Frederick J. Mulhaupt

Frederick J. Mulhaupt (1871–1938)

An impressionist painter known for his depictions of Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts

I. Biography

Frederick John Mulhaupt was born in Rockport, Missouri in 1871. After living in Dodge City, Kansas for a short time, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri where he apprenticed with an itinerant artist who taught Mulhaupt the basics of sign painting. Mulhaupt subsequently attended the Kansas City Art Institute and School of Design for formal training._[1]

Mulhaupt moved to Chicago in the 1890s, a creative nexus at the time. He took classes at The Art Institute of Chicago and soon engaged the local artistic community. Mulhaupt became a founding member of the Palette & Chisel Club in 1895, and by 1898 he was serving as the organization’s president._[2] In addition to building his own body of work, the artist started teaching classes while living in Chicago. In 1899, he was teaching figure drawing at the School of Illustration and became an instructor at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1902._[3]

In 1904, Mulhaupt relocated again, this time to New York City. He joined the Salmagundi Club and traveled to France and Britain to paint and exhibit his work. Around 1907, the artist began making summer trips to Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the town that would inspire Mulhaupt’s most celebrated paintings. Quintessentially, Mulhaupt portrayed the facets of Cape Ann in an impressionist style through depictions of the harbor, forest, river, fishermen, and town.

Around 1922, Gloucester became Mulhaupt’s home base and would remain so for the rest of his life. He continued to exhibit his work at prestigious exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. In Gloucester, Mulhaupt was active in the North Shore Art Artists Association, serving on the board of trustees and jury committee. The artist’s figure and landscape paintings won many awards over the course of his career. Late in his life, Mulhaupt created a mural for the Maplewood School in Gloucester as a part of the Federal Art Project of the Work Projects Administration. Today, his work resides in the collections of the Fogg Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

II. Chronology

• 1871 Born in Rockport, Missouri
• 1902 Appointed instructor at The Art Institute of Chicago
• 1904 Moves to New York City
• ca. 1907 Begins visiting Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts during the summers
• ca. 1922 Moves to Gloucester, Massachusetts
• 1936 Paints murals Landing of the Dorchester Colonists 1623 and De Champlain Surveys “Le Beauport” for Maplewood School, Gloucester, Massachusetts

III. Collections

• Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Massachusetts
• Gloucester City Hall, Massachusetts
• Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
• Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania
• University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan

IV. Exhibitions

• 1898–1926 The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
• 1899 Haydon Art Club, Lincoln, Nebraska; Artists’ Club of Denver, Colorado
• 1904 National Academy of Design, New York, New York
• 1906 American Art Association of Paris, France
• 1907 Salmagundi Club, New York, New York, Evans Prize
• 1909, 1924–28 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Annual, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1911 Powell Galleries, New York, New York; National Academy of Design, New York, New York
• 1917 Gallery-on-the-Moors, Gloucester, Massachusetts
• 1921 Salmagundi Club, New York, New York, Porter Prize
• 1921–26 Corcoran Gallery Biennial Exhibitions, Washington, DC
• 1923–38 North Shore Artists Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts
• 1925 Philadelphia Art Week, Pennsylvania, medal
• 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, landscape medal
• 1925, 1930 Allied Artists of America, New York, New York, prize
• 1927 Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Hartford, Connecticut, prize
• 1929 National Arts Club, New York, New York, honorable mention
• 1932 Ogunquit Art Club, Maine, prize

V. Memberships

• Allied Artists of America, New York, New York
• American Art Association of Paris, France
• National Academy of Design, New York, New York, associate 1926
• National Arts Club, New York, New York
• North Shore Artists Association, Gloucester, Massachusetts
• Palette & Chisel Club, Chicago, Illinois, founding member 1895
• Salmagundi Club, New York, New York

VI. Notes

1. North Shore Arts Association, Frederick J. Mulhaupt: Dean of the Cape Ann School (Gloucester, MA: North Shore Arts Association, 1999), ii.
2. Frank Holme, “The Palette and Chisel Club,” Brush & Pencil 2, no. 1 (1898): 40.
3. E. S. C., “A School with a Purpose,” Brush & Pencil 5, no. 2 (1899): 84.

VII. Suggested Resources

• Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art, 1564–1975: 400 Years of Artists in America. Vol. 2, G–O. Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1999.
• North Shore Arts Association. Frederick J. Mulhaupt: Dean of the Cape Ann School. Gloucester, MA: North Shore Arts Association, 1999.