Distilleries have a long relationship with art. Mostly art was created for advertising purposes, but not always. It started back in the late 1800s when distilleries such as Max Selliger and Brown-Forman hired Carl Brenner to paint landscapes of their distilleries. Carl Brenner was a well-known Louisville-based artist known for his landscape paintings. He was famous for placing a pool of water in the foreground and reflecting the buildings in the water. United Distillers had the two paintings, the Belmont and Astor distilleries in their collection back in the 1990s, I am not sure where these paintings are today, but I hope Heaven Hill purchased them when they bought the Bernheim Distillery as these distilleries are the forerunners of the Bernheim Distillery. Brown-Forman has their Carl Brenner hanging in their home office building. Other distilleries have had their facilities depicted by artists as well. Ben Holliday has a wonderful painting of the McCormick Distillery hanging at what is now their Ben Holladay Distillery.
There were many artists commissioned by distilleries to create art works for advertising. United Distillers also had a painting created for a Yellowstone advertisement depicting a couple on a covered wagon that featured in a print ad in the 1970s. Hiram Walker hired the artist Thomas Hart Benton to paint a series of pictures depicting different scenes of workers at the distillery. These paintings were also used to create advertising in magazines.
It is not only paintings that are used in promoting whiskey. Maker’s Mark commissioned Dale Chihuly to create a stunning display of art glass in one of their warehouses that is featured on the tour of the distillery. They went on to have an exhibit of his art glass at the distillery that ran for several months. They have also showcased the glassworks of Kentucky artist Stephen Rolfe Powell. Both exhibits had art glass placed all along the tour, both indoor and some outdoor pieces of art. Tourists had a chance to view some stunning works of art while taking the tour of the distillery.
It is not only fine art, but also more mundane advertising art created for distilleries. There were many examples of watercolor art created for magazine advertising in the United Distillers Archive. These pieces of art were created by artists for the distillery featuring bottles of their whiskey in various settings. The artists may not be as well-known as Brenner, Benton or Chihuly, but certainly had talent and created interesting paintings. Artwork has been an important part of promoting whiskey for over a century.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller
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