Alonzo Myron Kimball (August 14, 1874August 27, 1923) was an American portrait artist and illustrator. A native of Wisconsin, Kimball received his art training in Chicago, New York, and Paris. Early in his career he specialized in portraiture, especially paintings of female subjects, but during the first decade of the 20th century he also became one of the leading book illustrators in the United States as well a cover artist for national periodicals such as Scribner's Magazine, Collier's, and The Saturday Evening Post. After 1914, Kimball began applying his talents increasingly to commercial advertising, which included designing theatrical posters for the film company Pathé and illustrating newspaper and magazine promotions for a variety of products.
Early life and art training Born in 1874 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Alonzo was the younger of two sons of Myra Barnes (née Mahan) and Alonzo Weston Kimball, a native of Massachusetts, who later became a very successful, highly paid insurance executive in Chicago."Insurance Man Dies in Florida", Chicago Daily Tribune, March 26, 1905, p. 6. In 1882, when Alonzo was only eight years old, his mother died. Two years later his father married Ella Celestia Peak of Otsego, New York, and they resided in Evanston, Illinois, located a short distance north of downtown Chicago."Iowa, County Marriages, 1838–1934", Alonzo Weston Kimball and Ella C. Peak, 24 September 1884, Clinton, Ohio; reference R67, Summit County courthouses, Iowa. Retrieved via FamilySearch, December 8, 2020.
Alonzo demonstrated a keen interest and ability in art as a child. Later, during the early 1890s, he studied drawing and painting at the Art Students League of New York in Manhattan, and in 1894 he traveled to Europe to study with several renown artists.American Federation of Arts. "KIMBALL, Alonzo", American Art Dictionary, 1980 (from R.R. Bowker 1913), p. 291."United States Passport Applications, 1795–1925," Department of State, Washington, D.C.; applied in Otsego, N.Y. and issued September 12, 1894; microfilm image of original document signed by Alonzo M. Kimball on September 10, 1894. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington. D.C. Retrieved via FamilySearch, December 14, 2020. In France, Kimball trained with Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian in Paris, with Gustave Courtois, and in 1899 he exhibited at the Salon at the Académie des Beaux-Arts."Alonzo Kimball Dead", The New York Times, August 28, 1923, p. 17. Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library. He was also greatly influenced by the work of fellow American artist James McNeil Whistler."Alonzo Kimball Dead", New York Tribune, August 28, 1923, p. 11. "Alonzo Myron Kimball", artist's profile, askART, art auction subscription service. Retrieved December 7, 2020. That influence was likely gained in Paris as well, at the Académie Carmen, an art school that Whistler founded in the French capital in 1898 and operated there until the facility's closure in 1901.Pennell, Elizabeth R. and Joseph. "The Académie Carmen", The Life of James MacNeill Whistler. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911, pp. 373–388. Retrieved via Internet Archive, December 21, 2020.Cuneo, Cyrus. "Whistler's Academy of Painting", The Pall Mall Magazine, volume 38, November 1906, pp. 532, 540. Retrieved via Internet Archive, December 21, 2020.
Career
In 1902, after returning to the United States from Europe, Kimball married and he and his wife Madeleine lived briefly in Evanston before they relocated to New York City. There he established himself professionally, quickly gaining a reputation for excellence in portraiture, especially for his oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels of female subjects or "American Beauties"."American Beauties Heads in Pastel by Alonzo Kimball", advertisement, Scribner's Magazine, June 1905, p. 24. HathiTrust. Retrieved December 7, 2020. He was commissioned for such works by both private and corporate clients, including major publishers. While still continuing his portrait work, Kimball also became one of the nation's leading illustrators during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Between 1903 and his death in 1923, he illustrated books for many of the nation's top writers. He also produced eight front covers for Saturday Evening Post as well covers and illustrations for assorted short stories and articles in other widely read weeklies and monthlies in the United States. "Alonzo Myron Kimball", profile of Alonzo Myron Kimball, including cited quote by H. E. Bane in Public Opinion, Volume 39, 1905; Saturday Evening Post archives, Palm Coast, Florida. Retrieved December 7, 2020. Among those periodicals are Scribner's Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Holland's, Collier's, Metropolitan, Judge, The Ladies Home Journal, and "Sunday Magazine", which was a regular syndicated supplement to Sunday editions of The Boston Post, the New-York Tribune, Chicago Tribune, and various other newspapers across the country in the early 1900s.Numerous examples of Kimball's illustrations for books and periodicals, including the cited publications, can be viewed in digital copies of full issues of the cited imprints within the given timeframe. Refer to the online archives of HathiTrust, Internet Archive, and the Online Books Page.
