The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 17

group. 23 The medium used was identified variously as
“German inks,” “mineral colors,” and ultimately “tubes
of vitreous paints invented by Lacroix.” 24 Application
of the medium had to be done swiftly and unfaltering-
ly, as the porous surface quickly absorbed the pigment.
As club members began to master the technique, they
enjoyed experimenting with the process further: one
rubbed bitumen over his tile; another employed the tip
of a wooden match to scratch out highlights; while a
third, who used his thumbs to create atmospheric effect
discovered the technique had a “hit-or-miss” element
similar to using a palette knife. 25 The result was a lumi-
nous quality superior to that which could be achieved
in oil painting on canvas. “I believe I am getting the
pearly shadows on flesh to-day,” declared one Tiler,
“and it is a tile that is teaching me.” 26 Another gleefully
announced that he was creating a “regular Constable
tempest in a teapot.” 27
Soon a routine developed. No subjects or themes
were dictated, and the results were wide-ranging: land-
scapes, seascapes, figures, portraits, and florals. A long
table was provided (or improvised) in the middle of the
room, on which the evening’s host arranged tiles, small
palettes, turpentine, brushes of various sizes, pencils,
rags, color tubes, and “student lamps” (fig. 2). Everyone
was in his place by half past eight, “cleaning off his tile
with ‘turps’ and a rag, or sketching in his design with a
lead-pencil or a bit of lithographic crayon.” 28 It should
be noted that O’Donovan, the only sculptor when the
club was founded, produced unpainted bas-relief tiles
modeled in clay or wax, and cast in plaster (fig. 3).
Some members painted directly without any under-
drawing, while others first drew their design on the tile
and then painted. Often many attempts were made and
obliterated before a satisfactory design was achieved.
Those times when no successful tile was completed,
Figure 2. Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911),
Tilers Tiling, 1879, pencil on paper, 14 1/2 x 14 1/2 in.,
Heckscher Museum of Art, museum purchase, 2001.6.1
Figure 3. William Rudolf O’Donovan (American, 1844–
1920), Ye Tyle Manne (Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911),
M.A. (Hon.) 1897), 1878, plaster 15 x 14 3/4 x 2 1/4 in.,
Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection, Yale University
Art Gallery, 1937.4148
Decorative Age or Decorative Craze? 11