An interview of Elma Lewis conducted 1997 July 25 and Sept. 19, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art, in Lewis' home, Roxbury, Mass.
Lewis discusses her parents, immigrants from Barbados; her father being very politicized, quickly disillusioned regarding economic opportunity and racism; meeting Marcus Garvey and becoming a member of United Negro Improvement Association; her parents giving her a very strong cultural sense of her race and culture steeped in Christian doctrine; family thought in pan-African terms; attending integrated schools; World War II as a watershed for the Black community; her brother graduating from Harvard medical school after their mother demanded he be admitted, though still he had difficulty being accepted in medical community; another brother who became a concert pianist; her study of dance (ballet) for many years.
Father's encouragment to attend Emerson College in Boston (1939-1943); preparation for a career in music and the performing arts; teachers' training at Boston University (1943-1944); teaching at the school of dance and performing arts run by Doris Jones; Lewis founding her own school, the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in the largely Black Roxbury section of Boston in 1950; incorporating the visual arts; teaching by Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, Duke Ellington; problems posed by patronizing white liberal community; development of cooperative program with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; hiring the artist John Wilson and art historian Edmund Barry Gaither to further develop visual arts programs; and the primacy of culture and spirituality.
Biographical / Historical:
Elma Lewis (1921-2004) was an artist and teacher from Boston, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 1 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2007 as 2 digital wav files. Duration is 1 hr., 32 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:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with T. Lux Feininger, 1987 May 19-1988 Mar. 17. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert S. Neuman, 1991 May 1-June 19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Ralph Rosenthal, 1997 February 10-April 7. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Sculptors -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Ceramicists -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
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 -- Boston Search this
An interview of Robert S. Neuman conducted 1991 May 1-1991 June 19, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Neuman discusses his childhood in Idaho; art training in Idaho and San Francisco; California artists Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn, Hassel Smith, and Nathan Oliveira; WWII service; the School of the Pacific vs. Euro-centric New York; studying in Germany on a Fulbright scholarship; the influence of work by Willi Baumeister and Wolfgang Wols; moving to Boston and the art community there in the 1950s and 1960s; studying in Barcelona on a Guggenheim fellowship; the evolution of his painting in overlapping phases; and his preference for being outside the mainstream art world.
Biographical / Historical:
Robert S. Neuman (1926- ) is an abstract painter and art instructor from San Francisco, Germany, Spain, and Boston.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 9 digital wav files. Duration is 6 hrs., 41 min.
Provenance:
These interviews are 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:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
An interview of Ralph Rosenthal conducted 1997 February 10-April 7, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art, at Rosenthal's home, in Brookline, Mass.
Rosenthal discusses his childhood in the South End of Boston; first art training at age of 10 under Bill Tate, Dudley Pratt, and Anthony DiBona; attending the Boston public schools' Saturday art classes at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, headed by Alma LeBrecht, Blanche Brink, and Alice Morse, 1924-29; his years at the School of the MFA (1929-35) and the dominant influence there of Philip Hale; his further training in education at Boston University (Ed.M., 1936); his early teaching career; receiving a Carnegie Fellowship in 1938 to study at the Fogg Museum, Harvard University; studying ceramics at Alfred University in 1940; and his founding with Herbert Kahn in 1941 of ROKA, a ceramics supply company.
Teaching in the Boston public schools, 1936-1976, rising from teacher of sculpture to supervisor of art for the entire system in 1966; his work in sculpture, painting, drawing, and ceramics; and former students at the various places he has taught.
Biographical / Historical:
Ralph Rosenthal (1912-2003) was a sculptor from Boston, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 4 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 27 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 -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Elma Lewis, 1997 July 25 and Sept. 19. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
A scrapbook, possibly two combined into one, containing photographs, correspondence, clippings, and printed material, most likely assembled and heavily annotated by Bartlett, documenting his career as a sculptor and teacher as well as his travels in Europe, in particular, Italy. A small portion of the scrapbook concerns the career of Bartlett's son, sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett.
