Elmer Wachtel

Elmer Wachtel (1864-1929) was an American painter who lived and worked in Southern California. He was known for his impressionist landscapes.

Wachtel was born in Baltimore, Maryland upon January 21, 1864. He moved to California in 1882 to live following his brother, who was committed in San Gabriel. Wachtel worked as a ranch hand and as a furniture deposit clerk though saving child support to attend art school. He then worked as a violinist, playing for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles. Wachtel was largely self-taught as a painter. He studied at the Art Students' League in New York for two months and then cutting edge at the Lambeth School of Art in London. Wachtel married sculptor Marion Kavanagh in 1904; the two lived in the Arroyo Seco region of Los Angeles. Wachtel was known for painting California's landscapes, rather than European landscapes. On August 31, 1929, Wachtel died hurriedly while on a painting trip in Guadalajara, Mexico.

During World War I, Wachtel became an informant for the U.S. Department of Justice by reporting to federal conduct yourself authorities alleged pro-German and antiwar statements by forward looking socialists and fellow artists.

Hollywood Bohemia: The Roots of Progressive Politics in Rob Wagner's Script by Rob Leicester Wagner (Janaway Publishing, 2016) (ISBN 978-1-59641-369-6)