•See Anna Steege Young.
I wish to inform the citizens of Brainerd that I have just opened a Paint Shop on north Tenth street, and am prepared to do all kinds of house and sign painting, graining, kalsomining, and paper hanging in the latest style and at bottom prices. I would respectfully solicit your patronage and will guarantee satisfaction.
Very respectfully, T. R. CONGDON
(Brainerd Tribune, 12 April 1879, p. 4, c. 1)
To the Citizens of Brainerd.
I want everyone to know that I will be prepared to do all kinds of House and Sign Painting, Graining, Glazing and Paper-Hanging—Kalsomining a Specialty—during the coming season, and at prices to suit the times. Thanking you for your past favors, respectfully solicit your future patronage. Satisfaction guaranteed or you need not pay a cent.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 06 March 1880, p. 1, c. 4)
Thos. Congdon is visible on our streets once more—returned to share the boom. (Brainerd Tribune, 13 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
I have a fine assortment of Wall Paper samples at Minneapolis prices. They can be seen at J. N. Nevers' Furniture store. Go and look at them—it will not cost you anything.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 20 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
T. R. Congdon wants to buy a cow. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 May 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
There was no meeting of the Reform Club on Tuesday evening, last, and consequently the programme announced last week will be the programme for next Tuesday evening, with the addition of a duet and whistling chorus by T. R. and C. H. Congdon. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 January 1881, p. 1, c. 3)
The New Business Card Curtain.
The Mr. Congdon whose nominal appendage is Tom, has been engaged for some time back painting a business card curtain for the Opera House, which will be exhibited for the first time on Friday evening, the 29th inst., at which time the Dramatic Club purpose to give their entertainment. This curtain is made up of about twenty-one business cards for various houses about town, and run in something like the following order: Brainerd House, B. Shupe, proprietor; A. Veon, variety store; Mrs. G. W. Whitney, dressmaker and milliner; J. Hill, photographer; W. W. Hartley, fire insurance; Linneman & Koop, dry goods and grocieries; Mattie Caley, restauranct and bakery; Paine Bros. & Flynn, city meat market; Stratton & Heath, Leland House; White & White, contractors and builders; David E. Slipp, hardware store; Geo. Stevenson, groceries and provisions; A. E. Chase, Brainerd TRIBUNE; N. McFadden, druggist; Orr & Seelye, carpenters and builders; J. N. Nevers, dry goods, boot and shoes, etc.; Miss Jennie King, instructor in instrumental music; Mrs. A. Sherwood, book store; Mrs. C. Grandelmyer, dressmaking and millinery, and T. R. Congdon, house, sign and ornamental painter. It is a fine piece of workmanship, and reflects much credit upon its originator. (Brainerd Tribune, 23 April 1881, p. 1, c. 5)
Be It Known.
EDITOR TRIBUNE.—
Allow me, through the columns of the TRIBUNE to enter an emphatic denial to the allegation that I am the individual who varnished the pews of the M. E. Church last year, and which have been causing so much adhesive trouble. I prepared the work and grained it, but my business called me to Aitkin and the varnishing was done by another well-known wielder of the brush and palette.
Had I done it, I would have been responsible for the job and made it right. As it is, I don't propose to bear another's burdens. Respectfully,
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 30 July 1881, p. 5, c. 2)
The painting of Mr. N. H. Dean's house on Fifth street will be finished by T. R. Congdon in two or three days more. Tom does a rushing business and no mistake. (Brainerd Tribune, 15 April 1882, p. 5, c. 2)
Married Ada Irene Vose on April 23, 1884 in Campbell, Steuben County, New York.
The following which was received at this office on Tuesday morning explains itself:
"Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Vase [sic] requests your presence at the marriage of their daughter Ada to T. R. Congdon, on Wednesday, April 23d, 1884, at 10:30 o'clock, at their residence, Thurston, N. Y.
Tom's many friends in this locality will extend with the DISPATCH congratulations and best wishes for their future happiness and prosperity. (Brainerd Dispatch, 17 April 1884, p. 3, c. 3)
BRAINERD BOY UNFORTUNATE.
_____
Thos. R. Congdon and Wife, Formerly
of This City, Lose All by Fire.
_____
The New York Journal of last Friday, Feb. 2nd contained the following account of the destruction by fire of the art studio of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Congdon, brother of J. C. Congdon, of this city. All the older residents of Brainerd know Mr. Congdon well, and sympathize deeply with him in his misfortune. The Journal article is as follows:
BLAZE DESTROYS
ART TREASURES.
_____
Two Painters's Studios Ruined; Lives
In Peril.
_____
ONE PORTRAIT SAVED.
_____
T. R. Congdon Rushes Out with Wife
on One Arm, Her Picture
on the Other.
Two painters' studios were destroyed by fire yesterday morning. They were under the mansard roof of Nos. 106 and 108 East Twenty-third street. Hangings of Persia, plaster casts, costumes, canvasses, sketches in oils, studies in water colors, paintings, finished and unfinished, filled them.
The flames devoured everything except Thomas R. Congdon's portrait of his wife. It was in the salon of 1896. He saved it almost unconsciously yesterday. He is a pupil of Benjamin Constant and of Jean Paul Laurens, and has never made an exhibition here. He was at work assiduously. He wanted to be famous. Poor, he and his wife slept and cooked their meals in his studio.
The stove was draped in antique silk, with colors effaced, in the day time. It was so cold yesterday morning that he lighted the fire without thought of the drapery, hurriedly. His hair was burned, his cheek was blistered, his hands were horribly wounded. He ran out with his wife at one arm and her portrait—his masterpiece—under the other.
The portrait is not damaged. Mrs. Congdon's shoulders and her hair were burned. The artist and his wife had returned in November from a summer of study in Holland, where the canals make amazing effects of light and shade and where the museums have admirable lessons in painting.
Mr. Congdon made studies in water colors that nothing can replace to him. But he said yesterday: "Let us not talk of them. I like to fight against misfortune. I am more obstinate than ever. My eyes, my hands and my mind are not affected."
Mr. Condgon lost copies of works of Velasquez, made in Madrid, studies of Franz Hals and others made in Holland, but no finished work of his brush. (Brainerd Dispatch, 09 February 1900, p. 1, c. 3)
CONGDON, Thomas Richardson, artist, was born at Nelson, Tioga, County, Pennsylvania, 20 October 1859, son of Alfred Wickham and Mary Jane (Owens) Congdon. He attended the district schools and academy at Addison, New York. At the age of fifteen he went to Minnesota as apprentice to his brother, then master painter for the Northern Pacific railway at Brainerd. At the expiration of three years he engaged in business for himself. Having early in life developed an artistic tendency he began the study of portrait painting in 1882 under Alva S. Merriett [sic], with whom he remained until 1887 and then removed to New York city and entered the Art Students' League, where he studied under William M. Chase, H. Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith for six years. In 1893 he went to Paris and studied three years in the ateliers of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens, winning the Julian prize in 1894. In 1884 he was married to Ada Irene, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Vose, of Thurston, New York. She also is an artist of considerable ability and was a pupil of L'Hermitte in Paris. They spent three years in Paris and one year in Madrid, making a special study of Velasquez. Having visited Spain, Switzerland and Italy, both as artists and tourists, they returned to this country in 1896, and resided in Buffalo for two years. They removed to New York city in 1898 and opened a studio, which two years later was totally destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to more than $15,000 in works and furnishings. Mr. Congdon is primarily a portrait painter, but delights in producing genre pictures of peasant life; his summers are spent abroad, usually in Holland, in search of material. His first, and perhaps best, Salon picture (1896) was a portrait of his wife, The Benediction, published as frontispiece in Art Education, in May, 1897, is the best thus far of his genre paintings. In May, 1900, the Boston Art Club purchased his Typical Dutch Home for its permanent collection. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club of New York and the American Art Association of Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Congdon have been exhibitors in the annual art exhibitions of New York city for many years. (The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume XI, James T. White & Company, New York: 1909; p. 311)
CONGDON ETCHINGS
_____
To be Displayed at the Art Rooms of
D. E. Whitney on Wednesday
Afternoon
Ten of the larger etchings of Thomas R. Congdon are to be displayed at the art rooms of D. E. Whitney on Front street on Wednesday afternoon, that favor having been vouchsafed by Mrs. Anna Nevers, in charge of the collection of etchings of Mr. Congdon. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 05 October 1915, p. 5, c. 3)
THOMAS CONGDON
PASSED AWAY
_____
Noted Painter and Etcher Died at
Boston—Etchings of His in
Brainerd Public Library
_____
"MUSIC MASTER" MASTERPIECE
_____
First Fame Came When He and His
Wife Commissioned to Paint
for the Rothchilds
Thos. R. Congdon, the well known artist, etcher and painter, died in Boston of Diabetes and complications at the age of 59.