Biographical / Historical:
Truman Howe Bartlett (1835-1923) was a sculptor in Boston, Mass.
Provenance:
Donated 2009 by Gertrude (Trudy) Conroy, who inherited the scrapbooks from her father.
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.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Bernard Chaet, 1997 June 18-August 15. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Topic:
Painters -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
The papers of painter, etcher, printer, muralist, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements measure 1 linear foot and date from 1860 to 1948. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence, including extensive correspondence from Clements to her mother; writings, including notes and essays on art history and etching techniques; printed material; artwork; eight sketchbooks; and photographs of Clements, her family and friends, and her work.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter, etcher, printer, muralist, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements measure 1 linear foot and date from 1860 to 1948. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence, including extensive correspondence from Clements to her mother; writings, including notes and essays on art history and etching techniques; printed material; artwork; 8 sketchbooks; and photographs of Clements, her family and friends, and her work.
Biographical material consists of an address book, artwork sales and price lists, and autobiographical notes.
Correspondence is primarily with Clements' family, friends, and business associates. The series includes significant correspondence from Clements to her mother during her college years at Cornell University.
Writings include notes and essays on art history and etching techniques, 2 notebooks of poetry, and a travel diary chronicling a trip to Egypt with Ellen Day Hale.
Printed material includes clippings, exhibition catalogs, a map of the artists' colony at Rockport, Folly Cove in Massachusetts, and a copy of the book Suggestions for Illuminating by W. Randle Harrison.
Artwork consists of sketches and original etchings by Clements and artwork by others.
There are 8 sketchbooks consisting primarily of cityscapes, landscapes, and figure and portrait studies.
Photographs are of Clements, her family and friends, artists models, and work by Clements and others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 7 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical materials, circa 1920-1944 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1875-1945 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1885-1940 (8 folders; Box 1)
Series 4: Printed material, circa 1860-1948 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1895-1940 (3 folders; Box 1)
Series 6: Sketchbooks, circa 1884-1940 (0.3 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 7: Photographs, circa 1875-1940 (0.2 linear feet; Box 1)
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, printer, and art teacher Gabrielle de Veaux Clements (1858-1948) lived and worked in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; and Folly Cove near Gloucester, Massachusetts. She was known for her etchings and her commissioned murals for the cities of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Clements was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to physician Richard Clements and his wife, Gabrielle De Vaux. Her interest in art was supported by her family and, at the age of seventeen, she began studying lithography with the designer Charles Page at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women. After graduating in 1880 from Cornell University, where she had produced a number of scientific drawings and lithographs, Clements studied with painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and won the school's Toppan Prize. In 1883, Clements was introduced to etching techniques by the artist Stephen Parrish and began exhibiting and printing her works professionally.
In 1884, Clements traveled abroad to Paris to study at the Academie Julian where she was joined in 1885 by fellow painter and future lifelong companion Ellen Day Hale. Upon returning to her Philadelphia studio in 1885, Clements taught other female artists, including Margaret Bush-Brown, and exhibited in numerous institutions, including the National Academy of Design and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. In 1895, Clements moved to Baltimore to teach art at the newly established Bryn Mawr School, where she remained until 1908. During her tenure in Baltimore, she was commissioned by the Bendann Galleries to etch nine views of Baltimore and also painted five church murals in Washington, D.C., which led to subsequent murals in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
Clements and Hale frequently traveled abroad, visiting France, Italy, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, and spent summers at "The Thickets," the house they purchased in the artists' colony at Folly Cove. During World War I, they wintered in Charleston, South Carolina where they opened their studios to young female artists and taught innovative etching, painting, and color printmaking techniques. After the war, they again opened their studios in Folly Cove to young artists and continued to teach and experiment with soft-ground etching and aquatints in color. This work was highlighted in special exhibitions at the J.B. Speed Art Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. Clements died in Rockport, Massachusetts in 1948.
Provenance:
The Gabrielle de Veaux Clements papers were donated by Mrs. Harlan Starr, Jr. in 1983.
