Marion Wachtel
1875–1954 · American Impressionist landscape painter of California
Marion Wachtel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, c. 1875 – 1954) was an American painter working in watercolor and oil, associated with American Impressionism. She is notable for her plein air landscapes of Southern California in the early twentieth century.
She trained at the Art Institute of Chicago and under William Merritt Chase in New York, where she became a member of the New York Watercolor Club. At first she worked mainly with figures and portraits. In 1903 she travelled to California, where she studied with William Keith, and in 1904 she married the painter Elmer Wachtel. From then on she devoted herself to landscapes of the Arroyo Seco area near Pasadena. Watercolor remained her preferred medium, although she began painting in oils after her husband's death.
She was active in several arts organizations in Southern California, including the California Watercolor Society and the California Art Club. In 2010 her work was shown alongside that of two other painters of the period at the Saint Mary's College Museum of Art. Her paintings are held in public collections such as the Laguna Art Museum in California and the Cedar Rapids Museum in Iowa.