Mr. Congdon was a resident of Brainerd in the early days and will be remembered by the older residents.
In 1886 he left here for New York where he studied three years and then went to Paris where he established a studio and later on he and his wife, who is also a fine artist, were given a commission by the Rothchilds, to paint scenes in Holland, their native land, for a whole year.
Later they traveled extensively in Europe and also maintained a studio in Venice. Mr. Congdon made frequent trips to America and on the eve of his departure on his last trip to Paris he attended a play in New York called the "Music Master," played by E. H. Sothern and company and on the voyage he conceived and drew sketches of the play and on his arrival he painted his masterpiece called "The Music Master," which took first prize in the art salon in Paris in that year and was afterward sold to Mr. Sothern while on his European tour.
He spent 16 years in the old world and when he returned to this country in 1914, he held the office of president of the Artists' League, Paris, France, for three years. One of his etchings is now in the public library in Brainerd. His nephew, H. W. Congdon, also has some of his work done in Holland, Italy and France.
The late Mrs. C. N. Swart of Fargo was a sister and F. B. Congdon of Oak Lawn is a brother and he leaves a sister, Mrs. Kame [sic], of Sebastopol, Cal. and Mrs. Nado another sister of Tacoma, and another brother, W. H. Congdon of Gresham, Ore., who visited here last May. (Brainerd Dispatch, 30 November 1917, p. 6, c. 1) [Courtesy Brian Marsh, CWCHS]
The Glass Blowers, a large, fine painting, has been presented to the Brainerd Public Library by the heirs of Thomas R. Congdon, the artist. Mr. Congdon formerly lived in Brainerd. Later he took up art painting, with great success. The painting, which is valued at $4,500, has been exhibited in Europe and has won most favorable criticism. (Brainerd's Half Century, Ingolf Dillan, General Printing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1923; p. 34)
SISTER SEES CONGDON PAINTING IN
LOCAL LIBRARY WHILE VISITING HERE
_____
Mrs. George H. Shaver's recent visit in Brainerd was made more interesting when she called in the Brainerd Public Library and was shown a painting, Glass Blowers, the work of her brother, the late Thomas R. Congdon. This oil painting, now owned by the Brainerd public library, was presented as a memorial by the heirs of Mr. Congdon.
Mrs. Shaver and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, N. D. with Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Wash. were guests this week in the homes of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon. Mrs. Shaver is particularly well known locally as she and her husband were married in this city 59 years ago. Glass Blowers presents an interesting history since its creator, now deceased, lived here at one time. Mr. Congdon studied m New York and later went to Paris where he studied and painted for 20 years. He has done many oil paintings as well as etchings in color and in black and white. His work is meritorious as was proved when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers at $5,000. This painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit made by the artist through the Belgium glass blowing factories.
After the death of Thomas R. Congdon in 1917 his heirs presented the painting to the Brainerd Public Library a memorial to the artist. The painting is hung to the left of the front door in the main room of the library, where it can be seen and appreciated by all who enter the building.
Further details of the life of Thomas R. Congdon disclose that he came to Brainerd in his youth and lived here until he was 25 years of age. When he arrived here he struck up acquaintance with a man named Merritt, who did etching and water colors and through this friendship the talents of the great artist were discovered. Merritt it was who encouraged him to to make art his life work.
Mr. Congdon's love of painting, even as a young man, is still evident in Brainerd. In his parents home, 1004 Fir street, Brainerd, he painted panels above doors and windows. These were intact until 1934 when occupants of the house, not realizing the value of the work, painted over them. At the age of 25 he left for Duluth to concentrate on his abilities and went from there to New York where he married Ada Vose. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 19 June 1937, p. 5, c's 2 & 3)
A framed colored etching, the Last Kiss of the Sun, signed and dated 1914 in pencil, by Thomas R. Congdon and measuring 18 1/2" by 18 1/2" was also presented to the Brainerd Public Library. The date of the presentation and by whom presented is unknown, the etching is currently [2008] located in the Librarian's office. This etching was valued at $100-$300 based on an appraisal done by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota and dated 08 October 1987. (Appraisal)
The value of the Glass Blowers was appraised by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota at from $4,500 to $15,000 on 08 October 1987 and was sold by the Library Board in April 1989 for the sum of $5,700. (Appraisal)
The Glass Blowers, a fine, large oil painting by Thomas R. Congdon, former Brainerd resident, was presented to the Brainerd Public Library upon the artist's death in 1917 by his heirs as a memorial to the artist.
Thomas R. Congdon was born in New York State [sic] in 1859, came as a young man to Brainerd where he lived until the age of twenty-five. About this time there came to Brainerd a man named Merritt [sic] who did etchings and watercolors. He and young Congdon struck up a friendship and Mr. Merritt [sic] discovered the talent of his new friend Congdon and encouraged him to study and make art his life work. Thomas Congdon's love of painting even as a young man was certain as he painted panels above the doors and windows of the parental home at 1004 Fir Street. [They were intact until 1934, when the occupants, not knowing the value of the artistic paintings, painted over them.] At the age of twenty-five Congdon left Brainerd for Duluth to continue his studies, he was there a short time and realized that New York was the place for him to find really good teachers and also a market for his paintings. He eventually went to Paris where he studied and painted for twenty years. He married a New York girl, Ada Irene Vose, who was also an artist.
He studied under Mr. Chase while in Paris; names of his other teachers are not available. From time to time Congdon returned to America to market his paintings and on one such trip he went to the theater to see the play, The Music Master, by David Warfield and was so inspired by the play that on his return to France he put it on canvas. The picture shows David Warfield, the music master, standing near a grand piano with a baton in his hand; a young girl dressed in a flowing dress is seated on the piano bench, looking to him for instruction. Those who have seen this work say it is exceptional.
His work is exceptionally meritorious as was proven when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers, at $5,000. The painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit, made by the painter, to the glass blowing factories of Belgium.
Many of his paintings, which included etchings in black and white, were lost when his studio in New York burned. He himself was badly burned in the fire when he dashed back to save a portrait of his wife.
Thomas R. Congdon died in New York [sic] [Boston] in 1917.
Among relatives and friends who have visited the library to see the Glass Blowers, are Mrs. George H. Shaver, sister of Mr. Congdon, and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, North Dakota; Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon of Brainerd. (Source Unknown)
I wish to inform the citizens of Brainerd that I have just opened a Paint Shop on north Tenth street, and am prepared to do all kinds of house and sign painting, graining, kalsomining, and paper hanging in the latest style and at bottom prices. I would respectfully solicit your patronage and will guarantee satisfaction.
