Beatrice Tonnesen - Photographer & Artist

Sometimes, images originally photographed by Beatrice Tonnesen seem to have reappeared in other scenes. See Slideshow Album 12. The captions tell the stories.

Around 1896, Beatrice Tonnesen opened her photographic art studio in Chicago. She quickly established herself as a favorite portrait photographer among the city’s high society. She also introduced the use of live models in advertising, becoming, by 1900, the country’s leading supplier of photographic advertising art.

Portraits and advertising aside, her circa 1900 art work became wildly popular as home decor. It seems to have consisted largely of elaborate and beautifully produced Victorian-themed parlor prints, as well as black and white prints sold to newspapers across the country for use as gifts to readers of Sunday supplements.

In 1903, Tonnesen promoted “The Famous Tonnesen Models” in an ad shown elsewhere on this site. (See “Beatrice Tonnesen Introduced New Trend in 1890 Advertising” by Sumner under “Tonnesen Business.”) Also, in 1900, the Chicago Daily Tribune ran a pictorial indentifying the “Commercial Models of Chicago.” This pictorial appears as Image #1 in Slideshow Album #11. The images that follow it show examples of Tonnesen’s Victorian parlor scenes, featuring several models who can be seen in the 1903 Tonnesen Model ad and/or the Chicago Tribune pictorial, which also gives the models’ names.

These models can also be found in the black and white Sunday supplement prints scattered throughout Slideshow Albums 2, 5, 6 and 10.

All Content Copyright Lois Emerson 2008

32 images have been posted in Slideshow Album 9. Navigate to Screen 2 of the Slideshow Gallery. There was wide variation in source material and original image quality, as represented in the results.

When I started this series last fall, I planned on using Part 3 to feature several unidentified models often seen in the works of Beatrice Tonnesen. The idea was to show them in a variety of poses, so that they can be identified by collectors who are trying to determine if the prints they own or may buy were done by Tonnesen. In addition, however, my hope was that someone, somewhere would recognize them, and share any information they might have regarding the early art photo business and how Beatrice Tonnesen created her art.

Since that time, however, I have tentatively identified two of the models I planned to feature. They are Irma Roche O’Dea and Adelyne Slavik. Their stories are more complete than the others, but all of the eight models featured here had one thing in common: They worked for the Tonnesen Studio. Their images are shown in Slideshow Album 9, in the order listed:

-Fox’s Meditation Lady? My guess is that the woman shown in slideshow album 9, image #1 (also above right) is the woman on whom the Fox/DeForest print “Meditation” (album 9, image #2) was based, and that Fox painted her from a photo by Tonnesen. Several other images of this woman in similar poses are found in the Tonnesen Archive of the Oshkosh Public Museum, Oshkosh WI, including the third image in album 9  which was used on a 1928 calendar titled “A Popular Debutante.”

-Fox’s Mother’s Darling? See images 4-7 for compelling evidence that both the toddler and the mom (seen lower right) in Fox’s “Mother’s Darling” and “Armful of Joy” were Tonnesen models, probably painted by Fox from her photos. But who were these models who have come to be recognized as Fox’s subjects?” My guess is the photos date to the early 1920’s, so the toddler could still be living.

-Irma Roche O’Dea. Beautiful Irma (1891-1975), seen at right, seems to appear everywhere in popular art of the period leading up to and during World War I. If you are a collector, chances are you will recognize her as the demure epitome of Edwardian womanhood seen so often on calendars and other advertising items and framed prints. She worked for at least three photographers’ studios, including Tonnesen’s.  I also believe Irma posed -perhaps as both an artist’s and a photographer’s model - for several of Zula Kenyon’s paintings. See images 8-16.

-THE Model. On being asked to identify this lovely woman from a photograph, 96-year-old former child model Betty Crowe exclaimed, “Oh yes, I knew her. She was THE Model!” Indeed, “THE Model” turns up often in Tonnesen’s work ca. 1913-23. See her in images 17-21.

