Tag: Machen

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Artists of Toledo

Digital restorations of Machen’s Stations

Station 14, before and after. Layers of damage embedded in the 14th Station created its own expression.

William H. Machen, Toledo’s first known artist, made these paintings between 1866 and 1873 for the St. Francis Parish in Toledo. Decades ago, a fire at the church damaged the paintings. Poor restoration caused the paintings further damage, hence, sometime in late 2007 they were crated and put in storage.

Station 1 original damaged painting, partially crated and shown here in 2010 in the St. Francis sacristy, and the digitally restored version in 2021.

In 2010, when I began this website, I went to see the damaged paintings. Soon after, I met William Machen’s great-nephew, James Machen. James hired me to photograph the damaged paintings in 2012. I put them on this website and we tried to garner interest in the restoration of the original paintings.

Jim Machen with his retouched rendition of Station 4.

When it didn’t seem likely that we would be able to restore the originals, Jim learned how to digitally retouch a set of low-res files of the photos and made a 24″ set of prints of the 14 paintings. This set ended up in a church in the Philippines. Sadly, in November 2020, James Machen passed away.

Then in December 2020, an architect working on the renovation of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Genoa, Ohio found my webpage about the paintings. The church’s priest contacted me about making large digital restorations of the paintings to hang in their church, which was a tremendous honor.

Holding the finished canvas of Station 4 (right); photograph of the original damaged painting in 2012.
Dale, the caretaker at St. Francis shown with the damaged original painting of Station 11, and my self-portrait with Station 12 in 2012, next to the 2021 digitally restored images.

My 54″ digital restorations of the paintings are layered with the patina of their distinct 150-year history.  The paintings are important to our history because they are painted by Toledo’s first known artist for Toledo’s first Catholic church. They were taken down by the church in 2007 and crated. Their fate was up in the air. But now, 15 years later, William H. Machen’s images hang once again on local church walls as they were originally intended. They have a new life in the beautiful, renovated Our Lady of Lourdes Church in the nearby town of Genoa.

Perhaps this story will inspire a way to restore the original paintings, which would entail hundreds of hours and as well as (guessing) about a hundred thousand dollars. The varnish would have to be removed and the flaking paint would have to be scraped off and re-painted. With my digital restorations, the best that I could do by using photography and technology combined with the finest archival art materials to instill them with artistic and historic integrity, William H. Machen’s paintings can once again be appreciated by the public.

It’s a great accomplishment for artistsoftoledo.com’s 11th year in terms of our mission to remember Toledo’s art history.

Standing next to Station 5 with Keith, who is making custom oak frames for the Stations, and Father Ferris at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in May 2021.
The stations were installed in the church with digitally controlled focused lights that make them glow like stained glass windows.

More about William H. Machen and James Machen here:

Tribute to James Machen (1929 – 2020)

William H. Machen (1832-1911)

Categories
Artists of Toledo

Tribute to James Machen (1929 – 2020)

The Blade 1999 photo used for James Machen's online news obituary.

James Machen died on November 7, 2020 at the age of 91. Thanks to James Machen, a member of one of the oldest families in Toledo, we have paintings showing how Toledo looked at the very beginning. His great uncle, William H. Machen was Toledo’s earliest known artist, who migrated from Holland to Toledo in 1848. James Machen actively preserved his ancestor’s artwork and history. In doing so, he greatly honored his family, while also greatly honoring his community.

James Machen’s obituary, The Blade, November 11, 2020
James Machen and William Machen’s Painting Number 1. April 18, 2010.
David and Jim Machen posing next to their ancestor’s painting of the Ten-Mile Creek. February 19, 2012.
Jim Machen with his restored rendition of William Machen’s Station No. 4,  April 16, 2015.
Jim Machen’s William Machen’s restored Station No. 1 in a church in the Philippines, 2018.

Toledo in 1852 by William H. Machen. Gift to the Toledo Lucas County Public Library by James Machen in 1999.
Chosen for James Machen’s online Blade news obituary is this very official yet very poignant photo from 1999 of the Toledo Lucas County Library commemorating James Machen and his gift of this painting, Toledo in 1852. 

James Machen’s family history going back to the twelfth century:

William H. Machen obituary, Toledo Times, 1911
Categories
Artists of Toledo

William Machen, Toledo’s First Artist

This is William Machen’s painting, Central Ave. Bridge, of the Ten-Mile Creek Crossing Central Avenue in Toledo right south of where the Jeep factory used to be, in the living room of the artist’s descendants, Jim and David Machen.
That’s David Machen standing in front of the painting, holding a Blade article from 1970 about the expressway coming through that beautiful wooded area.
Closeup of the Blade photo.
Where the cows are standing (1875), is probably where the Jeep factory would be built 50 years later.
About 60 year after the Jeep factory was built and nine years after the Blade photo was taken, here’s Tom, my husband, on top of the Jeep Administration building one month before it was imploded in 1979. Photographing Tom at the Jeep Administration Building was our first “date.”

We had brunch with the Machens today to discuss how we can try to save and restore Machen’s severely damaged stations of the cross paintings at St. Francis de Sales Parish. These paintings are such an important part of Toledo’s history. We need to write letters and raise money for the restoration. We think we know a good home for them. Machen was Toledo’s first artist.