Charles McLaughlin

works available

Biography

(American, Kentucky b. 1888 - d. 1964)

Charles J. (Jasper) McLaughlin was born to Edward Ball McLaughlin (1852-1911) and Nancy Waller Sandford McLaughlin (1852-1945) on June 6, 1888. He attended Covington High School (now Holmes High School) in Covington, Kentucky followed by the Art Academy in Cincinnati, Ohio. While a student at the Art Academy, he took classes from well-known Covington artist Frank Duveneck. McLaughlin had a diverse career as an artist and architect. From 1913-1920, McLaughlin worked at Cincinnati’s Rookwood Pottery designing pottery. His pieces can be identified by the mark of his initials ‘CJM’ on their bases. In 1916, McLaughlin designed his own home on Riverside Drive (previously Front Street) in Covington, Kentucky. In 1925, he studied architecture at the Fontainebleau Schools of Music and Fine Arts in Fontainebleau, France and returned there in 1939 for further study. He also spent time studying and traveling throughout Europe, including Spain, Italy, Greece, and Belgium. In the late 1920s, McLaughlin taught architecture at Texas A&M as a substitute professor for a friend who was on an extended sabbatical. For about twenty years, McLaughlin spent six months of each year at his winter home in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico. After selling his home in Mexico around 1955, he wintered in Twentynine Palms, California. Both locations served as inspirations for his artwork and their surrounding landscapes are prominently featured in his landscape paintings. McLaughlin also painted portraits, mostly oil on canvas, of family members, friends, and other acquaintances. McLaughlin was a member of the Christopher Gist Historical Society, the Cincinnati Art Club, and the MacDowell Society of Cincinnati.

In 1915, Charles J. McLaughlin married Dorothy Kellogg, who was born to Charles H. Kellogg, Jr. and Mary Guernsey Clark Kellogg in 1888. Dorothy’s father had been president of Third National Bank, which merged with Fifth National Bank to become what is presently known as 5/3 Bank. Dorothy and Charles had two children: Ralph (nicknamed Ruffie), born in 1916, and Nancy, born in 1917. Dorothy died in 1922 at the age of 34 and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

In 1934, McLaughlin married his second wife, Lucy Stearns Keys. Her grandfather, George Stearns, was a founding partner in The Stearns and Foster Company, which owned a textile mill and operated a mattress-manufacturing plant. Lucy was the widow of Pierson Douglas Keys (died 1927), whom she had married in 1907. They probably lived on Reilly Road in Wyoming, Ohio prior to Pierson’s death. Charles J. McLaughlin and Lucy eventually divorced. Lucy died in 1963 and was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio. Charles J. McLaughlin died in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1964 and was buried next to his first wife Dorothy in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Exhibitions:

1938 Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, OH)

1938 Morton Galleries (New York City, NY)

1938 Getz-Brown Galleries (Cincinnati, OH)

1938 Warwick Galleries (Philadelphia, PA)

1939 Duke Galleries (Philadelphia, PA)

1939 The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

1939 The Art Institute (Zanesville, OH)

1939 Betty Brown Gallery (Cincinnati, OH)

1940 Betty Brown Gallery (Cincinnati, OH)

1940 The Butler Art Institute (Youngstown, OH)

1941 Betty Brown Gallery (Cincinnati, OH)

1943 Loring Andrews Galleries (Cincinnati, OH)

1946 Loring Andrews Galleries (Cincinnati, OH)