-Adelyne Slavik. I was viewing the archives of The Chicago Daily Tribune when I came upon a photo of professional model Adelyne Slavik in 1917, as she appeared in a Chicago fashion show. I thought I recognized her as the “mother” in several of Tonnesen’s prints ca.1916-22. I could be wrong, of course. Sometime between 1923 and 1925 she married Julius Schwill, president of Chicago’s Albert Schwill & Co malt manufacturing firm. In 1921, Schwill made news nationally when he was arrested for passing stolen money orders under an assumed name. He claimed successfully that he had not known they were stolen. Julius Schwill died suddenly in 1938. The malt plant was sold to the Falstaff Brewery in the 1960’s. Adelyne died in 1984, apparently never remarrying. Obituaries of Adelyne and her three siblings give no indication that any of them had children, so if she had photos or mementos of her modeling career, they may now reside outside the family. See images 22-26.

-Sincerely Yours. The lovely and enigmatic woman shown in the 1925 calendar print titled “Sincerely Yours,” attributed “From Painting by Tonnesen” (See slideshow album 2, image #25), is seen more often in Tonnesen prints than I first realized. Like most good models, she had a way of looking different for different roles. See images 27-29.

-The Barefoot Boy. R.A. Fox’s painting titled “The Barefoot Boy” (See slideshow album 1, image #4) started as a photo by Tonnesen. The same boy, shown bottom right, turns up in other Tonnesen-like photos/prints from the early-to-mid 20’s. Most likely born in the late teens, it is possible he is still living. See images 30-32.

Notes: Please be aware the information accompanying these images, as with all images discussed on this website, represents only my best guesses as to identification of models, artists, publishers, dates and studios of origin. My guesses could be wrong, and I welcome the thoughts of others.

Thanks to Mary Redmond, and New York State Library Staff members Bernice Borgia and Joellen Peters for their archival search and retrieval of information on Irma Roche O’Dea and Adelyne Slavik.

Coming Soon: Part 4, the final part of this series -The earliest Tonnesen Models in their Victorian clothes and settings.

All Contents Copyright Lois Emerson 2008

On the right is one of Lois’s images that shows a possible example of the patented Tonnesen Long Stem Flower Holder as described in this post.

Left is another possible example from BT’s residence picture that was shown and zoomed in this earlier post. This small portion of an original image from the Oshkosh Public Museum was not scanned at a high enough density to provide better image definition of the flower holder.

Two prints commonly found on early twentieth century calendars with the signature “A. Pope,” originated as photos by Beatrice Tonnesen. The original photos can be found in the Tonnesen archive of the Oshkosh (WI) Public Museum.

The calendar prints are “Faith and Loyalty,” featuring a small  boy holding his German shepherd’s paw - shown top right, and an untitled print featuring a sleeping boy with a dog who is guarding him. (That print, along with the original Tonnesen photo from which it came, is shown in our post titled “Popular Boy and Dog Image…”, December 23, 2007.)

Shown here, below the print titled “Faith and Loyalty,” is the original photo by Beatrice Tonnesen from which “A. Pope” apparently painted. I’ve included a third print (bottom) which is unsigned, but is done in a style similar to the “A. Pope” prints and which features the same boy and shepherd dog as in “Faith and Loyalty.” The boy wears a straw hat and sits by a battered valise that appear to be the same props used in “The Barefoot Boy” (See Slideshow Album 1), a print by R. Atkinson Fox, that also started as a Tonnesen photo. So I would guess this bottom print, too, began as a photo by Beatrice Tonnesen, although no photo has yet surfaced.

And who is A. Pope? I don’t know. I’m not aware of anything signed “A. Pope” except these prints. There was an Alexander Pope (1849-1924) who painted dogs and wildlife. But these prints don’t look like A. Pope’s work. Could “A. Pope” be yet another R. A. Fox pseudonym? Could it be a pseudonym for Beatrice Tonnesen? Maybe someone out there knows.

All Content Copyright 2008 Lois Emerson

Slideshow Album 8 showing 6 images and descriptions which accompany “Introducing the Tonnesen Models Part 2” has been posted.

Chicago of the 1910’s and 20’s was a center for the creation and production of advertising and calendar art. Many popular themes – the all-American family at home; children at play; cute kids with their cute pets- called for appealing children who could take direction, and project a sense of comfort and naturalness in front of the camera. Beatrice Tonnesen, a foremost creator of advertising and calendar art, was always on the lookout for promising child models.

