Unidentified Artist [Saint Vincent Drawing School], German-American, 19th century, Buck, n.d., ink and graphite 9 1/2 x 5 1/2 in., Saint Vincent Archabbey Collection. Photo: Richard Stoner.
Luke Wimmer, O.S.B., ca. 1860, carte de viste, Photo: Saint Vincent Archabbey Archives
Less than a year after Boniface Wimmer, OSB, arrived in Pennsylvania, his nephew, Aloysius Wimmer, entered the monastery taking the name of Luke. As early as 1848, Fr. Luke Wimmer began offering a course in drawing. Archabbot Boniface extolled the value of his nephew’s talents stating, “Fr. Luke, the art teacher, can show a rich collection in his department. He takes pains to instruct his students so well that their achievements are sometimes very surprising.” By 1854–55, the College issued its first academic catalogue listing Fr. Luke and Br. Cosmos Wolf as instructors for The Art of Drawing. The course met for four hours weekly during which students were instructed in the fundamentals of observational depiction.
Unidentified Artist, German-American, mid-19th century, Bears with Hunter, n.d., pencil on paper, 10.125 x 7.875 in., Saint Vincent Archabbey Collection. Photo: Richard Stoner.
Drawing courses at Saint Vincent were initially modeled after the respective training the two monks had received in Munich. Students would have been taught to render live models, previously-created historical and religious works, landscapes, and still-lifes with meticulous detail. Several works resemble the structured handling of neoclassicism, while others offer more spontaneous impressions indicative of late 19th-century artists. Wild animals from the surrounding area and livestock raised on Saint Vincent’s farmland served as inspiration for students working to hone their skills en plein air. Dozens of other drawings in the collection represent animals not native to the area likely sourced from illustrated texts also used in natural history courses.
Unidentified Artist, German-American, mid-19th century, Raccoon, n.d., ink on tracing paper, 6.625 x 5.5 in., Saint Vincent Archabbey Collection. Photo: Richard Stoner.
Printed illustrations as seen here in the August 12, 1893 issue of Scientific American, often served as source material for students in Saint Vincent drawing courses. Photo: Saint Vincent Archabbey Archives.