Search Results

Creator:

Kraushaar Galleries  Search this

Subject:

Wilson, Ralph L.  Search this

Fausett, Dean  Search this

Lasker, Joe  Search this

Murdock, Roland P.  Search this

Phillips, Duncan  Search this

Kuhn, Walt  Search this

Smith, Vernon  Search this

Robinson, Boardman  Search this

Lechay, James  Search this

Laurent, Robert  Search this

Hartell, John  Search this

Cantene, David  Search this

Schnakenberg, H. E. (Henry Ernest)  Search this

Kraushaar, Antoinette M.  Search this

Harrison, Preston  Search this

Heliker, John  Search this

Williams, Esther  Search this

Luks, George Benjamin  Search this

Glackens, Edith  Search this

Navas, Elizabeth S.  Search this

DeLonga, Leonard  Search this

Evett, Kenneth Warnock  Search this

Halberstadt, Ernst  Search this

Prendergast, Maurice Brazil  Search this

Morris, Carl  Search this

Ruellan, Andrée  Search this

Smalley, David  Search this

Flannery, Vaughn  Search this

Cowles, Russell  Search this

Penney, James  Search this

Beal, Gifford  Search this

Bacon, Peggy  Search this

Beal, Reynolds  Search this

Hardy, Thomas  Search this

Glackens, William J.  Search this

Prendergast, Charles  Search this

Demuth, Charles  Search this

Albrizio, Humbert  Search this

Lachaise, Gaston  Search this

Bignou, Etienne  Search this

Kirsch, Frederick D. (Frederick Dwight)  Search this

Sloan, John  Search this

Allard, J.  Search this

Bouché, Louis  Search this

Juley, Peter A.  Search this

Stanley, Alix W.  Search this

Arnest, Bernard  Search this

Brueming, Karen  Search this

Miller, Harriette  Search this

Kraushaar, John F.  Search this

Guillaume, Paul  Search this

Art Institute of Chicago  Search this

Toledo Museum of Art  Search this

Cleveland Museum of Art  Search this

Wichita Art Museum  Search this

Whitney Museum of American Art  Search this

New Britain Institute. Art Museum  Search this

Ernest Brown and Co.  Search this

Carnegie Institute  Search this

University of Nebraska--Lincoln. Department of Art  Search this

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this

Type:

Photographs

Sketches

Drawings

Exhibition catalogs

Financial records

Notes

Sketchbooks

Citation:

Kraushaar Galleries records, 1877-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Topic:

Works of art  Search this

Art, American  Search this

Artists -- United States  Search this

Depressions -- 1929  Search this

Theme:

Art Gallery Records  Search this

Art Market  Search this

Record number:

(DSI-AAA_CollID)7781

(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)209946

AAA_collcode_kraugall

Theme:

Art Gallery Records

Art Market

Data Source:

Archives of American Art

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:AAADCD_coll_209946

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

Symposia

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2022-08-04T17:12:19.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_IOlPfsORkoo

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

Symposia

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2022-08-04T17:12:17.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_Sgrluwhmm_Q

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2017-05-17T11:16:50.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_lh68WIiTBXI

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

Lectures

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2022-08-24T20:13:08.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_pJUHQH6_HM4

Creator:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum  Search this

Type:

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2017-04-19T23:58:57.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Design  Search this

See more by:

cooperhewitt

Data Source:

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

YouTube Channel:

cooperhewitt

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_wM0eDPSXOOI

Artist:

Charles Willson Peale, 15 Apr 1741 - 22 Feb 1827  Search this

Sitter:

George Washington, 22 Feb 1732 - 14 Dec 1799  Search this

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

Stretcher: 131 × 121.6cm (51 9/16 × 47 7/8")

Type:

Painting

Date:

c. 1779

Topic:

Costume\Headgear\Hat  Search this

Nature & Environment\Animal\Horse  Search this

Symbols & Motifs\Flag  Search this

Weapon\Cannon  Search this

Costume\Dress Accessory\Sash  Search this

Human Figures  Search this

George Washington: Male  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Revolutionary War Army officer  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\Statesman\Colonial statesman  Search this

George Washington: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Farmer  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\President of US  Search this

George Washington: Science and Technology\Surveyor  Search this

George Washington: Congressional Gold Medal  Search this

Portrait  Search this

Credit Line:

Owner: Cleveland Museum of Art

Object number:

1917.946 CMA

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Catalog of American Portraits

Data Source:

Catalog of American Portraits

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm45d127b6d-05a3-43e5-90c0-7d931e3fed96

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:npg_1917.946_CMA

Artist:

William Russell Birch, 1755 - 1834  Search this

Copy after:

Gilbert Stuart, 3 Dec 1755 - 9 Jul 1828  Search this

Sitter:

George Washington, 22 Feb 1732 - 14 Dec 1799  Search this

Medium:

Enamel on copper

Dimensions:

7.6cm x 6.3cm (3" x 2 1/2"), Estimate

Type:

Painting

Date:

c. 1800-30

Topic:

Miniature  Search this

George Washington: Male  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Revolutionary War Army officer  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\Statesman\Colonial statesman  Search this

George Washington: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Farmer  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\President of US  Search this

George Washington: Science and Technology\Surveyor  Search this

George Washington: Congressional Gold Medal  Search this

Portrait  Search this

Credit Line:

Owner: Cleveland Museum of Art

Object number:

1946.295 CMA

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Catalog of American Portraits

Data Source:

Catalog of American Portraits

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4c793506f-6c80-4110-8b57-61daa78dab5a

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:npg_1946.295_CMA

Artist:

Unidentified Artist  Search this

Former attribution:

Joseph Wright, 16 Jul 1756 - c. 11 Oct 1793  Search this

Sitter:

George Washington, 22 Feb 1732 - 14 Dec 1799  Search this

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

52.3cm x 43.2cm (20 9/16" x 17"), Estimate

Type:

Painting

Date:

c. 1790

Topic:

George Washington: Male  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Revolutionary War Army officer  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\Statesman\Colonial statesman  Search this

George Washington: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Farmer  Search this

George Washington: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General  Search this

George Washington: Politics and Government\President of US  Search this

George Washington: Science and Technology\Surveyor  Search this

George Washington: Congressional Gold Medal  Search this

Portrait  Search this

Credit Line:

Owner: Cleveland Museum of Art

Object number:

2552.1921 CMA

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Catalog of American Portraits

Data Source:

Catalog of American Portraits

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4a74b2132-5fc6-44c3-ae31-a46d6721ddd0

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:npg_2552.1921_CMA

Artist:

Max Ernst, French, b. Brühl, Germany, 1891–1976  Search this

Medium:

Bronze

Dimensions:

12 1/8 x 22 1/8 x 23 3/4 in., weight approx. 95 lb. (30.8 x 56.2 x 60.3 cm, 43.1 kg)

Type:

Sculpture

Date:

(1944, cast 1954)

Credit Line:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966

Accession Number:

66.1808

See more items in:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

School:

Surrealism (European)

Data Source:

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/py24d24b5b9-2ca8-42b9-bc16-c406587e3c68

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:hmsg_66.1808

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

Lectures

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2021-02-19T00:00:11.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_x1aOjtWJd6U

Medium:

Brass

Dimensions:

H x Diam: 9.7 x 11.4 cm (3 13/16 x 4 1/2 in)

Type:

Vessel

Origin:

Chhattisgarh state, India

Date:

20th century

Topic:

India  Search this

South Asian and Himalayan Art  Search this

rice  Search this

Credit Line:

Anonymous gift

Accession Number:

S1993.4

Restrictions & Rights:

Usage conditions apply

See more items in:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

GUID:

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ye32137c767-34ec-4544-a29f-c0ee99f6445e

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:fsg_S1993.4

Collection Creator:

Zabriskie Gallery  Search this

Container:

Box 88, Folder 80-81

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

1982-1999

Collection Restrictions:

This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.

Collection Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Collection Citation:

Zabriskie Gallery Records, 1905-2011. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.

