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The beginning of Hurrell's interest in studio portrait work

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Hurrell studies painting with William Wendt (photo shown above), who becomes Hurrell’s mentor and closest friend. Hurrell focuses on painting, but also conducts photographic experiments with sunlight.

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William Wendt was a German-born American landscape painter

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WILLIAM WENDT
Born on February 2, 1865, in Benzen, Germany
Died on December 29, 1946, in Laguna Beach, California

Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich Christian Wendt was born on February 2, 1865, in Benzen, southeast of Lübz, Germany. His father was Johann Joachim August Wendt and his mother was Friederike Schulz.

Coming to the United States in 1880, Wendt settled in Chicago where he worked in a commercial art firm producing stock paintings using various names other than his own. Essentially self-taught, he attended evening classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for only a brief period. Dissatisfied with figure studies, he preferred painting landscapes and quickly became an active exhibitor in various Chicago art shows, winning the Second Yerkes Prize at the Chicago Society of Artists exhibition, at the Art Institute, in 1893.

Wendt kept a studio on Wabash Avenue, directly across the hall from one held by sculptor Julia Bracken (1869-1942). They met in 1889, and became close friends.

Wendt was also a close friend of artist George Gardner Symons (1862-1930), and together they made a number of trips to California between 1896 and 1904. In 1898, the two traveled to the art colony at St. Ives in Cornwall, England. Upon his return, works from those trips were then exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wendt married the sculptor Julia M. Bracken on June 25, 1906, in Chicago, Illinois, and moved to Los Angeles, where he bought the studio-home of Elmer and Marion Wachtel, on Sichel Street. Already a successful painter, he quickly became a leading member in the Los Angeles art community and was a founding member of the California Art Club in 1909, serving as president from 1911 to 1914, and again from 1917 to 1918.

In 1912, he was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design, in New York. He built a home and studio in the art colony of Laguna Beach in 1918, and moved there permanently in 1923. He was a founding member of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, and although somewhat shy and reclusive, he was Laguna's most important resident artist. Arthur Millier, the art critic for the Los Angeles Times, called Wendt "the man who has most truthfully pictured Southern California."

In 1926, he was given a solo exhibition at Stendahl Art Galleries, in Los Angeles. That year, he made his last trip to Europe, visiting and painting in Germany. In 1939, he had a retrospective exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum. By 1940, Wendt had retired from painting.

William Wendt received numerous awards for his works. Among these were a Bronze Medal, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901; a Silver Medal, Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904; and a Silver Medal, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915. In 1925, he received a Gold Medal at the Pan-American Exhibition in Los Angeles for Where Nature's God Hath Wrought, which is now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

On March 18, 1946, Wendt converted into the Roman Catholic Church. He died on December 29, 1946, in Laguna Beach, and was buried next to his wife Julia at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange. A street in Laguna Beach, Wendt Terrace, was named in his honor.

To Wendt, nature was a divine manifestation and he viewed himself as nature's faithful interpreter. Only rarely did he include people or animals in his landscapes. He worked out of doors, sometimes sketching but usually painting large, finished works en plein air. His early works feature the feathery brush strokes and hazy atmosphere of Impressionism. In his later works, after about 1912-1915, he employed a distinctive block-like brushwork giving solidity to his renditions of natural forms. A prolific painter, he was known as the "dean" of Southern California landscape painters.

Written by (Mr.) Jean Stern
Senior Curator of California Impressionism
The Institute and Museum for California Art
University of California, Irvine
From a letter by William Wendt to William Griffith, 1898: The perfection of this spring day and the gladness thereof make one think of Genesis when the earth was young and morning stars sang to each other. The earth is young again. The peace, the harmony which pervades all, give a Sabbath-like air to the day, to the environment. One feels that he is on holy ground, in Nature's Temple...The perfume of the flowers and of the bay tree are wafted on high, like incense...The birds sing sweet songs of praise to their Creator. In the tops of the trees, the soughing of the wind is like the hushed prayers of the multitude in some vast cathedral. Here the heart of man becomes impressionable. Here, away from the conflicting creeds and sects, away from the soul-destroying hurly-burly of life, it feels that the world is beautiful, that man is his brother, that God is good.
Letter to William Griffith (1866-1940), 1898

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William Wendt: 1865-1946 - Laguna Plein Air Painters Association

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WILLIAM WENDT Born on February 2, 1865, in Benzen, Germany Died on December 29, 1946, in Laguna Beach, California Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich Christian Wendt was born on February 2, 1865, in Benzen, southeast of Lübz, Germany. His father was Johann Joachim August Wendt and his mother was Friederike Schulz.

