The papers of American portrait painter William Cushing Loring (1897-1959) measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1899-1961. The majority of the collection consists of correspondence, including letters which document Loring's artistic education in Paris and London 1900-1904. Also found within the collection are letters from other Loring family members, printed materials which document Loring's artistic career, and photographs of the artist and his work.
Scope and Contents:
The William Cushing Loring papers measure 0.7 linear feet and date from 1899-1961. The collection documents Loring's artistic education in Paris and London and his career as an artist and instructor through correspondence, printed materials, and photographs.
Correspondence consists primarily of letters from William Cushing Loring to other Loring family members, including Stanton D. Loring, his father; Mrs. Stanton D. Loring, his mother; Robert Loring, his brother; and Elizabeth and Helen Loring, his sisters. Letters document Loring's life as an artist living abroad in Paris and London. He writes of visits to the studios of John Singer Sargent, Francis David Millet, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema; trips to museums and galleries; excursions to copy paintings in the Louvre and the London National Gallery; evening entertainment; and accounts of daily expenses. Some letters addressed to his parents include illustrations, sketches in ink and graphite, as well as miniature paintings. Letters from Helen Loring and Robert Loring to their parents, as well as unidentified letters, are also present. Envelopes are for the most part matched to letters, but fragment envelopes and letters are integrated within collection.
Printed materials include exhibition catalogs, newspaper obituary clippings for William Cushing Loring, bulletins for Rhode Island School of Design alumni, a holiday card for Loring's studio, and business cards.
Photographic material includes photographs of works of art by William Cushing Loring and photographs of the artist. Photographs of the artist include portraits and photographs of Loring with his family. Included among photographs of works of art are photos by Elmer Chickering.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as three series.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1899-1904 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 2: Printed Material, circa 1905-1961(4 folders; Box 2)
Series 3: Photographic Material, circa 1905 (4 folders; Box 2, OV 3)
Biographical / Historical:
William Cushing Loring (1897-1959) was an American painter and teacher born in Newton Center, MA. He studied at Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Chase's Art School in New York, Academie Colarossi and Academie Delecluse in Paris, and for two years in Holland and London. Loring was best known for his portraiture. He was appointed head of the painting and drawing department at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1905, and taught at La Salle Junior College in Auburn, Massachusetts from 1921 to 1939.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by William Loring Cushing, Jr., son of the artist, in 1985.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
The papers of sculptor, painter, jewelry designer, and teacher Claire Falkenstein measure 42.8 linear feet and date from 1917 to her death in 1997. There is extensive correspondence with fellow artists, collectors, critics, friends, museums, and galleries. The collection also contains biographical materials, much of it collected and organized by Falkenstein, personal and business records, writings, diaries, exhibition files, commission files, teaching files, photographs, original artwork, scrapbooks, and printed materials. There is a short motion picture film of an interview with Falkenstein featuring the windows she designed for St. Basil's Church in Los Angeles.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of sculptor, painter, jewelry designer, and teacher Claire Falkenstein measure 42.8 linear feet and date from 1917 to her death in 1997. There is extensive correspondence with fellow artists, collectors, critics, friends, museums, and galleries. The collection also contains biographical materials, much of it collected and organized by Falkenstein, personal and business records, writings, diaries, exhibition files, commission files, teaching files, photographs, original artwork, scrapbooks, and printed materials. There is a short motion picture film of an interview with Falkenstein featuring the windows she designed for St. Basil's Church in Los Angeles.
Biographical material includes appointment calendars, awards and honorary degrees, interview transcripts, passports, resumes, wills, and scrapbooks. Scrapbooks were compiled by Falkenstein and focus primarily on her exhibitions at the Galerie Stadler and Gallery Meyer in 1959 and 1960. Also of interest are the "biography files" created and arranged by Falkenstein. These files contain material that she personally felt was the most important in documenting her activities each year. They include correspondence, exhibition catalogs, printed material, and invitations.
Measuring nine linear feet, correspondence is extensive and comprehensively documents Falkenstein's work, social life, relationships, and other business and personal activities. Correspondence dates from 1941 to 1997 and includes business letters and correspondence with friends and family. Her communications with friends, family, clients, gallery owners, collectors, museums, publishers, foundations, and grant agencies reveal many of her ideas and techniques. Individual correspondents include Ray Green, Peggy Guggenheim, Katharine Kuh, May O'Donnell, Ken Sawyer, Clyfford and Pat Still, Michel Tapie, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, and Frans Wildenhain. Gallery and museum correspondence is with the San Francisco Museum of Art, Coos Art Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Art, Galerie Stadler (Paris), Gallery Mayer (Paris), Malvina Miller (New York), Martha Jackson Gallery (New York), Jack Rutberg Fine Arts (Los Angeles), Galerie Anderson-Mayer (Paris), and Bolles Gallery. Correspondence is also found in the Commission Files and Exhibition Files.
Personal and business records contain a wide variety of material documenting Falkenstein's business, financial, legal, professional, and personal transactions. Files are found for sales and prices, art inventories, smaller jewelry commissions, her work as a juror, her business with galleries, legal affairs and contracts, expenses, records of arts organizations to which she belonged, conferences, grants and fellowships, studio and house renovations, her Paris studio and Paris expenses, travel, donations, loans and consignments, conservation, art shipping, insurance, and taxes. Oversized visitor's logs contain comments from visitors to Falkenstein's studio in Venice, California.
Falkenstein maintained comprehensive documentation of her exhibitions from her first exhibition in the 1930s to the last one at the Merging One Gallery in 1996. Files include both a chronological record and individual record for nearly all of her exhibitions. Found with the files are correspondence, photographs, loan and shipping records, catalogs, announcements, clippings, articles, and other records. Most of the photographs related to exhibitions are found in the Photographs Series. The files for exhibitions at the Fresno Art Museum, Martha Jackson Gallery and Jack Rutberg Fine Art Gallery are particularly rich.
Commission files document nearly all of Falkenstein's public and private large-scale projects and often contain a visual record of the work, as well as correspondence, design notes, contracts, and expense reports. There is documentation of the St. Basils Church windows in Los Angeles; the Peggy Guggenheim gate in Venice, Italy; and the fountain at the California Savings and Loan, in Los Angeles; and many others. There is also a chronological record of her commissions. The bulk of the photographs of commissions are found in the Photograph series. Also, most of Falkenstein's jewelry design commissions are found in the Personal and Business Records series.
Falkenstein's work as a prolific writer, particularly in the 1940s and 1950s, is well-documented here through her numerous published articles in Arts and Architecture magazine, and the New York Herald-Tribune. Her work for Arts and Architecture was primarily written for the "Art Comments from San Francisco" section. She was living in Paris when she contributed an art news column to the New York Herald-Tribune. Also found here are five diaries and one journal dating from circa 1929-1978. The entries are inconsistent and concern mostly travel. The diaries from 1929 and 1934 are more personal. Falkenstein also maintained extensive notes and notebooks about artwork ideas, observations about art, research, and even drafts of letters. There are also many notes about various topics, including art and class notes. Additional writings are eclectic and cover a wide range of topics, including music, poetry, the script for Falkestein's film entitled Touching the Quick, and drafts of her unpublished book on murals. A handful of writings by others are found, most with annotations by Falkenstein.
Teaching files include Falkenstein's numerous lectures given while teaching at Mills College, Pond Farm Workshops, and California School of Fine Arts, and various symposiums and conferences. Also found are lesson plans, contracts, scattered correspondence, and notes. The files on her tenure at the Pond Farm Workshops are particularly interesting, with notes about her fellow teacher Frans Wildenhain and correspondence with workshop owners, Jane and Gordon Herr.
There are extensive photographs of Falkenstein, her family and friends, colleagues, commissions, exhibitions, and works of art. Included are many images of Falkenstein, of Falkenstien with her art, of Falkentstien working, and of Falkenstein's studio. There are numerous photographs of Falkenstein with friends, family, and colleagues in social or work settings. Also found are photographs of exhibition openings, installation views, and works of art exhibited. Additional photographs document Falkenstein's commissions, including images of her at work. Additional images of commissions may also be found in the Commission Series, but the bulk are filed here. There are numerous photographs of Falkenstein's works of art, including drawings, sculpture, jewelry, murals, lamps, and ceramics.
Falkenstein's papers include a large amount of sketches, sketchbooks, and drawings. Many of the sketches and drawings relate to her ideas about commissions and large sculpture, jewelry designs, and general sketches. Sketches are also found in the Commission Files. Also included are drawings by Mark Tobey and Michel Tapie, and others.
Finally, printed materials include general exhibition catalogs, newspapers clippings, and clippings of articles by and about Falkenstein. Also included are books that have been inscribed and signed by the author.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 9 series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1934-1997 (Box 1-4, 41; 4.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1931-1997 (Box 5-13; 9 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal and Business Records, 1936-1997 (Box 14-17, 41, 46-49; 4.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Exhibitions, 1930-1996 (Box 18-21, 42, OV 50; 3.3 linear feet)
Series 5. Commissions, 1930-1992 (Box 21-22, OV 50-54 ; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Writings, circa 1929-1993 (Box 22-26, 42, 55; 4.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Teaching Files, 1929-1995 (Box 26; .8 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1917-1997 (Box 27-35, 43, 55-56; 9.5 linear feet)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1937-1995 (Box 36-37, 44, 57; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 10: Printed Materials, circa 1914-1990 (Box 37-40, 45, 58; 3.9 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Claire Falkenstein (1908-1997) spent the majority of her life working as an artist, sculptor, jewelry designer, teacher, and writer in California.
Claire Falkenstein was born in 1908 and grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon. In 1920, Falkenstein and her family moved to Berkeley, California, where she attended high school and then college at the University of California at Berkeley, studying philosophy, anthropology, and art. She graduated in 1930. Falkenstein had her first solo show at the East-West Gallery in San Francisco in 1930, the only member of her class to have an exhibition before graduation.
During the early 1930s, Falkenstein studied at Mills College with modernist sculptor Alexander Archipenko. There she also met Bauhaus artists Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Gyorgy Kepes. Falkenstein married her high school sweetheart, Richard McCarthy in 1936.
In 1944, Falkenstein had her first New York exhibition at the Bonestall Gallery. At that time, Falkenstein's primary mediums were stone and wood. However, she became increasingly experimental with new materials that included sheet aluminum, Cor-Ten steel, glass, plastics, and welded wire rods while maintaining a connection to organic and natural forms. Her work in jewelry design was an outlet for exploring these new materials, forms, and techniques on a small scale. As her work grew physically larger, so did her recognition and it was her work in sculpture that won her a faculty appointment at the California School of Fine Arts from 1947-1949. It was here that she met Patricia and Clyfford Still, Hassel Smith, and Richard Diebenkorn.
In 1948, Falkenstein was invited to exhibit at the Salon des Realites Nouvelle in Paris, her first European show. She eventually moved to Europe in 1950 and had studios in Paris, Venice, and Rome. While in Europe, Falkenstein executed a number of large scale commissions, including the stair screen for Galerie Stadler (1955), grotto gates for Princess Pignatelli's villa in Rome (1957), and the bronze, steel, and the glass gate at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice (1961). While in Paris, she became acquainted with noted art critic Michel Tapie, with whom she maintained a life-long friendship.
During the 1940s and 1950s Falkenstein was a regular contributor to Arts and Architecture magazine, most often writing the "Art Comments from San Francisco" section. While in Paris, she also wrote a column on art news for the New York Herald Tribune.
Falkenstein returned to the United States in 1962, eventually renovating a studio space in Venice, California. It was here that she conceived her largest commissions. In 1965, Falkenstein received a commission from the California Savings and Loan to create a sculpture for a large fountain at the front of the bank in downtown Los Angeles. The copper tube fountain, entitled "Structure and Flow #2," was the first of many large scale public art commissions that Falkenstein completed during her years in California. Her most important commission in the United States, completed in 1969, was for the doors, rectory gates and grills and stained-glass windows for St. Basil's Church on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The eight doors and fifteen rectory screens, including 80 foot high windows in the nave, were an expansion of the "never ending screen" concept that Falkenstein executed with the Pignatelli commission in Rome. She continued to use this motif in her work throughout her career.
Claire Falkenstein worked as an arts instructor, visiting artist, and guest lecturer at many colleges, workshops, and schools in California. Her first position was at Mills College from 1946-1947. Shortly thereafter, she was appointed to the faculty at the California School of Fine Arts and later taught in the Extension Divisions of the University of California, Berkeley. She taught classes at California State Polytechnic University, California State University at Davis, and the Anna Head School. Falkenstein also taught art at the Pond Farm Workshops in California, and lectured at numerous colleges and museums. She served on many juried art shows in Southern California.
Falkenstein was acquainted with many artists, writers, instructors, collectors, gallery owners, and critics. Close friends included Esther and Bob Robles, Clyfford and Patricia Still, Michel Tapie, Allan Temko, Mark Tobey, Frans Wildenhain, and other notable figures in the art world.
Falkenstein continued to complete large scale private and public commissioned sculptures during the 1960s through the 1980s, including work for the University of Southern California, Hyland Biological Laboratory, California State University at Dominquez Hills and the California State Department of Motor Vehicles. Throughout her career, Falkenstein's work was featured in numerous exhibitions across the country. Her sculpture and other artwork can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Coos Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museum, University of Southern California Fisher Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery.
Falkenstein died in 1997 at the age of 89.
Related Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds two oral history interviews with Claire Falkenstein. The interview on April 13, 1965 was conducted by Betty Hoag and the one on March 2 and 21, 1995 was conducted by Paul Karlstrom.
Provenance:
The Claire Falkenstein papers were donated in 1997 by Steffan Wacholtz and Nancy Kendall, trustees for the Claire Falkenstein Trust.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
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.
The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California "light and space" artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002) date from 1958-1992, and measure 17.45 linear feet. The collection includes documentation of Wortz's tenure at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she specialized in collecting and presenting the California Light and Space artists during the 1970s and 1980s. Wortz's papers include biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, interview transcripts and sound recordings, professional and student writings and notes, diaries of five trips abroad, UCI administrative, dossier, and teaching files, general subject and artist files, printed material, several pieces of artwork; and photographs.
Wortz's biographical material includes annotated appointment books and calendars, resumes, and some family, financial, and legal records.
Correspondence files document Wortz's activities beyond her work at UCI, including scattered correspondence with artists such as Eleanor Antin, Daniel Barber, Christo, Craig Kauffman, Cork Marchesi, Martha Rosler, Eve Sonneman, Hap Tivey, and Elsa Warner. Correspondence also relates to arrangements for lectures, juries, panels, symposiums, and other professional activities in which Wortz participated.
Interviews include transcripts of four interviews conducted by Wortz with subjects including Peter Lodato and Dewain Valentine, and a sound recording of an interview with Nina Wiener.
Writings and notes include drafts, and some published copies, of articles and essays written for journals, magazines, and exhibition catalogs; Wortz's dissertation and thesis; notes; student essays and class notes; and scattered writings by others. Included in the published works are copies of Artweek containing articles by Wortz, and drafts and published copies of essays on Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, Jasper Johns, Jay McCafferty, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Rauschenberg, Klaus Rinke, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell.
Diaries document five separate overseas trips to locations including Asia in 1977, Paris in 1978, and the U.S.S.R., where Wortz delivered a paper on Robert Irwin, in 1989.
University of California, Irvine, records include Wortz's administrative files documenting her work on various committees, her directorship of the Fine Arts Gallery, including budget and exhibition records, her work as Chair of Studio Art, and her collaborations with other faculty, including Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small. Wortz's dossier files provide a thorough record of her accomplishments from the late 1970s-1990, and her UCI teaching files document the content of core art courses which she taught at UCI in the 1970s and 1980s.
Subject files provide additional documentation of Wortz's interest in particular artists and subjects, and include scattered correspondence with artists, as well as additional correspondence, reports, printed material, index card files, sound cassettes, and photographs, documenting her interests in art and politics, feminism, religion and spirituality, museum management and training, and other subjects.
Printed material includes announcements, catalogs, journals, newsletters, and material specifically documenting Wortz's activities.
Artwork includes a piece of floor covering from a Jim Dine exhibition, a booklet by Daniel Barber, Flams by Rena Livkin, and several pieces of unidentified artwork.
Photographs include photos of Wortz with her family and with UCI faculty including Tony DeLap, Craig Kauffman, and Ed Moses; photos of events with friends and family, including Hap Tivey's wedding to Liza Todd with Elizabeth Taylor in attendance; photos of artists including Frederick Eversley, Bill Harding, Jack Ox, and Stephen Zaimo; and photos of artwork by artists including Tony DeLap, Barbara Smith, Marc Van Der Marck, and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as ten series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1966-1988 (0.25 linear feet; Boxes 1, 19)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1967-1992 (1.25 linear feet; Boxes 1-2, 18)
Series 3: Interviews, 1971-circa 1980s (6 folders; Boxes 2, 18)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1958-circa 1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 2-6, 19)
Series 5: Diaries, 1977-1989 (6 folders; Box 6)
Series 6: University of California, Irvine, 1960-1991 (4.8 linear feet; Boxes 6-11, OV 20)
Series 7: Subject Files, circa 1960-1990 (4.25 linear feet; Boxes 11-15, 18)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1960s-1980s (1.8 linear feet; Boxes 15-16, 19)
Series 9: Artwork, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (3 folders; Boxes 17, 19)
Series 10: Photographs, 1960s-1980s (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 17, 19)
Biographical / Historical:
California art historian, writer, instructor, and curator, Melinda Wortz (1940-2002), taught at the University of California, Irvine, from 1975, serving as Director of UCI's Fine Arts Gallery and Chair of the Department of Studio Art. Wortz's special area of interest was the work of the California "light and space" artists emerging in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
After attending Stanford University and graduating from Radcliffe College with a bachelors degree in art history, Wortz received her masters degree in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her doctorate in theology and the arts from the Graduate Theological Union at Berkeley. Wortz taught at California State University and the University of California Extension in the early 1970s. At UCI her colleagues included Judy Baca, Sandy Ballatore, Tony Delap, Craig Kauffman, and Rena Small.
Wortz married Edward C. Wortz in the early 1970s, following her divorce from her first husband, Thomas G. Terbell, Jr. Edward Wortz's first career was as a research scientist working on NASA contracts in the air research industry in Colorado and California. Later he was involved in the arts and participated in collaborations with artists including Robert Irwin, Coy Howard, and James Turrell. He worked with Melinda Wortz to develop their personal collection of contemporary art.
Melinda Wortz was a prolific writer who wrote extensively for national art periodicals, including Arts Magazine, and Art News. She also wrote, and served as editor, for the California periodical Artweek from the 1960s to 1990s. She wrote numerous catalogs for artists including Larry Bell, Cork Marchesi, Doug Moran, Beth Ames Schwartz, and James Turrell; and published articles on Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and others. She lectured at Brown University, the Center for Art, Salt Lake City, Contemporary Art Museum, La Jolla, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the San Diego Museum, Wellesley College, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and many other institutions. In 1989 she traveled to the U.S.S.R. to deliver a paper on Robert Irwin at the International Art Critics Association annual meeting.
In addition to her curatorial work at the UCI Fine Arts Gallery, where she organized exhibitions for artists including Alice Aycock, Jonathan Borofsky, Audrey Flack, Jack Ox, and Dennis Oppenheim, Wortz curated exhibitions for University of California sister colleges, Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz received UCI and National Endowment for the Arts grants in support of her writing, and served on advisory boards of the Contemporary Arts Forum, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, Robert Rauschenberg's foundation, Advisory Board of Change, Inc., the Pasadena Art Museum, and others.
Wortz was diagnosed with Alzheimers disease at the age of 50 and died in 2002.