Very respectfully, T. R. CONGDON
(Brainerd Tribune, 12 April 1879, p. 4, c. 1)
To the Citizens of Brainerd.
I want everyone to know that I will be prepared to do all kinds of House and Sign Painting, Graining, Glazing and Paper-Hanging—Kalsomining a Specialty—during the coming season, and at prices to suit the times. Thanking you for your past favors, respectfully solicit your future patronage. Satisfaction guaranteed or you need not pay a cent.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 06 March 1880, p. 1, c. 4)
Thos. Congdon is visible on our streets once more—returned to share the boom. (Brainerd Tribune, 13 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
I have a fine assortment of Wall Paper samples at Minneapolis prices. They can be seen at J. N. Nevers' Furniture store. Go and look at them—it will not cost you anything.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 20 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
T. R. Congdon wants to buy a cow. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 May 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
There was no meeting of the Reform Club on Tuesday evening, last, and consequently the programme announced last week will be the programme for next Tuesday evening, with the addition of a duet and whistling chorus by T. R. and C. H. Congdon. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 January 1881, p. 1, c. 3)
The New Business Card Curtain.
The Mr. Congdon whose nominal appendage is Tom, has been engaged for some time back painting a business card curtain for the Opera House, which will be exhibited for the first time on Friday evening, the 29th inst., at which time the Dramatic Club purpose to give their entertainment. This curtain is made up of about twenty-one business cards for various houses about town, and run in something like the following order: Brainerd House, B. Shupe, proprietor; A. Veon, variety store; Mrs. G. W. Whitney, dressmaker and milliner; J. Hill, photographer; W. W. Hartley, fire insurance; Linneman & Koop, dry goods and grocieries; Mattie Caley, restauranct and bakery; Paine Bros. & Flynn, city meat market; Stratton & Heath, Leland House; White & White, contractors and builders; David E. Slipp, hardware store; Geo. Stevenson, groceries and provisions; A. E. Chase, Brainerd TRIBUNE; N. McFadden, druggist; Orr & Seelye, carpenters and builders; J. N. Nevers, dry goods, boot and shoes, etc.; Miss Jennie King, instructor in instrumental music; Mrs. A. Sherwood, book store; Mrs. C. Grandelmyer, dressmaking and millinery, and T. R. Congdon, house, sign and ornamental painter. It is a fine piece of workmanship, and reflects much credit upon its originator. (Brainerd Tribune, 23 April 1881, p. 1, c. 5)
Be It Known.
EDITOR TRIBUNE.—
Allow me, through the columns of the TRIBUNE to enter an emphatic denial to the allegation that I am the individual who varnished the pews of the M. E. Church last year, and which have been causing so much adhesive trouble. I prepared the work and grained it, but my business called me to Aitkin and the varnishing was done by another well-known wielder of the brush and palette.
Had I done it, I would have been responsible for the job and made it right. As it is, I don't propose to bear another's burdens. Respectfully,
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 30 July 1881, p. 5, c. 2)
The painting of Mr. N. H. Dean's house on Fifth street will be finished by T. R. Congdon in two or three days more. Tom does a rushing business and no mistake. (Brainerd Tribune, 15 April 1882, p. 5, c. 2)
Married Ada Irene Vose on April 23, 1884 in Campbell, Steuben County, New York.
The following which was received at this office on Tuesday morning explains itself:
"Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Vase [sic] requests your presence at the marriage of their daughter Ada to T. R. Congdon, on Wednesday, April 23d, 1884, at 10:30 o'clock, at their residence, Thurston, N. Y.
Tom's many friends in this locality will extend with the DISPATCH congratulations and best wishes for their future happiness and prosperity. (Brainerd Dispatch, 17 April 1884, p. 3, c. 3)
BRAINERD BOY UNFORTUNATE.
_____
Thos. R. Congdon and Wife, Formerly
of This City, Lose All by Fire.
_____
The New York Journal of last Friday, Feb. 2nd contained the following account of the destruction by fire of the art studio of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Congdon, brother of J. C. Congdon, of this city. All the older residents of Brainerd know Mr. Congdon well, and sympathize deeply with him in his misfortune. The Journal article is as follows:
BLAZE DESTROYS
ART TREASURES.
_____
Two Painters's Studios Ruined; Lives
In Peril.
_____
ONE PORTRAIT SAVED.
_____
T. R. Congdon Rushes Out with Wife
on One Arm, Her Picture
on the Other.
Two painters' studios were destroyed by fire yesterday morning. They were under the mansard roof of Nos. 106 and 108 East Twenty-third street. Hangings of Persia, plaster casts, costumes, canvasses, sketches in oils, studies in water colors, paintings, finished and unfinished, filled them.
The flames devoured everything except Thomas R. Congdon's portrait of his wife. It was in the salon of 1896. He saved it almost unconsciously yesterday. He is a pupil of Benjamin Constant and of Jean Paul Laurens, and has never made an exhibition here. He was at work assiduously. He wanted to be famous. Poor, he and his wife slept and cooked their meals in his studio.
The stove was draped in antique silk, with colors effaced, in the day time. It was so cold yesterday morning that he lighted the fire without thought of the drapery, hurriedly. His hair was burned, his cheek was blistered, his hands were horribly wounded. He ran out with his wife at one arm and her portrait—his masterpiece—under the other.
The portrait is not damaged. Mrs. Congdon's shoulders and her hair were burned. The artist and his wife had returned in November from a summer of study in Holland, where the canals make amazing effects of light and shade and where the museums have admirable lessons in painting.
Mr. Congdon made studies in water colors that nothing can replace to him. But he said yesterday: "Let us not talk of them. I like to fight against misfortune. I am more obstinate than ever. My eyes, my hands and my mind are not affected."
Mr. Condgon lost copies of works of Velasquez, made in Madrid, studies of Franz Hals and others made in Holland, but no finished work of his brush. (Brainerd Dispatch, 09 February 1900, p. 1, c. 3)
CONGDON, Thomas Richardson, artist, was born at Nelson, Tioga, County, Pennsylvania, 20 October 1859, son of Alfred Wickham and Mary Jane (Owens) Congdon. He attended the district schools and academy at Addison, New York. At the age of fifteen he went to Minnesota as apprentice to his brother, then master painter for the Northern Pacific railway at Brainerd. At the expiration of three years he engaged in business for himself. Having early in life developed an artistic tendency he began the study of portrait painting in 1882 under Alva S. Merriett [sic], with whom he remained until 1887 and then removed to New York city and entered the Art Students' League, where he studied under William M. Chase, H. Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith for six years. In 1893 he went to Paris and studied three years in the ateliers of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens, winning the Julian prize in 1894. In 1884 he was married to Ada Irene, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Vose, of Thurston, New York. She also is an artist of considerable ability and was a pupil of L'Hermitte in Paris. They spent three years in Paris and one year in Madrid, making a special study of Velasquez. Having visited Spain, Switzerland and Italy, both as artists and tourists, they returned to this country in 1896, and resided in Buffalo for two years. They removed to New York city in 1898 and opened a studio, which two years later was totally destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to more than $15,000 in works and furnishings. Mr. Congdon is primarily a portrait painter, but delights in producing genre pictures of peasant life; his summers are spent abroad, usually in Holland, in search of material. His first, and perhaps best, Salon picture (1896) was a portrait of his wife, The Benediction, published as frontispiece in Art Education, in May, 1897, is the best thus far of his genre paintings. In May, 1900, the Boston Art Club purchased his Typical Dutch Home for its permanent collection. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club of New York and the American Art Association of Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Congdon have been exhibitors in the annual art exhibitions of New York city for many years. (The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume XI, James T. White & Company, New York: 1909; p. 311)
CONGDON ETCHINGS
_____
To be Displayed at the Art Rooms of
D. E. Whitney on Wednesday
Afternoon
Ten of the larger etchings of Thomas R. Congdon are to be displayed at the art rooms of D. E. Whitney on Front street on Wednesday afternoon, that favor having been vouchsafed by Mrs. Anna Nevers, in charge of the collection of etchings of Mr. Congdon. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 05 October 1915, p. 5, c. 3)
THOMAS CONGDON
PASSED AWAY
_____
Noted Painter and Etcher Died at
Boston—Etchings of His in
Brainerd Public Library
_____
"MUSIC MASTER" MASTERPIECE
_____
First Fame Came When He and His
Wife Commissioned to Paint
for the Rothchilds
Thos. R. Congdon, the well known artist, etcher and painter, died in Boston of Diabetes and complications at the age of 59.