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He became a respectful art influencer which led him to being a founding member of the California Art Club (1909).

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William Wendt (February 20, 1865, Bentzen, Kingdom of Prussia - December 29, 1946, Laguna Beach) was a German-born American landscape painter. He was called the "Dean of Southern California landscape painters."

He emigrated to the United States in 1880, while still a teenager, and spent some time as a staff artist in Chicago. From 1894 to 1896, he travelled extensively with his friend, George Gardner Symons. He married the sculptor, Julia Bracken in 1906 and moved to California shortly thereafter.

Wendt was a founding member of the California Art Club, along with his wife Julia, and served as its first president for six years.

Wendt built his studio in Laguna Beach, California. A Laguna street, Wendt Terrace, bears his name.

Sole winner of an award at the first Chicago and vicinity annual exhibition, Chicago Art Institute, 1897

Bronze Medal, Buffalo Exposition, 1901

Kirchberger Prize, Chicago Art Institute, 1913

Silver Medal, San Francisco Exposition, 1915

Black Prize, California Art Club,1916

Ranger Purchase Prize, National Academy of Design, 1926

Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940, self-published, 1989 ISBN 978-0-9616112-1-7

South, Will (November 28, 2008). "William Wendt: Plein Air Painter of California". Laguna Art Museum: In Nature's Temple: The Life and Art of William Wendt. Resource Library.

John Alan Walker, Documents on the Life & Art of William Wendt, self-published, 1992.

Ruth Lily Westphal, Plein Air Painters of California: The Southland, self-published, 1996 ISBN 978-0-9610520-0-3

Archival collections

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William Wendt (February 20, 1865, Bentzen, Kingdom of Prussia - December 29, 1946, Laguna Beach) was a German-born American landscape painter. He was called the "Dean of Southern California landscape painters." He emigrated to the United States in 1880, while still a teenager, and spent some time as a staff artist in Chicago.

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Mary Frances and Anne, become his first photography clients for what he called his social portraits.

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Hurrell moves to LA and opens his first photography studio at a live-work artist

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Hurrell takes photo of Florence Barnes for her pilot license application. Hurrell also took some glamorous photo of her.

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The story of Chuck Yeager's colorful friend "Pancho" Barnes and her famed test-pilot hang out.& nbsp; Courtesy of the Environmental Management Branch, Edwards AFB. Special thanks to Kathy Harris and Gary Hatch. Any photos that are © Pancho Barnes Trust are used with their permission.

THE HISTORY OF PANCHO'S

About Pancho

Born on July 14, 1901, Florence Lowe Barnes possessed an adventurous soul. Raised in a setting of family wealth and privilege, she blossomed into a confident, self-possessed, and athletic woman. Married at age eighteen, she tired of society life and began a lifelong series of adventures. She earned her nickname "Pancho" while roaming revolution-torn Mexico in 1928. Later that same year, after returning to the Los Angeles area, she turned her attention skyward.

Pancho Barnes earned her pilot's license in an age when few women were allowed, much less encouraged, to fly. She quickly earned a reputation at airports throughout Southern California as a woman that could fly, fix airplanes, tell flying stories, and drink with the best male pilots of the era. Her aviation expertise earned her a place in the first Women's Air Derby transcontinental air race alongside other early aviation legends such as Amelia Earhart in 1929. The following year, she took the world's speed record away from Earhart, setting a record of 196.19 miles per hour.

Her aviation skills earned her jobs as a Hollywood stunt pilot and a civilian test pilot. Her stunt pilot days earned her friendships with a variety of stars like Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, and Errol Flynn. Her test pilot work for Lockheed brought her up to the high desert of the Antelope Valley where she spotted a small green jewel of an alfalfa farm locate between Rosamond and Rogers dry lakes.

Taken by the limitless blue skies, Pancho bought the small farm in 1935 and relocated to the high desert. One of her first actions was to carve out a rough landing field so she could continue flying and so her pilot friends could come up to visit. The ranch was a working one, and her ranch hands were soon not only raising alfalfa, but horses, pigs and dairy cows as well.

Pancho quickly established contracts to supply meat and milk to the Army's nearby Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range, thereby beginning a long relationship with the encampment that would eventually grow over time to become Edwards Air Force Base. Demonstrating her entrepreneurial genius, Pancho obtained a contract to remove the food waste from the Army mess halls. Her ranch hands then cooked it into food for the pigs that were then slaughtered and sold back to the Army mess halls - a novel form of recycling.

