This series contains the gallery's general correspondence with artists, clients, curators, galleries, and art organizations and institutions. Outgoing letters are generally copies on highly-acidic fragile paper and are written by a combination of the gallery's proprietors and employees including William Macbeth, Robert Macbeth, Robert G. McIntyre, Hazel Lewis, Henry Miller, and Marguerite Onderdonk. The correspondence is fairly complete although there is very little outgoing correspondence before 1913 and very little correspondence, both outgoing and incoming, between 1928 and 1931 and 1933 and 1936. Although the gallery closed in 1953 correspondence in this series extends to 1968 documenting Robert G. McIntyre's continued activity as an art dealer operating from his home. Some records, generally from 1915, 1916 and 1923, are damaged by mold. For preservation reasons these have been placed in a separate box at the end of the collection and appear in the container listing at the end of 1.1: Correspondence.
Of particular interest is the substantial body of correspondence with artists. From the late 19th to the early 20th-century period there is significant correspondence with artists such as Cecilia Beaux, Emil Carlsen, John F. Carlson, Charlotte Buell Coman, Arthur B. Davies, Charles Harold Davis, Charles W. Hawthorne, Charles Hazeltine, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Jonas Lie, J. Francis Murphy, Henry Rankin Poore, Chaucey F. Ryder, William Sartain and Abbot Handerson Thayer. From the early to mid-20th-century period correspondents include Jay Connaway, Carl Gaertner, Rockwell Kent, James Lechay, Herman Maril, Ivan G. Olinsky, Ogden M. Pleissner, Constance Richardson and Andrew Wyeth.
There are letters from Arthur B. Davies in which he writes of his travels in Europe during the 1890s, letters from Robert Henri from Ireland in the 1920s, and a letter from John Sloan to William Macbeth (one of only two in the collection) dated March 4, 1908, thanking Macbeth in the name of the "noble eight" for "all of the innumerable courtesies and kindnesses you have shown us in the long to be remembered exhibition of Feb. 3-18 1908." There are lengthy, detailed epistles from William Sartain written prior to, and during, the outbreak of World War I in Paris, and eighteen letters from Winslow Homer (although the two dated 1861 and 1876 respectively are copies) including an illustrated letter, an undated price list and notes on Homer paintings. There are also details regarding the settling of the Homer estate, which designated the Macbeth Gallery as sole selling agents of Homer's pictures in 1937, found in correspondence with members of the Homer family.
Although there is no correspondence with Homer D. Martin in the collection there are letters from his widow, Elizabeth, which reveal something of the painter's relationship with the gallery and chart the rise in popularity of Martin's work after his death. Elizabeth Martin's letters also discuss the appreciation of her husband written by her after his death and published by William Macbeth.
Correspondence with Andrew Wyeth reveals Wyeth's original agreement with the Macbeth Gallery and charts the launching of his career and apparently effortless rise to fame. Wyeth's correspondence includes illustrated letters and the original manuscript of the foreword to the catalog for his first exhibition at Macbeth Gallery, written by his father, N. C. Wyeth.
This series also documents the gallery's hand in the development of some of the country's major public and private art collections including those established by the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Albright Art Gallery, Butler Art Institute, Carnegie Institute, the City Art Museum of St. Louis, Dallas Art Association, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Obviously, letters from the gallery's proprietors are found throughout the series, but there are also several named files for William Macbeth, Robert Macbeth and Robert G. McIntyre. William Macbeth's correspondence includes a copy of his opening announcement of 1892. A pencil sketch of two cows on the back of the announcement reminds us of his other love - the Macbeth Farm in Suffolk County, New York. Also found here are some letters of recommendation that William acquired prior to his emigrating to the United States from Ireland, and several letters regarding the sale of an Arthur B. Davies picture in which he refers to the need to let Davies know about the sale of the picture as quickly as possible. "You would understand why," writes Macbeth to James Quinlan on 1 February 1898, "if you knew this nervous impatient artist as well as I do."
Robert Macbeth's correspondence deals primarily with gallery business up to 1920 but from that point on relates primarily to personal and family business. His correspondence includes one folder of twenty-seven letters from artists written in response to an invitation to a dinner honoring William Macbeth in 1909. Most are addressed to Augustus Vincent Tack and include letters from Chester Beach, Charles H. Davis, Robert Henri, John La Farge, Jerome Myers, Chauncey F. Ryder and Carleton Wiggins. There is also a copy of a poem written by Albert Pinkham Ryder.
Correspondence with Jessie L. Macbeth and Phoebe K. Maccbeth deals with Robert Macbeth's estate and includes correspondence between Phoebe and Robert G. McIntyre discussing the gallery's finanical difficulties during the 1940s.
Robert G. McIntyre's correspondence generally relates directly to gallery business. Three of his letters (found in the files of correspondents to which the letters were addressed) are of particular note as they display his lucid and engaging style and reveal details of his friendships with some of the gallery's most important artists: a 1948 letter to Joseph J. Kwiat describes his memories of "The Eight" and recounts in particular his impressions of William J. Glackens, Robert Henri and George Luks; a 1956 letter to Bennard B. Perlman recalls "Tuesday evenings" at Robert Henri's studio; and a 1945 letter to Lloyd Goodrich of the Whitney Museum describes watching Childe Hassam paint and date a picture as if he were "writing a letter." "He was so emphatic that this was the proper procedure" writes McIntyre, "that one may take it for granted that a date on a Hassam is the date it was begun, not finished."
Records relating to McIntyre's research for, and writing of, his book on Martin Johnson Heade, published in 1948, can be found in his correspondence with Maxim Karolik.
Although it is not always possible to determine which gallery member is responsible for an outgoing letter as they are generally unsigned copies, each of the proprietors appeared to enjoy letter writing and discussing their views on art with gallery clients. A good example of this can be found in letters to William Winter Drew in January and May of 1925 which provide a lengthy and detailed discussion of whom the letter writer (probably Robert Macbeth) believes should be included in a representative collection of American art.
The dating and arrangement of undated incoming letters, particularly those written before 1913 which do not have an accompanying response from the gallery, is often based on pencil notations made by Robert G. McIntyre which, while assumed to be reliable, are not necessarily accurate.
While the series is primarily comprised of folders arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent, there are a few folders arranged by subject including several which relate to exhibitions at the gallery. These are interfiled alphabetically by folder title with the exhibition files, for example, being filed under "E."
Although the gallery's financial records are generally found in Series 2: Financial and Shipping records, Series 1: Correspondence does include substantial financial information in the form of correspondence with banks, insurance agents and accountants. Correspondence with Frederic B. Thomason, Inc., for example, consists of over two linear feet of records containing insurance information from 1895 to 1952.
Collection Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
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:
Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
