Deaf Artist was Popular in Geneva NY

While doing research on a different story, I came across this dusty entry in an 1885 newsletter archive:

"Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Acker called with a deaf-mute artist, Mr. (F.M.) Tuttle of Geneva. Mr. Tuttle has painted quite a number of large pictures. He has now a picture on exhibition at Rundell's art store. It is about five feet long by three, and is a work upon which he has expended a great deal of labor. The subject is Ahab and Jezebel reproved by the prophet Elijah. Mr. Tuttle values this painting at a thousand dollars."

Huh? My curiosity was aroused. What artist in 1885 could command a thousand dollars for a painting the size of a poster? According to this website, the equivalent of that price today is $21,800! Even the subject was interesting: --a Biblical scenario done with Renaissance fervor?  My research took a detour.

The first place I looked was the Internet, which yielded very little information except to confirm that a known deaf artist lived in Geneva, a small, picturesque village in the Finger Lakes region of New York. A search of art gallery sites turned up no painting of Tuttle's. Further search of museums turned up the Geneva Historical Society which happily had a small collection of Tuttle paintings, but this rotating exhibit was soon to be put into storage that next Monday.  So, one cold, sleeting and icy Friday, I took an hour-long auto trip to see it.

The curators of the museum were very kind in providing information and access to the exhibit. A second-floor room was devoted entirely to this local painter who specialized in portraits and landscapes, containing art from 8" x 14" to as large as 3' x 5'.  On closer examination, the paintings are nearly photograph-like in their attention to detail and total lack of brushstrokes; the paint was applied thinly and carefully layered upon inexpensive hardboard known as "academy board". The modern equivalent of this material is canvas paper.

He spent a great deal of time on fine detail: the fringe on a shawl, the lace of a cuff, even the embroidery on a smock. The blue veins can even be seen on this child's hand. Many of the paintings were unsigned.

Quote from the Geneva Gazette newspaper of Jan. 14, 1876:  "The artist has also painted the picture of (a) child, having only a lock of hair and a photo to guide him, and it is needless to remark that is all which is necessary for him to have to produce upon canvass an exact likeness of a person living or dead."

"The parents pronounce it perfect in pose, form and features, and their judgement ought to be conclusive on those points. A photograph, and vivid recollection of the living subject, were the only aids to the talented artist in producing this most striking likeness." Early in his career he painted Biblical scenes, later in life devoting his subject matter to landscapes and portraiture since these earned an income.

The Geneva newspapers were very much aware of their resident artist and spared no effort at praising and publicizing his works whenever they came up for sale. The scenery around Seneca Lake and Geneva were well-represented among his works and this provided Tuttle with an income to support his family for many years. He was a prolific painter, at one time producing 59 paintings, all on order, between December 1899 and February 1900.

Who was this deaf artist, and how did he get there? We all ask in our community, where did he go to school? Did he socialize with other deaf people, too? How did he learn his trade?

Francis Marion Tuttle was born in 1839 and became deaf in one version from a shotgun blast; but in another story he was said to be born deaf. He was called a mute which indicates he became deaf before learning to speak. As a child he attended the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (now known as the New York School for the Deaf in White Plains) where he learned art, but it probably was not promoted as a career. He completed three years in the High Class and earned a diploma of the "highest grade." For formal instruction in art, he probably was one of the two students that were urged to take private lessons taught by an artist in the city.

Tuttle married a fellow student from the Institution, Eunice Barker, and later they had two sons, both hearing, but one died in his mid-teens.

After finishing school, they returned to Geneva to make his living as an artist, first living with his mother on South Main Street, then later moving to another house. He painted actively from about 1861 till his death.

Geneva Gazette, 1872: "Mr. Tuttle is a deaf mute, and it is possible that the wonderful fidelity of his pictures and singular ability to reproduce from memory may result in a measure from his power to concentrate his whole mind upon his work without being annoyed by talking or outside influence." Many paintings have been mentioned in the local papers, mostly as having been sold at a "handsome compensation." One was reported sold at $500, another at $1,000.

Tuttle was an outdoorsman, frequently hunting, fishing and catching prize specimens in the lakes around his home, so his paintings reflected the views that he saw. Many households in Geneva have these sketches since there were hundreds of them done during his lifetime. His surviving son, Hammond B. Tuttle, grew up to be a photographic artist and fisherman as well.

Tuttle was known to have traveled to Rochester to visit the Western New York Institute for Deaf Mutes (now Rochester School for the Deaf) where the superintendent was interested in buying one of his larger paintings "to illustrate to our students that great works can be accomplished by one less fortunate than themselves." By this I suppose the superintendent meant that his students had more ability to speak and use spelled English than the artist. Also, the Geneva newspapers always wrote about him in the third person; never directly quoting or interviewing him.

F. M. Tuttle died suddenly at age 72 at his home on Friday, December 30, 1911. He had a slight stroke some six weeks previously and recovered, but that morning he shoveled the walk in front of his house, had gone inside and an hour later was found dead, probably of heart disease caused by overexertion.

By today's standards, F.M. Tuttle would be better known and thanks to the internet and telcommunications advances of today, be more widely recognized outside his small hometown.

Images courtesy of the Geneva Historical Society