Provenance:
The collection was donated by Edward C. Wortz, Melinda Wortz's husband, in 1994.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
Vieira da Silva, Maria Helena, 1908-1992 Search this
Extent:
10.2 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Transcripts
Reviews (documents)
Interviews
Articles
Notes
Manuscripts
Photographs
Sound recordings
Date:
1918-1971
Summary:
The papers of New York City and Paris art historian, educator, and gallerist Colette Roberts measure 10.2 linear feet and date from 1918 to 1971. Papers include correspondence, writings, teaching records, project proposals, gallery records from Grand Central Moderns Gallery, clippings, Roberts' printed articles, press releases, exhibition catalogs, posters, photographs, and a few works of art on paper. Also found are 124 interviews with contemporary artists conducted by Roberts.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York City and Paris art historian, educator, and gallerist Colette Roberts measure 10.2 linear feet and date from 1918 to 1971. Papers include correspondence, writings, teaching records, project proposals, gallery records from Grand Central Moderns Gallery, clippings, Roberts' printed articles, press releases, exhibition catalogs, posters, photographs, and a few works of art on paper. Also found are 124 interviews with contemporary artists conducted by Roberts.
Significant correspondents include Sam Adler, Erwin Barrie, Hubert Damisch, George Deem, Mesdames de Harting and de Tinan, Lamar Dodd, Hélène Drude (Le Point Cardinal gallery), Arne Ekstrom, Albert M. Fine (Fluxus artist), Iqbal Geoffrey, R.G. Gilllet, Adolph Gottlieb, Cleve Gray, Leon Hartl, Jennett Lam, Alberto Cifolelli Lamb, Mike Nevelson, Norman Norotzky, Jacqueline Pavlowsky, Abe Rattner, Ad Reinhardt, H. Sandberg, Philippe Stern, Russell Twiggs, and Zuka.
Writings by Roberts include manuscripts and articles about artists, writings about her own art, personal writings, working notes from interviews and classes, reviews, and translations between English and French.
Among the personal records are Robert's files relating to teaching, charitable activities, and exhibitions. Also found are gallery records from Grand Central Moderns Gallery, including artist résumés, a card file of artworks with provenance information, exhibition catalogs and announcements, membership records, posters, publicity, and sales records.
Printed materials in the collection include clippings, Roberts' printed articles, press releases, and other exhibition catalogs and announcements. Photographs are of Roberts, artists, including Ad Reinhardt, classes, art spaces, and works of art. A small number of artworks on paper are also found, including Fluxus art stamps and a printed picture of Ray Johnson stamped "DOUGHNUT FESTIVAL."
Documentation of interviews with artists conducted by Roberts includes a card index file, a few transcripts, and the original sound recordings. Most of the recordings are interviews with artists that Roberts created during a class she taught at New York University between 1957 and 1971 called "Meet the Artist," including Mary Bauermeister, Romare Bearden, Dorothy Dehner, John Ferren, Ray Johnson, Ivan Karp, Thérèse Le Prat, Richard Lindner, Marisol, Seong Moy, Brian O'Doherty, Man Ray, Ethel Schwabacher, Hedda Sterne, Marie Helena Vieira da Silva, and many others. In preparation for magazine articles, Roberts conducted more extensive interviews with Chryssa, Marcel Duchamp, Adolph Gottlieb, and Louise Nevelson. A few of the recordings of Marcel Duchamp were not created by Roberts. In all, over 100 artists are represented in Roberts' interviews. Other recordings found include lectures and interviews conducted by people other than Roberts.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series:
Series 1: Correspondence, 1918-1971 (Box 1, 0.5 linear feet)
Series 2: Notes and Writings, 1936-1970 (Box 1, 0.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Records, 1944-1971 (Box 1-2, 11; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 4: Grand Central Moderns Gallery Records, 1952-1970 (Box 2-3, 11; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1938-1971 (Box 3-5, 11-12; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, 1930-1971 (Box 5; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, 1940-1969 (Box 5; 4 folders)
Series 8: Interviews with Artists, 1959-1971 (Box 5-10; 5.5 lienar feet)
Biographical Note:
Colette Roberts was a French artist, curator, gallery director, and scholar who emigrated to the United States in 1939, settling in New York City and remaining there until her death in 1971.
Roberts was born in Paris, France in 1910. She studied art with Roger Bissière at the Académie Ranson and with Henry Focillon at the Ecole du Louvre, and she later attended the Institut d'Art et Archeologie at the Sorbonne. Roberts came to the United States in 1939, settling in New York City, and became an American citizen three years later. In her early years in the United States, Roberts lectured and wrote on art and literature, and was active in various war-relief organizations, raising money and organizing benefits for organizations such as the American Red Cross and UNICEF. She was the gallery director for the National Association of Women Artists' Argent Galleries from 1947 to 1949, secretary to the curator of Far Eastern Art at New York's Metropolitan Museum from 1950 to 1951, and art editor for "France Amérique," the French-language newspaper in New York, beginning in 1953.
Roberts became gallery director of the Grand Central Moderns Gallery (New York, NY) in 1952 and remained in that position until 1968, when the gallery closed. The gallery was opened in 1946 by Erwin S. Barrie of the Grand Central Galleries for the promotion of living American artists. Among the artists represented there were Jennett Lam and Seong Moy. During this period she was also an instructor at New York University and Queens College, teaching art history and contemporary art. In 1957, she began a course at New York University called "Meet the Artist," for which she took her classes to the studios of working artists to see and discuss their work. In the early 1960s, she began to tape record her interviews of artists for this course, a practice which continued until her death in 1971. In 1968, Roberts worked briefly as Gallery Director for the A.M. Sachs Gallery (New York, NY), and as an oral history interviewer for the Archives of American Art.
Roberts wrote extensively on contempoary art, including articles and monographs on Mark Tobey (1960, Grove Press), Louise Nevelson (1964, The Pocket Museum), and Marcel Duchamp. She was a regular contributor to Aujourd'hui and Art and Architecture magazines.
Related Material:
Additional papers and recordings of Colette Roberts are held by Syracuse University Library Special Collections Research Center.
Separated Material:
A copy of a 1967 oral history with Adolf Gottlieb conducted by Dorothy Seckler for the Archives of American Art oral history program, which was found in Roberts' papers, has been returned to the Archives' oral history collection.
Provenance:
The sound recordings and transcripts of interviews with artists, were donated by Colette Roberts in 1970. The remaining papers were donated by her son, Richard B. Roberts, in 1973.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
Occupation:
Art historians -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Search this
The Emmet Family papers document the lives and careers of two generations of the Emmet family from New Rochelle, New York and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, whose artistic talents flourished during the later 19th through the mid-20th centuries. The collection dates from 1792 to 1989, with the bulk of the material dating from 1851-1989, and measures 9.1 linear feet. Through biographical material, two diaries, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition files, business records, printed material, two scrapbooks, artwork, and photographs of family, friends, exhibitions, and artwork, the papers provide both a rich overview and detailed insights into the daily lives, relationships, and careers of many members of the family. The collection focuses in particular on sisters Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and Rosina Emmet Sherwood, their mother, Julia Colt Pierson Emmet, and their cousin Ellen Gertrude "Bay" Emmet, all noted painters and illustrators.
Scope and Content Note:
The Emmet Family papers document the lives and careers of two generations of the Emmet family from New Rochelle, New York and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The collection dates from 1792 to 1989, with the bulk of the material dating from 1851-1989, and measures 9.1 linear feet. Through biographical material, two diaries, correspondence, writings and notes, exhibition files, business records, printed material, two scrapbooks, artwork, and photographs of family, friends, exhibitions, and artwork, the papers provide both a rich overview and detailed insights into the daily lives, relationships, and careers of many members of the family. The collection focuses in particular on sisters Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and Rosina Emmet Sherwood, their mother, Julia Colt Pierson Emmet, and their cousin Ellen Gertrude "Bay" Emmet, all noted painters and illustrators, whose artistic talents flourished during the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries.
Biographical material consists of family trees and family histories; individual biographical accounts, award certificates, and documentation for Julia Colt Pierson Emmet, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and Wilfrid de Glehn; a diary titled "Sedgemere Diary" containing drawings and entries primarily by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, and a smaller diary which mentions Rosina's son, future playwright Robert Sherwood; a documentary by Nancy B. Doyle on two VHS videocassettes, entitled The Emmets: Portrait of a Family; and artifacts comprising a rear-view optical device and locks of hair from an early nineteenth century generation of the Emmet family.
Correspondence forms the bulk of the collection and illustrates the interaction between members of this large and influential family and their colleagues and friends, offering a wide-ranging view of life in the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, and through two World Wars. The series consists of letters between family members, primarily Julia Colt Pierson Emmet and her daughters, as well as cousins Henry James, Ellen "Bay" Emmet Rand, and Rosamond Sherwood, and friends Cecilia Beaux, Louis Bancel LaFarge, Frederick MacMonnies, Lucien Monod, Roger Quilter, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Emily and John Singer-Sargent, Violet Sargent Ormond, and Stanford White. Topics include experiences of the Emmets while studying art in Paris, Rosina's presentation at Queen Victoria's court, Lydia's work at the Columbia Exposition, Jane's marriage to Wilfrid de Glehn and her friendship with John Singer Sargent, portrait painting activities, the troubles of their friend Susy Metcalfe in her marriage to Pablo Casals, and the activities of Rosina's son, playwright Robert Emmet Sherwood, and friends Alfred Lund and Lynn Fontanne.
Writings and notes consist of scattered manuscripts and poems by family members, two notebooks, one identified as belonging to Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and typescripts about Wilfrid de Glehn following his death. Also found is a book, Out of Town, written and illustrated by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, and Edna St Vincent Millay's poem "Autum Daybreak" written in Millay's handwriting.
Exhibition files document an exhibition held at the Berkshire Museum/Danforth Museum in Pittsfield/Farmingham, Massachusetts in 1982 entitled The Emmets: A Family of Women Painters, and include two audio cassettes of recordings from the "Art for Lunch" series at the Berkshire Museum discussing the exhibition.
Business records include account books belonging to Lydia Field Emmet and Rosina Emmet Sherwood, both of which document income from artwork and other sources, and expenses; a contract for the reproduction of Lydia Field Emmet's artwork; and a document concerning ownership of property, possibly of Emmet family ancestors.
Printed Material consists of clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, and reproductions of artwork by Emmet family members and others.
Two scrapbooks contain a combination of drawings, primarily by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, reproductions of artwork, and photographs.
Artwork includes drawings and sketchbooks by Julia Colt Pierson Emmet, Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn Ellen Emmet Rand, and other Emmet relatives, illustrating the early development of their talent.
Photographs are of family members, including Julia Colt Pierson Emmet and William Jenkins Emmet, their daughters Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn and husband Wilfrid de Glehn, Rosina Emmet Sherwood and husband Arthur Murray Sherwood, and Robert Emmet Sherwood as a young man. Also found are photos of friends Richard Harding Davis, Frederick MacMonnies, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens; a series of photographs of the installation at Arden Galleries, New York (1936) for the exhibition Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures by Five Generations of the Emmet Family; and photographs of artwork by Emmet family members.
Arrangement:
The Emmet family papers are arranged as nine series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1855-1988 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 1, 10, OV 12)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1792-1985 (6.2 linear feet; Boxes 1-7)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1870s-1981 (11 folders; Box 7)
Series 4: Exhibition Files, 1947-1983 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 7-8)
Series 5: Business Records, circa 1799-1945 (7 folders; Box 8)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1872-1989 (0.35 linear feet; Boxes 8, 10)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1870-1890 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 8, 10)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1850-circa 1920 (0.35 linear feet; Boxes 8, 10)
Series 9: Photographs, circa 1870s-circa 1950s (1 linear foot; Boxes 8-9, 11)
Biographical Note:
The Emmet family, descended from patriot Thomas Addis Emmet, brother of Irish martyr Robert Emmet, counts many physicians, lawyers, and writers (including cousin Henry James) among its ranks. Although evidence of artistic talent existed in several previous generations, it flourished during the later 19th through the mid-20th centuries in the professional portraiture of sisters Rosina Emmet Sherwood, Lydia Field Emmet, Jane Erin Emmet de Glehn, and their cousin Ellen "Bay" Emmet Rand.
The eldest daughter of Julia Colt Pierson Emmet (1829-1908), herself a talented illustrator who had studied under Daniel Huntington, Rosina "Posie" Emmet (1854-1948) studied under William Merritt Chase at his Tenth Street Studio in New York and under Robert-Fleury at the Academie Julian in Paris. Before her marriage to Arthur Murray Sherwood in 1887, Rosina established a studio in New York and continued to submit illustrations to various publications. During her marriage, she slowed her creative activities, until financial reverses dictated her return to her career around the turn of the 20th century. Her daughter Rosamond Sherwood (1899-1990) was also a portrait painter. Her son, Robert Emmet Sherwood (1896-1955) became a four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
Lydia Field Emmet (1866-1952) studied under Collin, Bouguereau, MacMonnies, and Robert-Fleury at the Academie Julian. Upon her return to New York, Lydia continued her studies under Chase, Kenyon Cox, H. Siddons Mowbray, and Robert Reid at the Art Students League, as well as at Chase's Shinnecock Summer School of Art. She established her portrait studio in New York City and began spending summers at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where she built her home, "Strawberry Hill," in 1905. Best known for her portraits of children, Lydia's subjects were members of the socially prominent families of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
The youngest sister, Jane Erin Emmet (1873-1961), also studied with Chase in New York, and in Paris. In 1904, she married British landscape painter Wilfrid Von Glehn, who had visited the United States with his friend John Singer Sargent. (The Von Glehns' surname was changed to De Glehn, in 1919.) Settling in London, Jane continued her painting, befriended many artists and composers, and accompanied her husband and Sargent on several art-related journeys through Europe.
The Emmet sisters' cousin, Ellen Gertrude "Bay" Emmet (1875-1941), studied in New York at the Art Students League and under Frederick MacMonnies in Paris, becoming a National Academician in 1934. She married William Blanchard Rand in 1911 and settled in Salisbury, Connecticut. After the stock market crash of 1929, Bay's portraits of prominent society figures provided most of her family's income.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 4544) including one scrapbook, compiled by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, consisting of portrait sketches, drawings of her dogs, genre scenes, travel views, and photographs of travels, friends, actors, and the ship "Scythia,". Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
In 1988-1991, the bulk of the Emmet family papers were donated by Rosamond Sherwood, daughter of Rosina Emmet Sherwood (via Katharine Emmet Bramwell of New York), by Rosamond Sherwood's estate (via F. Douglas Cochrane, executor, from Boston), and by Rosamond's nieces, Virginia Sherwood and Julia Shipway. Additionally, one scrapbook was lent for microfilming in 1990 and subsequently donated by Mrs. Earl Maize. Douglas Cochrane then loaned another scrapbook for microfilming (reel 4344) in 1991 which was returned to Mrs. Earl Maize.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of awards, certificates, curriculum vitae, biographical outlines, exhibition lists, passports and other material. There is a partial transcript from a radio interview of Anna Walinska. Also included are limited financial records.
Correspondence includes Anna Walinska's letters to her family from her 1954-1955 trip abroad to multiple countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. There is personal and professional correspondence with friends, artists and art institutions. Notable correspondents include Milton Avery, Louise Nevelson, Beata Welsing, Bracha Hacohen, William Littlefield, and Walinska's brother Louis Walinsky.
Writings consist of Walinska's notes, notebooks, lectures, essays, and a handwritten prospectus for Guild Art Gallery. There is one folder of writings by others about Walinska at the end of the series.
There are four travel diaries that describe Walinska's trip around the world from 1954-1955, during which she traveled to many countries, and later trips to locations such as Israel and Trinidad.
Printed Material include clippings about Anna Walinska, group and solo exhibition catalogs, announcements, event invitations, and course catalogs for the Master Institute of United Art in New York City, where Walinska taught painting and drawing classes.
There are three scrapbooks: one scrapbook is about Guild Art Gallery, the second scrapbook is about the Holocaust exhibition, the third oversized scrapbook documents Walinska's career and activities overall.
Artwork consists of two bound sketchbooks as well as drawings and sketches in a variety of mediums from pencil and ink to watercolors and oils.
Photographs are of Walinska, friends, family, artists, artwork, exhibition installations, and other subjects. One album includes photos of Anna Walinska and her travels, along with images of friends and colleagues. The second album includes photographs of Walinska's solo exhibition at Sunken Meadow Gallery (1959). There is also one folder of photocopies of photos of assorted artwork by Walinska.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1927-2002 (Box 1; 11 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1949-1995 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1935-circa 1983 (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 4: Travel Diaries, 1954-1973 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1942-2002 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1929-1980 (Boxes 2, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1929-1963 (Box 3; 5 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1932-1980 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Anna Walinska (1906-1997) was a New York artist, teacher and gallery director who traveled widely and is most well known for her paintings related to the subject of the Holocaust.
Anna Walinska was born in London, England in 1906 to labor organization leader Ossip Walinsky and poet Rosa Newman Walinska. She had two siblings, Emily and Louis. The family immigrated to New York City in 1914, and Anna Walinska began studying at the Art Students League in 1918. In 1926, she travelled to Paris and studied art at the Academie de Grande Chaumier with Andre L'Hote. France was her primary residence until 1930.
In 1935, Walinska and artist Margaret Lefranc co-founded the Guild Art Gallery at West 57th Street in New York and gave Arshile Gorky his first solo exhibition in the city. The gallery closed its doors in 1937. In 1939, Walinska was the Assistant Creative Director of the Contemporary Art Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During this time, Walinska also pursued her own art and exhibited work in numerous group shows.
From 1954 to 1955, Walinska traveled around the world, visiting the capitals and major cities of many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Places she went included Japan, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. During her four month stay in Burma, she painted a portrait of Prime Minister U Nu and she later became a highly respected portrait artist who painted numerous illustrious subjects such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, artists Louise Nevelson and Mark Rothko, and many others.
In 1957, Walinska became the artist-in-residence at the Riverside Museum where she also taught and exhibited with other artists. That same year, she had her first retrospective at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
Walinska exhibited widely and often. Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings, 1953-1978, which opened at the Museum of Religious Art at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is probably the most well-known of her exhibitions and it traveled across the country to several other sites such as the War Memorial Building in Baltimore and Mercy College of Detroit. Works from this exhibition were acquired by multiple museums to become part of their permanent collections.
Walinkska died on December 19, 1997 at the age of 91 in New York City. In 1999, there was a retrospective of her work titled Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989 held at Clark University's Center for Holocaust Studies. The Onisaburo Gallery at New York's Interfaith Center also held a solo exhibition titled Portraits of Faith (2000). Her art is part of the collections at the Denver Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Rose Art Museum, and other museums.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has the Guild Art Gallery records, which consists of material related to the gallery that was co-founded by Anna Walinska.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Anna Walinska in two installations in 1976 and 1981. Rosina Rubin, Anna Walinska's niece, made a third donation of material in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., research center.
Topic:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Art galleries, Commercial -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of painter and teacher Douglas Volk (1856-1935) and his father, sculptor Leonard Wells Volk (1828-1895), measure 12.4 linear feet and date from circa 1858-1965, 2008, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870-1935. Douglas Volk's papers document his life and career through biographical material, family and professional correspondence, writings and notes, diaries and journals, financial records, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of the artist, his family, friends, and artwork. The papers also provide documentation of the formation and operations of the Sabatos Handicraft Society established with Marion Volk from the Volk's summer home, Hewnoaks, in Center Lovell, Maine. Scattered documentation of the life and work of Leonard Wells Volk, is found in biographical material, land records, letters, memoirs, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter and teacher Douglas Volk (1856-1935) and his father, sculptor Leonard Wells Volk (1828-1895), measure 12.4 linear feet and date from circa 1858-1965, 2008, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870-1935. Douglas Volk's papers document his life and career through biographical material, family and professional correspondence, writings and notes, diaries and journals, financial records, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of the artist, his family, friends, and artwork. The papers also provide documentation of the formation and operations of the Sabatos Handicraft Society established with Marion Volk from the Volk's summer home, Hewnoaks, in Center Lovell, Maine. Scattered documentation of the life and work of Leonard Wells Volk, is found in biographical material, land records, letters, memoirs, and photographs.