Mr. Congdon was a resident of Brainerd in the early days and will be remembered by the older residents.
In 1886 he left here for New York where he studied three years and then went to Paris where he established a studio and later on he and his wife, who is also a fine artist, were given a commission by the Rothchilds, to paint scenes in Holland, their native land, for a whole year.
Later they traveled extensively in Europe and also maintained a studio in Venice. Mr. Congdon made frequent trips to America and on the eve of his departure on his last trip to Paris he attended a play in New York called the "Music Master," played by E. H. Sothern and company and on the voyage he conceived and drew sketches of the play and on his arrival he painted his masterpiece called "The Music Master," which took first prize in the art salon in Paris in that year and was afterward sold to Mr. Sothern while on his European tour.
He spent 16 years in the old world and when he returned to this country in 1914, he held the office of president of the Artists' League, Paris, France, for three years. One of his etchings is now in the public library in Brainerd. His nephew, H. W. Congdon, also has some of his work done in Holland, Italy and France.
The late Mrs. C. N. Swart of Fargo was a sister and F. B. Congdon of Oak Lawn is a brother and he leaves a sister, Mrs. Kame [sic], of Sebastopol, Cal. and Mrs. Nado another sister of Tacoma, and another brother, W. H. Congdon of Gresham, Ore., who visited here last May. (Brainerd Dispatch, 30 November 1917, p. 6, c. 1) [Courtesy Brian Marsh, CWCHS]
The Glass Blowers, a large, fine painting, has been presented to the Brainerd Public Library by the heirs of Thomas R. Congdon, the artist. Mr. Congdon formerly lived in Brainerd. Later he took up art painting, with great success. The painting, which is valued at $4,500, has been exhibited in Europe and has won most favorable criticism. (Brainerd's Half Century, Ingolf Dillan, General Printing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1923; p. 34)
SISTER SEES CONGDON PAINTING IN
LOCAL LIBRARY WHILE VISITING HERE
_____
Mrs. George H. Shaver's recent visit in Brainerd was made more interesting when she called in the Brainerd Public Library and was shown a painting, Glass Blowers, the work of her brother, the late Thomas R. Congdon. This oil painting, now owned by the Brainerd public library, was presented as a memorial by the heirs of Mr. Congdon.
Mrs. Shaver and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, N. D. with Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Wash. were guests this week in the homes of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon. Mrs. Shaver is particularly well known locally as she and her husband were married in this city 59 years ago. Glass Blowers presents an interesting history since its creator, now deceased, lived here at one time. Mr. Congdon studied m New York and later went to Paris where he studied and painted for 20 years. He has done many oil paintings as well as etchings in color and in black and white. His work is meritorious as was proved when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers at $5,000. This painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit made by the artist through the Belgium glass blowing factories.
After the death of Thomas R. Congdon in 1917 his heirs presented the painting to the Brainerd Public Library a memorial to the artist. The painting is hung to the left of the front door in the main room of the library, where it can be seen and appreciated by all who enter the building.
Further details of the life of Thomas R. Congdon disclose that he came to Brainerd in his youth and lived here until he was 25 years of age. When he arrived here he struck up acquaintance with a man named Merritt, who did etching and water colors and through this friendship the talents of the great artist were discovered. Merritt it was who encouraged him to to make art his life work.
Mr. Congdon's love of painting, even as a young man, is still evident in Brainerd. In his parents home, 1004 Fir street, Brainerd, he painted panels above doors and windows. These were intact until 1934 when occupants of the house, not realizing the value of the work, painted over them. At the age of 25 he left for Duluth to concentrate on his abilities and went from there to New York where he married Ada Vose. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 19 June 1937, p. 5, c's 2 & 3)
A framed colored etching, the Last Kiss of the Sun, signed and dated 1914 in pencil, by Thomas R. Congdon and measuring 18 1/2" by 18 1/2" was also presented to the Brainerd Public Library. The date of the presentation and by whom presented is unknown, the etching is currently [2008] located in the Librarian's office. This etching was valued at $100-$300 based on an appraisal done by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota and dated 08 October 1987. (Appraisal)
The value of the Glass Blowers was appraised by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota at from $4,500 to $15,000 on 08 October 1987 and was sold by the Library Board in April 1989 for the sum of $5,700. (Appraisal)
The Glass Blowers, a fine, large oil painting by Thomas R. Congdon, former Brainerd resident, was presented to the Brainerd Public Library upon the artist's death in 1917 by his heirs as a memorial to the artist.
Thomas R. Congdon was born in New York State [sic] in 1859, came as a young man to Brainerd where he lived until the age of twenty-five. About this time there came to Brainerd a man named Merritt [sic] who did etchings and watercolors. He and young Congdon struck up a friendship and Mr. Merritt [sic] discovered the talent of his new friend Congdon and encouraged him to study and make art his life work. Thomas Congdon's love of painting even as a young man was certain as he painted panels above the doors and windows of the parental home at 1004 Fir Street. [They were intact until 1934, when the occupants, not knowing the value of the artistic paintings, painted over them.] At the age of twenty-five Congdon left Brainerd for Duluth to continue his studies, he was there a short time and realized that New York was the place for him to find really good teachers and also a market for his paintings. He eventually went to Paris where he studied and painted for twenty years. He married a New York girl, Ada Irene Vose, who was also an artist.
He studied under Mr. Chase while in Paris; names of his other teachers are not available. From time to time Congdon returned to America to market his paintings and on one such trip he went to the theater to see the play, The Music Master, by David Warfield and was so inspired by the play that on his return to France he put it on canvas. The picture shows David Warfield, the music master, standing near a grand piano with a baton in his hand; a young girl dressed in a flowing dress is seated on the piano bench, looking to him for instruction. Those who have seen this work say it is exceptional.
His work is exceptionally meritorious as was proven when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers, at $5,000. The painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit, made by the painter, to the glass blowing factories of Belgium.
Many of his paintings, which included etchings in black and white, were lost when his studio in New York burned. He himself was badly burned in the fire when he dashed back to save a portrait of his wife.
Thomas R. Congdon died in New York [sic] [Boston] in 1917.
Among relatives and friends who have visited the library to see the Glass Blowers, are Mrs. George H. Shaver, sister of Mr. Congdon, and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, North Dakota; Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon of Brainerd. (Source Unknown)
•See Anna Steege Young.
I wish to inform the citizens of Brainerd that I have just opened a Paint Shop on north Tenth street, and am prepared to do all kinds of house and sign painting, graining, kalsomining, and paper hanging in the latest style and at bottom prices. I would respectfully solicit your patronage and will guarantee satisfaction.