See more items in:

Zabriskie Gallery records

Zabriskie Gallery records / Series 7: Institution Files

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90f1337de-4df6-4157-8a95-905a9082589d

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-zabrgall-ref3385

Creator:

Porter, Fairfield  Search this

Names:

Hirschl & Adler Galleries  Search this

Tibor de Nagy Gallery  Search this

Brainard, Joe, 1942-  Search this

Burkhardt, Rudy  Search this

Button, John, 1929-1982  Search this

Day, Lucien B., 1916-  Search this

Downes, Rackstraw  Search this

Elmslie, Kenward  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Frielicher, Jane  Search this

Giardelli, Arthur  Search this

Guest, Barbara  Search this

Hartl, Léon, 1889-  Search this

Hess, Thomas B.  Search this

Katz, Alex, 1927-  Search this

Koch, Kenneth, 1925-  Search this

Laning, Edward, 1906-1981  Search this

Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997  Search this

Morse, Carl  Search this

Myers, John Bernard  Search this

O'Hara, Frank, 1926-1966  Search this

Padgett, Ron  Search this

Porter, Ruth W., 1875-1942  Search this

Rivers, Larry, 1925-  Search this

Schloss, Edith, 1919-  Search this

Schuyler, James  Search this

Shapiro, David, 1947-  Search this

Stankiewicz, Richard, 1922-  Search this

Vasilieff, Nicholas  Search this

Extent:

9.3 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Travel diaries

Sketches

Sketchbooks

Photographs

Date:

1888-2001

bulk 1924-1975

Summary:

The papers of New York-based painter, lithographer, art critic, and poet Fairfield Porter measure 9.3 linear feet and date from 1888 to 2001, with the bulk of material dating from 1924 to 1975. Papers document Porter's life and career through correspondence, writings, business records, printed materials, photographs, and artwork.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers of New York-based painter, lithographer, art critic, and poet Fairfield Porter measure 9.3 linear feet and date from 1888 to 2001, with the bulk of material dating from 1924 to 1975. The collection includes a biographical chronology; certificates, awards, and diplomas; letters to Fairfield and Anne Porter; scattered outgoing correspondence; and reviews, essays, notes, poems, and translations written by Porter and others. Among the writings are poetry manuscripts written by several New York School Poets including Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch. Also found are gallery records, inventories and appraisals, financial records, exhibition catalogs, clippings, posters, and records of Anne Porter's efforts to place his collection and document and publish his work after his death. Photographs of Porter, his homes, and his family are also present, as well as sketchbooks, loose sketches, and drawings spanning his entire career.

Significant correspondence is present from the Porters' many poet friends, including Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler, Ron Padgett, Kenward Elmslie, Barbara Guest, Carl Morse, David Shapiro, and others. Among the letters are poetry manuscripts by Koch, Morse, Schuyler, Padgett, and Shapiro. Some letters are actually written in verse, especially those from Kenneth Koch.

Artists with letters in the collection include Joe Brainard, Rudy Burkhardt, John Button, Lucien Day, Rackstraw Downes, Philip Evergood, Jane Frielicher, Arthur Giardelli, Leon Hartl, Alex Katz, Edward Laning, Roy Lichtenstein, Larry Rivers, Richard Stankiewicz, Nicolas Vasilieff, among others. Other art world figures represented include John Bernard Myers, curator at the Tibor de Nagy gallery (New York), and Tom Hess, editor of ArtNews. Artwork found within the correspondence includes an illustrated letter from Ron Padgett and an original print on a holiday card by Edith Schloss.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into the following nine series. See the series descriptions below for more information about the content of each series.

Missing Title

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1916-1975 (Box 1 and 11; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1918-1996 (Boxes 1-2; 1.2 linear feet)

Series 3: Writings by Fairfield Porter, 1924-1975 (Box 2; 0.6)

Series 4: Writings by Others, 1888-1992 (Boxes 2-3; 0.7 linear feet)

Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1944-1996 (Boxes 3-4; 1 linear foot)

Series 6: Anne Porter's Posthumous Projects, 1980-1988 (Box 4; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 7: Printed Materials, 1934-2001 (Boxes 4-6 and 11; 1.5 linear feet)

Series 8: Photographs, circa 1880-1990 (Boxes 6 and 11; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 9: Artwork, 1918-1975 (Boxes 7-10 and 12-17; 2.2 linear feet)

Biographical Note:

Fairfield Porter was born near Chicago in 1907, the fourth of five children of James and Ruth Furness Porter. His father was an architect, his mother a poet from a literary family, and Porter grew up in an environment where art and literature were highly valued. His father designed the family homes in Winnetka, Illinois and on Great Spruce Head Island, an island in Maine that he purchased for the family in 1912. Fairfield Porter spent summers there from the age of six, and views of the island, its structures, and neighboring towns were the subjects of many paintings.