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 painter and teacher Frank Duveneck and his wife and painter Elizabeth Boott Duveneck measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1851-1972, bulk 1851-1919. Aspects of the lives and work of the artists are documented in correspondence, creative writings, research notes, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, ephemera, sketches and sketchbooks, and vintage photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter and teacher Frank Duveneck and his wife, painter Elizabeth Boott Duveneck measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1851-1972, bulk 1851-1919. Aspects of the lives and work of the artists are documented in correspondence, creative writings, research notes, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, ephemera, sketches and sketchbooks, and vintage photographs.
The limited amount of correspondence in this collection includes separate letters from Frank Duveneck and Elizabeth Duveneck, primarily to family members, which describe studies and travel abroad, works in progress, exhibitions, and after their marriage, reports on family life. Frank Duveneck's correspondence also includes a letter from sculptor William Couper concerning the marble for a memorial to Elizabeth Boott Duveneck. There is also a folder of letters to and from Mr. and Mrs. Francis B. Duvencek, the son and daughter-in-law of the artist couple, that include reminiscences about Frank Duveneck from former student Bessie Wessel and a letter to Francis Duveneck from Daniel Chester French requesting permission to make a bronze from the plaster cast of the Duveneck's effigy of Elizabeth at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Writings include Elizabeth Boott Duveneck's diary, a typescript of a speech attributed to Frank Duveneck, and research notes compiled by daughter-in-law Josephine Duveneck in preparation for her biography of her father-in-law.
Printed materials consist primarily of newspaper clippings and magazine articles on Frank Duveneck, but also include his Munich Royal Academy card and copy certificate from the Ministry of Florence, Italy. Newspaper clippings may also be found in the Scrapbook series, including Elizabeth Boott Duveneck's scrapbook of exhibition reviews of her paintings, and two folders of clippings pertaining to Frank Duveneck compiled by Josephine Duveneck. Frank Duveneck's scrapbook contains printed illustrations compiled by the artist while he was studying art in Munich.
Sketchbooks and sketches consist of four sketchbooks by Elizabeth Boott Duvenck and three by Frank Duveneck that document their growth as artists as they span several decades (particularly in the case of Elizabeth) of their respective careers. There are also two folders of loose, mostly early, portrait sketches by Elizabeth Boott Duveneck.
Vintage photographs depict Frank Duveneck alone, with family and friends, Elizabeth Boott Duveneck, Francis Boott with his daughter, John Twachtman, art classes including one of Wilhelm von Diez's classes in Munich, and a group photograph of the jury of the 1915 Panama-Pacific exposition. There is only one photograph that includes both Frank and Elizabeth Duveneck together along with her father Francis Boott and nurse Ann Shenston.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 6 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1856-1971 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Writings and Notes, circa 1873-1970 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1871-1972 (Box 1; 6 folders)
Series 4: Scrapbooks, 1871-1962 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 5: Sketchbooks and Sketches, circa 1857-1886 (Box 1; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, circa 1851-1970 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Painter, etcher, and one of the most influential American art instructors of the nineteenth century, Frank Duveneck was born Frank Decker to German immigrants Bernard and Katherine Decker on October 9, 1848 in Covington, Kentucky. He acquired the name Duveneck from his stepfather after his father's death and mother's remarriage. Family and friends recognized his artistic talents early on and he was apprenticed to local German artisans who decorated churches through most of the 1860s. In 1870 he traveled to Munich to study at the prestigious Konigliche Akademie (Royal Academy), where he was quickly promoted to life classes and the painting class of Wilhelm von Diez. He quickly earned a reputation as the leading American artist in the Academy. Duveneck was only 24 in 1872 when painted one of his most well-known paintings, Whistling Boy.