Douglas Volk's papers form the bulk of the collection and document all stages of his life from his first visits to Europe during his teenage years, until his death. Biographical material includes address books, biographical notes, genealogical records of Volk's family, and a warranty deed for land purchased by Marion Volk in Center Lovell, Maine, in 1904.
Family correspondence is primarily between Douglas and Marion throughout their courtship and marriage, but also includes letters from other family members including daughter Marion Volk Bridge and sons Wendell and Gerome Volk. General correspondence is with colleagues, art galleries, societies, institutions and museums, schools and colleges, government agencies, and others. Also found are letters from artists including George de Forest Brush, Elliott Daingerfield, Cass Gilbert, Philip Leslie Hale, Swedish woodcarver Karl von Rydingsvard, and J. Alden Weir; and friends Felix Adler and Percival Chubb.
Douglas Volk's writings and notes are on art, art instruction for children, and the significance and influence of his father's work, particularly Leonard Volk's Lincoln life mask, and include drafts of his monograph "Art Instruction in Public Schools."
Diaries and journals record details of Volk's early art education in Europe, including his friendships with Eugene Benson and George de Forest Brush and others, his time spent studying under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux Arts, his appointment by the National Art Committee to paint portraits of World War I era politicians and military figures, and his Lincoln portrait painted just prior to Volk's death.
Financial records document day-to-day routine expense, as well as sales of artwork and other art-related transactions.
Printed material and a scrapbook of clippings and letters include press coverage of Douglas Volk's career from the early 1900s to 1918. An additional scrapbook provides documentation of the Sabatos Handicraft Society, including a copy of one of only three known editions of the society's publication The Fire Fly. Artwork includes sketches, two small oil paintings, and fifteen sketchbooks of Douglas Volk.
Photographs include portraits taken at various stages of Volk's career, family photographs, photographs of the main house at Hewnoaks and additional buildings, photographs of several artists including William Merritt Chase and Karl von Rydinsgsvard, photographs of world leaders including David Lloyd George, King Albert of Belgium, and General John J. Pershing, and photographs of artwork.
The papers of Leonard Wells Volk include seven volumes of his hand-written memoirs which document his relationship with Stephen A. Douglas, his first meeting with Lincoln, and his involvement with the Chicago Academy of Design. Also found are three letters including one written to Douglas Volk in 1887, and a memorandum related to the value of Leonard Wells Volk's Lincoln and Douglas statues at the Illinois State House. Photographs include three of Leonard Wells Volk, photographs of other family members including his wife Emily, photos of houses and woodland scenes, and photos of artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 2 series.
Series 1: Douglas Volk Papers, circa 1870-1965, 2008 (11.85 linear feet; Boxes 1-12, 15-16, OVs 13-14)
Series 2: Leonard Wells Volk Papers, circa 1858-circa 1930 (0.45 linear feet; Boxes 11-12)
Biographical / Historical:
Chicago sculptor Leonard Wells Volk (1828-1895) created one of only two life masks of Abraham Lincoln. His son, painter and teacher Douglas Volk (1856-1935), was known for his figure and portrait paintings. Douglas Volk and his wife Marion Larrabee Volk established the Sabatos Handicraft Society, producing homespun woolen rugs and textiles from their summer home in Center Lovell, Maine.
Leonard Wells Volk was raised in New York State and Massachusetts, before moving to St. Louis to learn modeling and drawing. Around 1852 he married Emily Clarissa King Barlow, a cousin of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas took an interest in Volk's career and helped finance his trip to Rome and Florence between 1855 and 1857, where Volk studied art. On returning from Europe Volk settled in Chicago, opening a studio there and establishing himself as a leader in art circles and a founder of the Chicago Academy of Design. He served as president of the Academy (later the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) for eight years. Volk recorded his first meeting with Lincoln during the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the subsequent 1860 sittings with Lincoln for the life mask, hands, and bust, in his memoirs. The mask served as a model for many sculptors who made later portraits of Lincoln. Volk's other important works include the Rock Island County Soldier's Monument in Rochester, New York (1869), statues of Lincoln and Douglas for the Illinois Statehouse (1876), a bust of Douglas, and the Douglas Tomb monument (1881) in Chicago.
Douglas Volk was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1856. His artistic education began in his teens when he traveled to Europe with his family. In the early 1870s he lived in Rome and Venice, spending time with his friends George de Forest Brush and J. Alden Weir. He moved to Paris in 1873 where he studied at the École des Beaux Arts with Jean-Léon Gérôme, and exhibited his first picture, In Brittany, at the 1875 Paris Salon.
In 1879 Volk returned to the United States and accepted a teaching position at Cooper Union. He was elected to the Society of American Artists in 1880 and married Marion Larrabee in 1881. In 1883 Volk became a founder of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts and was appointed the first president of the subsequent Minneapolis School of Fine Arts in 1886, a position he held until 1893. During his time in Minneapolis, Volk purchased a summer studio and retreat in Osceola, Wisconsin, and he and Marion had four children: Leonard (1882-1891), Wendell (1884-1953), Marion (1888-1973) and Gerome (1890-1959).
In 1893 Volk returned to New York and accepted a position at the Art Students League, where he taught from 1893-1898, and also resumed his post at Cooper Union. He became interested in innovative ways to teach art and art history to children, and in 1895 the National Academy of Design printed his essay "A Plea for Art in the Public Schools," in its annual exhibition catalog. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1898, becoming a full academician in 1899.
In 1898, looking to provide the family with a summer retreat, Marion Volk purchased property with a friend in Center Lovell, Maine, an area already enjoyed by the couple's friends, George de Forest Brush and Percival Chubb. The property was divided in 1901 and Marion added to her half creating a lot of approximately twenty-five acres. The Volks renovated the house, which they named Hewnoaks, and eventually built four more cottages and a studio for Douglas Volk on the property. During this period Marion Volk was working with handwoven wool on traditional area looms using fruit and vegetable hand-dyes and designs based on motifs from Native American art. In 1902 the Volks held the founding meeting of the Sabatos Handicraft Society at Hewnoaks, and the property became the hub of a Center Lovell community effort to produce rugs, textiles, and other handicrafts using traditional methods. Daughter Marion worked with her mother, and son Wendell, a printmaker and woodcaver, operated the Hewn Beam Press, printing pamphlets and a newsletter entitled the Fire Fly: A Periodical of Fearless Endeavour. Swedish-born wood carver Karl von Rydingsvard offered classes on wood carving at Hewnoaks, assisted by Wendell Volk.
Douglas Volk worked to make the Hewnoaks handicraft movement a success, but focused primarily on his own painting. The Maine woods provided endless inspiration and the setting for many of his paintings and murals, which primarily depicted romanticized historical subjects in Colonial America and reflected his traditional academic training. One of his best known works, The Boy with the Arrow (1903), a portrait of his son Leonard "Leo" Volk who died at the age of eight, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Volk taught at the National Academy of Design from 1910-1917. He served as recording secretary and then on the council for the organization from 1910-1919. His acclaimed intimate portraits of friends and acquaintances, including Felix Adler (1914) and William Macbeth (1917), were painted during this period. In 1919 Volk was one of a group of artists commissioned by the National Art Committee to paint major figures from World War I. He subsequently painted portraits of King Albert of Belgium, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and General John J. Pershing, and recorded his meetings and sittings with the three men in his journals.
For the last fifteen years of his life Volk, using his father's life mask, painted a series of portraits of Abraham Lincoln, one of which hangs in the Lincoln Bedroom at The White House.
At least fifteen years prior to her death in 1925, Marion Volk's involvement in handicrafts at Hewnoaks declined, while Douglas Volk continued to focus on his own work. Wendell Volk's career in civil engineering took precedence over his interest in weaving and woodcarving and both he and his brother Gerome moved West in 1909. Following Douglas Volk's death in Fryeburg, Maine in 1935, Wendell Volk and his wife Jessie, also an artist, ultimately took possession of Hewnoaks. Wendell died in 1953, but the property was eventually bequeathed by Jessie Volk to the University of Maine and now operates as an artist colony.
Separated Materials:
Volumes 1, 3, 6-7, 9, and 10 of Leonard Volk's memoirs form part of the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana in the Library of Congress.
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel 4280) including correspondence of Leonard Volk and photographs of his artwork. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York first lent material for microfilming in 1989. Most of the material was then donated in 2004–2005 by Jessie J. Volk, the daughter-in-law of Douglas Volk, who also bequeathed the Volk estate including additional Volk papers to the University of Maine. In 2006, University officials arranged for an auction of much of the property of the estate including the remaining family papers. The Volk Family estate auction was conducted by Cyr Auction Co., in Gray, Maine, on July 19, 2006. Several individuals purchased parts of the papers at that auction and subsequently donated them to the Archives. Those donors are: David Wright, who acquired the 1875 journal and Brush letters and donated them to the Archives in 2006; Dr. Christine Isabelle Oaklander, who purchased the account book, 1873–1875, and donated it to the Archives in honor of Judith Ellen Throm in 2007, and also donated additional letters and a photograph in 2008; and Mary K. and John F. McGuigan Jr., who purchased correspondence (1120 letters), speeches, lectures, articles, checks, check stubs and miscellaneous items and donated them to the Archives in 2015. In 2007, the University of Maine Foundation via Amos Orcutt donated the 1934 journal and 60 photographs.
John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan have purchased and donated additional archival materials to the Archives, including the Mary K. McGuigan and John F. McGuigan Jr. artists' letters collection, and 69 letters now among the Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers.
In 2007, the University of Maine Foundation via Amos Orcutt donated the 1934 journal and 60 photographs that were part of the Volk Family estate, but not included in the June 19, 2006 auction.
In 2019 Dr. Christine Isabelle Oaklander donated additional material purchased at auction, primarily photographs and some printed material.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
An interview of Elizabeth Saltonstall conducted 1981 November 18, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Saltonstall discusses her experiences with art as a child in Boston (mentioning Frank Weston Benson as an influence) and her subsequent art education at the Winsor School, the art school of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and independent study in Paris. She remembers the various teaching styles of the Museum School faculty (Frederick A. Bosley, Henry Hunt Clark, Anson K. Cross, Philip Leslie Hale, Alexander James, and Leslie P. Thompson), especially as they contrasted with French teaching methods. She also speaks of her teachers in France and on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket (including Frank Swift Chase), and recalls some of her co-students (including Josef Presser). Particular mention is made of a lithography workshop taught by Stow Wengenroth, and of George C. Miller, who printed her lithography stones. Her cousin, Nathaniel Saltonstall, is discussed as a patron of the arts, especially his contributions to the establishment of the Institute of Modern Art [Institute of Contemporary Art] in Boston. She touches also on her own teaching career at Winsor School and Milton Academy, and her involvement with the Boston Society of Independent Artists and the Grace Horn Gallery.
Biographical / Historical:
Elizabeth Saltonstall (1900-1990) was a painter, printmaker, and instructor of Chestnut Hill, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassette. Reformatted in 2010 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 25 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Art patrons -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Topic:
Art -- Study and teaching -- France -- Paris Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts Search this
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Printmakers -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Women artists -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
The papers of New York painters and teachers Josef Presser and Presser's wife Agnes Hart measure 4.3 linear feet and date from 1913 to 1980, with the bulk of the material from 1940 to 1980. The collection documents their personal and professional lives as artists and educators and consists of biographical material, business and personal correspondence, teaching files, printed material, and scattered photographs. The collection also includes writings, personal business records, and artwork by Presser.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York painters and teachers Josef Presser and Agnes Hart measure 4.3 linear feet and date from 1913 to 1980, with the bulk of the material from 1940 to 1980. The collection documents their personal and professional lives as partners, artists, and educators and consists of biographical material, business and personal correspondence, teaching files, printed material, and scattered photographs. The collection also includes writings, personal business records, and artwork by Presser.
The collection is divided into two series. Series 1 consists primarily of Presser's papers from 1913 to his death in 1967, and Hart's correspondence dating from 1967 to 1977 regarding the management of his estate. Biographical material includes an address book, curriculum vitae, family history, and personal identification records. Presser's personal correspondence is with family and friends, including the artists Charles Hopkinson and Vera Fraser. Business related correspondence is with various collectors, galleries, museums, art associations, and art schools. There is also correspondence related to Presser's law suit against the New York Port Authority, and Presser and Hart's real estate purchases in Hurley and Woodstock, New York. Hart's correspondence concerns Presser's estate and artwork after his death, including letters related to the organization of Presser's memorial exhibition in 1968.
Writings by Presser include essay fragments, 4 notebooks, and numerous note fragments. His teaching files include memoranda, syllabi, and class assignments from his tenure at New York University from 1947 to 1952. There are also memoranda from the New York School of Visual Arts and the Prospect Hill School. Personal business records include bank registers, artwork sales records, and receipts from his residency in Paris in the 1960s.
Printed material consists of bulletins, clippings, and exhibition announcements and catalogs related to Presser's career. There are also draft and final versions of Presser's memorial exhibition catalog, and a copy of the 1951 conference Artist and the Museum sponsored by the Artists Equity Association and the Woodstock Artists Association.
Artwork consists of loose sketches, artwork on postcards and printed material, and 9 sketchbooks dating from the 1950s to 1960s. Photographic material includes photographs of Presser with friends and family, and photographs of his studio and artwork. There are also 4 photographs of the artist Abraham Walkowitz dating from the 1940s.
Agnes Hart's papers documenting her own career are arranged in Series 2 and date from 1930 to 1980. Biographical materials include two engagement calendars, curriculum vitae, consignment lists, and critiques. Her correspondence with family and friends includes letters from artist Lucile Blanch, journalist Agnes Smedley, and Yaddo director Elizabeth Ames. Business correspondence is with galleries, collectors, art associations, and art schools.
Teaching files include employment contracts, class catalogs, newsletters, and photographs from Hart's tenure at the Art Students League (1965-1975), and class catalogs and memoranda from Dalton Schools and Parnassus Square. Printed material includes bulletins, clippings, and exhibition announcements and catalogs related to Hart's career. There are also draft and final versions of the 1956 Yasuo Kuniyoshi memorial exhibition catalog. Additional photographic material consists of a photograph of the Central Cown Art Center, a gallery Hart managed in 1937.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 2 series:
Series 1: Josef Presser, 1913-1977 (3 linear feet; Boxes 1-3, Box 5)
Series 2: Agnes Hart, 1930-1980 (1.3 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)
Biographical Note:
Josef Presser (1909-1967) lived and worked primarily in New York City as a painter, educator, and lecturer.
Presser was born in Lublin, Poland and immigrated with his family to Boston, Massachusetts in 1913. He showed an early affinity for art and, at the age of 12, was accepted to the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts on a four year scholarship. After completing his education, he spent several years traveling in Europe and visited the major museums of France, Italy, and Belgium before returning to America in 1931. Upon his return, Presser opened his first solo New York show at the Montross Gallery in 1931, moved to Philadelphia, painted murals as part of the Works Progress Administration program, and began receiving private commissions. By the mid-1930s, Presser was exhibiting regularly in solo shows in Philadelphia and had began accepting teaching positions. While lecturing at Iowa State University, Presser met his future wife and artist, Agnes Hart, who he married in 1941.
After moving to New York City in 1940, Presser continued to exhibit in New York galleries throughout the 1940s and 1950s, and eventually accepted teaching positions at New York University, Queens College, Cooper Union, and the Brooklyn Museum Art School, among others. Though he was familiar with the work of the abstract expressionists, Presser is known primarily for his figurative paintings featuring women, children, clowns, and horses, with the latter two subjects inspired by circuses he had traveled with in Europe. In 1940, Presser and Hart purchased studio space in Woodstock, New York where they exhibited as members of the Woodstock Artists Association. Presser's solo shows include exhibitions at Contemporary Arts Gallery, Associated American Artists Galleries, and the Vera Lazuk Gallery.
In 1965, Presser went on an extended trip abroad to Paris, and continued working until his death in 1967.
Agnes Hart (1912-1979) was born in Meridan, Connecticut and studied art at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida and at Iowa State University. Hart was a prolific painter and printmaker of abstract forms and urban landscapes. In 1948 and 1949, she received fellowships as a guest painter at the Yaddo Foundation and exhibited her first solo show in New York City at the RoKo Gallery in 1948. She continued to exhibit regularly at New York City galleries into the 1970s, and also accepted several teaching positions, including a ten year tenure with the Art Students League of New York. She continued to paint and teach until her death in 1979.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel N69-1) including original clippings and exhibition announcements. Lent materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The papers of Josef Presser were lent for microfilming by Agnes Hart in 1968. Excluding certain printed material, Hart later donated the bulk of these papers and additional Presser materials in 1977 and 1979. Hart donated her papers in 1978. Frances Hitchcock, Hart's sister, gave additional material in 1981.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Weller, Allen S. (Allen Stuart), 1907-1997 Search this
Extent:
26.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Sketches
Diaries
Scrapbooks
Photographs
Interviews
Date:
1891-1986
Summary:
The Abraham Rattner and Esther Gentle papers measure 26.3 linear feet and date from 1891 through the 1980s. The collection documents Rattner's life and career as an artist through interviews, extensive correspondence, gallery files, studio notebooks, writings, notes, date books and diaries, photographs, and works of art.
Scope and Content Note:
Abraham Rattner's papers provide insight into an important time for twentieth century American art and culture. By studying Rattner's papers, the researcher may view the beginnings of Modernism, the cultural change that pushed the boundaries of artistic and literary traditions and provided new ways in which to express ourselves.
The Abraham Rattner and Esther Gentle papers measure 26.3 linear feet and date from 1891 through the 1980s. The collection documents Rattner's life and career as an artist through interviews, extensive correspondence, gallery files, studio notebooks, writings, notes, date books and diaries, photographs, and works of art.
The biographical files contain documents such as Rattner's birth certificate, travel visas, his senior yearbook from 1912 which shows some of his early art work, and some of his awards. His birth certificate is of particular interest since it shows Rattner's birth date to be 1893 instead of the recognized 1895.
The correspondence offers great insight into the thoughts of many American and European artists and writers during the 1930s and 1940s. Rattner, a prolific writer, expressed many of his own thoughts and concerns through his letters, many of which are included in this collection. The vast amount of correspondence include letters from notable figures such as George Biddle, Kay Boyle, Paul Burlin, Norman Carton, Robert Coates, Stuart Davis, Adolph Dehn, Richard de Rochemont, John Dos Passos, Xavier Gonzales, John Howard Griffin, Ramon Guthrie, Robert Gwathmey, Weeks Hall, Stanley W. Hayter, Jean Helion, Hilaire Hiler, Joseph Hirsch, Stefan Hirsch, Carl Holty, Louis Kronberg, Rico Lebrun, Jacques Lipchitz, Earle Ludgin, Thalia Wescott Malcolm, Henry Miller, Joan Miro, Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt, Channing Peake, Henry Varnum Poor, Felix Ruvolo, Waverly Root, Jack Gage Stark, Frank C. Watkins, and Allen Weller, among others.
Rattner was engaged in a wide range of special art projects, and he kept detailed files on these projects. The projects spanned from 1940 through 1973 and included endeavors such as illustrations for Life magazine, stained-glass designs, mosaic and tapestry projects, as well as special paintings such as Victory--Jerusalem the Golden and The Gallows of Baghdad. Rattner's papers also detail the history of a fresco painted by Paul Gauguin entitled Joan d'Arcwhich Rattner purchased in France in 1925.
