Todd Lindenmuth, Shrimp Boasts, oil on board, 13,5 by 16.5 inches, signed lower left.
Todd Lindenmuth was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the son of a professional artist. He studied in New York with Robert Henri and in Provincetown with E. Ambrose Webber and George Elmer Brown. Lindenmuth exhibited in Provincetown in 1915, where he was associated with the artists who founded the Provincetown Art Association. He was one of the original members of the Provincetown Printers. Lindenmuth married artist and illustrator Elizabeth Boardman Warren in 1925.
Todd Lindenmuth, The Favorite Mule, c.1940, oil on board, 19 7/8 by 24 inches.
The Lindenmuth’s first visited St. Augustine in 1934, opening a studio in the Fatio House, and beginning a long association with the Art Club of St. Augustine. The couple wintered in the city annually until 1940, when they moved there permanently. Clarence Off writing for the St. Augustine Record, December 1, 1940, described his reaction to a Lindenmuth painting In a Clearing, “From the first moment that it was on exhibition at the Alcazar Galleries of the Arts Club here last winter, it has been one of the paintings that has always held a fascinating charm for me. And not only for me, for it has had the deepest praise from artist and layman alike. It is a vibrant bit of tropical setting in a brilliance of color. It is beautiful. And yet, that is not all, it goes far beyond just color and beauty. For there is an element of brooding mystery about it….”
Todd Lindenmuth, Outer Shore, oil on Masonite, 22 by 28 inches, signed lower left and right.
Robert Torchia in his book Lost Colony, The Artists of St. Augustine, 1930-1950 comments on Lindenmuth and his wife Elizabeth, “They never owned a car, and sought subjects on long walks around St. Augustine. Over the years Lindenmuth and Warren served in high offices and on committees in the Arts Club and were esteemed members of St. Augustine’s cultural community. In 1940 Clarence Off wrote: ‘Of the members of this art colony, of all of those who so deeply appreciate the setting they have chosen, I know of none who more faithfully adhere to the artist’s creed of pure beauty than do Mr. and Mrs. Todd Lindenmuth. When you enter their studio in the Old Fatio House on Aviles Street, it is to fill your eyes with harmonious color, to find delicacy of etched lines, to discover interpretation that has caught the very essence of beauty; and to come to know two charming personalities who have put so much of their very selves into every bit of the work they have done.’ In 1940 Lindenmuth and Warren relocated their summer gallery from Provincetown to Rockport and became regular exhibiters at the Rockport Art Association. The couple divided their time between St. Augustine and Rockport for the remainder of their careers. In 1968 they retired to Wesley Manor (now Westminster Woods, on Julington Creek) in Jacksonville. In 1974 they were both elected honorary life members of the St. Augustine Art Association in appreciation of the support they had given it for almost forty years. Lindenmuth died in Methodist Hospital in Jacksonville at the age of ninety-one.”
Born: 1885, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Died: 1976, Jacksonville. Education: Chase School of Art, New York City; with Robert Henri; Ambrose Webster; George Elmer Brown; W.H.N. Bicknell. Membership: Art Club of St. Augustine; St. Augustine Art Association; Artists Guild of St. Augustine; Florida Federation of Art; Florida Artist Group, 1954, 1955; Provincetown Art Association; Rockport Art Association; Salmagundi Club, NYC. Exhibits: Art Institute of Chicago; Society of Independent Artists, 1917-1919, 1922-1928; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Annuals, 1917-1918, 1923, 1927-1933; Salons of America, 1922-1924; Corcoran Gallery, Biennial, 1930; St. Augustine Arts Club, 1935; Florida Federation of Art, 11th Annual Exhibition, St. Augustine, December 2-5, 1937, block prints, Evening in the Everglades, Morning at the Weir; St. Augustine Art Club, February 1937; SAAC, January-March, 1938, 1939; Florida Federation of Art, Annual Exhibit, Bradenton, December 1940, best Florida subject, In the Clearing; SAAC, Alcazar Hotel, January 1941, Lifting Fog; SAAC, January 1945, The Way Home; SAAC, February 1945, Shrimp Boats; SAAC, February 1946, Early in the Morning, Shrimp Boats; SAAC, March 1946, Fort and Shell; SAAC, February 1947, oils, Early in the Morning, Azaleas in the Park; SAAC, March 1947, Exotic South; Second Southeastern Annual Exhibit, High Museum, Atlanta, October 1947, an oil, Old St. Augustine; SAAC, February 1948, two-man exhibit with Louise Shanks; SAAC, February 1948, Magnolia Time-St. Augustine; St. Augustine Art Association, January 1950, Early in the Morning; SAAA, January 1951, honorable mention; SAAA, January 1953, honorable mention, oil, St. Augustine-Florida; Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, January 1953, Gossip; March of Dimes, Outdoor Exhibit, St. Augustine Plaza, February 1953, most popular painting, Study in Blue; Palette and Brush Gallery, Aviles Street, January 1954; Society of The Four Arts, Lowe Art Gallery, University of Miami, April-May 1954, Palm Beach, Miami, In The Springtime; SAAA, February 1955, oil, Coquina Pit; SAAA, Exchange Bank of St. Augustine, February 1956, Anastasia Inlet; Aviles Gallery, April 1956; Artists’ Guild of St. Augustine, farewell exhibit, January 1957; Society of The Four Arts, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1957, oil, Maratin; Society of The Four Arts, 20th Annual, Contemporary American Paintings, December 1958, oil, For the Lobsterman; Florida Federation of Art 33rd Annual Exhibit, Tampa, November 1959, an oil, Coquina; SAAA, April 1960, honorable mention; Florida Artist Group, 12th Annual Circuited Exhibition, 1961-62, an oil, Sea Treasures. Works: Newark Museum; Pennsylvania State College, Allentown Museum of Fine Arts, Bibliothegue Nationale, Paris; Springfield Museum of Arts; Kansas City Art Institute, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; New York Public Library. Directory: Listed in the St. Augustine City Directory in 1940 as an artist with a studio at 20 Aviles, and again in 1953-54, 55, 59, 1960 with studio at 46 Carrera.
