Elmer Wachtel

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel 

Elmer Wachtel was born in Maryland in 1864 and at 18 moved to San Gabriel, California where his brother had married Guy Rose’s sister and was foreman on the Rose Ranch. Elmer had taught himself to play the violin and in 1888 became the first violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Discovering his visual arts talents late in life, Wachtel entered the Art Students League in New York in 1900. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Wachtel continued to earn money as a violinist while also building his reputation as an artist and teacher. One of Wachtel’s pupils, Marion Kavanaugh, an outstanding artist in her own right, would eventually become his wife. Elmer and Marion Wachtel would become two of the most recognized names in early California painting, with Elmer working in oils and Marion in watercolors which helped avoid competition.

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

John Marshall Gamble

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, John Marshall Gamble, influenced by French Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, is known for his California floral coastal and landscape paintings, especially fields of poppies and lupines. From Santa Barbara, he was one of the leaders of the California plein-air painting movement, and he was also a successful portrait painter. Another favorite painting subject was coastal views of Pacific Ocean sunsets, and judging by his auction records, he occasionally painted in Arizona and Utah.  One of his closest painting companions was Elmer Wachtel.

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1876 into an artistic family, Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel's mother was an artist, and her great grand-father a Royal Academician in London. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago under Vanderpoel and in New York City with William M. Chase. 

For several years she taught at the AIC and established a reputation in Milwaukee as a portrait painter. A commission from the Sante Fe Railroad Company to paint scenes in their ticket offices brought her to California. 

Arriving in San Francisco in 1903, she became a pupil of William Keith. Learning of her proposed move to Southern California, Keith suggested that she contact Elmer Wachtel. A romance blossomed and they married in 1904. After Elmer’s death in 1929, she was inactive for a few years but continued to live in their Arroyo Seco home; by the early 1930s she was painting and exhibiting again. 

Mrs. Wachtel worked exclusively with watercolors until after her husband’s death and then used both watercolor and oil. Regular exhibitions with both the New York and California Watercolor Societies made her paintings popular on both coasts. Her early works are tighter and more meticulously detailed than those produced after 1920. After her marriage, the artist dropped the "u" in her surname and spelled it "Kavanagh". She died at her home in Pasadena in 1954.