Rattner's forty year friendship with the writer Henry Miller is chronicled throughout the collection in the forms of correspondence, writings, printed material, phototographs and artwork. Their correspondence ranges from 1938 through 1978 and offers great insight into their relationship. Rattner and Miller's road trip from New York to New Orleans in 1940-1941 is documented in the series entitled Special Projects. Also included in the collection are printed material, such as biographical material on Miller, Miller's writings, literary announcements and reviews; Miller's writings on Rattner; and photographs of Miller.
The gallery files contain correspondence, receipts, and notes regarding the galleries which represented Rattner. Those galleries included the Rosenberg Gallery, the Downtown Gallery, and the Kennedy Gallery. A small series of exhibition files contain material about exhibitions held outside of Rattner's representative galleries.
Rattner's writings proved to be an outlet for his thoughts on painting, his inspirations, frustrations, and sadness. In addition to painting, Rattner was able to express his creativity through writing poetry. Writing also helped him work through his depression over the death of his first wife Bettina Bedwell.
He also kept finely detailed studio notebooks. The original order has been maintained, and they trace the history of almost each painting, drawing, and study attempted by Rattner. The notebooks often provide information regarding whether the work was sent to a gallery or given as a gift. Sometimes they contain correspondence or writings that reveal the inspiration for a work. They have been arranged in chronological order, according to Rattner's own filing system.
Rattner retained receipts for most of his art expenses. Arranged by decade, these receipts show the type of paint, colors, types of paper and brushes that he used.
Rattner also kept many household files and personal financial records. Household files contain insurance records, warranties and rental agreements, while the financial records contain returned checks and bank statements. Some bank statements from Esther Gentle Reproductions are also included. The household files and financial records are not filmed.
The date books and diaries reveal the aspects of daily life and the personal thoughts of Rattner and Esther Gentle. In many cases, Rattner shared his date books and diaries with Gentle. The early diaries are fascinating, especially the 1939 diary that discloses the Rattners' last days in France before escaping Nazism and returning to the United States.
Rettner's scrapbooks span from 1938 to 1952 and contain newspaper and magazine clippings that mention the artist or his work.
The printed material covers a period from 1930s through the 1980s and includes exhibition catalogs, exhibition announcements, clippings, and miscellaneous material such as an autograph book from 1969 and a map of Israel that shows Rattner's travel route. There is a large amount of unfilmed printed material that is listed in the series description.
Writings by others consists of writings on Rattner and other topics.
The collection contains many photographs taken of Rattner and taken by him, as well as photos of family, friends, his studio, travels, and photographs of Rattner's art. Photographs of notable people include Henry Miller, Joan Miro, John Dos Passos, Archibald MacLeish, and Malcolm Cowley, among others.
The amount of Rattner's art work included in the collection is small, but it is significant because it provides examples of his very early work, dating from 1912-1914. Some later studies are also present, as well as a number of random sketches. Color was very important to Rattner, and some of his color studies from the 1940s are also included. Art work by other artists is comprised of some small paintings by Max Weber, a water color by Henry Miller, a painting by Ken Buryd, as well as some work by unknown artists.
In addition to tracing Rattner's life and career, the collection also documents the lives of Rattner's two wives, Bettina Bedwell and Esther Gentle. Both women had profound effects on Rattner's work. Among Bettina Bedwell's papers are her diary, fashion sketches, and correspondence. Esther Gentle's papers include correspondence, writings, as well as papers documenting her business Esther Gentle Reproductions. There are a small amount of papers relating to Allen Leepa, Rattner's stepson with Esther Gentle.
See index for list of correspondents from various series.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into twenty-four series based primarily on type of document or special project. Though concentrated in its own series, additional correspondence is scattered throughout the collection and may be found in special project files, gallery files, exhibition files, studio notebooks, and scrapbooks. The correspondence has been divided into two subseries, one chronological and the other according to Rattner's subject-oriented filing system. Special art projects have been organized by project, and placed in chronological order. The studio notebooks have also been divided into subseries, and all notebook pages maintain Rattner's original order. The first subseries of notebooks reflects Rattner's numbering system, while the second subseries is arranged chronologically. The vast amount of printed material has been divided into subseries, and all of the unfilmed printed material has been organized chronologically at the end of the series.
Within each series, material is arranged either in chronological order, or in some cases, according to Abraham Rattner's own organizational system.
Oversized materials from various series are housed in oversized folders 33-45 and are noted in the Series Description/Container Listing with see also/see references or in the container columns.
Series 1: Biographical Files, 1893-1978, undated (box 1; 0.2 linear ft.)
Series 2: Interviews, 1957-1975, undated (box 1; 7 folders)
Series 3: Correspondence Files, 1933-1978, undated (boxes 1-5; 4.3 linear ft.)
Series 4: Special Projects, 1940-1987, undated (boxes 5-6, ovs 33-35; 1.5 linear ft.)
Series 5: -- Joan d'Arc -- Fresco painted by Paul Gaugin, 1925-1963, undated (box 7, ov 36; 12 folders)
Series 6: Gallery Files, 1942-1975 (boxes 7-8; 1.5 linear ft.)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1963-1978 (boxes 7, 9; 9 folders)
Series 8: Writings, 1940-1972, undated (box 9; 0.9 linear ft.)
Series 9: Studio Notebooks, 1935-1975, undated (boxes 10-11; 1.9 linear ft.)
Series 10: Art Expenses, circa 1940-1970 (boxes 11-13; 0.7 linear ft.)
Series 11: Household Files, 1940-1970, undated (box 13; 0.8 linear ft.)
Series 12: Financial Records, 1933-1963 (boxes 13-14; 0.7 linear ft.)
Series 13: Notes and Lists, 1936-1972, undated (box 14; 0.5 linear ft.)
Series 14: Address Books, 1939-1977, undated (box 15; 1.0 linear ft.)
Series 15: Date Books/Diaries, 1937-1977, undated (boxes 16-17; 1.6 linear ft.)
Series 16: Scrapbooks, 1938-1952 (boxes 18-22; 1.5 linear ft.)
Series 17: Printed Material, 1920s-1980s, undated (boxes 23-26; 3.6 linear ft.)
Series 18: Writings by Others, 1945-circa 1980, undated (box 26; 20 folders)
Series 19: Photographs, 1891-1970s, undated (boxes 27-29; 1.6 linear ft.)
Series 20: Works of Art by Rattner, 1912-1914, 1940-1967, undated (box 30, ovs 37-44; 2.4 linear ft.)
Series 21: Works of Art by Others, undated (box 30, ov 45; 7 folders)
Series 22: Bettina Bedwell Papers, 1932-1947, undated (box 31; 0.4 linear ft.)
Series 23: Esther Gentle Papers, 1921-1984, undated (boxes 31-32; 1.3 linear ft.)
Series 24: Allen Leepa Papers, 1952-1969, undated (box 32; 8 folders)
Biographical Note:
Abraham Rattner was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1895. His parents immigrated to the United States to escape antisemitism in Czarist Russia. He was the second of six children, including his eldest brother Louis, younger brothers Manuel (Manny) and Harry, and his younger sisters Rose and Jennie.
Rattner's parents encouraged him to paint at a young age, and as he grew up, painting became a part of his daily life. He graduated from Poughkeepsie High School in 1912 and left to study architecture at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. At night, he took art courses at the Corcoran School of Art. He soon became a full-time art student, and applied for a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He was accepted in 1919 and supported himself by doing illustrations for Philadelphia newspapers.
In 1917, World War I interrupted his studies. Rattner entered the United States Army in France where he became Sergeant of camouflage section, 40th Engineers. Camouflage, reflecting aspects of modern art in its form and pattern, made use of Rattner's artistic skills. During the second battle of the Marne, Rattner injured his back and returned to the States with an ailment that would affect him for the rest of his life.
Rattner returned to the Pennsylvania Academy and was awarded the Cresson scholarship to study art in Europe. He traveled for one year, then settled in Paris for the next twenty years. Those twenty years in Paris became the most formative for Rattner because he was able to study and experiment with Futurism, Cubism, and Expressionism. Post World War I Paris was the center of modern culture for Americans disillusioned by the destruction of the war. Expatriate writers, poets, and artists were searching for a culture that shunned the traditions of the past and exchanged ideas with one another at the lively Paris cafes and salons.
In 1924, Abraham Rattner married Bettina Bedwell, an American art student and fashion illustrator. Bettina became the Paris fashion correspondent for the New York News-Chicago Tribune Syndicate. In 1927, Rattner was a member of the Minotaure group, along with Picasso, Miro, Giacometti, Le Corbusier, Braque, Dali, and Reverdy. He also illustrated an article for Jon Dos Passos in Verve magazine in 1931.
Rattner's first one-man show was in 1935 at the Galerie Bonjean in Paris, which was followed by one-man shows at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, the Arts Club of Chicago, and the Courvoisier Gallery in San Francisco.
The threat of Hitler and Nazism forced Rattner and his wife to flee Paris in 1939. Arriving in New York in early 1940, Rattner agreed to take a trip by car with the writer Henry Miller. Their route took them from New York to New Iberia, Louisiana via the East coast and Southern states. Their mission was to rediscover America, with Henry Miller writing about their experiences and Rattner sketching the scenery. Rattner's friendship with Henry Miller was an important one that lasted throughout his life.
During the 1940s, Rattner's art was widely exhibited. In 1941, he joined the Rosenberg Gallery in New York, and remained with the gallery for fourteen years. He won awards for his work such as the Temple Gold Medal in 1945 and second prize in the Pepsi-Cola Fourth Annual Art Competition in 1946. In 1947, Bettina Bedwell suddenly died due to a kidney infection, sending Rattner into a spiral of grief and depression. To escape depression, from 1947-1949, he taught at the New School for Social Research in New York.
In 1949, Rattner married Esther Gentle, an artist and business woman who ran an art reproductions business. In 1951, the Rattners moved to Rome where he worked as Artist in Residence at the American Academy. The next year, they moved to Illinois where he was the Artist in Residence at the University of Illinois. Ratter was awarded first prize in 1953 at the 23rd Corcoran Biennial Exhibition and also served as Vice-President of Artists' Equity. In 1956, Rattner was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Michigan State University, and along with his stepson, Allen Leepa, established an art school on Long Island. In 1957, Rattner left the Rosenberg Gallery to join the Downtown Gallery. He felt he would professionally profit from representation by the well-known Edith Halpert; however, the next twelve years reflected a tumultuous relationship between the artist and the gallery owner.
In 1957, Rattner reached out to other forms of art and design. He experimented with mosaic, tapestry and stained-glass. He designed mosaic columns and tapestries for the Fairmont Temple Anche Chesed in Cleveland and a mosaic for a friary and college in Centerville, Ohio. His stained-glass designs were highly celebrated and respected. His most famous stained-glass piece was the window for the Chicago Loop Synagogue. For this piece, Rattner spent two years traveling to Paris to design and supervise every process involved in the design and installation of the window.
Rattner felt that while his paintings during the 1940s and 1950s were romantic and self-reflective, the 1960s marked a new inspirational period in his work. His painting reflected religious comment, bringing Rattner back in touch with his Jewish heritage, as well as reflecting a sense of social protest. In 1968, Rattner exhibited his painting Victory--Jerusalem the Golden to honor the celebration of Israel's twentieth anniversary of independence. It was also in 1968 that Rattner left the Downtown Gallery for the Kennedy Gallery. In 1969, he painted The Gallows of Baghdad series as a protest to the hanging of nine Jews by Iraqi authorities.
The 1970s marked a time of many exhibitions. In 1976, the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. sponsored an exhibition of his designs for stained-glass entitled "...and let there be light". Also, from 1976 through 1977, "Our America" exhibited Rattner's drawings from his 1940 U.S.A. trip with Henry Miller in England and in the United States. In 1977, Michigan State University bestowed upon him the Honorary Degree for Humanity. On February 14, 1978, Abraham Rattner died due to heart failure.
1893 -- Born June 8th in Poughkeepsie, New York.
1912 -- Graduated from Poughkeepsie High School.
1914-1917 -- Student at George Washington University, Corcoran School of Art and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
1917 -- Enlisted in the United States Army in France as Sergeant, camouflage section, 40th Engineers. Fought at Seicheprey, second battle of the Marne, and Chateau-Thierry.
1919 -- Returned to Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Awarded Cresson traveling fellowship to Europe.
1920 -- Traveled in France, Spain, England, Belgium and Holland.
1921 -- Art student in Paris at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Grand Chaumiere, and Academie Ranson.
1922 -- Lived and painted in Giverny, France.
1923 -- Returned to Paris.
1924 -- Married Bettina Bedwell, Paris fashion correspondent for the New York News-Chicago Tribune news syndicate. Exhibited at Salon d'Automne and Salon des Independants.
1927 -- Member of the Minotaure group in Paris.
1931 -- Illustrated article, "Fire," by John Dos Passos for Verve magazine.
1935 -- First one-person show at Galerie Bonjean, Paris. French government purchased Card Party for Museum of Impressionism, The Louvre.
1936 -- One-person show at Julien Levy Gallery, New York (also 1939, 1941); Arts Club of Chicago; Courvoisier Gallery, San Francisco (also 1941).
1940 -- Returned to the United States following Nazi invasion of France. Traveled with Henry Miller from New York to New Iberia, Louisiana.
1941 -- One-person shows: Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles; Faulkner Memorial Art Gallery, Santa Barbara (also 1943); Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York (also 1942, 1944, 1946, 1948-1950, 1952, 1956); Studio, New York.
1945 -- Awarded the Temple Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Wrote "An American in Paris" for Magazine of Art.
1946 -- Awarded second prize at the Pepsi-Cola Fourth Annual Art Competition.
1947 -- Death of Bettina Bedwell Rattner.
1948 -- Taught at the New School for Social Research, New York.
1949 -- Married Esther Gentle. Visiting artist at Yale University and at the Brooklyn Museum School. Awarded honorable mention at the Carnegie Institute Exhibition of American Painting.
1950 -- Awarded the Purchase Prize at the University of Illinois Biennial Exhibition.
1951 -- Artist in residence at the American Academy in Rome.
1952 -- Artist in residence at the University of Illinois.
1953 -- Awarded first prize at the 23rd Corcoran Biennial Exhibition. Served as Vice-President of Artists' Equity.
1954 -- Taught at the Art Students League. Panelist at the Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado.
1955 -- Exhibited drawings at the Chicago Art Institute.
1956 -- Distinguished Visiting Professor at Michigan State University. Established an art school in East Hampton and Sag Harbor, Long Island.
1957 -- Designed mosaic columns and tapestries for the Fairmont Temple Anche Chesed in Cleveland. One-person show at Downtown Gallery, New York (also 1958-1967).
1958 -- Designed mosaic wall for St. Leonard's Friary and College in Centerville, Ohio. Designed stained-glass windows for the Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan. Began designs for stained-glass window for the Chicago Loop Synagogue. Exhibited with Alexander Calder at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Elected member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Awarded the Butler Memorial Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
1959 -- Retrospective exhibition circulated by the American Federation of Arts. Exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art.
1964 -- Exhibited at the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.
1968 -- Exhibited painting entitled Victory--Jerusalem the Golden at the celebration of Israel's 20th anniversary of independence.
1969 -- One-person shows: Kennedy Galleries, New York; Galerie Weil, Paris ( Baghdad Hangings), Galerie Belgique, Brussels ( Baghdad Hangings).
1970 -- Film commissioned by ABC-TV entitled "The Long Prayer of Abraham Rattner."
1972 -- Beggar's Opera lithographs exhibited at Circle Gallery, Chicago.
1976 -- Displayed stained-glass on religious themes with the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C.
1977 -- "Our America" exhibition in England and the United States. Awarded Honorary Degree for Humanity from Michigan State University.
1978 -- Died on February 14th.
Index: List of Major Correspondents in Various Series:
These correspondents will be found in the following series: Correspondence, Special Projects, Gallery Files, Studio Notebooks, and Scrapbooks: Edward Albee, 1928-
John Anderson, 1904-
Bettina Bedwell, 1889-1947
Carl Beiber
George Belmont
George Biddle, 1885-1973
Kay Boyle, 1902-1992
Brassai, 1899-
Paul Burlin, 1886-1969
McClure Capps "Mac"
Norman Carton, 1908-1980
Jack Chapman
G. Alan Chidsey
Frederick Childs
Robert Coates, "Bob" 1897-1973
Malcolm Cowley, 1898-1989
Salvador Dali 1904-1989
Paul Damaz
Bernard Davis
Stuart Davis, 1894-1964
Adolph Dehn, 1895-1968
Richard de Rochemont
John Dos Passos, 1896-1970
Armand and Suzi D'usseau
Rene Lefebore Foinet
Gisele Freund, 1912-
Emily Genauer, 1911-
Esther Gentle, 1905-1984
Alberto Giacometti, 1901-1966
Xavier Gonzales, 1898-1993
John Howard Griffin
Ramon Guthrie, 1896-1973
Robert Gwathmey 1903-1988
Weeks Hall
Edith Gregor Halpert, 1900-1970
Stanley W. Hayter, 1901-1988
Nathan Hecht
Jean Helion, 1904-1987
William H. Henrick
Henry Herschkvitz
Hilaire Hiler, 1898-1966
Joseph Hirsch "Joe," 1910-1981
Stefan Hirsch, 1889-1964
Carl Holty, 1900-1973
Etienne Hubert
Arno Hummucher
Frederick I. Kann "Fred," 1886-
L.J. Konigsberg "Leib"
Louis Kronberg, 1872-1965
Alexandra Laks
Rico Lebrun (Fredrico), 1900-1964
Allen Leepa, 1919-
Isadore Levy
Julian Levy, 1906-1981
Jacques Lipchitz, 1891-1973
Ward Lockwood, 1894-1963
Jean Louste
Earle Ludgin, 1898-1981
Thalia Wescott Malcolm, 1888-
Reginald Marsh, 1898-1954
Archibald McLeish, 1892-
Henry Miller, 1891-1980
Joan Miro, 1893-1983
Gloria Nardin
Anais Nin, 1903-1977
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt "B.J.O.," 1878-1955
Hugh O'Neill
Channing Peake, 1910-1989
Gabor Peferdi
Irving Penn
Peter Pollack, 1911-1978
Henry Varnum Poor 1888-1970
Andre Raizorkacs
Robert Rey
Maurice Reynal
Raymond Reynal
Hans Richter, 1888-1976
Edward Roditi
Shelden Rodman, 1909-
Waverly Root, 1903-1982
Felix Emmanuele Ruvolo, 1912-
Frank Sedlak
Paul Shapiro
Jack Gage Stark, 1882-1950
Barrie Stavis
Ike Stoeffle
Benjamin Ellis Tepper
David Turnbull
Alfredo Valente
Siegfried Wang
Frank C. Watkins (Franklin Chenault), 1894-1972
Allen Weller, 1907-
Separated Materials note:
Loaned material, including notebooks, writings, and some correspondence, were returned to Abraham Rattner after microfilming. This material is now part of the Abraham Rattner notes collection at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College. Loaned material is available on reels D203-D205, D205A-D205B, and reel 1212, but is not described in this finding aid.
Provenance:
The collection was given to the Archives of American Art in stages by Abraham Rattner 1972-1983, by Esther Gentle 1986-1987, and by Gene Allen in 1992. The donated material that was previously filmed has been integrated and refilmed includes reels D203 and D205C-D205D. The material found on reels D205A-D205B was loaned by Rattner and the material found on reel 1212 was loaned by his sister, Jennie Allen.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use of unmicrofilmed portion requires an appointment.
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.
