Field of Flowers (Flowers of the Northwoods)

Celebrated in his day as an American Monet, Alfred Juergens had to convince his father Ludwig, a stern Prussian immigrant, to allow him to attend the Chicago Academy of Design in 1881. Before that, he had worked as a clerk in the family-owned paint company: L. Juergens & Sons Paints. When his father died and left the family in comfortable circumstances, Alfred’s mother encouraged him to become an artist. She gave him money to travel and study art in the great European capitals. By 1886, he settled in Munich and gained admission into the Munich Royal Academy. Though the studies were rigorous, he flourished in the Bavarian town and was elected as a member of the Munich Artists Association and the Artist’s Association of Germany. In these early stages of his career, Juergens painted in the tradition of the Dutch Baroque genre painters; he employed a dark palette, dramatic lighting, and favored themes of peasant life and portraits. After Munich, he went to Paris (1889-1892). Not surprisingly, while in Paris he embraced Impressionism, adopting a brighter palette and looser style of brushwork. Eventually, he would make Oak Park, Illinois his home.

Juergens collected many awards throughout his career, such as the 1884 Silver Medal from the Munich Royal Academy and the Bronze Medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. He also participated in the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago by painting murals for the Illinois State Building.

The Union League Club painting, Field of Flowers, was exhibited in 1917 at the twenty-first Annual Chicago Artist’s Exhibition. It was also selected for the 1966 Centennial Exhibition, the Works of Alfred Juergens, 1866-1934, held at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts in Michigan. It has been suggested that the painting features the abundant wildflowers in Michigan known as fireweeds that thrive in forest areas afflicted by past fires.