Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-07-06
HERMIT ARTIST
WILL EXHIBIT
CARL EYTEL ONCE MORE IN
CIVILIZATION
NOTED SNAKE PAINTER ABOUT
TO GIVE DISPLAY
Lives Most Isolated Existence, Sur
rounded by Venomous Reptiles,
and Is Extremely Popular
Among the Indians

Carl Eytel the noted hermit artist
of the desert" arrived in Los Angeles
yesterday for the purpose Of arrang-
Ing for an art exhibit in this city and
In Pasadena.
Mrs. Martha M. Newkirk. a we'll
known society woman of the Crown
City, has taken a great interest in
Mr.. Eytel's work and personally is
promoting his exhibit in the latter
city.
This well known artist is one Of the
most interesting characters Of the.
southwest. He is known and liked by
all the Indians and is conceded to be
one of the greatest living painters Of
reptiles and desert landscape. His
forte is in color and pose portrayal OF
the various forms of reptile life, for
which the great sand stretches of the
Mojave are famous. Two of his paint
ings, representing the "Sentinels of
the Sand" a group of yuccas, have
sold for substantial prices and are
now being exhibited in New York.
Eytel loves the desert, and comes
to civilization only when it is neces-
sary to replenish his paint kit or man
age some of the gross commercial
ends always attached even to the fine
arts.
This year he is going to attend the
Molsi snake dances in Arizona, and
number of the savages there, with
whom the German artist has made
himself particularly popular, have
agreed to grant him special sittings,
so that he hopes to be able to portray
In pigment all the peculiar details OF
this celebrated Indian ceremony.
He has Travelled afoot and by burro
over nearly every trail of the big
desert, and knows its beauty spots,
death traps and danger decisions per-
haps better than any man in the
southwest. He has passed about eight
years In constant travel from one Sec
ton Of the desert to another, and no
one Is more familiar with its peculiar
tiles, freaks forms of life and "fascin-
ating distances" than the German
reptile painter.
His favorite studio Is an adobe
tackal, PROFESSIONALLY deserted, or
some abandoned shack OF romanuc
though dilapidated appearance, tsolat-
ed, far from the haunts of men, In
some arid, sand-swept canyon, where
the formidable reptiles of the bleached
desert are plentiful.
For several months, however, Eytel
has made his headquarters at Palm
Springs, beautiful desert oasis which
has become noted as health resort.
There, In the shadow of the century,
old palms, he has pitched his easel
and piled his pigments day in. day out,
for many months, reproducing the at
mospheric phenomena and strange sky
and geologic appearances that to him
are rife with all the beauty and sub
Unity of a De Longpre flower garden.
Eytel is a native Of Stuttgart Ger
many, and has been a desert rat"
as he terms himself, ever since his ar
rival in America, about ten years ago.
He has no fear of rattlesnakes, and
almost every day can be seen at his
desert "studio" studying and repro
ducing on canvas the writings of some
angry rattlesnake which he leases into
the required pose.
He generally is surrounded by col
lection of ella monsters, chuccawallas,
tarantulas, green centipedes, various
kinds of snakes. ETC., and not infre-
quently, 1t Is said, a stranger coming
suddenly upon his isolated tent or
jackal, will be dumfounded to discover
a couple of coyotes staked out IN the
front yard or will find himself jump
ing sideways to avoid the reptiles that
crawl in and out the door.
But the artist has no fear OF the rep
tiles, and declares emphatically that
nearly all the so-called dangerous"
reptiles ara harmless, or, at least, not
dangerous unless tantalized. He says,
also, that a misunderstanding the
Mojave region rattler-ns far more
dangerous than any other excepting
the cobra di capella, or the monster
of Martinique"
ella monsters, he declares, do not
have fangs, and are not poisonous ex-
cept when the tartar from certain
kinds of undigested food accumulates
on their teeth and produces blood poi
soning.
The exhibit in Pasadena will consist
entirely of desert paintings. 1t is be-
lieved a similar exhibition will be ar
ranged here, and artists are looking
forward with much interest to the dis
play, as Eytel is practically alone In
his chosen field and is a recognized
master of desert reptile life,