The Art of Des Moines Women's Club
1885 Mrs. Patchin read a paper at the Des Moines Women’s Club in which she suggested that there should be a place of exhibition for the advancement of art in Des Moines.
1888 The Club obligated itself to establish and maintain an art gallery.
An Art Fund Association Auxiliary was started to raise funds for art and separate dues for art were paid to this group. Mr. Gilbert donated $1,000 which was put into the art fund.
1893 Three members, Mesdames J. R. West, James H. Windsor and E.R. Clapp, traveled to the Chicago World’s Fair and purchased our first piece, a bronze statue of Joan of Arc. This was the beginning of the current collection and is now located in the theater lobby.
1895 Purchased three paintings from C.E. Baldwin, director of the struggling Des Moines Academy of Arts: Portrait of a Lady, Ready for Shopping, and A Fantasy.
Baldwin soon left for New York. DMWC, along with the board of the Iowa Society of Fine Arts, urged Charles Atherton Cumming to take over the art school.
1896-97 Bought Summer Afternoon by Cumming for $100, including the frame.
The Club voted to open an art gallery that would be free to the public.
1901 The Club bought a hardwood pedestal for Joan of Arc for $20 and Old Man and Sleeping Child for $350. It was decided that the Club would purchase only originals, not copies.
1902 The members of the Club decided to raise $10,000 to build a club house.
Club presented their first public exhibition of works by Des Moines artists.
1904 Club gave first scholarships to the Cumming School of Art.
1904 or 05 Entering the Harbor was purchased at the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis for the Club by Mr. Cumming.
Loading the Caravan by Edwin Lord Weeks, which had also been displayed at the Exposition, was purchased for $1,500.
1906 Racoon Forks by John D. Forgy given to Club by Mrs. L.E. Harbach.
1907 The Club decided to move to Hoyt Sherman Place, renting the house from the city for $1.00 a year.
An art gallery to the west of the house was built with the $10,000 the Club had raised. It was used as a gallery and auditorium. This was the first art gallery in the city of Des Moines.
1909 The first annual art exhibition was held. Fifty pictures were submitted.
1910 The Club purchased Venetian Castles by Thomas Moran for $2,500.
1911 Major and Mrs. S.H.M. Byers decided to leave the majority of their collection of paintings, engravings, furniture, and vases to the DMWC.
1920 Thompson’s Bend by Gardner Symons was given to the Club by G.D. Ellysen in memory of his wife who was the Club President 1909-10.
1923 A second art gallery was completed and the Byers treasures were installed.
1926 The Club exhibited paintings by Lillian Genth. Des Moines art patrons bought five of the works, and the F.O. Green family presented The Terrace to the Club’s collection.
1931 Discontinued the practice of the “purchase prize” as part of the Art Exhibition due to lack of hanging space.
1934 One hundred women were students at the bi-monthly Art Fundamentals Class sponsored by the Art Department.
1935 Thomas Benton was a speaker; he was introduced by Grant Wood.
1947 Proteus Club gave several works to DMWC: Landscape by George Innes, The Autumn Woodland by John C. Johnson, Meditation by Charles Cumming, Bermuda by Lawrence Grant, and Arabian Market by Francis Simon.
1950-51 La Cigale by Robert Reid gifted to DMWC by J. S. Carpenter Collection.
1952 Louise Coskery, a descendant of the art collector Captain John Collins, gave five paintings to the Club: Apollo and Venus, To the Memory of Cole, Lot and His Daughters, The Repentant Magdalen, and Children in the Wooded Landscape. At one time Apollo and Venus, Lot and His Daughters, and The Repentant Magdalen hung in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. When the Collins family moved to Des Moines, they brought the paintings with them.
1995 Ownership of the art collection was turned over to The Hoyt Sherman Place Foundation.
1999 To the Memory of Cole by Frederick Edwin Church was sold at Sotheby’s to Bill Gates for $4.2 million. Rosemary Hillman traveled with others to New York and reports they were treated like royalty. The money went the HSP Foundation endowment fund which has sustained Hoyt Sherman Place.
2003 Lot and His Daughters sold at Sotheby’s as part of the Theater Restoration Fundraiser. The correct attribution to the artist Abraham Bloemaert was only made when it was conserved in 2004 and the signature was uncovered.
2008 Meadow Sanctuary by Diane Munk purchased in honor of the Club’s 125th Anniversary. This is the only painting owned by the Club.
2012 The Adopt-a-Painting art conservation program is started by Carol Pollock, Director of Hoyt Sherman Place, with initial funding from the legacy of Donna Emmons, a member of the Club. Paintings are being restored by Barry Bauman of Chicago who does such work for worthy paintings belonging to non-profits for the cost of materials. Frames are also being repaired.
2016 A legacy from Club member Shirley Smith funds a Scholarship for Visual ($50,000), an Endowed Art Exhibition Fund ($62,500). The Hoyt Sherman Place Foundation adds new signage to paintings.
The conserved Repentant Magdalene is unveiled. It is Des Moines’s finest large-scale, old master painting.
2018 The conserved painting Apollo and Venus by Otto van Veen, the oldest old master painting in Des Moines (ca.1600), is presented to the public. It was found covered in dust in the attic of Hoyt Sherman Place.
2019 Our painting Raccoon Forks is included in the exhibit Artists in Iowa: The First Century at the Brunnier Art Museum at Iowa State University. The Art Exhibition ends just as the Covid-19 pandemic starts.
2020 The Denver Art Museum asks to include La Cigale in a show there.
2021 The Club hosts the 113th Art Exhibition, still open to both professional and amateur artists and free to the public.
Liz Teufel