By Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright
Does anybody out there know anything about Charles Tracy? How about A. E. Ensign? Ensign gave us a hint about Prescott's mystery artist, Tracy, but we need more information. Mysteries create more mysteries, but sometimes there is serendipity, the happy finding of clues strictly by chance.
The chance finding of a sixty-year-old document at the State Archives in Phoenix led this researcher to the first clue: A two-page report, filed in June of 1937, with this heading in the corner:
A.E. Ensign
Art, Yavapai County
County Guide
Written in 1937, under a WPA Writers' Project grant, Ensign's report described the work of three Prescott artists. At that time, Prescott had a population of under 6,000. It was the remote, rural, county seat of Yavapai County, which had only about 28,000 people. Nonetheless, Prescott boasted a radio station, two movie houses, and a taxi that would take you ten blocks for fifty cents! It also boasted a small community of artists.
In his flowery introductory paragraph, Mr. Ensign wrote about a flourishing group of artists in Prescott, Arizona. Certainly not an art colony but definitely a thriving supportive group: "Truly Western in spirit, what this school lacks in numbers is amply offset by a sincerity of purpose and a fidelity to fitting ideals that have taken form in productions of real merit and lasting worth." In other words they were pretty good artists.
Ensign proceeded to describe the work of Kate Cory, Clara Dooner Phillips, and Charles Tracy.
We have heard of the women: Kate Cory, and Clara Dooner Phillips. We also know about Lillian Wilhelm Smith, Mabel Lloyd Lawrence and Ada Rigden: all flourishing artists in Yavapai County in the '30's (Why didn't Ensign mention them?). Bob Stragnell wrote about each of them in a 1995, Phippen Museum publication, Five Ladies of Prescott. But who is this Charles Tracy? Is he a masculine thorn among those colorful feminine roses.
Ensign's description is tantalizing: "A recent and most valuable acquisition of this little colony is Charles Tracy, a landscape artist who acquired distinction during his years of residence in the French colonies of Africa and the South Seas. His "Tahiti Sketches" are hung in the galleries of Paris and Milan, and his "Sahara Sands" grace[s] the walls of the British Museum." Intriguing.
Where are these paintings today? How did this world traveler happen to land in Prescott? Would we consider his work to have artistic merit today? Did he teach art? Who were his friends? When did he leave? Unanswered questions abound.
Ensign went on to describe Tracy's local work: "In the fullest sense a creative artist, now drawing his inspiration from the granite-ribbed hills of Yavapai and the serenity of their pine-clad heights, he has already contributed three Arizona studies which have attracted much favorable comment; "Thumb Butte in Storm" and "Oak Creek Canyon" being particularly noteworthy." We must forgive Ensign's run-on sentence and concentrate on the picture it gives us of Charles Tracy's work. We wish there were more.
Ensign closes this piece with a rather flamboyant description of the Oak Creek Canyon painting: "The gorgeous tropic coloring of the latter composition places the stamp of true genius upon the work of this master of Nature's moods." Don't you wish you could see for yourself this painting of the trees and stream of Oak Creek in "gorgeous tropic coloring"? We simply do not know enough about Charles G. Tracy.
The Prescott section of the1938, Arizona Business Directory lists, "Tracy, Chas.G, artist, 304 1st." First Street is in Miller Valley, the Dexter School area. The house at 304 is no longer there. Mr. Tracy must have moved away as there is no listing for him in the City Directories of 1941 or 1948. Nor does his name appear in cemetery records.
On the other hand, we find listings for Mr. Ensign both those years: "Ensign, Arthur E., Salesman, r. 232 N. Marina." Records show he was interred in Mountain View Cemetery on February 17, 1955. How did salesman Ensign happen to write for the WPA? What else has he written?
I'm looking for some more serendipity here. If you know anything about Charles G. Tracy or A. E. Ensign, please call Nancy Wright at 445-4967. Wouldn't it be splendid if we unearthed some paintings or writings from these men?
Nancy Kirkpatrick Wright, Retired Librarian from Yavapai College, is active in Prescott Art Docents and Sharlot Hall Museum. Her research these days usually combines her interests in art, Southwestern history, and pioneer women.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (la101pa). Reuse only by permission.
The majesty of clouds like this over Thumb Butte inspired Charles Tracy to document it on canvas in the 1930s. However, there does not seem to be any record of Tracy or his work beyond a description in a WPA Writers' Project.