Very respectfully, T. R. CONGDON
(Brainerd Tribune, 12 April 1879, p. 4, c. 1)
To the Citizens of Brainerd.
I want everyone to know that I will be prepared to do all kinds of House and Sign Painting, Graining, Glazing and Paper-Hanging—Kalsomining a Specialty—during the coming season, and at prices to suit the times. Thanking you for your past favors, respectfully solicit your future patronage. Satisfaction guaranteed or you need not pay a cent.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 06 March 1880, p. 1, c. 4)
Thos. Congdon is visible on our streets once more—returned to share the boom. (Brainerd Tribune, 13 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
I have a fine assortment of Wall Paper samples at Minneapolis prices. They can be seen at J. N. Nevers' Furniture store. Go and look at them—it will not cost you anything.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 20 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
T. R. Congdon wants to buy a cow. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 May 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
There was no meeting of the Reform Club on Tuesday evening, last, and consequently the programme announced last week will be the programme for next Tuesday evening, with the addition of a duet and whistling chorus by T. R. and C. H. Congdon. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 January 1881, p. 1, c. 3)
The New Business Card Curtain.
The Mr. Congdon whose nominal appendage is Tom, has been engaged for some time back painting a business card curtain for the Opera House, which will be exhibited for the first time on Friday evening, the 29th inst., at which time the Dramatic Club purpose to give their entertainment. This curtain is made up of about twenty-one business cards for various houses about town, and run in something like the following order: Brainerd House, B. Shupe, proprietor; A. Veon, variety store; Mrs. G. W. Whitney, dressmaker and milliner; J. Hill, photographer; W. W. Hartley, fire insurance; Linneman & Koop, dry goods and grocieries; Mattie Caley, restauranct and bakery; Paine Bros. & Flynn, city meat market; Stratton & Heath, Leland House; White & White, contractors and builders; David E. Slipp, hardware store; Geo. Stevenson, groceries and provisions; A. E. Chase, Brainerd TRIBUNE; N. McFadden, druggist; Orr & Seelye, carpenters and builders; J. N. Nevers, dry goods, boot and shoes, etc.; Miss Jennie King, instructor in instrumental music; Mrs. A. Sherwood, book store; Mrs. C. Grandelmyer, dressmaking and millinery, and T. R. Congdon, house, sign and ornamental painter. It is a fine piece of workmanship, and reflects much credit upon its originator. (Brainerd Tribune, 23 April 1881, p. 1, c. 5)
Be It Known.
EDITOR TRIBUNE.—
Allow me, through the columns of the TRIBUNE to enter an emphatic denial to the allegation that I am the individual who varnished the pews of the M. E. Church last year, and which have been causing so much adhesive trouble. I prepared the work and grained it, but my business called me to Aitkin and the varnishing was done by another well-known wielder of the brush and palette.
Had I done it, I would have been responsible for the job and made it right. As it is, I don't propose to bear another's burdens. Respectfully,
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 30 July 1881, p. 5, c. 2)
The painting of Mr. N. H. Dean's house on Fifth street will be finished by T. R. Congdon in two or three days more. Tom does a rushing business and no mistake. (Brainerd Tribune, 15 April 1882, p. 5, c. 2)
Married Ada Irene Vose on April 23, 1884 in Campbell, Steuben County, New York.
The following which was received at this office on Tuesday morning explains itself:
"Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Vase [sic] requests your presence at the marriage of their daughter Ada to T. R. Congdon, on Wednesday, April 23d, 1884, at 10:30 o'clock, at their residence, Thurston, N. Y.
Tom's many friends in this locality will extend with the DISPATCH congratulations and best wishes for their future happiness and prosperity. (Brainerd Dispatch, 17 April 1884, p. 3, c. 3)
BRAINERD BOY UNFORTUNATE.
_____
Thos. R. Congdon and Wife, Formerly
of This City, Lose All by Fire.
_____
The New York Journal of last Friday, Feb. 2nd contained the following account of the destruction by fire of the art studio of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Congdon, brother of J. C. Congdon, of this city. All the older residents of Brainerd know Mr. Congdon well, and sympathize deeply with him in his misfortune. The Journal article is as follows:
BLAZE DESTROYS
ART TREASURES.
_____
Two Painters's Studios Ruined; Lives
In Peril.
_____
ONE PORTRAIT SAVED.
_____
T. R. Congdon Rushes Out with Wife
on One Arm, Her Picture
on the Other.
Two painters' studios were destroyed by fire yesterday morning. They were under the mansard roof of Nos. 106 and 108 East Twenty-third street. Hangings of Persia, plaster casts, costumes, canvasses, sketches in oils, studies in water colors, paintings, finished and unfinished, filled them.
The flames devoured everything except Thomas R. Congdon's portrait of his wife. It was in the salon of 1896. He saved it almost unconsciously yesterday. He is a pupil of Benjamin Constant and of Jean Paul Laurens, and has never made an exhibition here. He was at work assiduously. He wanted to be famous. Poor, he and his wife slept and cooked their meals in his studio.
The stove was draped in antique silk, with colors effaced, in the day time. It was so cold yesterday morning that he lighted the fire without thought of the drapery, hurriedly. His hair was burned, his cheek was blistered, his hands were horribly wounded. He ran out with his wife at one arm and her portrait—his masterpiece—under the other.
The portrait is not damaged. Mrs. Congdon's shoulders and her hair were burned. The artist and his wife had returned in November from a summer of study in Holland, where the canals make amazing effects of light and shade and where the museums have admirable lessons in painting.
Mr. Congdon made studies in water colors that nothing can replace to him. But he said yesterday: "Let us not talk of them. I like to fight against misfortune. I am more obstinate than ever. My eyes, my hands and my mind are not affected."
Mr. Condgon lost copies of works of Velasquez, made in Madrid, studies of Franz Hals and others made in Holland, but no finished work of his brush. (Brainerd Dispatch, 09 February 1900, p. 1, c. 3)
CONGDON, Thomas Richardson, artist, was born at Nelson, Tioga, County, Pennsylvania, 20 October 1859, son of Alfred Wickham and Mary Jane (Owens) Congdon. He attended the district schools and academy at Addison, New York. At the age of fifteen he went to Minnesota as apprentice to his brother, then master painter for the Northern Pacific railway at Brainerd. At the expiration of three years he engaged in business for himself. Having early in life developed an artistic tendency he began the study of portrait painting in 1882 under Alva S. Merriett [sic], with whom he remained until 1887 and then removed to New York city and entered the Art Students' League, where he studied under William M. Chase, H. Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith for six years. In 1893 he went to Paris and studied three years in the ateliers of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens, winning the Julian prize in 1894. In 1884 he was married to Ada Irene, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Vose, of Thurston, New York. She also is an artist of considerable ability and was a pupil of L'Hermitte in Paris. They spent three years in Paris and one year in Madrid, making a special study of Velasquez. Having visited Spain, Switzerland and Italy, both as artists and tourists, they returned to this country in 1896, and resided in Buffalo for two years. They removed to New York city in 1898 and opened a studio, which two years later was totally destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to more than $15,000 in works and furnishings. Mr. Congdon is primarily a portrait painter, but delights in producing genre pictures of peasant life; his summers are spent abroad, usually in Holland, in search of material. His first, and perhaps best, Salon picture (1896) was a portrait of his wife, The Benediction, published as frontispiece in Art Education, in May, 1897, is the best thus far of his genre paintings. In May, 1900, the Boston Art Club purchased his Typical Dutch Home for its permanent collection. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club of New York and the American Art Association of Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Congdon have been exhibitors in the annual art exhibitions of New York city for many years. (The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume XI, James T. White & Company, New York: 1909; p. 311)
CONGDON ETCHINGS
_____
To be Displayed at the Art Rooms of
D. E. Whitney on Wednesday
Afternoon
Ten of the larger etchings of Thomas R. Congdon are to be displayed at the art rooms of D. E. Whitney on Front street on Wednesday afternoon, that favor having been vouchsafed by Mrs. Anna Nevers, in charge of the collection of etchings of Mr. Congdon. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 05 October 1915, p. 5, c. 3)
THOMAS CONGDON
PASSED AWAY
_____
Noted Painter and Etcher Died at
Boston—Etchings of His in
Brainerd Public Library
_____
"MUSIC MASTER" MASTERPIECE
_____
First Fame Came When He and His
Wife Commissioned to Paint
for the Rothchilds
Thos. R. Congdon, the well known artist, etcher and painter, died in Boston of Diabetes and complications at the age of 59.
