, and during that time we have had the privilege to look closely at each painting, get to know the artists, and deep dive into this specific time in the history of art, marketing, and championship dogs. Each of these paintings gave us new insight into how they were made and the material preferences of the artists.
For more information, check out these sources:
In Flux: Stretcher vs. Strainer
The American Artist’s Tools and Materials for On-Site Oil Sketching by Alexander Katlan
Stretcher Design, A Brief and Preliminary Survey by Richard Buck
Connecticut Transforms Aaron Draper Shattuck by Rena Tobey
F.W Devoe and C.T Raynolds Co.Catalogue of Artists Materials and Architects Supplies 19th Edition
Stretcher and Strainers: Materials and Equipment Complied by Barbara A. Buckley.
American Painters on Technique: 186- to 1945 by Lance Mayer and Gay Myers.
