Perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific sits the Laguna Art Museum, well known for exhibiting works by California artists across genres, mediums and eras.
On view through September 24 is an exhibition that explores the life and work of Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), a Hungarian-American portrait and plein air painter who was an important figure in the early California School of Impressionism.
Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), The Artist, ca. 1907. Oil on canvas, 30 x 25 in. Laguna Art Museum Collection, purchased with funds provided in part from Janet Barker Spurgeon and John Roger Barker.
Featuring more than 70 paintings that capture the energy and beauty of Southern California, this rare compilation of works draws from private collections, and loans from galleries and museums.
“We cannot wait to welcome guests to this exhibition that touches upon every period of Joseph Kleitsch’s artistic output,” says Julie Perlin Lee, director of Laguna Art Museum. “More than 25 individual and organizational lenders have enthusiastically come together to bring the best of Kleitsch’s artworks in a showing of sensuous portraits, realistic still lifes and landscape paintings that document the artist’s experimentation and growth from impressionism to post-impressionism. Because of the artist’s ties to Laguna Beach, there is no venue or location more perfect than the Laguna Art Museum.”
Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), Problematicus, 1918. Oil on canvas, 50 x 55 in. Loan Courtesy of Barbara and Thomas B. Stiles, II.
Spanning his brief lifetime, the exhibition includes early classical and tonal still lifes, full size portraiture, as well as colorful large scale landscapes, divided across four rooms to reflect distinct time periods of his life. The first room contains early works, some reminiscent of Sargent and the muted, tonal portraits of the day. The main exhibition space displays many grand landscapes of the Mission San Juan, portraits and seascapes. The remaining rooms include works inspired by Europe and an array of later still lifes that reflect his brighter, more vibrant style. Born in Hungary in 1882, Kleitsch made his way to the United States in 1902. By 1920, he and his wife Edna settled in Laguna Beach, where he became a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association and started painting landscapes and street scenes. A close friend of Edgar Payne, he showed his work at the first permanent home of the art association with fellow historic artists Anna Hills and William Wendt. The space is now the Laguna Art Museum.
Although he was well established as a portrait and still life painter, Kleitsch was taken by the strong, clear light of Laguna Beach and began painting landscapes and street scenes. Notably, Kleitsch’s 1922 painting, The Old Post Office, offers a snapshot of a bygone era on the brink of change.
Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), The Old Post Office, ca. 1922. Oil on canvas, 40 x 34 in. Laguna Art Museum Collection, gift of the Estate of Joseph Kleitsch in memory of his wife Edna.
“The Old Post Office is a brilliantly painted Impressionist work that both dazzles the eye and also records an aspect of early Laguna village life that no longer exists,” notes exhibition curator Jean Stern. “It shows the front porch of the local general store that also served as the town’s first post office. The building was torn down a year after Kleitsch painted it to make room for new urban development.”
As seen in the celebrated Problematicus, which portrays a female artist at the easel in a richly decorated studio, to his scenes of downtown Laguna Beach and the sea, Kleitsch created a variety work in his time. Stern continues, “While others primarily painted the beach and landscape, Kleitsch was fascinated by ordinary life in the small village and many of his paintings show aspects of early Laguna that have passed on and no longer exist.”
Joseph Kleitsch (1882-1931), Laguna Coastline ca. 1923. Oil on canvas, 17½ x 19½ in.
Later, in 1926, Kleitsch sailed to Europe where he painted in Paris, Normandy, Claude Monet’s home village of Giverny and nearby Vernon, among other places. The exhibit includes a handful of these stunning scenes, many painted in plein air. Despite his death at the early age of 49 due to a heart condition, Kleitsch’s art continues to live on and his role as a chronicler of Old Laguna adds to his standing among the best of California’s artists.
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