Mr. Congdon was a resident of Brainerd in the early days and will be remembered by the older residents.
In 1886 he left here for New York where he studied three years and then went to Paris where he established a studio and later on he and his wife, who is also a fine artist, were given a commission by the Rothchilds, to paint scenes in Holland, their native land, for a whole year.
Later they traveled extensively in Europe and also maintained a studio in Venice. Mr. Congdon made frequent trips to America and on the eve of his departure on his last trip to Paris he attended a play in New York called the "Music Master," played by E. H. Sothern and company and on the voyage he conceived and drew sketches of the play and on his arrival he painted his masterpiece called "The Music Master," which took first prize in the art salon in Paris in that year and was afterward sold to Mr. Sothern while on his European tour.
He spent 16 years in the old world and when he returned to this country in 1914, he held the office of president of the Artists' League, Paris, France, for three years. One of his etchings is now in the public library in Brainerd. His nephew, H. W. Congdon, also has some of his work done in Holland, Italy and France.
The late Mrs. C. N. Swart of Fargo was a sister and F. B. Congdon of Oak Lawn is a brother and he leaves a sister, Mrs. Kame [sic], of Sebastopol, Cal. and Mrs. Nado another sister of Tacoma, and another brother, W. H. Congdon of Gresham, Ore., who visited here last May. (Brainerd Dispatch, 30 November 1917, p. 6, c. 1) [Courtesy Brian Marsh, CWCHS]
The Glass Blowers, a large, fine painting, has been presented to the Brainerd Public Library by the heirs of Thomas R. Congdon, the artist. Mr. Congdon formerly lived in Brainerd. Later he took up art painting, with great success. The painting, which is valued at $4,500, has been exhibited in Europe and has won most favorable criticism. (Brainerd's Half Century, Ingolf Dillan, General Printing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1923; p. 34)
SISTER SEES CONGDON PAINTING IN
LOCAL LIBRARY WHILE VISITING HERE
_____
Mrs. George H. Shaver's recent visit in Brainerd was made more interesting when she called in the Brainerd Public Library and was shown a painting, Glass Blowers, the work of her brother, the late Thomas R. Congdon. This oil painting, now owned by the Brainerd public library, was presented as a memorial by the heirs of Mr. Congdon.
Mrs. Shaver and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, N. D. with Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Wash. were guests this week in the homes of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon. Mrs. Shaver is particularly well known locally as she and her husband were married in this city 59 years ago. Glass Blowers presents an interesting history since its creator, now deceased, lived here at one time. Mr. Congdon studied m New York and later went to Paris where he studied and painted for 20 years. He has done many oil paintings as well as etchings in color and in black and white. His work is meritorious as was proved when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers at $5,000. This painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit made by the artist through the Belgium glass blowing factories.
After the death of Thomas R. Congdon in 1917 his heirs presented the painting to the Brainerd Public Library a memorial to the artist. The painting is hung to the left of the front door in the main room of the library, where it can be seen and appreciated by all who enter the building.
Further details of the life of Thomas R. Congdon disclose that he came to Brainerd in his youth and lived here until he was 25 years of age. When he arrived here he struck up acquaintance with a man named Merritt, who did etching and water colors and through this friendship the talents of the great artist were discovered. Merritt it was who encouraged him to to make art his life work.
Mr. Congdon's love of painting, even as a young man, is still evident in Brainerd. In his parents home, 1004 Fir street, Brainerd, he painted panels above doors and windows. These were intact until 1934 when occupants of the house, not realizing the value of the work, painted over them. At the age of 25 he left for Duluth to concentrate on his abilities and went from there to New York where he married Ada Vose. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 19 June 1937, p. 5, c's 2 & 3)
A framed colored etching, the Last Kiss of the Sun, signed and dated 1914 in pencil, by Thomas R. Congdon and measuring 18 1/2" by 18 1/2" was also presented to the Brainerd Public Library. The date of the presentation and by whom presented is unknown, the etching is currently [2008] located in the Librarian's office. This etching was valued at $100-$300 based on an appraisal done by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota and dated 08 October 1987. (Appraisal)
The value of the Glass Blowers was appraised by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota at from $4,500 to $15,000 on 08 October 1987 and was sold by the Library Board in April 1989 for the sum of $5,700. (Appraisal)
The Glass Blowers, a fine, large oil painting by Thomas R. Congdon, former Brainerd resident, was presented to the Brainerd Public Library upon the artist's death in 1917 by his heirs as a memorial to the artist.
Thomas R. Congdon was born in New York State [sic] in 1859, came as a young man to Brainerd where he lived until the age of twenty-five. About this time there came to Brainerd a man named Merritt [sic] who did etchings and watercolors. He and young Congdon struck up a friendship and Mr. Merritt [sic] discovered the talent of his new friend Congdon and encouraged him to study and make art his life work. Thomas Congdon's love of painting even as a young man was certain as he painted panels above the doors and windows of the parental home at 1004 Fir Street. [They were intact until 1934, when the occupants, not knowing the value of the artistic paintings, painted over them.] At the age of twenty-five Congdon left Brainerd for Duluth to continue his studies, he was there a short time and realized that New York was the place for him to find really good teachers and also a market for his paintings. He eventually went to Paris where he studied and painted for twenty years. He married a New York girl, Ada Irene Vose, who was also an artist.
He studied under Mr. Chase while in Paris; names of his other teachers are not available. From time to time Congdon returned to America to market his paintings and on one such trip he went to the theater to see the play, The Music Master, by David Warfield and was so inspired by the play that on his return to France he put it on canvas. The picture shows David Warfield, the music master, standing near a grand piano with a baton in his hand; a young girl dressed in a flowing dress is seated on the piano bench, looking to him for instruction. Those who have seen this work say it is exceptional.
His work is exceptionally meritorious as was proven when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers, at $5,000. The painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit, made by the painter, to the glass blowing factories of Belgium.
Many of his paintings, which included etchings in black and white, were lost when his studio in New York burned. He himself was badly burned in the fire when he dashed back to save a portrait of his wife.
Thomas R. Congdon died in New York [sic] [Boston] in 1917.
Among relatives and friends who have visited the library to see the Glass Blowers, are Mrs. George H. Shaver, sister of Mr. Congdon, and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, North Dakota; Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon of Brainerd. (Source Unknown)
I wish to inform the citizens of Brainerd that I have just opened a Paint Shop on north Tenth street, and am prepared to do all kinds of house and sign painting, graining, kalsomining, and paper hanging in the latest style and at bottom prices. I would respectfully solicit your patronage and will guarantee satisfaction.
Very respectfully, T. R. CONGDON
(Brainerd Tribune, 12 April 1879, p. 4, c. 1)
To the Citizens of Brainerd.
