A Portrait of Two Ephraim Artists
Mayble Holland (left), Jim (center), and Frieda Brenner (right). Photograph from the Ephraim Historical Foundation Archives
On September 24, 1903, Frieda Brenner was born to Theodore Otto Brenner and Frieda Reinemann. Frieda’s mother died shortly after birth, and was raised in Antigo, Wisconsin by Theodore’s second wife Emma Grimm. Between 1920-1924 (ages 17-22), Frieda moved out of her father and stepmother’s home in Antigo to live with her Aunt, Delia Reinemann, her biological mother’s sister. Now in Milwaukee, Frieda began apprenticing at a photography studio in 1924, listed as a retoucher in 1925, and in 1928 was listed as a printer in the Milwaukee City Directory. By 1940, Frieda owned and operated her own portrait studio in Wauwatosa, still living with her Aunt, as well as a woman named Mayble Holland.
Born June 12, 1894 in Sugar Run, Pennsylvania, Mayble Holland was daughter of Ada L. Burgess and John Holland. Mayble’s father died young in 1899, when she was just 5 years old, he was an arborist whose life was taken in a work-related accident. By 1910, Ada relocated the family to Nebraska, raising Mayble and her three siblings, Kate, Robert, and Lawrence on her own there. Mayble attended Midland College in Fremont, Nebraska and by 1920, Mayble had moved out of her mother’s home. Moving to Beatrice, Nebraska–Mayble found employment as a schoolteacher there. Three years later, she married Chas F. Williams on September 11, 1923 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. However, by 1930–the couple were divorced. Mayble went on to gain a Masters in Art Education from Columbia University in New York, as well as studying abroad in Europe in 1936. Mayble moved to Wisconsin in 1938, at the age of 43–where she supervised art education at Wauwatosa schools for over 20 years. In Wauwatosa, Mayble boarded with Delia Reinemann, and her niece Frieda Brenner.
Mayble and Frieda lived together for the remainder of their lives, first coming to Ephraim in 1939 on a vacation. The couple took a summer trip to Colorado to visit Mayble’s sister in 1941, where Frieda photographed everything from sweeping landscapes, to bear encounters, and simple group portraits. Beginning in 1954, Mayble began teaching Junior Art League lessons at the Pioneer Schoolhouse in Ephraim during the summer – and would continue to for the next 12 years. Mayble mentored Ephraim locals and summer residents alike and held regular exhibitions of student work at the schoolhouse. Delia Reinemann, Frieda’s Aunt, had been living with the pair since 1940 and summered with them in Ephraim at their property on S. Coral Hill until she died in April of 1959. Months later in January of 1960, Mayble’s mother Ada also passed away just six months before her 100th birthday. Thereafter, the couple chose to reside permanently in Ephraim, at their property on North Orchard Road.
Frieda opened a studio out of their North Orchard home, and the work she made locally in Ephraim features portraits of prominent residents of the village and county at large. She photographed Ephraim’s Fyr Bal Chieftains from the event’s founding in 1965, until she eventually ceased making work in 1973. Mayble’s oil paintings of humble fishing sheds, and local landmarks like the Eagle Bluff Lighthouse in Peninsula Park, the Ephraim Moravian Church, and Pioneer Schoolhouse were also rich celebrations of the village. Mayble’s pupils went on to produce works of equal quality. Ada Holland, Mayble Holland, Delia Reinemann, and Frieda Brenner are all buried together at Blossomberg Cemetery in Fish Creek. Mayble struggled with her eyesight later in life, and eventually passed on October 1st, 1970 at the age of 76. Frieda lived until September 22, 1981, just two days before her 78th birthday.
While the Ephraim Historical Foundation has collected Frieda’s negatives from that 1960-61 trip to California alongside various prints, the location of the bulk of Brenner’s work negatives are unknown as her estate is said to have been auctioned shortly after her death. The Foundation has also collected a small selection of Mayble Holland’s paintings. I hope more examples surface in the future!