Due to dwindling funds and a cholera epidemic in Europe, Duveneck returned to the United States in 1873 and began teaching at the Ohio Mechanics Institute in Cincinnati the following year, where John H. Twachtman was among his students. An 1875 exhibition of his paintings at the Boston Art Club met with critical and public acclaim. He also attracted the attention of William Morris Hunt, novelist Henry James, and his future wife, Elizabeth Boott, who was one among those who deeply admired his work, although the pair were not to meet for another three years. After his return to Munich later that year, he became part of a tightly knit group of other American artists including Frank Currier, William Merritt Chase, and Walter Shirlaw. All four artists exhibited their work in the United States in such venues as the National Academy of Design's annual exhibition of 1877, and the first exhibition of the Society of American Artists in 1878, which may have contributed to the increased popularity of the Royal Academy in Munich as a destination for young American artists. As enrollment rose, classes became overcrowded and Duveneck began teaching in Munich. A group of younger students, including John Alexander, and John H. Twachtman, who had followed the artist from Cincinnati to Munich, became known as the "Duveneck Boys." He also had acquired a private female student, Elizabeth Boott, who had traveled to Munich to study with him.
The painter Elizabeth Boott, known primarily as "Lizzie," was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 13, 1846 and was raised by her widowed father, the prominent Bostonian Francis Boott. The pair moved to Florence, Italy, when Lizzie was just a year old, after the death of her mother and brother from tuberculosis. Similar to Duveneck, Lizzie Boott's talent for drawing was recognized and encouraged at an early age. Early drawings preserved by her father consist of portraits of their well-known Anglo-American friends including Robert Browning, Nathanial Hawthorne, and Henry Higginson, founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Bootts briefly returned to Boston in 1865, at which time Lizzie met the novelist Henry James, who became a close life-long friend of both her and her father. Through James, she learned of the artist William Morris Hunt, and entered his class in Boston for women artists. She established close friendships with several of the women whom she met through Hunt's class, and they traveled together through Italy and Spain, took classes with the French artist Thomas Couture, and studied at the Académie Julian in Paris. They also made up the group of female students that formed a class of women artists taught by Duveneck, whom Lizzie had persuaded to teach in Florence in 1879. Duveneck, along with a band of "Duveneck Boys" embarked upon a two year stay in Florence and Venice.
During this period in Italy, Duveneck experimented with with hard ground etchings, creating Venetian scenes similar to those produced by James McNeil Whistler. His painting changed as he focused more on landscapes executed in a ligher, more highly keyed palette, perhaps influenced by Lizzie Boott, who painted vibrant watercolor Italian landscapes during this period and with whom he began an extended courtship in 1880. Although Francis Boott admired Duveneck's work and had acquired one his portraits during the artist's successful 1875 exhibition at the Boston Arts Club, neither he nor family friends approved of the bohemian artist as a husband for his accomplished patrician daughter. However the pair eventually married in March 1886, and had a son, Francis Boott Duveneck that December. Tragically, Lizzie Boott died of pneumonia on March 22, 1888. Although he was not a sculptor, one of Duvenecks' most admired works is the effigy that he created with the help of sculptor Clement J. Barnhorn, for his wife's tomb in Florence, casts of which may be viewed at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After his wife's death Duveneck returned to America, spending most of his time in his Cincinnati studio and teaching painting classes at the Cincinnati Art Museum. At the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, two galleries at the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts, were allotted to Duveneck for a retrospective of his work. The jury awarded him a gold medal of honor to commemorate his contributions to American Art. Frank Duveneck died in Cincinnati on January 3, 1919.
