Book Review: 
“The Indiana Dunes Revealed: The Art of 
Frank Dudley” edited by James Dabbert 

Reviewed by Nick Harby 
| never knew of Frank Dudley until a 
few months ago. On a visit to one of my 
favorite museums, the Haan Museum of 
Indiana Art, in Lafayette, | discovered a 
painting depicting a scene at the Indiana 
Dunes. Prominent in the picture was 
a plant | recognized as butterfly weed 
(Asclepias tuberosa). 
The next day by chance | happened 
to visit the Indiana State Museum in 
Indianapolis and spotted on the upper level 
four more of Frank Dudley’s paintings. Now 
| had to learn more about “the painter of the 
Indiana Dunes.” 
According to a loving review of Dudley’s life 
and work, The Indiana Dunes Revealed: The 
Art of Frank Dudley edited by James Dabbert 
(Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso, 2006), 
the artist had his studio on the shore of Lake 
Michigan, and created many oil paintings of 
the dunescape. This biography of Dudley 
includes a catalogue of seventy-two full page 
color reproductions of his paintings. 
A chapter written by Dabbert provides 
a biography describing Dudley’s life, from 
his birth in Wisconsin in 1868, to painting 
barns as a teenager, to going to art school 
in Chicago in 1888 at the age of twenty. 
The chapter concludes with Dudley’s 
legacy, including a posthumous purchase 
of 53 paintings by the State of Indiana, 
engineered by then-Governor Branigin using 
cigarette tax money. During Dudley’s stay at 
his Duneland Studio, he paid his rent to the 
State of Indiana every year with a painting, 
19 altogether. The overall collection of 72 
paintings is now in the possession of the 
Indiana State Museum. Four paintings are 
on perpetual display on the third floor. 
Dudley’s Duneland Studio at Indiana 
Dunes State Park is now long gone. But 
another chapter, written by J. Ronald 
Engel, chronicles the procession of visitors 
to Dudley’s studio during the formative 
years of the Save the Dunes movement. 
Ecologist Henry Cowles was a frequent 
visitor, as were people like Richard Lieber 
(father of the Indiana state park system), 
May Theilgaard Watts (conservation activist 

conditions on jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and the sparse patches of 
tenacious marram grass (Ammophila breviligulata). 
and educator with Morton Arboretum), and 
Governor Ed Jackson. 
In addition to Dudley, dunescapes have 
inspired artists across North America. Winslow 
Homer’s The Sand Dune, John Sloan’s Dunes 
at Annisquam, and William Wendt’s Dunes of 
Monterey are only three examples. 
Before your next visit to the Dunes spend 
time with The Indiana Dunes Revealed. It 
will broaden your sense of place, especially 
since it not only contains the artistic vision 
of Frank Dudley but historical benchmarks 
such as maps circa 1927 that show wetlands, 
trails, names of dunes, and floral regions. 
Discover how much this landscape has 
changed over the past century. 
Nick Harby is a member of the INPS West 
Central Chapter and lives in Lafayette. 

Summer 2021 ¢ Indiana Native Plant Society - 15 
