Carl Henry Ahrens

Carl Henry Ahrens was a Canadian painter, ceramicist, printmaker, writer and teacher. He isknown most notably for his landscapes (sometimes referred to as “the painter of trees”)[1] and portraits, as well as his ties with Roycroft, Elbert Hubbard’s arts and craft community in East Aurora, NY.                 

Ahrens was born February 15, 1862 in Winfield, Ontario. He was raised by his father in Berlin. Around age 7, Ahrens contracted tuberculosis in his hip, which would contribute to long stints of health issues later in his life. He worked various odd jobs throughout his early years, including in his uncle’s button factory in Waterloo. Fascinated by the process of dyeing buttons, Ahrens considered this job his first step toward mastering color. This understanding of colors would be a major influence in his painting career and helped distinguish his work.[2]

With no prospects for a longstanding profession, Ahrens was sent to apprentice as a dentist under his uncle Alfred in the early 1880s. Although he did not enjoy the profession, Ahrens opened his own practice in Nebraska, which was successful. During this time, he also married his first wife, Emily Marion Carroll. The couple went on to have three children.

Ahrens started painting in 1886, at age 24. Within a year, he gave up dentistry, moved with his family to Toronto and opened his own studio. With little formal artist training, Ahrens oftentimes worked alone. He studied other artists’ methods but did not feel inclined to copy their styles. He held his first exhibition with the Ontario Society of Artists in 1889.[3]

In 1891 he exhibited at the Canadian National Exhibition and was elected Associate Painter in the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Ahrens became known in the art community for his portraits. In 1892, he studied painting and sculpture under William Merritt Chase and Francis Edwin Elwell, respectively, in New York City. While there, his friend and mentor George Iness, encouraged him to stop taking classes, and paint what he wished to paint. Shortly thereafter, Ahrens moved back to Toronto, resigned from all his professional associations, and began painting landscapes.[4]

In 1896, Ahrens, his family and his cousin Eleanor Douglas (also an artist), moved onto the Ojibway Indian Saugeen Reservation near Southhampton in Ontario, Canada. They were adopted by the tribe and given new names.

In 1899, Ahrens met Elbert Hubbard, founder of the Roycroft campus in East Aurora, and was asked to join the arts & crafts community. The entire family moved to East Aurora in 1900, where Ahrens worked as a ceramicist. He remained with Roycroft for only about four months. The pottery Ahrens created was sold unglazed, and therefore unable to hold water. It posed little value, and most have fallen apart over time.[5] Despite the failure of Roycroft pottery, this time was an important moment in Ahrens’ life. He met the woman who would later become his second wife, Martha Niles (whom he lovingly called Madonna), a young artist and singer.[6]  Ahrens remained in East Aurora until 1905, during which he helped found and open and Arts & Crafts school in Chatauqua, NY.

With his sons now old enough to provide for themselves, Ahrens left his first wife and moved to New York City to reunite with Madonna. Shortly thereafter, the couple married, one month before she gave birth to their first son.

The family returned to Toronto in 1907, where Ahrens exhibited several works. During an exhibition of his Meadovale paintings, he met patron Colonel Malcolm Smith Mercer. Mercer was so moved by the collection, he offered to purchase all his paintings over the course of three years. In 1911, Ahrens exhibited the 31 paintings of the Mercer collection at the Public Reference Library in Toronto. Multiple offers were made to purchase the entire collection, with some offers as high as $100,000 from European galleries. Mercer, however, refused to sell. Instead the collection was invited to be exhibited in Belgium, the first invitation extended to a North American artist by a European country. The exhibition however was halted due to WWI.[7]

In 1920, Ahrens and his family moved to Woodstock, NY where he taught landscape painting with Charles Etherington. They then moved with friends to Rockport, MA in 1921, but returned to Toronto in 1922 after Ahrens fell ill. The family settled down in Galt, where their house, named “Big Trees”, became a place of teaching and entertainment. Ahrens often took on students, and the family entertained a host of politicians, artists, musicians and professors.[8]

Ahrens began experimenting with printmaking in 1925. By then, long bouts of illness left him weak, and he would need help from his daughters through the laborious printmaking process.[9] In March of 1935, Ahrens held his last exhibition of selected works from the Mercer collection before the family moved to England. Initially intended to be a permanent move, they were only able to stay about four months before Ahrens once again became ill. After having a series of strokes, Ahrens longed for home. On February 27, 1936, Ahrens died at the age of 74. Despite living his last years ill and in excruciating pain, “he continued to paint to the end, and his last works are full of vibrant color”.[10]

On April 28, 2007, the Waterloo Historical Society dubbed its general meeting Carl Ahrens Day, celebrating the artist’s life and achievements.[11]