Joseph Tomanek

Untitled (Autumn Landscape, Pumpkin Patch), ca. 1920s

Oil on canvas, in original frame

25 x 30 inches (framed 30 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches)

Signed Jos. Tomanek, lower right

#21844

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Joseph Tomanek was born in the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia in 1889. He began his studies at the School of Design in Prague. He emigrated to America around the turn of the century and arrived in Chicago in 1910 and worked as an interior decorator. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied with Antonin Sterba, Albert Krehbiel and Karl Albert Buehr. He traveled to Paris where he continued his painting by renting a small studio there.

Tomanek was best known for his highly finished female figure paintings, and studio nudes. He also painted atmospheric landscapes, often depicting the picturesque views around his summer studio in the Ogden Dunes of Porter County, Indiana.. He often painted colorful floral still lives, and religious works of which many were commissioned for Chicago's numerous Roman Catholic churches. One of his murals, 50 feet long, was installed at the altar of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Forest Park, IL. He was also a commercial artist of billboard advertisements.

Tomanek was a member of the Bohemian Artist Club, Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors, and the Chicago Gallery Association. His work is included in the collection of the Vanderpoel Art Association (Chicago). He exhibited from the 1910s-40s, including exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Georgia Museum of Art.

Sources:
Paul Gilbert, Sunday Chicago Sun, July 15, 1945
Peter Hastings Falk (Editor), Who Was Who in American Art