I want everyone to know that I will be prepared to do all kinds of House and Sign Painting, Graining, Glazing and Paper-Hanging—Kalsomining a Specialty—during the coming season, and at prices to suit the times. Thanking you for your past favors, respectfully solicit your future patronage. Satisfaction guaranteed or you need not pay a cent.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 06 March 1880, p. 1, c. 4)
Thos. Congdon is visible on our streets once more—returned to share the boom. (Brainerd Tribune, 13 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
I have a fine assortment of Wall Paper samples at Minneapolis prices. They can be seen at J. N. Nevers' Furniture store. Go and look at them—it will not cost you anything.
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 20 March 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
T. R. Congdon wants to buy a cow. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 May 1880, p. 4, c. 1)
There was no meeting of the Reform Club on Tuesday evening, last, and consequently the programme announced last week will be the programme for next Tuesday evening, with the addition of a duet and whistling chorus by T. R. and C. H. Congdon. (Brainerd Tribune, 01 January 1881, p. 1, c. 3)
The New Business Card Curtain.
The Mr. Congdon whose nominal appendage is Tom, has been engaged for some time back painting a business card curtain for the Opera House, which will be exhibited for the first time on Friday evening, the 29th inst., at which time the Dramatic Club purpose to give their entertainment. This curtain is made up of about twenty-one business cards for various houses about town, and run in something like the following order: Brainerd House, B. Shupe, proprietor; A. Veon, variety store; Mrs. G. W. Whitney, dressmaker and milliner; J. Hill, photographer; W. W. Hartley, fire insurance; Linneman & Koop, dry goods and grocieries; Mattie Caley, restauranct and bakery; Paine Bros. & Flynn, city meat market; Stratton & Heath, Leland House; White & White, contractors and builders; David E. Slipp, hardware store; Geo. Stevenson, groceries and provisions; A. E. Chase, Brainerd TRIBUNE; N. McFadden, druggist; Orr & Seelye, carpenters and builders; J. N. Nevers, dry goods, boot and shoes, etc.; Miss Jennie King, instructor in instrumental music; Mrs. A. Sherwood, book store; Mrs. C. Grandelmyer, dressmaking and millinery, and T. R. Congdon, house, sign and ornamental painter. It is a fine piece of workmanship, and reflects much credit upon its originator. (Brainerd Tribune, 23 April 1881, p. 1, c. 5)
Be It Known.
EDITOR TRIBUNE.—
Allow me, through the columns of the TRIBUNE to enter an emphatic denial to the allegation that I am the individual who varnished the pews of the M. E. Church last year, and which have been causing so much adhesive trouble. I prepared the work and grained it, but my business called me to Aitkin and the varnishing was done by another well-known wielder of the brush and palette.
Had I done it, I would have been responsible for the job and made it right. As it is, I don't propose to bear another's burdens. Respectfully,
T. R. CONGDON.
(Brainerd Tribune, 30 July 1881, p. 5, c. 2)
The painting of Mr. N. H. Dean's house on Fifth street will be finished by T. R. Congdon in two or three days more. Tom does a rushing business and no mistake. (Brainerd Tribune, 15 April 1882, p. 5, c. 2)
Married Ada Irene Vose on April 23, 1884 in Campbell, Steuben County, New York.
The following which was received at this office on Tuesday morning explains itself:
"Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Vase [sic] requests your presence at the marriage of their daughter Ada to T. R. Congdon, on Wednesday, April 23d, 1884, at 10:30 o'clock, at their residence, Thurston, N. Y.
Tom's many friends in this locality will extend with the DISPATCH congratulations and best wishes for their future happiness and prosperity. (Brainerd Dispatch, 17 April 1884, p. 3, c. 3)
BRAINERD BOY UNFORTUNATE.
_____
Thos. R. Congdon and Wife, Formerly
of This City, Lose All by Fire.
_____
The New York Journal of last Friday, Feb. 2nd contained the following account of the destruction by fire of the art studio of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas R. Congdon, brother of J. C. Congdon, of this city. All the older residents of Brainerd know Mr. Congdon well, and sympathize deeply with him in his misfortune. The Journal article is as follows:
BLAZE DESTROYS
ART TREASURES.
_____
Two Painters's Studios Ruined; Lives
In Peril.
_____
ONE PORTRAIT SAVED.
_____
T. R. Congdon Rushes Out with Wife
on One Arm, Her Picture
on the Other.
Two painters' studios were destroyed by fire yesterday morning. They were under the mansard roof of Nos. 106 and 108 East Twenty-third street. Hangings of Persia, plaster casts, costumes, canvasses, sketches in oils, studies in water colors, paintings, finished and unfinished, filled them.
The flames devoured everything except Thomas R. Congdon's portrait of his wife. It was in the salon of 1896. He saved it almost unconsciously yesterday. He is a pupil of Benjamin Constant and of Jean Paul Laurens, and has never made an exhibition here. He was at work assiduously. He wanted to be famous. Poor, he and his wife slept and cooked their meals in his studio.
The stove was draped in antique silk, with colors effaced, in the day time. It was so cold yesterday morning that he lighted the fire without thought of the drapery, hurriedly. His hair was burned, his cheek was blistered, his hands were horribly wounded. He ran out with his wife at one arm and her portrait—his masterpiece—under the other.
The portrait is not damaged. Mrs. Congdon's shoulders and her hair were burned. The artist and his wife had returned in November from a summer of study in Holland, where the canals make amazing effects of light and shade and where the museums have admirable lessons in painting.
Mr. Congdon made studies in water colors that nothing can replace to him. But he said yesterday: "Let us not talk of them. I like to fight against misfortune. I am more obstinate than ever. My eyes, my hands and my mind are not affected."
Mr. Condgon lost copies of works of Velasquez, made in Madrid, studies of Franz Hals and others made in Holland, but no finished work of his brush. (Brainerd Dispatch, 09 February 1900, p. 1, c. 3)
CONGDON, Thomas Richardson, artist, was born at Nelson, Tioga, County, Pennsylvania, 20 October 1859, son of Alfred Wickham and Mary Jane (Owens) Congdon. He attended the district schools and academy at Addison, New York. At the age of fifteen he went to Minnesota as apprentice to his brother, then master painter for the Northern Pacific railway at Brainerd. At the expiration of three years he engaged in business for himself. Having early in life developed an artistic tendency he began the study of portrait painting in 1882 under Alva S. Merriett [sic], with whom he remained until 1887 and then removed to New York city and entered the Art Students' League, where he studied under William M. Chase, H. Siddons Mowbray and J. Carroll Beckwith for six years. In 1893 he went to Paris and studied three years in the ateliers of Benjamin Constant and Jean Paul Laurens, winning the Julian prize in 1894. In 1884 he was married to Ada Irene, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Vose, of Thurston, New York. She also is an artist of considerable ability and was a pupil of L'Hermitte in Paris. They spent three years in Paris and one year in Madrid, making a special study of Velasquez. Having visited Spain, Switzerland and Italy, both as artists and tourists, they returned to this country in 1896, and resided in Buffalo for two years. They removed to New York city in 1898 and opened a studio, which two years later was totally destroyed by fire, the loss amounting to more than $15,000 in works and furnishings. Mr. Congdon is primarily a portrait painter, but delights in producing genre pictures of peasant life; his summers are spent abroad, usually in Holland, in search of material. His first, and perhaps best, Salon picture (1896) was a portrait of his wife, The Benediction, published as frontispiece in Art Education, in May, 1897, is the best thus far of his genre paintings. In May, 1900, the Boston Art Club purchased his Typical Dutch Home for its permanent collection. He is a member of the Salmagundi Club of New York and the American Art Association of Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Congdon have been exhibitors in the annual art exhibitions of New York city for many years. (The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Volume XI, James T. White & Company, New York: 1909; p. 311)
CONGDON ETCHINGS
_____
To be Displayed at the Art Rooms of
D. E. Whitney on Wednesday
Afternoon
Ten of the larger etchings of Thomas R. Congdon are to be displayed at the art rooms of D. E. Whitney on Front street on Wednesday afternoon, that favor having been vouchsafed by Mrs. Anna Nevers, in charge of the collection of etchings of Mr. Congdon. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 05 October 1915, p. 5, c. 3)
THOMAS CONGDON
PASSED AWAY
_____
Noted Painter and Etcher Died at
Boston—Etchings of His in
Brainerd Public Library
_____
"MUSIC MASTER" MASTERPIECE
_____
First Fame Came When He and His
Wife Commissioned to Paint
for the Rothchilds
Thos. R. Congdon, the well known artist, etcher and painter, died in Boston of Diabetes and complications at the age of 59.
