E. Oscar Thalinger

Photo of E. Oscar Thalinger
Oscar Thalinger
1885 -1965
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BORN
March 20, 1885
Riquewihr, Alsace-Lorraine, France
DIED
June 6, 1965
Saint Louis, Missouri
EDUCATION
GENDER
RACE / ETHNICITY
OCCUPATION
Teacher
Registrar

E. Oscar Thalinger was born on March 20, 1885, in Alsace-Lorraine, France. He immigrated to the United States with his parents when he was fifteen.

Thalinger studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, Washington University, beginning in 1900. There he studied under Edmund H. Wuerpel, Frederick Lincoln Stoddard and Robert Bringhurst. After studying there, he traveled to Germany to study in Munich with the artist Herr Heinman. During the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, Thalinger was employed at the St. Louis Museum of Fine Arts, under Halsey C. Ives, the director.

Thalinger was an oil painter and exhibited frequently in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri. He was the registrar and chief technician at City Art Museum in St. Louis from 1914 to 1952. In the 1920s and 1930s he painted landscapes of the Ozarks and images of St. Louis in a representational style, but gradually moved to a more abstract style in the 1950s. In 1926, Thalinger won the Halsey C. Ives Landscape Prize for his painting Spirit of the Ozarks. In 1946, Thalinger’s painting Winter was acquired by the City Art Museum.

Thalinger was also known as a teacher. He taught at the Ste. Genevieve Art Colony in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, from 1934 until 1937, and also taught at People’s Art Center in St. Louis in the 1950s. He served as president of Artists Equity Association.

E. Oscar Thalinger died on June 6, 1965.

Art Mart Exhibition

Organized by Art Mart

Art Mart Exhibition

Organized by Art Mart

Award, Halsey C. Ives Landscape Prize
Award, Halsey C. Ives Landscape Prize
Award, Chamber of Commerce Award for Best Industrial Subject
Award, St. Louis Artists' Guild Exhibition
Award, Missouri State Fair
Award, Midwestern Artists' Exhibition
Award, Missouri Exhibition

Awards & Exhibitions 65

Art Mart Exhibition

Organized by Art Mart

Art Mart Exhibition

Organized by Art Mart

Award, Halsey C. Ives Landscape Prize
Award, Halsey C. Ives Landscape Prize
Award, Chamber of Commerce Award for Best Industrial Subject
Award, St. Louis Artists' Guild Exhibition
Award, Missouri State Fair
Award, Midwestern Artists' Exhibition
Award, Missouri Exhibition

References

Artist clippings file is available at:

"E. Oscar Thalinger: Artist File," St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri.

Bibliography

Select Sources

Frederic Jean Thalinger papers, [ca. 1929-1988], bulk 1935-1965 dates. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

“E. Oscar Thalinger, (1885-1965)” in Scott Kerr and R.H. Dick, An American Art Colony: The Art and Artists of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, 1930-1940, (St. Louis: McCaughen & Burr Press, 2004), 195-208.

Thomas E. Morrissey, “E. Oscar Thalinger, St. Louis Modernist,” American Art Review (February-March 1994): 130-135, 159-160.

“W. U. Instructor Wins Missouri Art Show,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 27, 1963, 3.

Francis A. Klein, “American Painting Show Stimulating and Provocative,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 13, 1951, 9.

“E.E. Menges Jr. Wins $500 Prize at Art Exhibition,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 28, 1951, 35.

“Paintings of Artists’ Guild and Thalinger On Exhibit,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 7, 1951, 7.

“St. Louis Honors Local Artists,” The Art Digest 21, no. 6 (December 15, 1946), 13.

“Modern Art Exhibit at Monday Club,” The News-Times (Webster Groves, Missouri), February 11, 1943, 1.

Forbes Watson, American Painting Today (Washington: American Federation of Arts, 1939), 132.