Topic:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of Henry Varnum Poor measure 12.9 linear feet and date from 1873-2001, with the bulk from the period 1904-1970. Correspondence, writings, artwork, printed material and photographs document Poor's work as a painter, muralist, ceramic artist and potter, architect, designer, writer, war artist, educator and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Also found is extensive information about the design and construction of Crow House, his home in New City, New York, commissions for other architectural projects, and his personal life.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Henry Varnum Poor measure 12.9 linear feet and date from 1873-2001, with the bulk from the period 1904-1970. Correspondence, writings, artwork, printed material and photographs document Poor's work as a painter, muralist, ceramic artist and potter, architect, designer, writer, war artist, educator and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Also found is extensive information about the design and construction of Crow House, his home in New City, New York, commissions for other architectural projects, and his personal life.
Henry Varnum Poor's correspondence documents his personal, family, and professional life. Correspondents include family and friends, among them George Biddle, Charles Burchfield, John Ciardi, Marion V. Dorn (who became his second wife), Philip Evergood, Lewis Mumford, John Steinbeck, David Smith, and Mrs. John Work (Alice) Garrett. Among other correspondents are galleries, museums, schools, organizations, fans, former students, and acquaintances from his military service and travels. Family correspondence consists of Henry's letters to his parents, letters to his parents written by his wife, and letters among other family members.
Among the writings by Henry Varnum Poor are manuscripts of his two published books, An Artist Sees Alaska and A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality. as well as the text of "Painting is Being Talked to Death," published in the first issue of Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions, April 1953, and manuscripts of other articles. There are also film scripts, two journals, notes and notebooks, lists, speeches, and writings by others, including M. R. ("Muktuk") Marston's account of Poor rescuing an Eskimo, and Bessie Breuer Poor's recollections of The Montross Gallery.
Subject files include those on the Advisory Committee on Art, American Designers' Gallery, Inc., William Benton, Harold Dickson, Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions Sales, and War Posters. There are numerous administrative files for the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Artwork by Henry Varnum Poor consists mainly of loose drawings and sketches and 45 sketchbooks of studies for paintings, murals, and pottery. There is work done in France, 1918-1919, and while working as a war correspondent in Alaska in 1943. There are commissioned illustrations and some intended for his monograph, A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality. Also found are a small number of watercolors and prints. Work by other artists consist of Anne Poor's drawings of her father's hands used for the Lincoln figure in The Land Grant Frescoes and interior views of Crow House by Ernest Watson.
Documentation of Poor's architectural projects consists of drawings and prints relating to houses designed and built for Jules Billing, MacDonald Deming, John Houseman, Burgess Meredith, Isabel Padro, and Elizabeth S. Sargent. Also found is similar material for the new studio Poor built in 1957 on the grounds of Crow House.
Miscellaneous records include family memorabilia and two motion picture films, Painting a True Fresco, and The Land Grant Murals at Pennsylvania State College.
Printed material includes articles about or mentioning Poor, some of his pottery reference books, family history, a catalog of kilns, and the program of a 1949 Pennsylvania State College theater production titled Poor Mr. Varnum. Exhibition catalogs and announcements survive for some of Poor's shows; catalogs of other artists' shows include one for Theodore Czebotar containing an introductory statement by Henry Varnum Poor. Also found is a copy of The Army at War: A Graphic Record by American Artists, for which Poor served as an advisor. There are reproductions of illustrations for An Artist Sees Alaska and Ethan Frome, and two Associated American Artists greeting cards reproducing work by Poor.
Photographs are of Henry Varnum Poor's architectural work, artwork, people, places, and miscellaneous subjects. This series also contains negatives, slides, and transparencies. Images of architectural work include exterior and interior views of many projects; Poor's home, Crow House, predominates. Photographs of artwork by Poor are of drawings, fresco and ceramic tile murals, paintings, pottery and ceramic art. People appearing in photographs include Henry Varnum Poor, family members, friends, clients, juries, students, and various groups. Among the individuals portrayed are Milton Caniff, Marcel Duchamp, Wharton Esherick, M. R. ("Muktuk") Marston, and Burgess Meredith. Among the family members are Bessie Breuer Poor, Marion Dorn Poor, Anne Poor, Eva Poor, Josephine Graham Poor, Josephine Lydia Poor, Peter Poor, and unidentified relatives. Photographs of places include many illustrating village life in Alaska that were taken by Poor during World War II. Other places recorded are French and California landscapes, and family homes in Kansas. Miscellaneous subjects are exhibition installation views, scenes of Kentucky farms, and a photograph of Poor's notes on glazes.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1919-1987 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, OV 18)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1873-1985 (1.5 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1944-1974 (0.6 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 4: Subject Files, 1928-1975 (0.8 linear feet; Box 3, OV 23)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1890s-circa 1961 (3.5 linear feet; Boxes 4-6, 9-10, OV 19-22)
Series 6: Architectural Projects, circa 1940-1966 (0.7 linear feet; Box 6, OV 24-26, RD 14-17)
Series 7: Miscellaneous Records, 1882-1967 (Boxes 6, 11, FC 30-31; 0.5 linear ft.)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1881-2001 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 6-7, 11, OV 27-29)
Series 9: Photographs, 1893-1984 (2.3 linear feet; Boxes 7-8, 12-13)
Biographical Note:
Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1970), best known as a potter, ceramic artist, and a co-founder of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, was also an architect, painter, muralist, designer, educator, and writer who lived and worked in New City, New York.
A native of Chapman, Kansas, Henry Varnum Poor moved with his family to Kansas City when his grain merchant father became a member of the Kansas Board of Trade. From a young age he showed artistic talent and spent as much time as possible - including school hours - drawing. When a school supervisor suggested that Henry leave school to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, the family disagreed. Instead, he enrolled in the Kansas City Manual Training High School where he delighted in learning skills such as carpentry, forge work, and mechanical drawing. In 1905, he moved with his older brother and sister to Palo Alto, California and completed high school there. Because Poor was expected to join the family business, he enrolled at Stanford University as an economics major, but much to his father's disappointment and displeasure, soon left the economics department and became an art major.
Immediately after graduation in 1910, Poor and his major professor at Stanford, Arthur B. Clark, took a summer bicycling tour to look at art in London, France, Italy, and Holland. As Poor had saved enough money to remain in London after the summer was over, he enrolled in the Slade School of Art and also studied under Walter Sickert at the London County Council Night School. After seeing an exhibition of Post-Impressionism at the Grafton Galleries in London, Poor was so impressed that he went to Paris and enrolled in the Académie Julian. While in Paris, Poor met Clifford Addams, a former apprentice of Whistler; soon he was working in Addams' studio learning Whistler's palette and techniques.
In the fall of 1911, Poor returned to Stanford University's art department on a one-year teaching assignment. During that academic year, his first one-man show was held at the university's Old Studio gallery. He married Lena Wiltz and moved back to Kansas to manage the family farm and prepare for another exhibition. Their daughter, Josephine Lydia Poor, was born the following year. Poor returned to Stanford in September 1913 as assistant professor of graphic arts, remaining until the department closed three years later. During this period, Poor began to exhibit more frequently in group shows in other areas of the country, and had his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery (Helgesen Gallery, San Francisco). In 1916, Poor joined the faculty of the San Francisco Art Association. He and his wife separated in 1917 and were divorced the following year. Poor began sharing his San Francisco studio with Marion Dorn.
During World War I, Poor was drafted into the U. S. Army, and in 1918 went to France with the 115th Regiment of Engineers. He spent his spare time drawing; soon officers were commissioning portraits, and Poor was appointed the regimental artist. He also served as an interpreter for his company. Discharged from the Army in early 1919, Poor spent the spring painting in Paris. He then returned to San Francisco and married Marion Dorn.
Once Poor realized that earning a living as a painter would be extremely difficult in California, he and his new wife moved to New York in the autumn of 1919. They were looking for a place to live when influential book and art dealer Mary Mowbray-Clarke of the Sunwise Turn Bookshop in Manhattan suggested New City in Rockland County, New York as good place for artists. In January of 1920, the Poors purchased property on South Mountain Road in New City. The skills he acquired at the Kansas City Manual Training High School were of immediate use as Poor designed and constructed "Crow House" with the assistance of a local teenager. Influenced by the farmhouses he had seen in France, it was made of local sandstone and featured steep gables, rough plaster, chestnut beams and floors, and incorporated many hand-crafted details. Poor designed and built most of their furniture, too. Before the end of the year, he and Marion were able to move into the house, though it remained a work in progress for many years. Additions were constructed. Over time, gardens were designed and planted, and outbuildings - a kiln and pottery, work room, garage, and new studio - appeared on the property.
In 1925, two years after his divorce from Marion Dorn, Poor married Bessie Freedman Breuer (1893-1975), an editor, short story writer, and novelist. Soon after, he adopted her young daughter, Anne (1918-2002), an artist who served as his assistant on many important mural commissions. Their son, Peter (b. 1926) became a television producer. Crow House remained in the family until its sale in 2006. In order to prevent its demolition, Crow House was then purchased by the neighboring town of Ramapo, New York in 2007.
Between 1935 and 1966 Poor designed and oversaw construction of a number of houses, several of them situated not far from Crow House on South Mountain Road. Poor's designs, noted for their simplicity, featured modern materials and incorporated his ceramic tiles. Among his important commissions were houses for Maxwell Anderson, Jules Billig, Milton Caniff, MacDonald Deming, and John Houseman.
Poor's first exhibition of paintings in New York City was at Kevorkian Galleries in 1920, and sales were so disappointing that he turned his attention to ceramics. His first pottery show, held at Bel Maison Gallery in Wanamaker's department store in 1921, was very successful. He quickly developed a wide reputation, participated in shows throughout the country, and won awards. He was a founder of the short-lived American Designers' Gallery, and the tile bathroom he showed at the group's first exposition was critically acclaimed. Poor was represented by Montross Gallery as both a painter and potter. When Montross Gallery closed upon its owner's death in 1932, Poor moved to the Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery.
Even though Poor's pottery and ceramic work was in the forefront, he continued to paint. His work was acquired by a number of museums, and the Limited Editions Club commissioned him to illustrate their republications of Ethan Frome, The Scarlet Letter, and The Call of the Wild.
Poor's first work in true fresco was shown in a 1932 mural exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Between 1935 and 1949 he was commissioned to produce several murals in fresco for Section of Fine Arts projects at the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior, The Land Grant Frescoes at Pennsylvania State College, and a mural for the Louisville Courier-Journal. Ceramic tile mural commissions included: the Klingenstein Pavilion, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York City; Travelers Insurance Co., Boston; the Fresno Post Office, California; and Hillson Memorial Gallery, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Mass.
As a member of the War Artists' Unit, Poor was a "war correspondent" with the rank of major in World War II, and for several months in 1943 was stationed in Alaska. An Artist Sees Alaska, drawing on Poor's observations and experiences, was published in 1945. A Book of Pottery: From Mud to Immortality, his second book, was published in 1958. It remains a standard text on the subject. While on the faculty of Columbia University in the 1950s, Poor and other artists opposed to the growing influence of Abstract Expressionism formed the Reality Group with Poor the head of its editorial committee. Their magazine, Reality: A Journal of Artists' Opinions, first appeared in 1953 featuring "Painting is Being Talked to Death" by Poor as its lead article. Two more issues were published in 1954 and 1955.
Along with Willard Cummings, Sidney Simon, and Charles Cuttler, in 1946 Henry Varnum Poor helped to establish the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. He served as its first president. Poor and his daughter, Anne, were active members of the Board of Trustees and were instructors for many years. The summer of 1961 was Henry Varnum Poor's last as a full-time teacher, though he continued to spend summers at Skowhegan.
Henry Varnum Poor exhibited widely and received many awards, among them prizes at the Carnegie Institute, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Architectural League of New York. Poor was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts by President Roosevelt in 1941 and served a five year term. He was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1943. The National Academy of Design named him an Associate Artist in 1954 and an Academician in 1963. He became a trustee of the American Craftsman's Council in 1956. The work of Henry Vernum Poor is represented in the permanent collections of many American museums including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Addison Gallery of American Art, and Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts.
Henry Varnum Poor died at home in New City, New York, December 8, 1970.
Related Material:
An oral history interview with Henry Varnum Poor was conducted by Harlan Phillips for the Archives of American Art in 1964.
Provenance:
Gift of Henry Varnum Poor's son, Peter V. Poor, in 2007. A smaller portion was loaned to the Archives in 1973 by Anne Poor for microfilming and returned to the lender; this material was included in the 2007 gift.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information. Use of audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
REEL 640: Sketchbooks, 7 v., 1886, 1888-1920, 1896 & undated, France, Boston, and elsewhere. Most of the sketches are in pencil. [Previously filmed on reel 593.]
REEL 862: Scrapbook, 1 v., 1893-1953, including: clippings,announcements and reviews of Paxton's exhibitions covering most of his career and several years after his death, reproductions of his work, and letters and telegrams with galleries and others. Also included is a letter from Robert Hale Ives Gammell to Elizabeth Paxton, 1953.
REELS 3714-3715: Correspondence of William McGregor Paxton and of his wife, Elizabeth, including letters from Philip Leslie Hale, Kenyon Cox, Maria Oakey Dewing, Edwin Blashfield, Horace Burdick, Susan Eakins, George Wales, from sitters thanking Paxton for their portraits, and from others. Elizabeth Paxton correspondence relates to her own paintings and exhibitions, donations, and sales of her husband's paintings after his death; poems, 2 notebooks and other writings; card files listing portrait information; clippings; exhibition catalogs and announcements; and lists of paintings.
UNMICROFILMED: Undated drawings and a sketchbook; 9 etchings by Paxton, ca. 1918-1938?; photographs, undated and 1896-1941, of works of art, Paxton, and of miscellaneous subjects; and glass negatives, half-tone printing plates, copper and zinc printing plates.
ADDITION: Biographical documentation; family genealogy; sketchbooks, some containing loose sketches done at a later date [most previously filmed on reel 640 as a loan]; photographs of Paxton and his work; reproductions of work by him and of art used as reference by Paxton; clippings; and posthumous exhibition material. ca. 1870s-1979. Also, Elizabeth Okie Paxton (ca. 1878-ca. 1968): biographical information; correspondence; exhibition and sales records; illustrations of her studio/residence, Boston; printed material; photographs of her, her family, and her work; and correspondence regarding William Paxton exhibitions. ca. 1880s-ca. 1968.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, teacher; Boston, Massachusetts. Paxton was born in Baltimore in 1869. He was raised outside of Boston, Mass., trained in Paris and Boston, and taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He was an active participant in several artists' organizations in Boston, Provincetown, and New York City. Elizabeth Okie Paxton was born in Providence, R.I. to Howard Okie, a Baltimore physician who had been brought to Providence by a wealthy patron, Thomas Ives, an uncle of Robert Hales Ives Gammell, painter, writer, and friend of the Paxtons. She met Paxton while studying with with him. After marriage they resided Newton Centre, Mass. Following Paxton's death, she lived in a studio/residence in the Fenway Studios, Boston.
Provenance:
Papers on reels 3714-3715 were donated by Robert Douglas Hunter, executor of Elizabeth Oakie Paxton's estate. He also lent for microfilming the sketchbooks on reel 640 and the scrapbook on reel 862 in l973 & 1974, respectively. The scrapbook was subsequently donated by Hunter in 1997, and the sketchbooks were subsequently donated in 1998 by his wife, Elizabeth Ives Hunter along with additional papers of Paxton and those of Elizabeth Okie Paxton. Additions are expected.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
The Alexander Archipenko papers measure 19.5 linear feet and date from 1904 to 1986, with the bulk of materials dating from 1930 to 1964. The sculptor's personal and professional life is documented by correspondence, financial records, scrapbooks, printed matter, and photographs documenting his art, exhibitions, travel, teaching activities, and the Archipenko Art School. Archipenko wrote and lectured extensively about his philosophies of art and the relationship between art and nature. The papers include drafts, notes, and final manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, and notes, outlines, transcripts, and audio recordings of some of his lectures.
Scope and Content Note:
The Alexander Archipenko papers measure 19.5 linear feet and date from 1904 to 1986, with the bulk of materials dating from 1930 to 1964. The sculptor's personal and professional life is documented by correspondence, financial records, scrapbooks, printed matter, and photographs documenting his art, exhibitions, travel, teaching activities, and the Archipenko Art School. Archipenko wrote and lectured extensively about his philosophies of art and the relationship between art and nature. The papers include drafts, notes, and final manuscripts of published and unpublished writings, and notes, outlines, transcripts, and audio recordings of some of his lectures.
Correspondence concerns both personal and professional matters. Among Archipenko's personal correspondents are relatives and friends in the Ukraine, his wife Angelica during her extended stays in Mexico and California, and other women. Professional correspondence is with dealers, curators, scholars, collectors, colleges and universities concerning exhibitions, sales and commissions, loans, and teaching and lecture engagements.
Archipenko wrote and lectured extensively about his philosophy of art, art in nature, and theories concerning creativity and the universe. His papers include manuscripts, drafts, notes and supporting materials for his book published in 1960, Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years, 1908-1958. Similar documentation of unpublished writings, as well as notes, outlines, and some transcripts of lectures and talks are also in the series.
Records concerning the Archipenko Art School are sparse, with only one photograph of students in Berlin, 1921. Surviving records include printed matter, a cashbook, student roster, and scrapbook containing photographs, printed matter, and a typescript copy of a statement by Archipenko, "How I Teach." Most of this material focuses on the New York and Woodstock schools, with only a few items concerning Chicago. In addition, files regarding Archipenko's teaching activities at schools other than his own include course descriptions, student rosters, grades, and printed matter.
Financial records consist of banking records, paid bills, and miscellaneous items. Paid bills include invoices and receipts for art supplies, shipping, and storage. Among the miscellaneous items are price lists, royalties paid by the Museum of Modern Art for Woman Combing Her Hair, and sales records.
Nine scrapbooks contain clippings, exhibition announcements and catalogs, lecture notices, advertisements and brochures of the Archipenko Art School, and a small number of photographs. Printed matter consists primarily of clippings about Archipenko and exhibition catalogs with related announcements and invitations. Miscellaneous items include books about Archipenko, catalogs of museum collections containing works by Archipenko, and reproductions. Of special interest is a brochure about the Multiplex Advertising Machine that bears a similarity to the Archipentura, an "apparatus for displaying Changeable Pictures" Archipenko invented circa 1924 and patented in 1927.
Photographs are of people, Archipenko's travels and miscellaneous places, exhibitions, works of art, events, and miscellaneous subjects. Five photograph albums mainly document travels. Slides and transparencies include black and white lantern slides probably used to illustrate lectures.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series. Lantern slides and glass plates are housed separately and closed to researchers, but listed where they fall intellectually within the collection.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1908-1964 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1, OV 28)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1922-1970 (4.1 linear feet; Boxes 1-5)
Series 3: Subject Files, 1940-1958 (6 folders; Box 5)
Series 4: Writings, 1923-1971 (3.2 linear feet; Boxes 5-8, Film can FC 30)
Series 5: Teaching, 1921-1952 (0.8 linear feet; Box 9, Film cans FC 31-33)
Series 6: Financial Records, 1923-1971 (1.5 linear feet; Box 9-10)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1910-1961 (1.2 linear feet; Boxes 22-25)
Series 8: Printed Material, 1913-1987 (3.7 linear feet; Boxes 11-14, 26, OV 29)
Series 9: Miscellaneous, 1916-1966 (0.5 linear feet; Box 14, 16, Film can FC 34)
Series 10: Photographic Material, 1904-1964 (3.6 linear feet; Boxes 14-15, 17-21, 26-27)
Biographical Note:
Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) was the son of an engineer/inventor and grandson of an icon painter. Among the first modern sculptors of the 20th century to be associated with the Cubist movement, Archipenko was known for his innovative use of concave space. His major contribution was the realization of negative form through use of a hole to create a contrast of solid and void. His sculpto-paintings united form and color; begun in 1912, these polychromed constructions are among the earliest mixed-media works known, and sometimes incorporated objects. Eventually, his Cubist-inspired work evolved into the simplified, abstract shapes for which he is best known. Although known primarily as a sculptor, Archipenko produced paintings, drawings, and prints as well.
