Clara Emma Langenbach

Clara Emma Langenbach (Canadian-American, 1871-1964) noted impressionist painter, illustrator, designer, art lecturer, and teacher primarily known for her paintings in oil, tempera and watercolors of marine scenes, landscapes, coastal views, harbor scenes, and miniature paintings. Clara was born January 28, 1871 in Sebringville, Ontario, a small village just northwest of Stratford, to Frank Langenbach and Elizabeth (née Klorer) Langenbach, and she had a younger sister, Edith J. (Mrs. Thomas J. Hassett, circa 1877-1966). In 1875, the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Buffalo, NY. From an early age, Clara showed promise with her artistic talents and began drawing around the age of nine, much to the delight of her classmates who admired her drawings and cherished the ones Clara gave them. Her early education was in the Buffalo public elementary and high schools, graduating from Buffalo Central High School #16.

Her formal academic art studies and training included: the Albright Art School in Buffalo, NY, and the Art Students’ League, NYC under John Fabian Carlson, N.A. (Swedish-American, 1875-1947), Frank Swift Chase (American, 1886-1958) and Walter Goltz, N.A. (American, 1875-1956), as well as one year’s art course at the Pratt Institute of Art, Brooklyn, NY. She also studied under Harry Leith-Ross (American, 1886-1973), life & portrait painting with George Ernest Fosbery, R.C.A. (Canadian, 1874-1960), marine painting during the summers in Gloucester, MA with Frederick John Mulhaupt (American, 1871-1938), watercolors in New York with Anna S. Fisher, N.A. (American, 1873-1942), and also with William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916). She also spent several summers at the Art League in Woodstock (Catskills), NY, and also studied at some Cape Ann schools in Massachusetts.

A lifelong career teaching art for the primary grades in the Buffalo public school system began with Buffalo School #15 in 1893 on Oak Street (corner of Burton St.). Clara also taught at several other schools over the course of her 43 year-long career, retiring in 1936. The creative aspect of teaching immediately appealed to her, and she considered it a privilege and her responsibility to guide student’s minds in a constructive way. She once stated, “First you find your way to the child’s heart. Then you make the most of his ability”[1]. She inspired thousands of students over the course of her career, while developing their artistic abilities and inner characters, stating, “Everyone possesses a creative talent of some sort, and now, when leisure is to be increased, its development is of the utmost importance. For music, verse writing, and art have a definite ethical value. They bring out the best in those who produce them and cram their days so full of constructive activity that no time is left for wrong-doing.”[2] One of her happiest moments came when a student once said to her, “You are our mother while we’re with you, aren’t you, Miss Langenbach?”[3]

Teaching children became her lifelong profession and joy, but, “Never did she permit her profession to absorb her to the exclusion of her study of art”[4], a 1933 newspaper article reported. While teaching, Clara could only pursue her personal painting in the evenings or on the weekends, but never did she let that limit her. She always continued to diligently develop her skills and techniques as an artist while expanding her body of work. “Teaching keeps the fundamentals of drawing clear in my head,” she once observed, “while my own painting enables me to understand the difficulties and aspirations of my pupils.”[5]

After the United States entered WWI in 1917, the U.S. Department of the Treasury War Loan Organization, Savings Division, held a contest to raise funds for the war effort. Given Clara’s unique experiences as a schoolteacher and artist, she wanted her voice to be heard. Many of her pupils, whose fathers were serving in the war, could not understand why their daddy was not at home, so Clara would often try to comfort the ones that were distraught. Having witnessed firsthand the impact of the war on her students, Clara illustrated her poster depicting a child whose father was absent. The child was shown wringing his hands and holding back tears, with the header and words that read, “WAR SAVINGS STAMPS: My daddy’s a soldier, won’t you help bring him back?” Her poster was accepted by the National War Savings Stamp Committee from several hundred entries and was patriotically colored red, white and blue, size 22” x 14”. It was also placed on exhibition in the New York City Public Library, NYC. Five thousand copies of the poster were printed and made available for distribution in Western New York and in other cities across the nation. Additional text beneath the poster’s title included, ‘Contributed to W.S.S. Committee Retail Merchants Association of Buffalo’, and it was printed by Matthews-Northrup Works Buffalo, Cleveland and New York.

