E. Martin Hennings (1886-1956) Born Penns Grove, NJ – Died Taos, NM
-IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES BY OUR TEAM-
March 2026 Ai search:
“What other artists worked with George Hamilton Thomas Studios besides Grell?
While Louis Grell was the primary muralist for the studio’s high-profile Detroit commissions, George Hamilton Thomas Studios functioned as a collaborative commercial art firm. Records indicate that several other prominent artists from the Chicago art scene worked under or alongside Thomas:
: A close associate of Grell and a future member of the famous Taos Society of Artists. Hennings and Grell frequently collaborated on studio commissions in the 1920s.
: Another member of the Taos Society who was part of the same Chicago artistic circle (The Palette and Chisel Club) that supplied talent for the Thomas Studios.
: Like Hennings and Higgins, Ufer was a peer of Grell who worked in the same professional network of “studio-for-hire” muralists before achieving independent fame.
Anthony Spalthoff: A German-born sculptor who often handled the three-dimensional ornamentation for the studio’s projects, including architectural sculpture for theaters and banks.
The “Studio” Attribution
It is common for individual names to be missing from architectural records of this era. Because the George Hamilton Thomas Studios operated as a business, contracts were typically signed in the company name. Murals were often painted on canvas in the Chicago studio and then shipped to Detroit to be installed by local artisans, leading many historical sources to simply credit “The George Hamilton Thomas Studios” for the entire project. Walter Ufer (1876-1936) and Hennings were neighbors in Chicago before Hennings went to Europe to study. Their address is the same indicating they may have lived under the same roof in 1910 (U.S. Census report).”
Eugene Savage (1883-1978) had an award celebration in Munich before coming to Chicago for the official American fancy award celebration on August 1, 1912. Our team believes that Ernest Blumenschein (1874-1960) is the gentleman seated to the right of Eugene Savage as viewed (c1912 Savage award celebration Munich photo).
Hennings painted the murals inside the Florentine Room at the Congress Plaza Hotel c1920.
Hennings described his work as “representational and realistic” and that he loved a “sense of design a feeling of the decorative, good drawing and able craftsmanship” while continuing that “modernism has taken the ascendancy in the art world with abstraction dominant but I can not overthrow the traditions of the past (E. Martin Hennings, Taos New Mexico, letter to Mrs. Barnes, March 10, 1954).”
Also visit our Colleagues & Contemporaries page for further related information including Grell’s wedding day photo that includes Martin and Mabel (Helen) Otte before they were married which establishes that they actually met before most researchers claim. We strongly believe that Helen is the woman standing next to him in that 1922 photo.
Credit E. Martin Hennings papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institute; U.S. Census Bureau; Grell Family archives and general research by LG Foundation staff.
watch the Louis Frederick Grell video here