At age 15, Archipenko began studying art at the University of Kiev in his native city; he was expelled three years later for criticizing the teachers. He then went to Moscow where he worked on his own and exhibited in several group shows; his first solo exhibition was held in the Ukraine in 1906.
Archipenko made Paris his home from 1908 until the outbreak of World War I. Soon after his arrival, he enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts; this association lasted but two weeks, and marked the end of Archipenko's formal training. He continued to study art by spending large amounts of time visiting art museums and painting on his own. During this period, he began exhibiting in the Salon des Independents with the Cubists, and as a member of the "Section d'Or" participated in that group's exhibitions. His first one-man exhibition in Germany was held at the Folkwant Museum (1912) and his work was featured in the Armory Show (1913).
In 1912, at the age of 25, Archipenko established his first art school in Paris. He spent the war years working quietly outside of Nice, and soon afterwards circulated an extensive exhibition of his works throughout Europe. In 1921, Archipenko settled in Berlin, opened an art school there, and married sculptor Angelica Bruno-Schmitz, who was known professionally as Gela Forster.
Archipenko's reputation was solidly established and the majority of his ground-breaking work - adaptation of Cubist ideas to sculpture, sculpto-paintings and incorporation of negative space in sculpture - was accomplished prior to his 1923 arrival in the United States. One of his most innovative works executed in America was the Archipentura, invented circa 1924 and patented in 1927, a machine with rolling cylinders that displayed "animated paintings" using motion and light. Other creations of note are carved Lucite sculptures, illuminated from within, that were executed in the mid-1940s.
Upon settling in the United States in 1923, Archipenko opened his art school in New York City; a summer school was established in Woodstock, New York the following year. Within a few years, Archipenko purchased land near Woodstock and began construction of a home, personal studio, and buildings for the school. At various times during the 1930s, Archipenko resided in Chicago and Los Angeles, and operated schools while living in those cities. For many years during the 1940s, Angelica served on the sculpture faculty at the Escuela de Belles Artes in San Miguel Allende, Mexico.
In addition to running his own schools, Archipenko taught at a number of colleges and universities, where he ran workshops, and served as a visiting professor. He wrote and lectured extensively about his philosophy of art and theories of creativity, publishing several articles and a book, Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years, 1908-1958 (1960).
Angelica Archipenko died in 1957. Three years later Archipenko married sculptor Frances Gray, a former student. During the early 1960s, the couple traveled extensively on a lecture tour that accompanied a solo exhibition to several German cities. Archipenko died in New York City, February 25, 1964.
The following chronology is excerpted from Alexander Archipenko: A Centennial Tribute by Katherine Janszky Michaelsen and Nehama Guralnik (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1986) and Archipenko: The Sculpture and Graphic art, Including a Print Catalogue Raisonne by Donald Karshan, Ernst Wasmuth Verlag (Tubingen, Germany, 1974).
1887 -- Born to Porfiry Antonovich and Poroskovia Wassilievna Machova Archipenko in Kiev, Ukraine, Russia. Father a mechanical engineer, professor of engineering, and inventor; grandfather an icon painter.
1900 -- Studied and copied Michelangelo drawings from a book given him by his grandfather during a long confinement following a leg injury.
1902-1905 -- Painting and sculpture student in Kiev art school; expelled for criticizing his teachers.
1906 -- First one-man show in the Ukraine. Worked in Moscow and exhibited in several group shows.
1908 -- Moved to Paris and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Quit formal art instruction after two weeks, continued to study art on his own by visiting museums.
1910 -- Exhibited in the Salon des Independants with the cubists (also in 1911-1914 and 1919).
1912 -- Opened art school in Paris. "Section d'Or" formed in Paris with Archipenko among its members. The group exhibited until 1914, and briefly after World War I. First solo exhibition in Germany, Folkwant Museum, Hagen.
1913 -- Represented in the Armory Show. Executed first prints (lithographs).
1914 -- Began making sculpto-paintings.
1914-1918 -- Spent the war years working near Nice.
1919-1920 -- Began extensive tour exhibiting his works in various European cities (Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, Brussels, Athens, Berlin, Munich, etc.).
1920 -- One-man exhibition in the Venice Biennale.
1921 -- First solo exhibition in the United States at the Societe Anonyme, Inc., New York; a symposium, Psychology of Modern Art and Archipenko, was held during the course of the show. Moved to Berlin and opened art school. Married sculptor Angelica Bruno-Schmitz [known professionally as Gela Forster]. First print commission.
1923 -- Moved to the United States and opened art school in New York City.
1924 -- Established a summer school at Woodstock, New York.
1927 -- "Archipentura" patented ("Apparatus for displaying Changeable Pictures and methods for Decorating Changeable Display Apparatus," nos. 1,626, 946 and 1,626,497).
1928 -- Became an American citizen.
1929 -- Bought land near Woodstock, New York, and began construction of school and studio buildings.
1932 -- Lectured on his theories of creativeness at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
1933 -- Taught summer session at Mills College, Oakland, California, and Chouinard School, Los Angeles.
1935 -- Moved to Los Angeles and opened art school.
1935-1936 -- Taught summer sessions at the University of Washington, Seattle.
1936 -- Moved to Chicago and opened art school. Associate instructor at New Bauhaus School, Chicago.
1938 -- Returned to New York; reopened art school and Woodstock summer school.
1944 -- Taught at the Dalton School, New York City.
1946-1947 -- Returned to Chicago; taught at the Institute of Design.
1947 -- Began making carved plastic sculptures with internal illumination.
1950 -- Taught at University of Kansas City, Missouri.
1950-1951 -- Lecture tour of the southern cities of the United States.
1951 -- Taught at Carmel Institute of Art, California, University of Oregon, and University of Washington, Seattle.
1952 -- Taught at University of Delaware, Newark.
1953 -- Elected Associate Member of International Institute of Arts and Letters.
1955-1956 -- One-man exhibition tours in Germany (Dusseldorf, Darmstadt, Mannheim, and Recklinghausen).
1956 -- Taught at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
1957 -- Death of Angelica.
1959 -- Awarded gold medal, XIII Biennale de'Arte Triveneta, III Concorso Internationale del Bronzetto, Padua, Italy.
1960 -- Archipenko: Fifty Creative Years, 1908-1958 by Alexander Archipenko and Fifty Art Historians published by Tekhne (a company established by Archipenko for the purpose). Married Frances Gray, a sculptor and former student. Recovered plasters of early work stored by French friends since the end of World War I. Traveling exhibition in Germany (Hagen, Münster, and Dusseldorf).
1962 -- Elected to the Department of Art, National Institute of Arts and Letters.
1964 -- Dies in New York City.
Related Material:
Among the holdings of the Archives are the Donald H. Karshan papers relating to Alexander Archipenko, originally accessioned as part of the Alexander Archipenko papers, but later separated to form a distinct collection.
The Archives also has the National Collection of Fine Arts records relating to Alexander Archipenko.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels NA11-NA12, NA16-NA18, and NA 20-NA22) including biographical material, correspondence, exhibition records, writings, printed material and photographs. Loaned materials were returned to the lender and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
In 1967, the Alexander Archipenko papers, previously on deposit at Syracuse University, were loaned to the Archives of American Art for microfilming by his widow Frances Archipenko Gray. In 1982, Ms. Gray donated most of the material previously loaned and microfilmed to the Archives of American Art, along with additional items.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. research facility. Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice. Lantern slides and glass plate negatives are housed separately and closed to researchers.
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.
Alexander Archipenko papers, 1904-1986, bulk 1930-1964. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
The Francis Davis Millet and Millet family papers measure 3.3 linear feet and are dated 1858-1984, with a few scattered early eighteenth-century items, such as legal documents and printed matter. The bulk of the materials dates from 1858 to 1955. Found are biographical materials, diaries/journals, family letters, notes and writings, art work, printed matter, miscellaneous records, and photographs documenting Millet's wide-ranging artistic and writing career and personal life, including his death aboard the Titanic. Also of interest are approximately twenty ink caricatures attributed to John Singer Sargent.
Scope and Content Note:
The Francis Davis Millet and Millet family papers measure 3.3 linear feet and are dated 1858-1984, with a few scattered early eighteenth-century items, such as legal documents and printed matter. The bulk of the material dates from 1858 to 1955. Found are biographical materials, diaries/journals, family letters, notes and writings, art work, printed matter, miscellaneous records, and photographs documenting Millet's wide-ranging artistic and writing career and personal life, including his death aboard the Titanic. Also of interest are approximately twenty ink caricatures attributed to John Singer Sargent.
Biographical material consists of biographical and genealogical notes; also, memorial resolutions, invitations, and programs with several related items tipped in. Diaries/journals for the period 1858-1911 (16 vols., plus excerpts and transcripts) record Civil War experiences, the Russo-Turkish War, travels throughout Europe, to the northwest United States and Alaska, the Orient, and Panama.
Letters from F. D. Millet to his family date from his years at Harvard, art training in Antwerp, residence in Italy, and service as a correspondent during the Russo-Turkish War. Millet's letters include a few received from friends and associates, original letters sent by Millet to others, along with typescript copies of incoming letters. Also included is a file of letters addressed to Millet and others concerning the purchase and restoration of the Grange, his Broadway studio. There are four letters from Millet to his girlfriend Velma Marie Morse and scattered letters to Velma's father, A.P. Morse, and Fred Chapman. Photocopies of letters from sister Kathleen Millet to her friend Margherita describe her brother's adventures during the Russo-Turkish War, and include an account of his wedding. His sister Lucia Millet's letters to her family were written while she was in England living as a member of her brother's household, and are rich with details of Frank's daily life, work, travels, friends, and the American colony in Broadway. The letters of Lily Millet consist mainly of condolence messages sent upon the death of her husband, but also include letters from Samuel L. Clemens, Henry James, Ellen Terry [Carew], Charles Dudly Warner, her children, and others.
Included in the collection are Millet's extensive research notes about costumes and artifacts of various historical periods and locations that served as reference for details in his murals. Also included are his notebooks about Italian art, Bulgarian history and costume, and the Philippines. Writings by Millet consist of articles, short stories, lectures and speeches. Writings about him include texts by various relatives (all but one are unpublished). The most extensive written piece is by niece Hilda Millet Booth and son John [Albert] Parsons Millet, and is accompanied by early drafts, notes, and related correspondence.
Art work by Millet includes twelve volumes of sketchbooks dating from his student days in Antwerp through 1896, along with loose sketches, drawings, and two watercolors. Most were executed while traveling, and include landscapes, building, and local peoples. Works by other artists include 20 caricatures drawn in ink, attributed to John Singer Sargent.
Among the printed matter are newspaper articles by F. D. Millet, along with clippings about or mentioning him, reproductions, exhibition catalogs and announcements. Of interest are Vienna Exposition memorabilia, and a full length biography, Soldier of Fortune: F. D. Millet, 1846-1912 by granddaughter Joyce A. Sharpey-Schafer. Miscellaneous records include drawings sketches, notes, printed matter, and photographs relating to the Abbot's Grange in Broadway that served as Millet's studio.
Photographs of people include F. D. Millet, his father Asa Millet with granddaughter Kate, and Mary Anderson. Photographs of works of art are by Millet and other artists.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series:
Series 1: Biographical material, circa 1864-1934 (Box 1, OV 5; 6 folders; Reel 5903)
Series 2: Diaries/Journals of Francis Davis Millet, 1858-1911 (Box 1; 0.5 linear ft.; Reels 5903-5904)
Series 3: Letters, 1867-1915, undated (Boxes 1-2; 0.5 linear ft.; Reel 5904)
Series 4: Notes and Writings, 1891-1970, undated (Box 3; 1.0 linear ft.; Reels 5904-5906)
Series 5: Art Work, 1872-1908, undated (Box 4; 0.5 linear ft.; Reels 5906-5907)
Series 6: Printed Matter, 1764-1984, undated (Box 4; 0.25 linear ft.; Reel 5907 and unfilmed)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1883-circa 1910, undated (Box 4; 7 folders; Reel 5907)
Biographical Note:
During his lifetime, Francis Davis Millet (1846-1912), always known as Frank, was a prominent artist who was well known for murals that contained exactingly accurate historical details. His broad-ranging career included work with worlds' fairs in Vienna, Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo as a juror, administrator, mural painter/decorator, or advisor. In addition, Frank Millet was a newspaper writer who published short stories and enjoyed adventures as a war correspondent during the Russo-Turkish War and in the Philippines during the Spanish American War.
Millet was among the founders of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and was influential in the early days of the American Federation of Arts. Millet was involved with the American Academy in Rome from its inception and served as Secretary from 1904-1911. In 1911, Millet went to Rome as Chief Administrator of the newly combined Schools of Fine Arts and Classical Studies. He died aboard the Titanic while traveling to New York City on Academy business.
1846 -- born in Mattapoisett, Mass.
1864 -- enlisted as a private in the 60th Massachusetts Militia during Civil War, serving as a drummer; also acted as a surgical assistant to his physician father in the army of the Potomac
1869 -- graduated from Harvard University, where he studied modern languages and literature
1869-1870 -- learned lithography while working on the Boston Advertiser
1871-1872 -- studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, where he won the silver medal (1871) and was awarded the gold medal (1872); traveled through Germany with 3 other American Students
1873 -- Secretary to Charles Francis Adams, Jr., Massachusetts' commissioner to the Vienna Exposition member of the Vienna Exposition; jury correspondent for the New York Herald and the New York Tribune; traveled through southern Europe and Turkey
1873-1874 -- traveled in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany
1875 -- toured Italy; returned to Boston and set up a studio on Tremont Street
1876 -- exhibited The Bay of Naples at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, where he represented the Boston Advertiser and was a correspondent for the American Architect and Building News; assisted John La Farge in decorating Trinity Church, Boston; founded the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts with La Farge and W. M. Hunt
1877 -- exhibited portraits of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. and Samuel L. Clements at the National Academy of Design
1877-1878 -- special war correspondent to the New York Herald and Times of London, and special artist to the London Graphic, reporting on the Russo-Turkish War; Russia awarded him the Cross of St. Stanislaus and the Cross of St. Anne for military advice and exceptional service (informing Russian officers of a ford that would allow them to cross into Turkey more easily) and the Iron Cross of Romania
1878 -- returned to Paris to paint; served on fine arts jury at the Exposition Universelle in Paris; exhibited in the Paris Salon and at the British Royal Academy
1879 -- married Elizabeth (Lily) Greeley Merrill in Paris; returned to the United States, settling in East Bridgewater, Mass., where he set up a studio that included an accurate reconstruction of a colonial era kitchen
1880 -- lectured on costumes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; birth of daughter, Katharine Field; became a member of the Society of American Artists; worked with Louis Comfort Tiffany on the decoration of the Seventh Regiment Armory, New York City
1881 -- shared studio in New York with Edwin Austin Abbey; birth of son, Edwin Abbey; commissioned by the Class of 1861 to design two windows for Harvard University Memorial Hall
1882 -- traveled in northern German and Scandinavia with Edwin Austin Abbey and R. Swain Gifford; elected an Associate member of the National Academy of Design
1883 -- traveled to England
1884 -- birth of Laurance, in London; settled with family in Broadway, Worcestershire (spending the winters of the next decade in New York); along with Edwin Austen Abbey, John Singer Sargent, and Alfred Parsons, he established a colony that at various times included Edwin Howland Blashfield, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Henry James, along with various other writers, actors, musicians
1885 -- traveled with Charles Francis Adams, Jr. throughout the U.S. and its territories, and to Mexico; elected a National Academician, National Academy of Design
1886 -- purchased "Russell House," that became his permanent home in Broadway, Worcestershire; and moved studio to "Abbot's Grange"
1887 -- translated "Sebastopol" by Tolstoy from French to English for publication
1888 -- birth of John Alfred Parsons
1889 -- awarded silver medal, Salon des Artistes, Paris
1890 -- published a collection of short stories, A Capillary Crime and Other Tales; purchased the "Abbot's Grange" that had been serving as his studio for the previous four years
1891 -- elected vice-president of National Academy of Design; for Harper's Magazine traveled with Alfred Parsons and Poultney Bigelow on a trip down the Danube in one-man canoes, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea (their illustrated narrative was published in the magazine, Feb.-May 1892; the following year, it appeared in book form as From the Black Forest to the Black Sea)
1892-1893 -- director of decorations for the White City of the World's Columbian Exposition, acting as a close advisor to the fair's architect Daniel Burnham; served on New York jury of the Columbian Exposition; once the Exposition opened, he served as Director of Functions and Ceremonies and also provided public relations and advertising services
1897 -- completed restoring "Abbot's Grange" to its 16th century appearance; completed lunette, Agriculture, commissioned for the Bank of Pittsburgh
1898 -- went to the Philippines to cover the Spanish American War as a special correspondent to Harper's Weekly, the London Times, and the New York Sun
1899 -- published Expedition to the Philippines, P. Bigelow, co-author
1900 -- appointed U. S. representative to the Paris Universal International Exposition where he was in charge of decoration of the Government Pavilion, and was a member of the Jury of Selection and the Fine Arts Jury; awarded Chevalier de la Legion of Hounneur by the French government in appreciation for his services to the Paris Exposition
1905 -- traveled to northwest United States, Alaska, and British Columbia; completed mural, The Treaty of the Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851, commissioned for the Minnesota State Capitol; became a charter member of the American Academy in Rome
1906 -- traveled to North Africa, Italy, and France
1907 -- completed mural, The Fourth Minnesota Regiment Entering Vicksburg, July 4, 1863, commissioned for the Minnesota State Capitol; completed mural, Foreman of the Grand Jury Rebuking the Chief Justice of New Jersey, 1774, commissioned for the Essex County Courthouse, Newark, New Jersey; traveled to Cuba
1908 -- completed The History of Shipping from the Earliest Recorded Use of Boats until the Present Time commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Custom House, Baltimore; traveled to Japan as Special Commissioner to the proposed World's Fair in Tokyo [the fair was never held]; awarded "First Class Order of the Sacred Treasure" by the Japanese government; additional travel to Germany, Italy, Russia, Turkey, and China; elected Secretary of the American Academy in Rome; elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters
1909 -- completed frieze of 13 panels, The History of the Settlement of Ohio, and several portraits commissioned by the Cleveland Trust Company; also responsible for the general color scheme of the building; completed frieze of 35 panels, The History of Mail Delivery, commissioned for the Post Office in the Federal Building, Cleveland; also responsible for determining the general color
1910 -- influential in the founding of the American Federation of Arts; served as its Secretary until his death; appointed to Federal Commission of Fine Arts; elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
1911 -- completed lunettes, The Repulse of the Dutch, September 3, 1609, and The Purchase of the Land, 1658, and 12 small historical panels, commissioned for the Hudson County Courthouse, Jersey City, New Jersey; also responsible for the general color scheme of the building; traveled to Panama with Lily and Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Adams, Jr.; elected Vice Chairman of the Fine Arts Committee, American Academy in Rome; moved to Rome to serve as Chief Administrator of the consolidated schools of the American Academy in Rome and the American School of Classical Studies in Rome following the death of Charles F. McKim (Millet was a charter member and had served as Secretary since its inception)
1912 -- died aboard the S. S. Titanic, while heading to New York City on American Academy in Rome business
Related Material:
Found within the holdings of the Archives of American Art are several collections related to Francis Davis Millet, including five letters from Millet to Miss Ward and "Ticknor" and a collection of Francis Millet Rogers research material regarding Francis Davis Millet. The Philip Martiny papers contains two group photographs that include F. D. Millet. A letter describing a visit to Millet's studio is among the William Cushing Loring Papers. The American Academy in Rome records include documents created by F. D. Millet in his capacity as Secretary from 1904-1907 and as Chief Administrator in Rome, 1911-1912.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming. Charles S. Millet loaned photographs, biographical information, and miscellaneous items in 1974 (reel 849). In 1976, he loaned an album of photographs of F. D. Millet's murals in the Baltimore Customs House, with related printed matter (reel 1080). Lent materials were returned to Charles S. Millet.
