Philadelphia Sketch Club - Prominent Members

Prominent Members

The club's members have been artists in all mediums: illustration, painting, sculpture, architecture, photography and other forms of the visual arts. Current member Bruce H. Bentzman listed the most prominent of the club's current and former members as:

• Thomas Anshutz: Bentzman says that, at the Club’s Annual meeting in January 1881, William J. Clark Jr. “was again re-elected President, and the Club's award for 'the best carefully finished study' was voted to Thomas Anshutz, who was a popular member of the Club then and for many years following.” Anshutz also introduced many Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts students into Sketch Club membership.
• Walter Emerson Baum: Baum earned an Honorable Mention from a 1939 Club exhibition. His son, Dr. Edgar Baum, won the gold medal for a landscape in the Club's 1942 show.
• Peter Boyle: Boyle was a life member and he became the club president in 1949.
• Hugh Henry Breckenridge: He was a shortstop in the 1892 baseball game between the Sketch Club and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, for the Academy’s team. Joined the Club two years later.
• Alexey Brodovitch: “The Club's own Edward Warwick (the elder) saw to it that Alexey came to Philadelphia and soon afterwards Alexey became a member of our Club.” He was a member from 1931 to1933.
• Henry T. Cariss: He was the Sketch Club’s Vice-President from 1881 to 1883. He was elected President on January 4, 1883, to 1888.
• Howard Chandler Christy: He was a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club until 1924. “Being a great patriot, Howard Chandler Christy was one of several artists to come down from New York in April 1919 to take part in the Camac Street Carnival, an extravaganza planned by the Club's own H. Devitt Welsh to raise money for the Fifth (Victory) Liberty Bond Campaign.”
• John J. Dull: Dull joined in 1895. “John Dull was a major figure in this Club, serving on its board and taking other active roles.”
• Thomas Eakins: The Club invited Eakins to teach an evening sketch class for them in 1874, and made him an honorary member.
• Richard Blossom Farley: He joined in 1896 and remained a member until his death. “...involved in decorating many of the Club's affairs, a frequent exhibitor...He did murals for the dining room of what was the new University Club in 1930, for which the architect was Grant Miles Simon, another member of our Club." He also joined other Club members in helping the military during the Great War.
• Arthur Burdett Frost: Frost was a member from 1873 to 1883
• Daniel Garber: His membership to the Philadelphia Sketch Club from 1914 to 1917.
• Frank Gasparro: Bentzman says that there is little known about Gasparro’s dealings in the club.
• John H. Geiszel: He joined the Club in 1924. He served shortly as the Club's Librarian.
• Hugh McMillen Hutton: He was a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club from 1941 to 1976. His daughter, Betty MacDonald, and his granddaughter Susan Hutton DeAngelus are members of the Club.
• Daniel Ridgway Knight: It was in 1864 that he joined the Club. He became the club’s Vice-President in 1865.
• Dr. R. Tait McKenzie: “That very year he arrived in Philadelphia, having accepted the position at the University of Pennsylvania as Director of Physical Education, he would become a member of our Club, and he would be a member for life.”
• Peter Moran: His older brother, Edward was briefly the Club’s Vice-President. Peter learned how to paint from Edward, who also taught their brother Thomas. Thomas was also a member of the Club.
• George Spencer Morris (1867-1922): Architect trained at the Drexel Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Apprenticed with Addison Hutton, Cope & Stewardson and Walter Smedley, and formed the architecture firm of Morris & Erskine ca. 1909. Active on the board of the Sketch Club and also a founding member of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club in 1890.
• John Nemeth: He joined the Club in 1951. Bentzman notes Nemeth’s various positions: “John took turns at being the Portfolio's Editor, the Club's Vice President and President, Juried Print Chair, Membership Chair, Publicity Chair, Presentation Chairman of the 135th Anniversary Pennell Medal (given to Edmund Bacon, City Planner), and was at his death the Archives Chairman.”
• Thorton Oakley: He was a member from 1907 to 1908.
• Adam Pietz: Bentzman writes, “He joined the Sketch Club when the club rooms were on the top floor at Eleventh and Walnut Streets, and there is still around the Club an old steel letterhead die, with the Club seal and the words "11th and Walnut, Phila., Pa." on a ribbon, which Adam engraved shortly after he joined....In 1960, a labor of love in his 87th year, he designed and executed the Sketch Club's Hundredth Anniversary Medal.”
• Henry C. Pitz: Pitz joined the Philadelphia Sketch Club in 1917. In 1935, he became the Club’s President.
• Edward Willis Redfield: He was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts of Sketch Club members Thomas Anshutz and James Philip Kelley.
• Norman Guthrie Rudolph: He was a student of John Dull, Daniel Garber, Thorton Oakley, and Fred Wagner. He was a member of the Philadelphia Sketch Club from 1922 to 1973.
• H. Lyman Saÿen: Member of the Club from 1902 until his death in 1918. Born in 1875. Studied under Matisse.
• Earl Shinn: Indeed, Edward Strahan is a pseudonym for Earl Shinn (1837–1886), one of the founding members of our Club where he was much appreciated as a singer of comic songs. He is one of sixteen names that signed the Club's constitution in 1861 and served as the Club's secretary from September 1862 until March 1863.
• Henry Troth: He joined the Club in 1903. For the Camac street headquarters, Bentzman writes that Troth “painted, he installed electrical lighting, and he did carpentry. He not only worked to improve the interior of the rooms, he also contributed books to our library, was still contributing books in 1935. In November 1915, when the three Sketch Club buildings were turned into one, Henry, who had been the acting House Committee Chairman, saw to it that the Club had an ideal Steward. In his capacity as photographer, he documented Club outings.... The Great Depression hurt many Club members. When he could no longer afford to pay the membership fees, Henry proffered his resignation....The irony is Henry never liked Life Memberships because they hurt the Club's treasury. He had worked hard to have the rules of Life Membership modified to make it harder to obtain.”
• Fred Wagner -In 1923, he served briefly as the Club's Vice President. He was a life member and died the 14th January 1940.
• Edward Warwick: He joined the Club in 1909. His brother, Nelson D. Warwick, also joined the Club in 1915. Edward “established the Barter Show, in which the artists wrote down on a slip of paper by the work they exhibited what they would take in trade, such things as a case of can soup or a lawnmower.” (Bentzman)
• N.C. Wyeth -He was a member from 1911 to 1919. Bentzman notes, “I first learned of N. C.'s November 1912 exhibition in the Club's gallery from David Michaelis's book, N. C. Wyeth: A Biography.”
• Samuel Yellin: joined the Club in 1922.