Marquis W. Childs, “Three St. Louis Artists,” American Magazine of Art 28, no. 8 (August 1935): 483-488.

Anita Mueller, “E. Oscar Thalinger, Modernist, Paints Landscapes In a Garret Under an Auto Light,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat Magazine, November 9, 1930, 3.

“St. Louis Artists Win Guild Prizes,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 18, 1929, 7.

“Thumb-Box Exhibit to Be Opened Today at City Art Museum,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 17, 1929, 2.

“Artists’ Thumb Box Exhibition Tonight: Small Pictures, Sculpture, Handicraft, To be On View Rest of Month,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 22, 1924, 3.


Core Reference Sources

askART (database), askART, https://www.askart.com/.

Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists (Carrollton: A.J. Publications, 2002).

Peter H. Falk, et. al, Who was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America (Madison: Sound View Press, 1999).

Image Credits

Portrait of Artist

Unknown, E. Oscar Thalinger, n.d.

Photograph.

Included in Scott Kerr and R.H. Dick, An American art colony: the art and artists of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, 1930-1940 (St. Louis: McCaughen and Burr Press, 2004), 194.

Contributors

Roberta Wagener, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Artist Record Published

Published on March 4, 2022

Learn more

References

Artist clippings file is available at:

"E. Oscar Thalinger: Artist File," St. Louis Public Library, St. Louis, Missouri.

Artist’s work in these institutions’ collections

Saint Louis Art Museum

Bibliography

Select Sources

Frederic Jean Thalinger papers, [ca. 1929-1988], bulk 1935-1965 dates. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

“E. Oscar Thalinger, (1885-1965)” in Scott Kerr and R.H. Dick, An American Art Colony: The Art and Artists of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, 1930-1940, (St. Louis: McCaughen & Burr Press, 2004), 195-208.

Thomas E. Morrissey, “E. Oscar Thalinger, St. Louis Modernist,” American Art Review (February-March 1994): 130-135, 159-160.

“W. U. Instructor Wins Missouri Art Show,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 27, 1963, 3.

Francis A. Klein, “American Painting Show Stimulating and Provocative,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 13, 1951, 9.

“E.E. Menges Jr. Wins $500 Prize at Art Exhibition,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 28, 1951, 35.

“Paintings of Artists’ Guild and Thalinger On Exhibit,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, January 7, 1951, 7.

“St. Louis Honors Local Artists,” The Art Digest 21, no. 6 (December 15, 1946), 13.

“Modern Art Exhibit at Monday Club,” The News-Times (Webster Groves, Missouri), February 11, 1943, 1.

Forbes Watson, American Painting Today (Washington: American Federation of Arts, 1939), 132.

Marquis W. Childs, “Three St. Louis Artists,” American Magazine of Art 28, no. 8 (August 1935): 483-488.

Anita Mueller, “E. Oscar Thalinger, Modernist, Paints Landscapes In a Garret Under an Auto Light,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat Magazine, November 9, 1930, 3.

“St. Louis Artists Win Guild Prizes,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 18, 1929, 7.

“Thumb-Box Exhibit to Be Opened Today at City Art Museum,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 17, 1929, 2.

“Artists’ Thumb Box Exhibition Tonight: Small Pictures, Sculpture, Handicraft, To be On View Rest of Month,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 22, 1924, 3.


Core Reference Sources

askART (database), askART, https://www.askart.com/.

Anita Jacobsen, Jacobsen's Biographical Index of American Artists (Carrollton: A.J. Publications, 2002).

Peter H. Falk, et. al, Who was Who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America (Madison: Sound View Press, 1999).

Contributors

Roberta Wagener, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Artist Record Published

Published on March 4, 2022

Updated on None

Citation

Wagener, Roberta. "E. Oscar Thalinger." In Missouri Remembers: Artists in Missouri through 1951. Kansas City: The Kansas City Art Institute and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; St. Louis: The St. Louis Public Library, 2022,https://doi.org/10.37764/5776.