The Sweetness of Freedom: Stories of Immigrants

I Have a Beautiful Country to Work From

Mathias J. Alten, an Artist from Germany I Have a Beautiful Country to Work From A lmost one and half million people came from Germany to the United States in the 1880s, the peak decade of German immigration. Most settled in the Midwest. They sought economic opportunity as well as religious and political freedom. As a united Germany built up its army, large numbers of young men emigrated to avoid military service. Mathias J. Alten was one of those immigrants. He was born in Gusenburg, Germany, in 1871. At the age of fourteen, he began working as an apprentice to an artist, painting decorations on ceilings and walls in churches and theaters. When he was seventeen years old, he immigrated to Michigan with his family—his father, Michael, a schoolteacher, his mother, Maria, and his brother and sister. His father wanted him to have greateropportunitiestobecomeanartist.Theysailedonthesteamship Pennland from Antwerp, Belgium, to New York, arriving on January 25, 1889. Mathias and his family first went to Ferrysburg, Michigan, where other relatives were already living. Then they moved to Grand Rapids, where many German, Polish, Irish, Dutch, and Scandinavian immigrants had settled. Grand Rapids was a large center for manufacturing furniture, 30 | MATHIAS J. ALTEN and Alten easily found work using his artistic skills to decorate furniture .Healsopaintedsignsanddecoratedthewallsofrestaurants. He painted murals in churches and scenery for theaters. Today you can see many of Alten paintings in public buildings around Grand Rapids. Alten had numerous exhibits of his works in Grand Rapids and as far away as Los Angeles. He had his first exhibit at the Michigan State Fair in 1896. Afterhemarried,heandhiswife,BerthaSchwind,tookoverher Self-Portrait with Pallet and Brushes. Oil on canvas, 45 × 36 in. Alten painted this self-portrait on the porch of his home at 1593 Fulton Street in Grand Rapids. He painted self-portraits to experiment with lighting and brushwork. COURTESY OF CHARLES AND CARMEN CORDER . PHOTOGRAPH BY CHUCK HEINEY. FROM GERMANY | 31 father’s business selling wallpaper, paint, artists’ supplies, pictures frames, and window shades. Alten also opened a studio and art school at 66 Pearl Street in Grand Rapids. Alten painted numerous portraits, landscapes, seascapes, and still lifes wherever he traveled—Florida, California, New Mexico, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. In Europe he painted in France,Spain,Holland,Germany,andItaly.Hepaintedextensively inwestMichiganandGrandRapids,includingmanybeautifulfarm scenes. His children and grandchildren were frequent subjects for his paintings. At one point Alten moved his family to New York, but after several months there, he realized it was not the place to raise his family. In an interview in the Grand Rapids Post in 1905, he said, “I have a beautiful country to work from . . . and there are no better cattle and horses in America I believe, than we have right here in Michigan. I feel I am . . . a better artist by staying here and working out my own ideas than if I were to pass my time in a luxurious studio in New York, with my fellow artists influencing my work.” Alten became a U.S. citizen in 1898. In 1899, he went to Paris to study at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colorossi. After studying there for almost a year, he returned to America, where he devoted the next forty years to serious painting. During the last years of his life, he stayed in Michigan and painted scenes in Grand Rapids, Ada, Saugatuck, and Leland, and several self-portraits. Mathias J. Alten died in Grand Rapids in 1938. Martha Aladjem (Climo) Bloomfield interviewed Mathias Alten’s granddaughter Gloria Alten Gregory at her home in Grand RapidsonOctober15,2002,whereMrs.Gregoryrecalledhergrandfather ’s life and work. Early Memories of Grandfather Alten I knew my grandfather personally for the first twelve years of my life and the last twelve years of his life until his death at the age of sixty-seven. My memories are of my grandfather in his studio, smoking a 32 | MATHIAS J. ALTEN cigar. I didn’t really know that he was an artist. I just knew that he worked in his studio all the time and that he was always busy painting pictures. He definitely was a quiet man, yet things were always happening around him. However, he never liked being the center of attention . He had a wonderful wit and sense of humor. I can remember him thoroughly enjoying the company of others. Laughing and telling jokes, he seemed to be a very personable man. I know he had definite opinions about religion...