The Tile Club: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting The Tile Club | Page 47

Tile Club Members
and their Sobriquets
Edwin Austin Abbey
(American, 1852–1911)
Chestnut (refers to Abbey’s telling of old stories) George W. Maynard
(American, 1843–1923)
Bird of Freedom or Eagle
William Gedney Bunce
(American, 1840–1916)
The Bishop Francis D. Millet
(American, 1846–1912)
The Bulgarian (well known as a correspondent
for the Russo–Turkish war)
Charles Green Bush
(American, 1842–1909)
Scratch (illustrator)
William Merritt Chase
(American, 1849–1916)
Briareus (one of the hundred-handed sons of
Mother Earth in Greek mythology)
Frederick Dielman
(American, b. Germany, 1847–1935)
Terrapin (because Dielman was from Baltimore,
home of turtle soup)
Arthur B. Frost
(American, 1851–1928)
Icicle (play off his surname)
R. Swain Gifford
(American, 1840–1905)
The Griffin (another rendition of his surname)
Winslow Homer
(American, 1836–1910)
Obtuse Bard (perhaps a reference to his personality)
William Mackay Laffan
(American, b. Ireland, 1848–1909)
Polyphemus (a cyclops—Laffan had one eye,
the other of glass)
William R. O’Donovan
(American, 1844–1920)
The Worm or O’ Donoghue (variation of his surname)
Walter Paris
(American, b. England, 1842–1906)
Gaul (play on words referring to his surname)
William Agnew Paton
(American, 1848–1918)
Haggis
Arthur Quartley
(American, b. France, 1839–1886)
Marine (his specialty was marine paintings)
Charles S. Reinhart
(American, 1844–1896)
Sirius
Augustus Saint–Gaudens
(American, b. Ireland, 1848–1907)
Saint
Napoleon Sarony
(American, b. Canada, 1821–1896)
Hawk
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