In 1913, she spotted three-year-old, blond Betty Crowe, who was riding a streetcar with her mother. Her recruitment of Betty turned out to be a bonanza for Tonnesen: Betty had a cousin, handsome five-year-old William Redmond, who accompanied Betty and her mother to a photo shoot one day. His visit marked the start of a modeling career that spanned more than a decade.

In early 2007, I located Redmond’s daughter, Mary, who had saved a variety of mementoes from her dad’s childhood modeling days. Among her collection were photos with notations identifying their studios of origin, and old advertisements featuring a number of Tonnesen models. These have been valuable resources in my efforts to identify Tonnesen’s works.

Mary also introduced me to Betty Crowe, who at 96, was still charming and eager to talk about modeling for Beatrice Tonnesen. Information I’ve gathered from talking with Betty and from access to William Redmond’s mementoes, including an oral history, is presented in each of their stories below. To see images from their modeling days, please see Slideshow 8. Additional images of William and Betty appear in Slideshows 1, 2 and 4.

Betty Crowe
I visited with Betty Crowe in July, 2007. Incredibly, she was still recognizable as the cheery little girl of ninety-plus years ago! She wore her still-blond hair in the same short bob, and she flashed the same bright smile that once lit up Tonnesen’s photos.

Betty told me that she modeled for four years, until her family left the Chicago area. She remembers the lady photographer (Tonnesen) as “a real nice lady who loved children.” This, she said, inspired the children to “do their very best posing.”

Betty said the photographer would bring in clothes for the children and “the girls always got bows on their socks.” To help them get into their poses, the photographer would first tell a story, then retreat behind the camera while the models assumed their roles.

Although she only modeled until about the age of seven, Betty has some memories of specific events:

• She remembers modeling for ads for Buster Brown Shoes and Bradley Knits.
• She remembers a day when a group of models visited a forest preserve. A young boy, a baby and a woman went with Betty. Betty can’t remember any of their names, but she refers to the woman as “THE Model’ and identified her from photos. (See Album 2, Image 1.) At the preserve, Betty appeared in a photo in which the boy fished while Betty watched. Betty later heard that the photo was made into an oil painting and sold for $150.
• Betty remembers asking to work with Virginia Waller because the two girls had fun together. At the same time, she affectionately remembers her cousin, Bill Redmond, as a real “stinker.”
• Betty remembers that Miss Tonnesen told her mother, “It isn’t that she (Betty) is beautiful, but she’s photogenic.” After Betty moved away, the studio continued to call her for jobs, but it was too far to go.

Betty remembers her modeling experience fondly, but she never really missed it. She went on to work for the post office, marry and raise two children. She currently lives with a few other seniors in a private home in a pleasant neighborhood near Chicago. There, she enjoys sitting on the large, covered porch on nice days.

William A. Redmond
William A. Redmond (1908-1992) modeled well into his teens. He is known to have modeled for the Tonnesen, Keedy and Stadler Studios. A 1986 oral history indicates he worked for others – Underwood and Underwood and Riel – although it is unclear whether he worked as a model or a courier for them, and none of his photos have so far been found marked with their names. William is the only model I’ve found whose photographic image was used in paintings by two noted calendar artists: R. Atkinson Fox and Rudolph Ingerle.

In addition to his work in calendar art, William modeled for ads for several national companies – Sun-Maid Raisins, Quaker Oats, Johnson Shoes, VanCamp’s Beans, to name a few- as well as for Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogues. This exposure led to roles in several commercial motion pictures made by Chicago-based studios to promote national companies.

In his oral history, he reminisced about modeling for still photography. The following excerpt (Illinois General Assembly Oral History Program William A. Redmond Memoir Volume 1, p. 27) is especially interesting to me as a collector of early calendar art, and, I suspect, will also be interesting to antique photography buffs.