Within a few years, her ranch had expanded to 368 acres and featured a swimming pool, an enlarged airstrip, restaurant, bar, dance hall, guest rooms, and rodeo arena and was known as the "Rancho Oro Verde Fly-Inn Dude Ranch."

Under construction

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The story of Chuck Yeager's colorful friend "Pancho" Barnes and her famed test-pilot hang out.& nbsp; Courtesy of the Environmental Management Branch, Edwards AFB. Special thanks to Kathy Harris and Gary Hatch. Any photos that are © Pancho Barnes Trust are used with their permission.

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Hurrell starts shooting private portfolio for Ramon Novarro (photo above). In October, his second Hollywood person was Norma Shearer.

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A few of the privately commissioned photos of Ramon Novarro are published in the photogravure section of the LA Times, titled "Novarro with Impressions".

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Head of MGM's publicity department, Howard Strickling  contacts Hurrell for an interview at MGM for position as portrait photographer, but he hesitates to take the offer. Then later he took the opportunity.

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Hurrell begin working as head portrait photographer for MGM Studios. His first thing to do was to shoot starlet Hamlet Lake, who later became known as Ann Sothern. His first Hollywood star is Lon Chaney.

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Lon Chaney was an American stage and film actor, make-up artist, director and screen writer.

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Lon Chaney Sr. - by George Hurrell 1930 - The Unholy Three

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Lon Chaney Sr. - by George Hurrell 1930 - The Unholy Three. Scanned by jane for Dr. Macro's High Quality Movie Scans website: http://www.doctormacro.com. Enjoy!

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He was known for starring in silent horror films and for being able to use makeup to transform into different people. This earned him the name "The man of a thousand faces".

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Nude shooting studies of Gigi Parrish at Pancho Barnes' home in Laguna Beach. The photo shown is what Gigi Parrish looks like.

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Hurrell leaves MGM after blow-up with Howard Strickling for photographing non-MGM stars on the weekend.

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He opens photographic studio at Hollywood and shoots freelance for all the major studios, including MGM.

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He travels with Pancho Barnes (shown above) and Ted Cook to Mexico to shoot a series of photographs that was funded by actress Delores Del Rio.

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Hurrell shooting with Edward Weston (shown above).

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Hurrell starts shooting "Hurrell Girl" for Esquire Magazine.

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Got accepted to camera union and he beings writing articles for the International Photographer.

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Article “Hurrell Hollywood” is published in Pleasure magazine.

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In Esquire magazine, Hurrell publicity and his monthly exposure resulted of Warner Bros. Hurrell closes the Hurrell Photography studio and accepts an exclusive contract with Warner Bros. as head portrait photographer.

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Hurrell resigns with Warner Bros (what Warner Bros look like shown above).

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Hurrell completes his build-out of his custom photography studio. He starts accepting assignments in New York and leasing studio space.

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Cover U.S. Camera magazine with 2 articles. One is "Glamour by Hurrell" (one of Hurrell glamour photos of Marlene Detrich) and the other is "Glamour Workshop" featuring his new Rodeo Drive Studio

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Gallery photographer for Columbia Studios.

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In November Hurrell got assigned to the First Motion Picture of the U.S. Army Air Force in Culver City, California. He makes training films at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City. Also later becomes a staff photographer at the Pentagon

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Hurrell's Rodeo Drive photography studio is featured in The Architectural Forum magazine.

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This is Hurrell website with other glamour photos of other people, but the link we attach is what Marlene Detrich looks like.

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The Official Website of Hollywood Photography Legend George Hurrell

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Forms partnership with Walt Disney in Hollywood and creates Hurrell Productions.

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Freelance stills photographer on various movies including “Planet Of The Apes,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Towering Inferno,” “All the President’s Men.”

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The borough of Manhattan, New York, declares December 5th, 1980 as ‘George Hurrell Day.’

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A circa 1930, 9 x 12” print of Ramon Novarro as the “New Orpheus” is auctioned for $9,000 at Christie’s East, N.Y, setting a record price for a portrait by a living photographer.

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Helmut Newton invite George Hurrell to photograph the Paris collections for the March edition of Vogue Paris.

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Continues freelance portraiture for magazines photographing Farrah Fawcett, Bette Midler, Brooks Shields, John Travolta and other stars of the New Hollywood.

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“The Book of Stars” by George Hurrell is published by Schirmer Art Books, featuring photographs from 1928 – 1990.

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Hurrell begins work on the TBS documentary about his life and career, “Legends In Light.”