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The Lost Lamb, from Leonard Marion Bahr's illustrated "23rd Psalm of David," 1933. Pencil. 9 1/2" x 17". Private collection.
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Florence Riefle Bahr, by Leonard Marion Bahr, 1936. Oil on canvas. 16" x 20". Private collection.
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Dantini, by Leonard Marion Bahr, 1974. Red conté and white pastel. 18" x 24." Signed "Leonard Bahr '74." Private collection.
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Medium/Discipline: Painting, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Lansdowne, Maryland
Place of Death: Elkridge, Maryland
Maryland Affiliation: Born here, Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Portraits; Figural; Biblical Subjects
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: White
Biography: Leonard Marion Bahr was a prolific portrait painter as well as a painting teacher for 52 years at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Bahr was born at 743 Columbia Avenue in Lansdowne, Maryland at his grandmother's house. At age 12 he worked at his grandmother's florist business making funeral wreaths for the victims of the influenza epidemic. By the early 1920's, he was hired as an illustrator and retouched photographs at the Lynchburg Engraving Co. in Virginia. He also designed advertisements for local Lynchburg businesses. Returning to Baltimore City, he was hired on at the Lord Baltimore Printing Co., but soon enrolled at the Maryland Institute Evening School in 1926. Because he showed promising talent, Bahr was granted stipends by Institute faculty members Henry Roben and Hans Schuler to continue his education in its Day School. Upon graduation in 1929, he was awarded a European Traveling Scholarship from the Institute, and returned to the U.S. at the start of the Great Depression. He continued at the Institute as a post-graduate student and as an assistant teacher in cast drawing and painting for Henry Roben, all the while developing his portraiture talent.
Leonard Bahr always painted from life unless the commission was a memorial. One of his first commissions was of Baltimore Mayor James Preston in 1930. Because of his Christian faith, his heart's desire was to paint Biblical subjects for "the church," which he accomplished. By 1933, he had illustrated and printed his own interpretation of the 23rd Psalm of David. He painted the altar painting of "Jesus at Gethsamene" permanently installed at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Lansdowne. Many paintings over the years included Biblical themes or were portraits of clergy, as in the portrait of Episcopal Bishop Noble C. Powell which hangs in the Maryland Diocesen House.
In 1934, Leonard Bahr married Florence Riefle, also an aspiring artist and co-student at the Institute. They both received work from the Public Works Administration to paint murals for public institutions. Two of Leonard Bahr's biggest murals (1934) were commissioned to depict the history of Catonsville and Rolling Road; both hung in the Catonsville High School library until reported missing by an unauthorized and unknown removal. To this day, the missing murals remain a mystery. The murals depicted slaves transporting huge hogsheads of tobacco by rolling them from plantation to seaport along Rolling Road.
In 1943, Bahr was commissioned a Naval officer, graduating from the Officer Training School at Ohio State University, and by 1945, attained rank of Lieutenant, teaching "recognition" and "gunnery" in Hollywood and Jacksonville, Florida. By 1947, after the war, Leonard and Florence Bahr had three children, and had moved from Baltimore City to an historic house in Elkridge, where they later built their new home and studios. Still in the Naval Reserve, Bahr retired completely from the Navy in 1953, with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
It was during the 1940s that Bahr became a nationally known portrait painter. He exhibited work in many shows, judged other artists in competitions, held memberships and directorships, and taught art. He admired Robert Brackman (1898-1980), Russian-born portrait painter who was a contemporary of Bahr's and who incorporated still lifes into his portrait compositions. In the late 1950s, Brackman was an exhibition judge at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and was photographed with a portrait by Bahr that was on view at the Gallery. Both Bahr and his wife pursued a lifetime of creative expression through art: Leonard Bahr focused largely on portraiture, completing hundreds as commissions over the course of his career, and though Florence was commissioned portraits, she explored the media of printmaking and sculpture. Of his approach to portrait painting, Bahr was concerned with meeting his approval and then that of his patron's; he also felt "...that portraiture must have merit as design, in addition to its being a likeness...." He once said, "'[A]ll works contain the application of certain basic aesthetic laws in common to give them a sense of divine order.'" (Winslow, 1964, p. 29) A. D. Emmart, art critic of the Baltimore Sun, wrote of Bahr's portraiture that, "[He] paints realistically, but the aura of his work is romantic in that he seems to discover in each of his sitters some pleasant, lively, and particular secret or mystery which is not so much to be found, explored, and revealed, but to be caught and recorded." (referenced in Dawson, 1982, p. 13)
Throughout his career, Bahr depicted hundreds of Maryland residents, both those active in public life and those lesser known. Leonard Bahr's skill as a draughtsman is evident in the image to the left of Dantini, a Baltimore magician who did magic tricks in a downtown bar and posed as a model for extra money. Many artists at the Maryland Institute drew him because Dantini often spent time on campus.
Bahr retired as painting professor from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1980 with honors. In the 1980s, Leonard Bahr was featured in a video called "A Painter's Portrait" in which he expresses his thoughts as an artist and does a painting demonstration. Leonard passed away in 1990 and his wife, Florence, passed away in their house studio by fire on January 12, 1998, which also destroyed some, but not all, of their artistic legacy together.