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming. Reel 792 includes a group of eighty-four pencil sketches and caricatures of his students by Frank Duveneck and four black and white photographic reproductions of works of art. Reel 1097 contains correspondence, 1845-1919, of Duveneck and his wife, Elizabeth Boott Duveneck. Included are two letters from Duveneck to Theodore Wores and seven letters from Julius Rolshoven. Other correspondents include John W. Beatty, William Couper, Daniel Chester French, Mrs. Walter Shirlaw, and Thad Welch. Many of the letters from Elizabeth Boott were written from Europe, including 11 to William Morris Hunt's painting class (1876-1880), and a lengthy account of her travels written to her father (1881). Reel 1151 contains exhibition catalogs that were donated to the Archives of American Art with the Frank Duveneck and Elizabeth Boott Duveneck papers. While this material was transferred to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Gallery Library in 1976, all other materials were returned to the lenders and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
The papers of Frank Duveneck and Elizabeth Boott Duveneck were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Francis B. Duveneck, the son and daughter-in-law of Frank and Elizabeth Duveneck in 1974 with additional material lent for microfilming. In 1974, the Cincinnati Historical Society donated photocopies of original letters that were microfilmed and discarded. A portrait photograph of Frank Duveneck was donated in 1985 by Freda Schutze.
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.
Woodbury, Charles H. (Charles Herbert), 1864-1940 Search this
Extent:
0.8 Linear feet
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Oil paintings
Sketchbooks
Watercolor paintings
Photographs
Charcoal drawings
Date:
circa 1870-1961
bulk 1870-1900
Summary:
The papers of Boston area portrait painter Rose Lamb date from circa 1870 to 1961, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870 to 1900, and measure 0.8 linear feet. The collection contains a diploma; letters from artists, writers, historians, and others, including nine letters from former teacher and friend William Morris Hunt; photographs of unidentified people and artwork by Lamb; and original artwork, including a sketchbook, charcoal drawings, watercolors, and two oil paintings.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of Boston area portrait painter and drawing instructor Rose Lamb date from circa 1870 to 1961, with the bulk of the material dating from circa 1870 to 1900, and measure 0.8 linear feet. The collection contains a diploma; letters from artists, writers, historians, and others, including nine letters from former teacher and friend William Morris Hunt; photographs of unidentified people and artwork by Lamb; and original artwork, including a sketchbook from circa 1870, charcoal drawings, two watercolors, and two oil paintings. Artwork depicts landscapes, children, and other figure studies.
Correspondence within the the collection includes 19 letters from artists, such as Albert Sterner, Ross Turner, Howard Pyle, and Charles H. Woodbury; writers Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Margaret Deland, and Alfred Noyes; and historians John Fiske and Albert Bushnell Hart. Also found are nine letters from former teacher and friend William Morris Hunt. Eight of his letters describe in detail his work on the painting of murals in the Capitol building in Albany, New York, and one letter discusses his painting of portraits in North Easton, Massachusetts. Also among the correspondence are four letters to Aimée Lamb, Rose's niece.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 4 series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Diploma, 1881 (Box 1, OV 3; 1 folder)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1878-1914, 1952-1961 (Box 1; 5 folders)
Series 3: Photographs, circa late 1800s (Boxes 1-2; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 4: Artwork, circa 1870-late 1800s (Box 1-2, OV 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Rose Lamb (1843-1927) was a portrait painter and drawing instructor of Boston, Massachusetts. Lamb was born in Boston to a prominent family and was a student of William Morris Hunt and Helen Knowlton during the 1870s. Though she did not exhibit often during her lifetime, she was a successful portraitist specializing in portraits of children. Lamb was an active member of Boston society, befriending many artists, writers, and other cultural figures, and her portraits were in great demand among prominent Boston families. She traveled to Europe in 1881, 1890, and 1914, perhaps taking art classes while there in 1881. In 1884, and possibly later, she assisted George Bartlett as a drawing instructor at the South Boston School of Art. In 1900 she suffered a severe illness and stopped painting. For the remainder of her life she instead pursued travel and social activities. Rose Lamb died in 1927.
Related Material:
Also available at the Archives of American Art are the Aimée Lamb (niece of Rose Lamb) papers, 1888-1991. Original letters to Rose Lamb from Mary Cassatt and Childe Hassam are available at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Provenance:
This collection was donated by Aimée and Rosamond Lamb, nieces of Rose Lamb in installments, primarily from 1980 to 1985. They donated the nine letters to Lamb from William Morris Hunt in 1976.
Restrictions:
Use of the 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.
Occupation:
Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Portrait painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