Provenance:
The Francis Davis Millet and Millet family papers were received between 1974 and 1996 from several family members. Most were gifts from Dr. John A. P. Millet, son of F. D. Millet, in 1974 and 1976. In 1974, Charles S. Millet, grandnephew of F. D. Millet, donated a copy of his brief biography he wrote on F. D. Millet and lent materials for microfilming. Also in 1974, Mrs. William King, granddaughter of F. D. Millet gave photographs of F. D. Millet and his art work, along with various printed matter. Additional letters to F. D. Millet were given by grandson, Frank D. Millet, in 1977.
In 1987, granddaughter Joyce A. Sharpey-Schafer donated documents she had used while writing a biography of Millet. In 1996, David M. Emerson, grandnephew of F. D. Millet, donated loose sketches and miscellaneous printed matter.
In 2003, additional letters were donated by grandsons Mr. Harry Flynn and Frank D. Millet, and again in 2006 by Frank D. Millet.
Restrictions:
Use of originals requires an appointment.
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.
The papers of architect Harold E. Leeds measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1940s-circa 2002. The letters found here are primarily from painter Loren MacIver writing from France, during which time Leeds looked after the home belonging to MacIver and her husband, poet Lloyd Frankenberg. While mainly logistical in nature, MacIver does describe aspects of her daily life in France, and her and Frankenberg's friendships with prominent figures including Margaret Barr, Elizabeth Bishop, Pierre Matisse, and James Johnson Sweeney. The photographs in the collection document Leeds' life with partner and documentary filmmaker Wheaton Galentine, and Leeds' work as an architect and interior design professor at Pratt Institute.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of architect Harold E. Leeds measure 0.8 linear feet and date from 1940s-circa 2002. The letters found here are primarily from painter Loren MacIver writing from France, during which time Leeds looked after the home belonging to MacIver and her husband, poet Lloyd Frankenberg. While mainly logistical in nature, MacIver does describe aspects of her daily life in France, and her and Frankenberg's friendships with prominent figures including Margaret Barr, Elizabeth Bishop, Pierre Matisse, and James Johnson Sweeney. The photographs in the collection document Leeds' life with partner and documentary filmmaker Wheaton Galentine, and Leeds' work as an architect and interior design professor at Pratt Institute.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as two series
Series 1: Letters, 1950s-1970 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 2: Photographic Material, 1940s-circa 2002 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1-3)
Biographical / Historical:
Harold E. Leeds (1913-2002) was an architect and professor of interior design at Pratt Institute in New York City. He designed the Paris Theater, the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, and Martha Graham's dance studio. In 1951, Leeds, along with his partner, documentary filmmaker Wheaton Galentine, purchased a house at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. His neighbors, the painter Loren MacIver and her husband, poet Lloyd Frankenberg lived at 61 Perry Street. During their extended stays in France, Leeds would look after their home.
Provenance:
The papers were donated in 2014 by Harry Leeds' estate via Barry Skovgaard, executor.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
Topic:
Architects -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Names:
Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America Search this
Extent:
60 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2002 June 4-10
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Dominic Di Mare conducted 2002 June 4-10, by Signe Mayfield, for the Archives of American Art's Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, at his home and studio, in Tiburon, California.
Di Mare speaks of growing up in Monterey, California, around thread, as his mother crocheted and his fisherman father made lures; drawing as a child; receiving the Junior Scholastic Art Awards in high school; enrolling at Monterey Peninsula College and San Francisco State; acquiring a teacher's degree and taking a craft class; being "enthralled" by setting up a loom; teaching art in junior high schools; getting married and buying a loom; reading Craft Horizon magazine and becoming inspired by the work of Kay Sekimachi; buying yarn from Helen Pope at The Yarn Depot and forming a friendship with her; exhibiting at The Yarn Depot; participating in craft competitions and showing his work to Paul Smith, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts; his first show at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in 1965; exhibiting at Museum West (the west coast extension of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts); recognizing "self and struggle and passion" in Ferne Jacobs' work; his dealers including Marjorie Annenberg (Annenberg Gallery, San Francisco), Ruth Braunstein (Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco), Susan Cummins (Susan Cummins Gallery, Mill Valley, Calif.), and Florence Duhl (Florence Duhl Gallery, New York); receiving a grant from the Marin Arts Council; quitting his teaching job, receiving an NEA grant, and becoming a full-time artist; collectors Dan and Hillary Goldstein; the beauty of poet Betty Parks' article, "Dominic Di Mare: Houses for the Sacred," in American Craft (October/November 1982); his "shrine" imagery; his military service during the Korean War and being assigned to a post office in Paris, France; going to the Louvre and encountering the Nike, "winged victory" sculpture; and Jack Lenore Larson's support.
Di Mare considers himself to be "self-taught" although he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco State, and Rudolph Schaefer School of Design. He also talks about autobiographical elements in his work; his "personal, artistic vocabulary"; the repetition of black and white; his use of sticks and feathers; and cross shapes, representing the church and a ship's mast. He comments on making portraits during his summers in Switzerland and making magical wands; and his artistic philosophy. Di Mare also recalls Camille Cook, Helen Drutt, Trude Guermonprez, Sophi Harpe, Gyongy Laky, Marjorie Livingston, Hal Painter, June Schwarcz, Rose Slivka, Millie Tresko, and Dorian Zachai.
Biographical / Historical:
Dominic Di Mare (1932- ) is a fiber artist from Tiburon, California. Signe Mayfield is an art historian.
General:
Originally recorded 3 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 47 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Patrons must use transcript. Transcript available online. Sound recordings (3 cassettes) are ACCESS RESTRICTED; Written permission required.
Andrew, A. Piatt (Abram Piatt), 1873-1936 Search this
Extent:
3.3 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Diaries
Photographs
Poems
Date:
1863-1968
Summary:
The papers of the painter Cecilia Beaux measure 3.3 linear feet and date from 1863 to 1968. Papers document her education, career and personal life through family and professional correspondence, twelve diaries, lectures, essays, poems, notes, clippings, catalogs, pamphlets, exhibition records, business records, photographs, certificates, diplomas, and artifacts.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of the painter Cecilia Beaux measure 3.3 linear feet and date from 1863 to 1968.
Biographical Materials include autobiographical notes written by Beaux, published biographical essays, and articles about Beaux. A lengthy correspondence from Beaux to her friend A. Piatt Andrew of Massachusetts is found, as well as correspondence with family and professional associates. Lengthy letters from Beaux to her family during trips to Europe contain scattered illustrations. Professional correspondents include other artists, teachers, patrons, critics, curators, dealers, and writers.
Writings include one early diary from the 1870s, and a series of eleven additional diaries dating from 1905 to 1913, which record daily activities related to her artwork and personal life. Numerous lectures and essays from her later career are found, often in multiple drafts, as are manuscripts of published and unpublished poems by Beaux. A single sketch, a study for a portrait, is also found.
A floor plan, lists of paintings, receipts, written bids, and other notes document the exhibition and sale of Beaux's artwork. Printed materials related to her career include exhibition catalogs and other ephemera, a scrapbook of primarily clippings related to her early career, and loose clippings related to her later career. Photographs include formal portraits of Cecilia Beaux and informal photographs of Beaux alone and with colleagues, friends, and family members in various settings including Concarneau, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Gloucester, and Malines, Belgium. Also found is a photograph of John Singer Sargent painting.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series, with multiple subseries in Series 2:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, circa 1893-1943 (Box 1, OV 4-5; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1863-1968 (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1868-1954 (Boxes 2-3, OV 6; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1883-1936 (Box 3, OV 6; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Materials, circa 1874-1953 (Box 3, OV 6; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1888-1919(Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Cecilia Beaux was born in Philadelphia in 1855. Her mother died just days after her birth, and Beaux and her sister went to live with their grandmother and aunts. Her adoptive family exposed her to fine art throughout her childhood and, once in school, Beaux excelled in her drawing classes and began training in the studio of Catherine A. Drinker, an artist and a cousin of her uncle Will Biddle. From 1881-1883 she attended life classes directed by William Sartain, who traveled to Philadelphia from New York to give criticisms. She also counted the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts master Thomas Eakins among her early influences, though she did not receive direct instruction from him.
Her first major success in painting was a double-portrait of her sister and nephew entitled Les Derniers Jours d'Enfance, exhibited first at the American Art Association, and in 1885 at the Pennsylvania Academy, where it won the Mary Smith Prize, the first of many prizes Beaux received during her lifetime. In 1887, the painting was exhibited at the Paris salon to critical acclaim. Beaux's reputation as a Philadelphia portraitist grew steadily with the execution of several portraits her in Chestnut Street studio, and in 1888 she traveled to Europe to continue her studio education.
In Paris, she joined the Academie Julien, where she received criticisms from Tony Robert Fleury and William Adolph Bougereau. She spent the summer in Concarneau, Brittany, where Alexander Harrison and Charles Lazar critiqued her work, and returned to Paris, where she attended the Academie Colarossi under and sought out private criticisms in the atelier of Benjamin Constant. She copied paintings and classical sculpture at the Louvre, and traveled throughout Europe to view the works of old masters. In England, she painted several portraits of her friends, the Darwins, before returning to Philadelphia in August of 1889. She traveled to Europe several more times in her life, including a trip in 1896 to see six of her paintings exhibited at the Salon de Champs de Mars. At the time this was an unprecedented number of paintings shown there by an American, and their strength earned her a membership in the Societé Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
In the 1890s, Beaux earned a living painting commissioned portraits at her Philadelphia studio, while experimenting with and refining her style and technique with portraits of friends and family such as Sita and Sarita, of her cousin Sarah Leavitt with her cat, The Dreamer, of her friend Caroline Smith, and Ernesta with Nurse, of her niece, who was a favorite sitter of Beaux's throughout her life. Beaux became the first full-time female faculty member at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1895, and continued teaching there until 1915.
In the late 1890s, Beaux painted several works for which she would be repeatedly honored, including Mother and Daughter, a double-portrait of Mrs. Clement A. Griscom and her daughter Frances, which won four gold medals at international exhibitions, and The Dancing Lesson, a double-portrait of Dorothea and Francesca Gilder, the daughters of Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine and himself a devoted friend and supporter of Beaux. The Gilders, and especially Dorothea, were steady companions as well as sitters for Beaux throughout her adult life. In 1901 and 1902, Beaux painted Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel in the White House, and in 1903, she was elected to the National Academy of Design.
By 1905 Beaux was living and working primarily in New York during the winter, and at "Green Alley," a home she built in Gloucester, Massachusetts, in the summer. She was introduced to Gloucester by her friend, the Harvard economist A. Piatt Andrew, and entertained a steady stream of intellectual, literary, and artistic friends such as Isabella Stuart Gardner, William James, and Thornton Oakley. Beaux continued to amass prizes and honors for her artwork, including an honorary doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in 1908. She had solo exhibitions at Macbeth Gallery in 1910, the Corcoran Gallery in 1912, and M. Knoedler Gallery in 1915 and 1917. She had regular public speaking appearances, published articles, and interviews on such subjects as art education, women in art, and modernist art, the pervasive influence of which she eschewed as a passing fad.
In 1919, she traveled to war-torn Europe as the official portraitist of the United States War Portraits Commission painted the portraits of three European war heroes: Cardinal Mercier, Admiral Beatty, and Georges Clemenceau. In 1924, she broke her hip in Paris, and although she continued to paint, she would never again be the prolific painter of her earlier years due to the injury. She wrote her autobiography Background with Figures in 1930, and in 1935-1936, the American Academy of Arts and Letters held the largest exhibition of her work that was mounted during her lifetime. Beaux died in 1942 in Gloucester, at the age of 87.
Related Material:
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts holds additional papers related to Cecilia Beaux, particularly personal photographs. Portions of these papers were loaned to the Archives of American Art for microfilming in 1985 and were microfilmed on reel 3658.
The Archives of American Art also holds the Dorothea Gilder papers regarding Cecilia Beaux.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reels 3425 and 3658) including a sketchbook and other related papers. Lent materials were returned to the lenders and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Portions of the papers were first lent for microfilming by Harrison Cultra in 1968. The bulk of the collection was donated in1970-1971 by Catherine Drinker Bowen, Beaux's niece, and by Cultra. In 1985, the sketchbook on reel 3425 was lent for microfilming by art dealer Jeffrey Brown with additional material by The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. A palette was donated by Helen Seely Wheelwright, whose former husband, Paul Seeley, was an artist and friend of Beaux. Awards and diplomas were gifted in 1995 by Cecilia Saltonstall, a descendant of Beaux. Material and a poster reproduction of Beaux's portrait of Rear-Admiral Sampson advertising an article in Century Magazine, 1899, was donated in 1991 by Alfred J. Walker, a dealer who organized a Beaux exhibition. He received the material along with artwork he exhibited from the estate of Richard Barker, who had received them from Harrison Cultra. Cultra had inherited them from Beaux's niece, Ernesta Drinker Barlow.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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.
Topic:
Women painters -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
The papers of Boston area painters Esther Baldwin Williams and daughter Esther Williams measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1887 to 1984. The scattered papers of both women include biographical information, personal business records, correspondence, writings and notes, two diaries, four sketchbooks, printed materials, photographs, and one photograph album.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Boston and New York area painters Esther Baldwin Williams and daughter Esther Williams measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1887 to 1984. The scattered papers of both women include biographical information, personal business records, correspondence, writings and notes, two diaries, four sketchbooks, printed materials, photographs, and one photograph album.
For clarity, Esther Baldwin Williams and Esther Williams are referred to by their proper names throughout this finding aid.
Biographical information includes a membership card to the Rockport Art Association for Esther Williams and a biographical sketch of Esther Baldwin Williams
Personal business records include receipts for purchases of artwork by Esther Baldwin Williams, banking documents, exhibition entry forms and sales receipts for Esther William's works.
Correspondence includes incoming letters and drafts of outgoing letters. The majority of the correspondence is that of Esther Williams, including a considerable amount of letters to her parents. There are letters to Esther Williams from her friends Louis Eilshemius, Furman J. Finck, and Leon Kroll, and both Grace Horne Galleries and Kraushaar Galleries. Esther Baldwin Williams' correspondence includes personal letters from Maurice Prendergast.
Writings and notes include two diaries kept by Esther Baldwin Williams that date from 1892 until 1902 and cover her life in Paris and later in Boston. Some of the diary pages are illustrated with sketches. The series also includes scattered notes, including Charles Prendergast's Notes on Formula of Ebonizing Technique.
There are four sketchbooks, likely by Esther Baldwin Williams, of pencil and watercolor sketches of cats, babies and children, orchestral scenes, portraits, and architecture.
Scattered printed materials include a copy of Cezanne's Studio given to Esther Baldwin Williams by Maurice Prendergast, a copy of a family history by Nadia Williams, exhibition announcements and catalogs, clippings, and miscellany.
There is one photograph of an unidentified work of art and a circa 1900 family photo album with mostly unidentified photos of babies, children, and family members.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1942-1979 (2 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Personal Business Records, 1893-1966 (9 folders; Box 1)
Series 3: Correspondence, 1887-1961 (0.7 linear feet; Boxes 1-2)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1892-1947 (0.2 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 5: Sketchbooks and Sketches, circa 1900 (0.2 linear feet; Boxes 2-3)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1883-1984 (0.2 linear feet; Box 3)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1900-circa 1920 (0.3 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)
Biographical Note:
Esther Baldwin Williams (1867-1964) and her daughter Esther Williams (1907-1969) were painters active in Boston, Paris, and New York City.
Esther Baldwin Williams was born Esther Mabel Baldwin on December 11, 1867 to a prominent Boston family of artists. She began her art education under her uncle Joseph Foxcroft Cole and worked with her cousin Adelaide Chase Cole. Adelaide and Esther shared a studio in Greenwich Village in 1888. The two cousins also traveled to Paris in 1877 and 1891 to paint. Esther Baldwin concentrated on portraiture and often painted the women in her social circle.
Esther Baldwin became engaged to Oliver Williams in 1898. They married and moved to 96 Beacon Street in Boston where they raised their children, Oliver, Thomas, and Esther. Around 1900, the Williams met Maurice and Charles Prendergast. Esther became a friend and patron of Maurice and the two shared a studio for some time and exchanged letters. Esther Baldwin continued to work in portraiture, focusing her work on her children and relatives and did not pursue a professional career. In addition to painting, Esther Baldwin and Oliver Williams inspired a passion for music in their children.
Born in 1907, Esther Williams inherited her mother's interest in the arts. Unlike her mother, she desired a professional career as a painter. She first studied at the Museum of Fine Arts School, Boston in 1925 and later went to Paris to study under Andre Lhote. Upon returning to the United States, she moved to New York City and enrolled with the Art Students League. She married Roland Joseph McKinney, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum.
Esther Williams is known for her portraits, paintings of flowers, circus and orchestra scenes, and for her impressionistic style. She was represented by Grace Horne Gallery in the 1930s and switched to Kraushaar Galleries in 1940.
Esther Baldwin Williams died in 1964. Her daughter, Esther Williams died shortly thereafter in 1969.
Related Material:
Among the holdings of the Archives of American Art are the papers of Esther William's husband Roland Joseph McKinney.
Provenance:
The Esther Baldwin Williams and Esther Williams papers were donated in two installments by Peter McKinney, step-son of Esther Williams in 1974 and by Nadia Williams, Esther Baldwin William's daughter-in-law in 1985.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
The papers of A.G. (Abel George) Warshawsky date from circa 1900 to 1988 and measure 3.8 linear feet. the papers contain biographical materials; scattered correspondence, most of which consists of letters from Warshawsky to his wife Ruth; writings, including versions of Warshawsky's autobiography; printed materials; two scrapbooks; photographs and eight photo albums; twenty-six sketchbooks; and artworks by Warshawsky and others.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of A.G. (Abel George) Warshawsky date from circa 1900 to 1988 and measure 3.8 linear feet. The papers contain biographical materials; scattered correspondence, most of which consists of letters from Warshawsky to his wife Ruth; writings, including versions of Warshawsky's autobiography; printed materials; two scrapbooks; photographs and eight photo albums; twenty-six sketchbooks; and artworks by Warshawsky and others.
Biographical materials consist of passports, an identification card, and a Who's Who entry. Correspondence is scattered and contains letters written by A.G. Warshawsky to his wife Ruth. There are also telegrams of congratulations for the Warshawskys' 1941 marriage and a few letters from museums and institutions regarding Warshawsky's art.
Writings and notes include three versions of Warshawsky's autobiography entitled: "My Brush with Life," "Adventures with Color and Brush," and "Warshawsky's Autobiography." The autobiography concerns his life in Paris, activities, and acquaintances as a young art student in Paris. Also found are other writings about art and a notebook.
Printed material includes exhibition catalogs, xeroxed copies of news clippings and a clippings file concerning Warshawsky's career, published material, and reproductions of works of art. Also found is a printed portfolio comprised of an introduction to Warshawsky and reproductions of his paintings.
There is one original and one xeroxed scrapbook, containing news clippings, and exhibition materials from 1913 to 1960.
Photographs includes eight photo albums and photographs of Warshawsky, of family and friends, and of works of art. The bulk of the photo albums contain photographs of works of art. Two photo albums consist of personal photos of Warshawsky and his wife Ruth in their home in California. Other photographs are of Warshawsky painting in his studio, with his art, and of his wife, family, friends, and artist models.