Mr. Congdon was a resident of Brainerd in the early days and will be remembered by the older residents.
In 1886 he left here for New York where he studied three years and then went to Paris where he established a studio and later on he and his wife, who is also a fine artist, were given a commission by the Rothchilds, to paint scenes in Holland, their native land, for a whole year.
Later they traveled extensively in Europe and also maintained a studio in Venice. Mr. Congdon made frequent trips to America and on the eve of his departure on his last trip to Paris he attended a play in New York called the "Music Master," played by E. H. Sothern and company and on the voyage he conceived and drew sketches of the play and on his arrival he painted his masterpiece called "The Music Master," which took first prize in the art salon in Paris in that year and was afterward sold to Mr. Sothern while on his European tour.
He spent 16 years in the old world and when he returned to this country in 1914, he held the office of president of the Artists' League, Paris, France, for three years. One of his etchings is now in the public library in Brainerd. His nephew, H. W. Congdon, also has some of his work done in Holland, Italy and France.
The late Mrs. C. N. Swart of Fargo was a sister and F. B. Congdon of Oak Lawn is a brother and he leaves a sister, Mrs. Kame [sic], of Sebastopol, Cal. and Mrs. Nado another sister of Tacoma, and another brother, W. H. Congdon of Gresham, Ore., who visited here last May. (Brainerd Dispatch, 30 November 1917, p. 6, c. 1) [Courtesy Brian Marsh, CWCHS]
The Glass Blowers, a large, fine painting, has been presented to the Brainerd Public Library by the heirs of Thomas R. Congdon, the artist. Mr. Congdon formerly lived in Brainerd. Later he took up art painting, with great success. The painting, which is valued at $4,500, has been exhibited in Europe and has won most favorable criticism. (Brainerd's Half Century, Ingolf Dillan, General Printing Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota: 1923; p. 34)
SISTER SEES CONGDON PAINTING IN
LOCAL LIBRARY WHILE VISITING HERE
_____
Mrs. George H. Shaver's recent visit in Brainerd was made more interesting when she called in the Brainerd Public Library and was shown a painting, Glass Blowers, the work of her brother, the late Thomas R. Congdon. This oil painting, now owned by the Brainerd public library, was presented as a memorial by the heirs of Mr. Congdon.
Mrs. Shaver and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, N. D. with Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Wash. were guests this week in the homes of Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon. Mrs. Shaver is particularly well known locally as she and her husband were married in this city 59 years ago. Glass Blowers presents an interesting history since its creator, now deceased, lived here at one time. Mr. Congdon studied m New York and later went to Paris where he studied and painted for 20 years. He has done many oil paintings as well as etchings in color and in black and white. His work is meritorious as was proved when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers at $5,000. This painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit made by the artist through the Belgium glass blowing factories.
After the death of Thomas R. Congdon in 1917 his heirs presented the painting to the Brainerd Public Library a memorial to the artist. The painting is hung to the left of the front door in the main room of the library, where it can be seen and appreciated by all who enter the building.
Further details of the life of Thomas R. Congdon disclose that he came to Brainerd in his youth and lived here until he was 25 years of age. When he arrived here he struck up acquaintance with a man named Merritt, who did etching and water colors and through this friendship the talents of the great artist were discovered. Merritt it was who encouraged him to to make art his life work.
Mr. Congdon's love of painting, even as a young man, is still evident in Brainerd. In his parents home, 1004 Fir street, Brainerd, he painted panels above doors and windows. These were intact until 1934 when occupants of the house, not realizing the value of the work, painted over them. At the age of 25 he left for Duluth to concentrate on his abilities and went from there to New York where he married Ada Vose. (Brainerd Daily Dispatch, 19 June 1937, p. 5, c's 2 & 3)
A framed colored etching, the Last Kiss of the Sun, signed and dated 1914 in pencil, by Thomas R. Congdon and measuring 18 1/2" by 18 1/2" was also presented to the Brainerd Public Library. The date of the presentation and by whom presented is unknown, the etching is currently [2008] located in the Librarian's office. This etching was valued at $100-$300 based on an appraisal done by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota and dated 08 October 1987. (Appraisal)
The value of the Glass Blowers was appraised by Wesley P. Kramer of Kramer Gallery, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minnesota at from $4,500 to $15,000 on 08 October 1987 and was sold by the Library Board in April 1989 for the sum of $5,700. (Appraisal)
The Glass Blowers, a fine, large oil painting by Thomas R. Congdon, former Brainerd resident, was presented to the Brainerd Public Library upon the artist's death in 1917 by his heirs as a memorial to the artist.
Thomas R. Congdon was born in New York State [sic] in 1859, came as a young man to Brainerd where he lived until the age of twenty-five. About this time there came to Brainerd a man named Merritt [sic] who did etchings and watercolors. He and young Congdon struck up a friendship and Mr. Merritt [sic] discovered the talent of his new friend Congdon and encouraged him to study and make art his life work. Thomas Congdon's love of painting even as a young man was certain as he painted panels above the doors and windows of the parental home at 1004 Fir Street. [They were intact until 1934, when the occupants, not knowing the value of the artistic paintings, painted over them.] At the age of twenty-five Congdon left Brainerd for Duluth to continue his studies, he was there a short time and realized that New York was the place for him to find really good teachers and also a market for his paintings. He eventually went to Paris where he studied and painted for twenty years. He married a New York girl, Ada Irene Vose, who was also an artist.
He studied under Mr. Chase while in Paris; names of his other teachers are not available. From time to time Congdon returned to America to market his paintings and on one such trip he went to the theater to see the play, The Music Master, by David Warfield and was so inspired by the play that on his return to France he put it on canvas. The picture shows David Warfield, the music master, standing near a grand piano with a baton in his hand; a young girl dressed in a flowing dress is seated on the piano bench, looking to him for instruction. Those who have seen this work say it is exceptional.
His work is exceptionally meritorious as was proven when critics valued his oil painting the Glass Blowers, at $5,000. The painting was exhibited in New York and abroad. The Glass Blowers was inspired by a visit, made by the painter, to the glass blowing factories of Belgium.
Many of his paintings, which included etchings in black and white, were lost when his studio in New York burned. He himself was badly burned in the fire when he dashed back to save a portrait of his wife.
Thomas R. Congdon died in New York [sic] [Boston] in 1917.
Among relatives and friends who have visited the library to see the Glass Blowers, are Mrs. George H. Shaver, sister of Mr. Congdon, and Mrs. George Gowenlock of Mapleton, North Dakota; Mrs. Elmer Baertsch of Spokane, Washington; Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Tenney, I. A. Congdon, and H. Congdon of Brainerd. (Source Unknown)