Leonard Bahr's work is represented in many museums, churches, hospitals, corporate and private collections and government entities in the local region and across the nation, including the following:
- The Baltimore Museum of Art (drawing)
- Baltimore Zoo, Reptile House, Baltimore, Maryland (murals; House closed).
- Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, Annapolis, Maryland.
- Catonsville High School, Catonsville, Maryland (Murals missing after 1946).
- Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
- Douglass High School, Baltimore, Maryland.
- 1st English Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Francis Scott Key School, Locust Point, Maryland.
- Holy Comforter Church, Lutherville, Maryland.
- Maryland State House.
- The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland (Five portraits: Drs. Bergland, Nelson, Finney & Friedenwald, and an unknown girl in the children's wing.)
- The Elkridge Club, Baltimore, Maryland.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, Lansdowne, Maryland.
- Fifth Regiment Armory, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Maryland Club, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Maryland Diocesan House, Baltimore, Maryland.
- McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland (formerly Western Maryland College.
- Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Noxell Corporation, Cockeysville, Maryland.
- The Park School, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, Maryland.
- St. Johns Lutheran Church, Linthicum, Maryland.
- Salem Evangelical Lutheran Church, Baltimore, Maryland.
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
- The Thomas J. S. Waxter Children's Center, Laurel, Maryland.
- Timonium Presbyterian Church, Timonium, Maryland.
- Towson Court House, Towson, Maryland.
- Union Memorial Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland.
- U.S.O. Council of Greater Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland (A painting of its founder).
- The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, The Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Collection.
- University of Maryland, Medical School, Baltimore City Campus.
Education/Training: Maryland Institute College of Art
Taught By: Henry Roben
Art-related Employment: illustrator; graphic designer; art instructor/teacher; portraitist
Professional affiliations include:
Maryland Institute Evening School Faculty from 1929 to 1980 (cast drawing, painting).
Maryland Institute Day School Faculty from 1946 to 1980 (drawing, painting, anatomy).
Director, Maryland Institute of Art - Glen Burnie Branch.
Maryland Institute Alumni Association Board
Charcoal Club
Corcoran Art Gallery Annual Association Member
Artists Association of Baltimore
American Artists Professional League, Inc.
Artists Committee of The Baltimore Museum of Art
Artists Equity Association, Inc. - Maryland Chapter
Co-operative Artists of Maryland
Catonsville High School Faculty
Metropolitan School of Art Faculty
Mountain Club of Maryland
Other Employment: Winslow Fund Trustee - Maryland State Department of Education; Naval Officer, Lieutenant Commander
Selected References: Dawson, Jack. "A Family of Artists," The Baltimore Sun Magazine, January 10, 1982, p. 10-13.
Interview with Mary Bahr, Daughter of the Artist, June 2005.
_____. "Leonard M. Bahr," Findagrave.com.
Maryland State House. Portrait of Daniel Carroll by Leonard Bahr hangs in the Annapolis State House, First Floor.
Winslow, Leon L. "The Portraits of Leonard Bahr," American Artist, December 1964, 28:10, pp. 26-31, 74.
Maryland Institutions Holding Artworks: The Baltimore Museum of Art (drawing); see comprehensive list above within "Biography"
Maryland Institutions Holding Autobiographical Resources, Archives, Personal Papers, Ephemera, or Other Primary Source Material: Maryland Historical Society "Bahr Family Collection 1928-2001" (6 oversize folders, 2 folders; Summary: The bulk of the Bahr Family Collection relates to Baltimore area artists)
Single-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1952.
Retrospective, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1980.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: partial list:
Academy Art Museum of Easton, Easton, Maryland
Artist's Equity
The Baltimore Museum of Art
Charcoal Club
Cleveland Memorial Gallery
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corner Theatre
Goucher College, Towson, Maryland
Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland
Howard County Community College, Columbia, Maryland
Howard County Department of Education
Howard County Public Library
IFA Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Jewish Community Center, Baltimore, Maryland
exhib
Loyola College
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art Alumni Assoc
.
Maryland State Arts Council
McDonogh School, Tuttle Gallery
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
One Charles Center
Parish Hall Gallery, Baltimore
Peale Museum
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.
Playhouse Theatre
Three Arts Club of Homeland, Baltimore, Maryland
Vertical Gallery
Womans' Club of Roland Park, Baltimore, Maryland
Awards: Maryland Institute European Traveling Scholarship and George Peabody Award, 1929.
Corcoran Gallery 12th Annual Award, 1957.
Clinton F. Gerhardt Memorial Award, 1963.
National Gallery Critics Choice Award.
Conrad Protzman Memorial Award, 1966.
The Baltimore Museum of Art.
Maryland Institute of Art Alumni Annual Exhibitions.
The Savings Bank of Baltimore Award - first prize, 1960.
Central Savings Bank - first prize, 1964.
MICA - 50 Years of Service Award Commencement Medal, 1980.
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