Twenty-six sketchbooks are primarily in pencil and are undated or unidentified. Some sketchbooks include place names such as Monterey and Carmel, California, Mexico, and Paris.
Additional artwork includes loose sketches and a print by Warshawsky. Also found are prints and drawings by others, including Goya, Edwin Kaufman, and Paul de Lassence.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1923-circa 1940 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1941-1964 (4 folders; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1930-circa 1950 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1920-1964 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1, 6, OV 12)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1913-1960 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1, 9)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1910-1988 (1.4 linear feet; Box 1-2, 5, 7-8, OV 10)
Series 7: Sketchbooks, circa 1910-circa 1950 (1.0 linear feet; Box 2-3, 5-6)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1900-1951 (0.5 linear feet; Box 3-5, OV 11)
Biographical / Historical:
Impressionist painter A.G. Warshawsky (1883-1962) was active in Paris and Monterey, California.
Abel George "Buck" Warshawsky was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania in 1883. He spent his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio where he studied at the Cleveland Art Institute. Warshawsky moved to New York where he studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. His brother, Alexander also became an artist.
In 1909, Abel Warshawsky left the U.S. for Paris where he remained for thirty years. There, he developed his unique style, combining Impressionism and Realism. He returned to the United States annually, mostly to sell his paintings, but remained active in the Parisian art scene until 1939. He exhibited his works in Cleveland, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Paris.
Before the start of World War II, Warshawsky left Paris and settled in Monterey, California. Warshawsky married Ruth Tate in 1941. He died from heart failure in 1962. His works are in the permanent collections of the Akron Art institute, the Cleveland museum of Art, the Luxembourg Museum, the De Young Museum, the Petit Palais, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Separated Materials:
The Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio holds the Abel G. Warshawsky Family papers.
Provenance:
The bulk of the A.G. Warshawsky papers were donated in 1996 by Froma Goldberg, Warshawsky's niece. In 1978, Ruth Warshawsky donated a typescript copy of her husband's autobiography, "My Brush with Life."
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington D.C. Research Facility. Contact Reference Services for more information.
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.
The papers of New York artist, critic, historian, writer, art consultant and curator Walter Pach, measure 20.7 linear feet and date from 1857-1980. The collection documents Pach's promotion of modernism through his role in the landmark 1913 Armory Show, his relationships with artists and art-world figures and his extensive writings on art. Records include biographical material, correspondence with family, friends and colleagues including noted artists, handwritten and edited versions of manuscripts by Pach, diaries and journals, business records, printed material, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and artwork by Pach and others, and photographs of Pach and his family, friends, and colleagues. The collection also includes 12 linear feet of selections from Walter Pach's library.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of New York artist, critic, historian, writer, art consultant and curator Walter Pach, measure 20.7 linear feet and date from 1857-1980. The collection documents Pach's promotion of modernism through his role in the landmark 1913 Armory Show, his relationships with artists and art-world figures and his extensive writings on art. Records include biographical material, correspondence with family, friends and colleagues including noted artists, handwritten and edited versions of manuscripts by Pach, diaries and journals, business records, printed material, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and artwork by Pach and others, and photographs of Pach and his family, friends, and colleagues. The collection also includes 12 linear feet of selections from Walter Pach's library.
Biographical material includes a copy of Pach's birth certificate and two passports for Walter and Magda Pach, in addition to address books, association membership cards and certificates.
Correspondence is both personal and professional. Family correspondence includes letters from Pach's son, Raymond, his first wife Magdalene (Magda), and his second wife Nikifora, whom he married in 1951 following the 1950 death of Magda. General correspondence includes letters from artists including Jean Charlot, Arthur B. Davies, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Maurice Prendergast, Diego Rivera, Morton Livingston Schamberg, John Sloan, and Jacques Villon; and other art-world figures including writers Van Wyck Brooks and Elie Faure, and Bryson Burroughs, curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Writings series represents an extensive collection of hand-written manuscripts, typescripts, annotated drafts and notes for published and unpublished writings by Pach, including lectures, monographs such as Queer Thing, Painting and Ananias, or The False Artist, and journal and newspaper articles such as "Pierre-Auguste Renoir" (1912).
Diaries and journals include one of particular note recording Pach's trip to Europe circa 1903-1904, with William Merritt Chase's class.
Business records include 2 notebooks recording sales at the Armory Show in New York, Boston and Chicago, a record book with handwritten lists of paintings owned and sold by Pach in the early 1930s, and two books, one maintained by Nikifora Pach, recording pictures sold, lectures and publications by Pach from the early 1900s to the early 1960s.
Printed material documents Pach's career through exhibition catalogs of Pach's solo and group exhibitions, news clippings about Pach, including reviews of his writings on art, and an almost comprehensive collection of copies of Pach's published journal and newspaper articles.
Scrapbooks include a book of reviews and original letters pertaining to Pach's book Ananias or the False Artist, and a scrapbook documenting Pach's activities during the 1920s which included his first one-man show at the Brummer Gallery in New York and the publication of his books Masters of Modern Art and Raymond Duchamp-Villon.
Artwork inlcudes a small group of drawings and three sketchbooks by Pach. Also of note are two print portfolios published in 1947 by the Laurel Gallery which include an essay and an etching by Pach, in addition to hand-pulled prints by artists such as Milton Avery, Reginald Marsh and Joan Miro.
Photographs are of Pach from childhood through to the 1950s, in addition to Magda and Raymond Pach and other family members, artists, colleagues and friends. Included are photographs of William Merritt Chase's class and Robert Henri's class at the New York School of Art, circa 1904, and photos of artists including Robert Henri, Moriye Ogihara, and Pablo Picasso. Photographs of artwork by Pach and other artists can also be found here including Mexican mural projects by José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera, and works by Antoine-Louise Barye and George Of.
Selections from Pach's library include works written by or translated by Pach, and items central to Pach's interests and work.
Arrangement note:
The Walter Pach papers are arranged as ten series.
Series 2: Correspondence, 1883-1980 (Box 1-3, FC 23; 2.1 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1899-circa 1950s (Box 3-5; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Diaries and Journals, 1903-circa 1950s (Box 5; 5 folders)
Series 5: Business Records, circa 1913-circa 1960s (Box 5-6; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1900-1977 (Box 6-7, 9; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, circa 1890-circa 1940s (Box 7, 9; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1860-circa 1950s (Box 7, 10; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs, 1857-1959 (Box 7-8, 10; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 10: Selections from Walter Pach's Library, 1880-1963 (Box 11-22; 12 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
New York artist, critic, writer, art consultant, and curator, Walter Pach (1883-1958) was an influential promoter of modern art and was instrumental in organizing the landmark Armory Show in 1913.
Walter Pach was born in New York City, July 11, 1883. His father, Gotthelf Pach, was a prominent commercial photographer who, along with his family, ran the New York firm of Pach Brothers. The company did the bulk of the photographic work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the young Pach often accompanied his father on museum assignments. In 1903, Pach graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in art. He also studied with Robert Henri at the New York School of Art and went abroad to paint with William Merritt Chase in the summers of 1903 and 1904.
In 1906 Pach presented his first art history lecture at the Westfield State Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts.
In 1907, Pach went to France and as an artist and critic moved among the Parisian avant-garde and became part of the Gertrude and Leo Stein circle. Gertrude Stein's "Portrait of Walter Pach was painted in 1908. Pach wrote extensively about modern art and through his numerous books, articles, and translations of European art texts, brought an emerging modernist viewpoint to the American public. In 1908 he wrote the first article published in America on Cézanne, and also wrote on such established artists as Claude Monet, whom he interviewed in 1908 for Scribner's Magazine..
Pach organized exhibitions of contemporary art for important New York City galleries of the period, as well as the landmark exhibition of 1913, "The International Exhibition of Modern Art," commonly known as the Armory Show. Along with painters Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, he brought together leading contemporary European and American artists. Pach served with Kuhn as administrator, publicist and gallery lecturer for the Armory Show Chicago for the run of the exhibition.
Pach helped to form major collections for John Quinn and Walter Arensberg. He was also instrumental in securing individual works of art for museums, such as a portrait for the Louvre Museum by American master Thomas Eakins, and Jacques-Louis David's Death of Socrates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pach married artist Magdalene Frohberg in February 1914, and their son Raymond was born at the end of that year. The Pachs lived primarily in New York, but spent time abroad from 1928 to 1932. Intermittently, they lived on the West Coast, where Pach taught at the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1920s he taught at the University of Mexico on a Shilling Fund grant, lecturing and writing on Native American art and developing a strong interest in Pre-Columbian art. He took an active interest in organizing exhibitions and raising money for a museum to be dedicated to the indigenous art of the Americas. In addition, he was a friend of José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera and helped organize the Mexican chapter of the Society of Independent Artists, the New York-based organization he founded in 1917 with Walter Arensberg and Marcel Duchamp.
While not well known today as a painter, Walter Pach devoted much of his creative effort to painting. He considered himself both an artist and a writer, even though friends like art historian Bernard Berenson urged him to devote all his time to writing. Among his writings are monographs on a wide range of subjects, social commentary on the art world, and a book on museum structures. Among his first publications were a series of brochures produced for the 1913 Armory Show, including Odilon Redon and, in the same year, A Sculptor's Architecture, a book about the work of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, a close friend whom he admired greatly. In 1923, Pach wrote Georges Seurat, a book later cited by art historian John Rewald as an important early text on the artist. Masters of Modern Art and the monograph Raymond Duchamp-Villon were published the following year, and in 1928 Pach's well-known indictment of opportunistic artists and corruption in the art world, Ananias, or The False Artist, created a stir in art circles. Pach considered Vincent Van Gogh to be a seminal figure in the development of modern art and was the first historian to lecture on him in America. In 1936, he published his well-received monograph, Vincent Van Gogh. His recollections of a life spent in art, Queer Thing, Painting appeared in 1938. Ingres was published in 1939, as well as Masterpieces of Art, written for the 1939 New York World's Fair, for which Pach was exhibition director. His Art Museum in America, published in 1948, called into question the relevance, responsibility, and future direction of the American art museum. He long championed the artists of Mexico and published an essay on Diego Rivera in 1951 for the National Museum of Fine Arts, Mexico, for its 50-year retrospective exhibition on the artist. The Classical Tradition in Modern Art, Pach's last book, was published posthumously in 1959.
Pach's fluency in French, German, and Spanish allowed him to understand and interpret new avant-garde ideas developing in Europe and to translate them for an English-speaking audience. His language skills also allowed him to communicate personally with many noted artists in Europe and Mexico and to mediate between gallery dealers and museum curators on their behalf. His correspondence with major figures in 20th-century art are a fascinating and important source of information, not only about the artists themselves but about the art world in general during the first half of this century.
Chronology of Exhibitions and Writings
1908 -- "Cézanne," by Walter Pach, the first American article on the subject, published in December issue of Scribner's.
1911 -- "Albert P. Ryder," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Scribner's.
1912 -- Met with Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn to begin preparations for the Armory Show. Was responsible for the exhibition's European operations. Completed Portrait of Gigi Cavigli (exhibited at the Armory Show the following year). "Pierre-Auguste Renoir," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Scribner's.
1913 -- Exhibited 5 paintings and 5 etchings in "The International Exhibition of Modern Art" (Armory Show), which opened in New York City on February 13. Served as administrator, publicist, and gallery lecturer for the Armory Show Chicago with Kuhn for the run of the exhibition. At the close of the show, Matisse, Brancusi, and Pach were hanged in effigy by the students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1915 -- Publication of The John Quinn Collection, catalog of a collection Pach was instrumental in assembling.
1916 -- Founded Society of Independent Artists in collaboration with Marcel Duchamp, Walter Arensberg, and others. Adviser to collector Walter Arensberg.
1917 -- Designed sets for Wallace Stevens's play, Bowl, Cat and Broomstick, produced at the Neighborhood Playhouse, New York City. Arranged a Gino Severini exhibition at Stieglitz's 219 gallery, New York City.
1918 -- "Universality in Art," by Walter Pach, published in February issue of Modern School. "Jean Le Roy," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Modern School
1919 -- "The Schamberg Exhibition," by Walter Pach, published in May 17 issue of the Dial. Wrote introduction for Odilon Redon, the catalog for a graphics show at Albert Roulliers Gallery, Chicago.
1920 -- "The Art of the American Indian," by Walter Pach, published in January 20 issue of the Dial. His paintings abandoned the cubist-futurist mode and returned to a more naturalistic style.
1921 -- Publication of History of Art: Ancient Art, volume 1, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach.
1922 -- Lecturer, University of Mexico, where he developed a strong interest in Pre-Columbian art. Lectured at Société Anonyme. Publication of History of Art: Mediaeval Art, volume 2, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. Contributed a chapter, "Art," to Civilization in the United States: An Inquiry by Thirty Americans, edited by Harold E. Stearns.
1923 -- Publication of Georges Seurat by Walter Pach. Publication of The Art of Cineplastics and History of Art: Renaissance Art, volume 3, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "Georges Seurat," by Walter Pach, published in March issue of the Arts.
1924 -- Publication of Masters of Modern Art, by Walter Pach. Publication of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, by Walter Pach. Publication of History of Art: Modern Art, volume 4, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "The Greatest American Artist," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Harper's Magazine.
1926 -- "Graveur Américain," by Léon Rosenthal, an article about Pach's graphics (illustrated with an original etching, New York), published in September issue of Byblis, Miroir des Arts du Livre et de L'Estampe. "Brancusi," by Walter Pach, published in December 1 issue of the Nation. Instructor, New York University. First solo exhibition at Brummer Gallery, New York, New York.
1927 -- "What Passes for Art," by Walter Pach, published in June issue of Harper's Magazine
1928 -- Publication of Ananias, or The False Artist, by Walter Pach. Pach family relocated to Europe.
1929 -- "The Evolution of Diego Rivera," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Creative Art. "John Ruskin and Walter Pach: Defenders of the Faith," by W.H. Downes, published in August issue of American Museum Art.
1930 -- Publication of An Hour of Art, by Walter Pach. Publication of History of Art: The Spirit of the Forms, volume 5, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "Notes sur le classicisme de Delacroix," by Walter Pach, published in June issue of L'Amour de L'Art.
1931 -- Solo exhibition at Kraushaar Gallery, New York City, with review published in March 21 issue of Art News. "Raymond Duchamp-Villon," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Formes XV.
1932 -- "Le Classicisme de Barye," by Walter Pach, published in November issue of L'Amour de L'Art . Returned to the United States.
1933 -- "Address at the Worcester Opening of International, 1933," by Walter Pach, and "Georges Rouault," by Walter Pach, both published in January issue of Parnassus. "American Art in the Louvre," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Fine Arts 20. "On Owning Pictures," by Walter Pach, published in August issue of Fine Arts 20. "Rockefeller, Rivera and Art," by Walter Pach, published in September issue of Harper's Magazine.
1934 -- Organized Maurice Prendergast retrospective for Whitney Museum of American Art.
1935 -- Exhibition at Knoedler Gallery, New York City included Walter Pach's Respice, Adspice, and Prospice, a fresco commissioned for the City College of New York by the Class of 1903.
1936 -- Exhibition of watercolors at Kleemann Galleries, New York City. Publication of Vincent Van Gogh, by Walter Pach." The Raphael from Russia," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Virginia Quarterly Review. "First Portfolio of American Art," by Walter Pach, published in October 3 issue of Art News. Wrote foreword to First Exhibition in America of Géricault, catalog of exhibition at Marie Sterner Gallery, New York City. "The Outlook for Modern Art," by Walter Pach, published in April issue of Parnassus. Article about Pach's City College mural published in February issue of City College Alumnus Magazine.
1937 -- Publication of The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, translated by Walter Pach. Publication of Thomas Eakins, by Walter Pach, catalog of exhibition at Kleemann Gallery, New York City.
1938 -- Publication of Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art, by Walter Pach. "Delacroix Today," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Magazine of Art.
1939 -- Publication of Ingres, by Walter Pach. Appointed general director, "Masterpieces of Art" exhibition, New York World's Fair.
1940 -- Publication of Masterpieces of Art, New York World's Fair, 1940, Official Illustrated Catalogue, by Walter Pach.
1941 -- Solo exhibition at Schneider-Gabriel Gallery, New York City.
1942 -- "Newly Discovered Ingres: The Lovers," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Art in America Exhibition at Whitney Museum of American Art, "Between the Wars: Prints by American Artists, 1914-1941," included Walter Pach's etching Saint-Germain-des-Pres (1911). Lecturer, University of Mexico, Shilling Fund grant.
1943 -- "A Newly Found American Painter: Hermenegildo Bustos," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Art in America. "Unknown Aspects of Mexican Painting," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Marriage of son, Raymond.
1944 -- "The Eight, Then and Now," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Art News. "Problemas del arte americano," by Walter Pach, published in December issue of Origenes.
1946 -- "La Barricade in America," by Walter Pach, published in July issue of Art News. "On Art Criticism," by Eugène Delacroix (first published in Revue de Paris, May 1829), translated by Walter Pach for catalog of exhibition at Curt Valentin, New York City.
1947 -- Publication of Picasso, by Juan Larrea, edited by Walter Pach. Publication of "Museums Can Be Living Things," by Walter Pach, in Laurels Number One, Laurel Gallery. Etching, Scopasian Head, by Walter Pach, included in Laurels Number Two, Laurel Gallery.
1948 -- Publication of The Art Museum in America, by Walter Pach. "The Past Lives On," by Walter Pach, parts 1 and 2, published in October and November issues of American Artist.
1949 -- "Thus Is Cubism Cultivated," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Art News.
1950 -- Contributed a chapter, "The State of the Arts in the Democratic Way of Life: A Postscript," to Perspectives on a Troubled Decade: Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1939-1949, edited by Lyman Bryson, Louis Finkelstein, and R. M. MacIver. Death of wife, Magdalene.
1951 -- "Reaciones entre la cultura nordeamericana y la ombre de Diego Rivera," a major essay by Walter Pach published in Diego Rivera, 50 años de su labor artistica, exposition de normenaje nacional, Museo nacional de artes plasticas, Mexico City. Married Nikifora.
1953 -- "A Modernist Visits Greece," by Walter Pach, reprinted in autumn issue of Archaeology.
1954 -- "John Sloan," by Walter Pach, published in August issue of Atlantic Monthly.
1956 -- "Introducing the Paintings of George Of (1876-1954)," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Art News.
1958 -- Professor, City College of New York. Died, New York City, following an operation for stomach ulcers.
1959 -- Publication of The Classical Tradition in Modern Art, by Walter Pach.
1986 -- Exhibition, "Walter Pach, A Retrospective," at Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina.
1988 -- Exhibition, "The Art of Walter and Magda Pach," at Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
1990 -- Exhibition, "Discovering Modernism: Selections from the Walter Pach Papers," at the Archives of American Art, New York City.
1991 -- Exhibition, "The Paintings of Walter Pach," at Forum Gallery, New York City.
Related Materials:
Papers of Walter Pach, 1885-1956, are also located at the Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives.
Separated Materials note:
When the Archives of American Art acquired the Walter Pach Papers, some portion of his library was also received. The bulk of the library was transferred to the Smithsonian's American Art/Portrait Gallery Library where the items could be properly cataloged, cared for, and used.
Provenance:
The Walter Pach papers were acquired in several installments. After Pach's death his widow, Nikifora Pach, sold Pach's papers to Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. They were purchased by the Archives of American Art in 1988 with a grant from the Brown Foundation, Inc.
Eight family photographs, donated by Raymond Pach, son of Walter Pach, were received in 1990.
In 2012 Francis M. Naumann donated an additional 5.7 linear feet of material to the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
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.
Walter Pach papers, 1857-1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the initial digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by the Gladys K. Delmas Foundation. Funding for the processing of the addition to the Walter Pach papers and digitization of the fully re-processed collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
