Marion Ida Kavanaugh Wachtel (1870-1954)

Born: Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1876 Died: Pasadena, California 1954. Marion Ida Kavanaugh was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on 10 June 1870 to an artisticly oriented family. She must have inherited her sensitivites from her artist mother and great-grandfather, who attended the Royal Academy London.

Kavanagh studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago with John Vanderpoel, taught there for several years, and gained reputation in Milwaukee as a portrait painter. She also studied in New York with William Merritt Chase.

She was commissioned by the Santa Fe Railway to paint scenes in their ticket offices which brought her to California. After arriving in San Francisco in 1903, she studied with William Keith. In 1903 she planned to move to southern California, so Keith suggested she meet artist Elmer Wachtel. Their chemistry was exceptional and they married in Chicago the following year. The couple returned to Los Angeles and lived in his studio for a year before moving to their studio-home on Mount Washington. In 1921 they moved again to a studio-home on the Arroyo Seco on Linda Vista. Marion and Elmer Wachtel traveled and painted together throughout Southern California. He worked in oils and she prefered to create with watercolor. In 1908 they visited the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico where she painted portraits of the Native Americans.

In the early 1920s Marion Wachtel was involved in the formation of the Pasadena Society of Artists as one of the fifteen charter members. She was actively involved in the running of the Society for many years.

Marion Wachtel was active in the California Water Color Society and elected a member of the Aquarelists of New York in 1922. Her work was shown individually and jointly with her husband at various galleries in Los Angeles. From 1921 to 1926 her work was frequently exhibited at Cannell and Chaffin. An exhibition of her paintings was held at the Los Angeles Museum in 1915, and an exhibition of her watercolors was held there in 1917. After Elmer’s sudden death in 1929, Marion temporarily lost interest in painting. However, in 1931 she resumed working and exhibiting, and began using the inhertance of Elmer's oil paints. She is best known for her watercolors, but entered exhibitions with both media. The California and New York 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 then spelled it "Kavanagh."

2002 PSA 75th Annual Diamond Jubilee Exhibition, Pasadena Historical Museum, Pasadena CA
2002(solo) Los Angeles County Museum of Art
2002 The Irvine Museum 2002 The Fleischer Museum
2002 Cedar Rapids Museum
1998 Painting Partners Exhibition, Irvine Museum, Irvine CA
1936 Stanford University
1936 (solo) University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA
1935 (solo) Stanford University,
1928 Kanst Gallery, Los Angeles CA
1925 April 4 Pasadena Society of Artists
1st PSA Annual Exhibition, Pasadena Art Institute @ Carmelita Gardens House, Pasadena, CA
1917 (solo) Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1917 (solo) Milwaukee Art Institute
1915 (solo) Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1915, 1917 (solos) Los Angeles Museum of History, Science & Art
1907-09 Del Monte Art Gallery

California Art Club ?

images from “Independent Spirits, Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 Exhibition Catalog; Patricia Trenton - Editor

Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los Angeles, California, in association with the University of California Press: Copyright 1995

Biographical information excerpted from “Early Artists In Laguna Beach, The Early Impressionists” Catalog by Laguna Beach Art Museum, 1986

Biographical information: Edan Milton Hughes: edanhughes.com: © 1999-2007 Hughes Publishing

A Cultural Legacy, The Pasadena Society Of Artists Diamond Jubilee Exhibition Catalog By Pasadena Society Of Artists, 2002: Jae Carmichael - Editor