Photographs are of art work, events, exhibition installations, miscellaneous subjects, people, and places.
Around 1940, Balcomb became interested in photography. He did not develop his own film, but preferred to produce the prints himself. He sometimes used photographs as notes for planning paintings and often experimented with lighting to produce different effects. It is highly likely that Balcomb took many of the photographs of his own and Gertrude's work that survive among their papers. Many of the photographs - especially those of art work - bear evidence of smoke and water damage sustained in the 1996 fire that destroyed Balcomb Greene's studio.
Photographs of people include Balcomb Greene, Gertrude Greene, Terryn Greene, family, friends and other individuals (identified and unidentified). There are pictures of Balcomb with fellow students, friends, juries, and Terryn; one photograph of Balcomb with others [probably artist colleagues] is by Hans Namuth. Also found are photographs of three generations of the Greene family showing Balcomb as a young boy (identified as John Wesley or Wesley on the prints), and a few of his mother's relatives.
Events include photographic documentation of the damage caused by the 1996 fire that destroyed Balcomb Greene's studio. Miscellaneous subjects are Greene's Rolls Royce, and pet cats and dogs.
Places recorded are: Greene's boyhood homes and churches in New York, Iowa, and unidentified locations; his mother's family house; Gertrude and Balcomb's cottage in Hopewell Junction, New York, where they spent summers before building their house at Montauk; the Greenes' house at Montauk; Gertrude's studio; travel pictures of Europe and Asia; and unidentified interiors.
Also found in this series are a small number of negatives, 35-mm slides, and color transparencies that document art work, miscellaneous subjects, people, and places.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Balcomb and Gertrude Greene papers, circa 1880-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
