Leaving an impression was easy for California Impressionist painter Joseph Kleitsch. Notoriously sociable and admired by many, Kleitsch left his mark in Laguna Beach amid a prolific career that saw him follow his artistic impulses to many beautiful locations.
Arriving in the US from Hungary in 1902, Kleitsch eventually set his sights on the strong and clear light of Laguna Beach in 1920 after making a name for himself with still-life paintings and masterful portraits. His new surroundings inspired an abundance of colorful landscape paintings and street scenes born from his love for Laguna’s charming village, where he joined the Laguna Beach Art Association (now Laguna Art Museum.) From The Old Post Office to the glistening coastlines, Kleitsch purposefully chronicled Laguna Beach’s history and established himself as one of California’s very best artists along the way.
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Joseph Kleitsch
Joseph Kleitsch was an important California Impressionist painter who was born in Hungary in 1882. In 1902, at the age of nineteen, Kleitsch left Hungary and made his way to the United States. Much of Kleitsch’s work in this early period was in the form of small still-life paintings, which could be sold cheaply and quickly while he concentrated on perfecting his portrait skills.
In 1920, Kleitsch and his wife Edna settled in Laguna Beach. A close friend of Edgar Payne (1883-1947), who was the first president of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918, Kleitsch was immediately welcomed in the organization. A sociable and admired artist, he knew many of the members including William Wendt (1865-1946) and Anna Hills (1882-1930).
Although he was well established as a portrait and still-life painter, Kleitsch was quite taken by the strong and clear light of Laguna Beach and started to paint landscapes and street scenes. One of these historic views is The Old Post Office, at the time located near the northeast corner of present-day Laguna Avenue and Coast Highway. The painting shows the front porch of Nicholas Isch’s (1864-1951) general store that also served at the town’s first post office.
In the summer of 1924, he painted several works at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. That same year, Kleitsch painted two nearly identical views of “downtown” Laguna titled Laguna Road I and Laguna Road II. These show just a few stores and buildings along the unpaved Coast Boulevard, today the Pacific Coast Highway. The road was finally paved in October 1926.
On February 6, 1926, Kleitsch sailed to Europe. He painted in Paris, Normandie and in Claude Monet’s home village of Giverny and nearby Vernon. In Spain, he painted in Madrid and Seville. He also visited Italy, England, Austria, Hungary, and Romania. He returned to America in November 1927. In all, he had been away for twenty-two months.
Joseph Kleitsch died at the age of forty-nine on November 16, 1931, in Santa Ana, California. He was struck down by a heart attack in front of the Santa Ana Courthouse and was laid to rest at the Angeles Abbey Memorial Park in Compton, California. Yet, his superb art lives on and with each passing year, his unique role as a chronicler of old Laguna adds to his standing among the very best of California’s artists.
Curatorial Fellow and Guest Curator Jean Stern
“A recognized authority on California Impressionism, Art Historian Jean Stern has extensive experience in the field as an author, curator, lecturer, and teacher. He is a Director Emeritus of the The Irvine Museum and Senior Curator of California Impressionism at the The Institute and Museum of California Art at the University of California, Irvine.
In over twenty-five years at the museum, he has established a national presence for the Irvine Museum in the fields of California Art and History through a noteworthy international series of books, exhibitions, lectures, articles and video documentaries. In his career, he has presented over 250 lectures and judged and juried nearly 100 art competitions.
Mr. Stern has written essays for over 25 books and museum exhibition catalogues, such as all three PLEIN AIR PAINTERS OF CALIFORNIA series of books; GUY ROSE: American Impressionist; ENCHANTED ISLE: A History of Painting on Santa Catalina Island; FRANZ A. BISCHOFF: The Life and Art of an American Master, 2010; CALIFORNIA LIGHT: One Hundred Years of the California Art Club, with Molly Siple, 2011; ART OF THE NATIONAL PARKS, with Susan Hallsten McGarry and Terry Lawson Dunn, 2013; WINDOWS IN TIME: The Hilbert Collection of California Scene Painting, 2016; and PAINTING CALIFORNIA co-authored with Molly Siple, 2017.
Mr. Stern has presented tours and lectures on California Art in numerous museum including the
International Cultural Center, Krakow, Poland; Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris, France; National Academy Museum in New York; Terra Museum in Chicago; Los Angeles County Art Museum; the Mission San Juan Capistrano; San Diego Museum of Art; Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Gibbes Museum in Charleston; Brigham Young University Museum; Autry National Western Heritage Center; The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and many others. He was a consultant to and appears in IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA, a PBS documentary video series on art in California, and on PLEIN AIR: PAINTING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, (PBS 2007).
Since 1992, the Irvine Museum with Jean Stern as director, has produced a number of traveling exhibitions, including SELECTIONS FROM THE IRVINE MUSEUM (1993 and 2010); ROMANCE OF THE BELLS, The California Missions in Art (1995); GUY ROSE, AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST (1995-1996), CALIFORNIA IMPRESSIONISTS (1996, an official event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad); IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA (1996), accompanied by a PBS documentary series and MASTERS OF LIGHT (2002) the first international traveling exhibition of California Impressionist paintings, shown in Paris, Krakow, and Madrid.
In 2017, Mr. Stern received the prestigious CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ARTS AND LETTERS by the French Ministry of Culture. He has also been presented with three LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association in 2013; by the Plein Air Painters of America in 2014; and by PLEIN AIR MAGAZINE, at the Third Annual Plein Air Convention in Monterey, CA, in 2014.”
Since 1992, the Irvine Museum with Jean Stern as director, has produced a number of traveling exhibitions, including SELECTIONS FROM THE IRVINE MUSEUM (1993 and 2010); ROMANCE OF THE BELLS, The California Missions in Art (1995); GUY ROSE, AMERICAN IMPRESSIONIST (1995-1996), CALIFORNIA IMPRESSIONISTS (1996, an official event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Cultural Olympiad); IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA (1996), accompanied by a PBS documentary series and MASTERS OF LIGHT (2002) the first international traveling exhibition of California Impressionist paintings, shown in Paris, Krakow, and Madrid.
In 2017, Mr. Stern received the prestigious CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ARTS AND LETTERS by the French Ministry of Culture. He has also been presented with three LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: by the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association in 2013; by the Plein Air Painters of America in 2014; and by PLEIN AIR MAGAZINE, at the Third Annual Plein Air Convention in Monterey, CA, in 2014.
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