Mystery Artist - J M van der Westhuyzen

No piece of artwork to see here, just a request for biographical information or hints. He's listed in "Who Was Who in American Art" and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh "card index" of artists with some connection to Pittsburgh, either born in or working in the region. The details of those "listings" are not available online. Or at least I couldn't find them.

I've tried finding him on Ancestry, which is where I found the Who Was Who index listing and a marriage in New York City in about 1917. But there were no census records, no travel or immigration records, no death records. Nada.

Google only provided the Carnegie Library hit; everything else for that surname points to South Africa but with an I instead of a Y in the last part and no one with the same initials that would have been either an artist or old enough to have been married in 1917.

I know this is a long-shot, but I also know we have some very well informed members here. Perhaps someone has a copy of that book in their reference library? Anything you can tell me would be most appreciated!

 

A 1933 passenger list on Ancestry records Johanne(s?) M. van der Westhuyzen, 37 years old and married, sailing from Capetown, South Africa (to Boston?). It notes that his occupation is Accountant & Artist. If you Google "Johannes M. van der Westhuyzen" you can find information about an accounting professor by that name. It also noted on the passenger list that his last residence was NYC, but that is crossed out and "Cape Town" is handwritten there instead.

 

Oh my! I saw the accounting professor on Google and discounted him completely!

37 in 1933? If it's the same one who married in 1917, she was robbing the cradle big time!

Thanks so much, morgen. I will go check that out again.

 

I happen to be still at work, and we have Who Was Who in American Art. The listing is very short:

Van Der Westhuyzen, J. M. [Painter] early 20th c.
Address: Chicago, Illinois
Member Chicago NJSA
Sources: WW25

The source at the end is the 1925 edition of The American Art Annual, which was later titled Who's Who in American Art. We also happen to have that here.

I found the 1925 publication and the only additional information was the exact street address in Chicago: 207 East Ontario Street. (Happens to be in a neighborhood where I used to work a long time ago.)

I didn't try to figure out what NJSA stands for. I need to go home soon!

 

I don't remember whether Van Der was capitalized in the book, by the way... don't take what I wrote as an exact transcription. It is accurate in its essentials, though.

 

Morgen, Thank you! - Got it! Plus with those details, but being listed as "John Mathew Van der Westhuyzen" I found him in-bound from Liverpool to NYC in 1916 with a wife 8 years older than him. Must have had a "thing" for older women - at his second marriage (1918, not 1917) he was 23 and she was 37!

Also found him in an online year book for Lake Forest in 1922 that said he was previously teaching (1919-21) at the University of Alabama.

Thank you too, Fig! I was hoping your library might have a copy. Now I've got 2 US locations to check!

 

The Ancestry search engine doesn't play well with "van", "von" and "de" prefixes - which is a serious issue when searching for family of Dutch and/or French extraction.

 

Y'all ROCK! Amazing!

 

Gila - When I said in my OP that it might be a long-shot, I was trying to be realistic, just in case. But deep down I just knew that my plea would be answered at some point. They "rock" indeed!

 

I just really wish there was another reference that tied the artist van der Westhuyzen to the accountant, other than that one "Accountant & Artist" reference. Perhaps, though, the dearth of information about the artist van der Westhuyzen is a reflection of the fact that this is the same man, who gave up art for accounting. If that is so, it is quite a choice.

 

I think he gave up accounting for art. Probably a Sunday painter who got better at it than most.

 

It seems it stands for No-Jury Society of Artists.

 

Thanks for that... fascinating!

 

Bakers, was that yearbook from Lake Forest, Illinois? That is a suburb of Chicago. What kind of yearbook was it?

 

Yup - 1922. "The Forester". It gave a cv. list of his qualifications until 1921. The most interesting note was that he received an AB degree from University of London in 1912. If born in 1895 that would make him a true prodigy no? I really do think he was actually born earlier than that. Other items listed

Accountant, Kandina, South Australia 1912-13
Professor at Goey University, South Africa 1913-16
Gap for the war
Professor University of Alabama 1919-1921
Lake Forest, beginning 1921.

Also said he was the head of his own accounting firm, and had published 2 textbooks - one about the detection of fraud in accounts! Pretty busy for a guy still in his 20's.

A tiny thumnail of the book page on which this information and a photo were contained was temptingly easy to click on. But that required you to sign up for membership in the site. Nope, not gonna do it.

 

I wonder what the address in Chicago in 1925 was? Maybe a studio rather than a residence?

 

Would that have been a residential neighborhood? Maybe the office of his accounting firm?

 

It is a mixed type of neighborhood as many in Chicago are. This area tends to have a lot of commercial buildings but there are also a lot of apartments. Not too many single homes. I don't know how it was in the 1920s but probably similar. It is close to Michigan Avenue which is currently a big shopping area.

 

By "mixed" I mean mixed use. This area tends to be more commercial than residential, and it is also close to the Chicago campus of Northwestern University. Their medical school and law school are on that campus. Also Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

 

I don't know if this will be helpful, but 207 E. Ontario has come across my radar before, in researching other Chicago artists. That address was used in 1921/1922 by William S. Schwartz and Samuel Klasstorner (who appeared to share accommodations, nearby) and earlier, in 1916, by an art student named W. E. Opper. Additionally, a 1927 advertising directory lists the address as Arquilla Art Studios.