Clara was a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists (BSA), and had also been on their board of directors. Other memberships included: Sanity in Art (was secretary of the Western New York branch from 1939-43), The Rationalists of Buffalo/Rochester and was elected secretary (later known as the Genesee Group, with name variations to include: Genesee Artists Group of Rochester, or just Genesee Group of Rochester) of which Clara was a member as well, Saturday Sketch Club, North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester, MA, National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), Brush Division (Western New York Branch, and was also past Art Chairman and secretary), Society of Independent Artists, NYC, Allied Artists of America, Boston Art Club (Awarded full membership), Boston, MA, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Providence Art Club, Providence, RI, Town Club (Women’s group formed in 1926, Buffalo, NY and was their former art director), American Professional League, Buffalo Women Teachers’ Association, National Educational Association and the Zonta Club of Buffalo. She was once the former head of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy and she also frequently gave lectures on art for the Genesee Group in Rochester, NY.

Clara exhibited actively and widely throughout her career in and around Buffalo and Rochester, NY, as well as across the nation in numerous public and museum shows including: The Albright Art Gallery (later the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, now the Buffalo AKG Art Museum), the Smithsonian Gallery in Washington, DC, Philadelphia Art Alliance, across New York State, Ohio, New England, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Florida, among many others. From 1906-35, Clara exhibited annually with the Buffalo Society of Artists, Buffalo, NY. She also exhibited with the Society of Independent Artists (1918) and the Allied Artists of America (1925), both in NYC, as well as the Town Club which was a women’s group that formed in 1926, located at the former Spencer Kellogg House located at 805 Delaware Ave., Buffalo, NY. From 1928-46, she exhibited annually with the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), Western New York Branch winning 2nd prize Red Ribbon with Popularity Vote & Cash Prize in 1936 and the Effie Farnham Burns Founder’s Medal in 1942. From 1928-45, summers were spent exhibiting annually with the North Shore Arts Association, Gloucester, MA, where she also maintained a studio at the Rocky Neck Art Colony. She also exhibited with the Boston Art Club (1934), Boston, MA, the Allied Artists of America (1935), and participated in several group shows with the Rationalists group of Buffalo and Rochester, NY artists between the years 1939-1945. The Rationalists dissolved and the Rochester branch turned into the Genesee Artists Group and Clara exhibited with them in late 1940s. Other exhibitions included; An invitation to exhibit as one of 62 American Conservative Painters (one painting each) at the City Art Museum, Forest Park, St. Louis, MO (1943), and the Rundel & Memorial Galleries in Rochester, NY.

In 1946, Clara gave a speech at the Hotel Statler in Buffalo to a group of members of the Zonta Club, and she expressed why she loved art, “The writer uses words, the musician, notes, the draftsman, lines, and the painter, colors, to give their message to mankind. The painter’s and the musician’s is a universal language and anybody, regardless of race or language, can, if they have ears, hear music, and see pictures, if they have eyes. The aim of the artist is always to make people a little bit happier, a little bit more understanding and a bit more comforted.”[6]

Clara proudly held copyrights for twenty-three different toy dollhouse furniture designs in paper (origami-like, one sheet of folded paper) called “Ucutit” diagrams” (Copyrighted 1917-1918), and also designed covers for La Hacienda magazine, formerly published in Buffalo, NY. She enjoyed traveling here and abroad, and also spoke French and German which helped her appreciate more of the culture when in Europe.

Around the Western New York area, she could often be seen walking with her painting box and sketchbook tucked under her arm. Her favorite subjects were landscapes and marine scenes, for which she received a great deal of attention from other artists and the press. She never married, and for most of her career, she resided and maintained her studio at the home she had built at 21 Colvin Parkway in Buffalo in 1922 (later named Colvin Ave.) where her paintings hung in every room throughout the house. Her house originally cost $13,000 to build and she managed to pay it off within three years. Though retired from teaching, Clara did continue to do commercial art through the 1940s-mid 1950s. On Valentine's Day, February 14, 1964, Clara died at the age of 93 and was buried in the Pine Hill Cemetery (AKA United German and French Cemetery), 800 Pine Ridge Rd., Cheektowaga, NY. Clara is listed in numerous art reference publications including: The Buffalo Artists’ Register, Principal Women of America, Who was Who in American Art, 1564-1975 (from 1936-1999), Who’s Who in the East (1942-1943), Who’s Who in New York City and State (1952), The Encyclopedia of American Biography (1957), Who’s Who of American Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living American Women (1958-59), Women Artists in American: Eighteenth Century to Present (1973), Dictionary of Women Artists: An International Dictionary of Women Artists Born Before 1900 (1985), Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (2003), Davenports Art Reference: The Gold Edition (2005), and The Artist’s Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005. Her works can be found in many museums and galleries, as well as numerous public and private collections around the world.

(Resource: https://www.meibohmfinearts.com/artists/details/1328