Clute oil painting

This oil painting is 16" x 20" and signed "Clute" in the lower right corner. It has a label for a Chicago based photograph and art supply company, American Photo Supply Co., that appears to have existed from around 1900 until at least 1923 at least that is the last time I found a similar logo. This painting is very dirty, probably stained from tobacco smoke. The image of the painting hung on my wall is possibly the best indication of what the colors are under the staining.

There were also Mexican and San Francisco companies with similar names, American Photo-Supply Co.. The Chicago company possibly lasted long enough to create a much different logo and label . The only example of a painting using a board with that new label was dated 1949, so it is possible the company was still in business then. I found several pieces of photographic equipment from the 1950s that were made by the Mexican company.

I suspect the artist to be either Walter Marshall Clute or his wife, Lydia Beulah Mitchell Clute. WMC died in 1915 and Beulah lived into the 1950s. Both had strong ties to Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago. WMC was an instructor there and Beulah was a student there. Both also attended the Art Students League in New York City and various other academies.

The only examples of WMC's works that I could find are studio paintings, interior scenes. The difference between studio work and en plein aire is the amount of time needed to complete the painting and nature and detail of the painting. En plein aire works are, in general, done out of doors, in natural light which means the painting may be completed in one sitting in a relatively short period of time. The intent is to capture the moment with respect to light, colors, shade, etc. This is at the expense of detail so it is difficult to compare en plein aire and studio work by artists. Studio works can take days, or even weeks, to complete.

The biography of WMC indicates that he did a lot of painting in the Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan countryside and possibly also in France.

An extensive biography of WMC may be found here:

https://www.illinoisart.org/walter-marshall-clute

Beulah is less well documented and had a long career as a book plate artist.

The Clutes moved to California from Chicago around 1914 and WMC died there in early 1915. My guess is that this painting was executed before 1914, probably by WMC. It was originally in a very fancy oak frame that was quite large and heavy so I opted to just take the painting minus the frame to save on shipping costs. I have often regretted that decision and this unframed painting has been bumping around my store room/home office for a couple of decades. I recently found an inexpensive frame in this size and have ordered one for this painting, though I may repaint the color of the frame from black to something that better suits this painting.