Paintings and illustrations Kimball's artwork exhibited unique qualities according to some reviewers of his paintings and drawings in the early 1900s. In a profile of him in the archives of The Saturday Evening Post, comments about those qualities in 1905 by art critic H. E. Bane are quoted:
Kimball produced his original works either on canvas with oils or on illustration boards with varying combinations of charcoal, soft and hard pastels, gouache, and transparent watercolors. In a 1914 newspaper interview, he shared a few details about the "recipe" of procedures and techniques he used to achieve the distinctive, idealized appearance of the subjects in his portraits."Famous Artists' Recipes for Making Their Beauties / Alonzo Kimball", St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), June 14, 1914, p. B-20. For one, he stated, "'I first place my model in every possible light until I find the one most becoming to her, and I leave out the little shadows about the eyes and mouth, which may be there because she's tired.'" He then outlined other refinements he makes in a portrait's development, such as enlarging the subject's eyes, defining the mouth, and adding important highlights. "'High-lights'", he explained, "'that trickle down the face in a broken line striking the eyelids, the eyeballs, the corners of the eyes, a tiny speck on the lower lid, one on the teeth and one on the lips, give a look of perfect health.'"
Despite his increasing freelance work in commercial art after 1905, Kimball continued to accept portrait commissions from private clients and to exhibit periodically in museums, galleries, and salons. In the spring of 1910 he traveled once again to Paris to submit personally two of his paintings for consideration by the Salon. His works then, as in 1899, were accepted for exhibition. Both 1910 paintings were portraits. One depicted his wife; the other, Madame Marguerite Lemon, who was identified as "formerly of the Metropolitan Opera Company". News writer and art critic Kathrine Douglas commented on Kimball's paintings while covering the annual art exhibitions in the French capital. In a feature titled "Americans in Paris Salons", which was published in The Detroit Free Press on May 8, 1910, Douglas describes the painting of Madame Lemon, noting that "She wears a gorgeous Persian costume and is in a dancing pose—a filmy scarf falling from her raised arm."Douglas, Kathrine. "Americans in Paris Salons: Artists From New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, And Other Cities Have Pictures In Spring Exhibitions", Detroit Free Press, May 8, 1910, p. F4. Douglas also comments on Kimball's presence in Paris at that time: "This artist has devoted all his attention to illustrating of late years and has now settled in Paris with the intention of spending most of his time painting." Another example of Kimball's continuing interest in participating in public displays is his submission of illustrations in 1912 to the John Herron Art Institute for an exhibition in Indianapolis, Indiana. The institute accepted two of his works for the event held in March and April that year, an event devoted exclusively to showcasing the "Original Work by American Illustrators".Catalogue of an Exhibition of Original Work by American Illustrators; entry for Alonzo Kimball, exhibit items 104–105, March 24–April , 1912. Indianapolis, Indiana: John Herron Art Institute, 1912, p. 13. Full digital copy of publication available on Wikipedia Commons. Refer to "File:Catalogue of an exhibition of original work by American illustrators, (IA catalogueofexhib00amer).pdf".
Kimball's portfolio of illustrations is extensive. A sampling of his pictures, which printers reproduced by photogravure or lithographic processes, provides some perspective on the style and diversity of artwork he furnished to publishers and to writers, many of whom were female authors. Some examples of his illustrations can be found in the short story "Pattie" written by Margaret Doane Gardiner and published in the June 1905 issue of Scribner's. Others decorate pages and portray plot scenes in Edith Wharton's 1907 novel The Fruit of the Tree and in her short story "The Pretext", which is presented in Scribner's August 1908 issue. Additional novels and short stories illustrated by Kimball include Edith Macvane's The Duchess of Dreams, released in 1908; "Grantham's Limitations" by Mary Heaton Vorse for the November 1908 issue of Scribner's; the 1911 novel Uncertain Irene by Katharine Holland Brown; Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy's novel World's End, published in 1914; the 1916 novel Kildares of Storm by Eleanor Mercein Kelly; and the 1918 novel Camilla by Elizabeth Robins.
Kimball's artwork in advertising