Joseph Allworthy

Studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later in Paris at the Academie Julian. Member of the Chicago Art Club and All Francaise de Chicago. Exhibited at the National Academy, Art Institute in Chicago, Chicago Cantury of Progress, Municipal Art League, Texas Exposition and many others.

From Saddle and Sirloin Club

Joseph Allworthy (1892-1991)

Born in Pittsburgh to a family of mural painters, Joseph Allworthy moved to Chicago as a child. In 1907, he enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, working as a janitor to pay his tuition. He traveled in Europe and studied for a time with Australian tonalist painter Max Meldrum in Paris, but returned to Chicago in 1922.

Allworthy was a tonal-realist painter who specialized in still lifes and portraits, including

twenty-three Saddle & Sirloin commissions between 1937 and 1969. Although other Saddle & Sirloin painters were active during the same time period, Allworthy is distinguished as being the longest-serving Club painter, associated with the collection for more than three decades. He painted the official portrait of Adlai Stevenson for his 1952 presidential campaign, as well as likenesses of prominent business leaders including Eli Lilly and William E. Boeing. Allworthy served as teacher to his great-niece and adopted daughter, Dorian Allworthy, and she continues in his tradition as a tonal-realist painter and a drypoint engraver in Chicago.