“I think one reason I did so much and…lasted so long is that I was small for my age and I could understand and follow instructions probably better than a younger kid…The film wasn’t fast enough, so you had to hold still for a certain measurable time. So they had a headrest…they had the old powdered flash lights…they’d ignite it with a spark…and a great big puff would go up and they had a big black thing that they’d put over their head and they’d look in the back of the camera and…they would see the picture and they had a bulb they’d squeeze and have you look here and smile, turn your head this way or that way…”

William A. Redmond went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Marquette University and a law degree from Northwestern University. He and his wife, Rita, and their three children lived in Bensenville, IL where he practiced law. In 1959, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving as Speaker from 1975 until 1980. He resigned his House seat in 1981. His career as a child model was featured in the June 20, 1977 issue of People Magazine. His oral history is available online at www.uis.edu/archives/oral.htm.

Coming Soon: Introducing the Tonnesen Models Part 3. Images and information about other models, most still unidentified but highly recognizable, who starred in Tonnesen’s work.

All Content Copyright Lois Emerson 2008

This painting came out of my grandparents’ basement. My grandmother, for whatever undisclosed reason, seemed to put everything that was attributed to Beatrice Tonnesen down in the basement, in a dark never-go-there type of place. I think that there was some kind of ego struggle between my grandparents over the presence of Tonnesen family artifacts.

I’ve been walking past this painting in my parents’ houses for decades since the grandparents’ house was sold in the late ‘60s. Only today did I actually realize that it was somehow related to Beatrice Tonnesen. My mother had no idea about the source of the painting until, she thinks, that she saw the painting in a photograph at the Oshkosh Public Museum a couple of summers ago. At first, she thought she had seen it on the wall, in the photograph of the interior of Tonnesen’s studio (shown in the previous post). But it turns out she had seen it in a photograph of the interior of Beatrice’s home in Winneconne, WI. The following image, courtesy of the Oshkosh Public Museum, shows the painting.

The painting is 40 inches tall by 10 inches wide. The zoomed image (above) shows the signature of the artist, J. Ross Bryson, whose illustrations of beautiful women were, and are, very popular. Bryson (1856-1918) and his sister, Mary (1860-1935), also an artist, lived in Chicago. The presence of Bryson’s work in my great aunt Beatrice’s home may indicate that they were friends. It’s possible that she photographed one or both of them and was given the painting in payment for her services. Or it could simply mean that she admired his work and purchased it. However, the fact that it ended up in my grandparents’ basement, and they were not art aficionados in any sense, suggests to me a close tie-in to BT herself.

Beatrice Tonnesen shared her studio with noted artist R. Atkinson Fox during the 1920’s, according to Rita Mortenson, author of two books on Fox. On pages 16 and 17 of R. Atkinson Fox: His Life and Work (L-W Books, 1999), Mortenson writes that Fox “shared a studio with the professional photographer Beatrice Tonnesen on Pine Grove Avenue, south of Diversey Park.” But biographical information on Tonnesen indicates that she and her sister, Clara, set up their studio in 1896 at 1301 Michigan Avenue, with no mention of a second or later studio.

So I set about trying to locate that Pine Grove studio. The archives of the Chicago Tribune yielded two interesting classified ads placed by the Tonnesen Studio.

The first, dated 9/21/19, stated:

Wanted - Attractive young ladies to pose for high grade calendar pictures. Call Monday.

Tonnesen Studio

2635 Hampden-ct.

Phone Diversey 2462

Near Wrightwood Av.

The second ad, placed 6/11/27, offered the following items for sale:

Photographic Equipment. Cooper-Hewitt lights, printer, etc.

Tonnesen Studio

2635 Hampden-ct.

That Hampden-ct. address (now shown as N. Hampden Ct.) is only a block from Pine Grove. I believe that Mortenson got much of her information from the spoken recollections of Fox’s children and friends, so it would be understandable if the larger street, Pine Grove, proved to be more memorable to them than the smaller Hampden- ct.

These classified ads indicate that by 1919, Tonnesen had either moved from Michigan Avenue or opened a second studio, and she remained there at least through 1927. My guess is that this was the “Pine Grove” studio to which Mortenson referred, in which Tonnesen worked with Fox during the 20’s.

All Content Copyright 2008 Lois Emerson