Porter attended Harvard from 1924 to 1928, studying fine art with Arthur Pope and philosophy with Alfred North Whitehead. After graduating from Harvard, Porter moved to New York City and took studio classes at the Art Students League from 1928 until 1930, studying with Boardman Robinson and Thomas Hart Benton, and immersing himself in the art and radical politics of Greenwich Village. In the 1940s, he studied at Parson's School of Design with art restorer Jacques Maroger, adopting the Maroger recipe for an oil medium in his own painting.

To further his education as an artist, Porter traveled to Europe in 1931, where he spent time with expatriate art theorist Bernard Berenson and his circle. When he returned to New York, he allied himself with progressive, socialist organizations, and like many of his contemporaries, worked at creating socially relevant art. He did artwork for the John Reed Club, a communist group; taught drawing classes for Rebel Arts, a socialist arts organization; wrote for their magazine, Arise!; and created a mural for the Queens branch of the Socialist Party. Living in the Chicago area for several years in the 1930s, he illustrated chapbooks for the socialist poet John Wheelwright's Poems for a Dime and Poems for Two Bits series. Porter's financial contributions to the radical Chicago publication Living Marxism kept it afloat for several years.

In 1932, Porter married Anne Channing, a poet from Boston, and they settled in New York. The Porters had five children, and their first son, born in 1934, suffered from a severe form of autism. In the next decade, they had two more sons, and spent three years in Porter's hometown of Winnetka, where he had his first solo exhibition of paintings. When they returned to New York in 1939, the Porters became friends with Edwin Denby, Rudy Burkhardt, and Elaine and Willem de Kooning. Porter became an earnest admirer of Willem de Kooning's artwork and was among the first to review and purchase it.

In 1949, the Porters moved to the small, seaside town of Southampton, New York. Their two daughters were born in 1950 and 1956. Like the family home on Great Spruce Head Island, Southampton became the setting of many of Porter's paintings. In fact, almost all of his mature paintings depict family homes, surrounding landscapes, family members, and friends. Porter was an individualistic painter who embraced figurative art in the late 1940s and 1950s, when abstract expressionism was the prevailing aesthetic trend. Porter once made a comment that his commitment to figurative painting was made just to spite art critic Clement Greenberg, a respected critic and ideologue who had championed abstract expressionism and denigrated realism as passé.

Porter established his reputation as a painter and as a writer in the 1950s. John Bernard Myers of the vanguard Tibor de Nagy gallery gave Porter his first New York exhibition in 1951 and represented him for the next twenty years. That same year Tom Hess, editor of ArtNews, hired Porter to write art features and reviews. Porter went on to contribute to ArtNews until 1967 and also became art editor for The Nation beginning in 1959, the same year his article on Willem de Kooning won the Longview Foundation Award in art criticism. As a critic, Porter visited countless galleries and studios, and he gained a reputation for writing about art with the understanding and vested interest of an artist, and with the same independence from fashionable ideas that he demonstrated in his artwork.

The 1950s and 1960s were prolific years for Porter's writing and art, and saw the development of his critical ideas and the maturation of his painting. Porter enjoyed an elder status among a circle of younger artists such as Jane Freilicher, Larry Rivers, and Alex Katz, and their many poet friends, now known as the New York School of Poetry: Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, Barbara Guest, and others. Porter himself wrote poetry and was published in the 1950s, sometimes alongside poems by his wife, who had been publishing poetry since the 1930s (twice in the vanguard Chicago journal, Poetry). The Porters' correspondence is laced with poems they and their friends sent back and forth, often about and dedicated to each other.

Besides his annual exhibitions at Tibor de Nagy and later Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Porter exhibited regularly at the Whitney, and had one-man exhibitions at many museums including the Rhode Island School of Design (1959), The University of Alabama (1963), Cleveland Museum of Art (his first retrospective, 1966), Trinity College (1967), the Parrish Art Museum (1971), the Maryland Institute of Art (1973), and the 1968 Venice Biennale. He also had residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1964) and Amherst College (1969). Porter died in 1975 at age 68. A full-scale retrospective of his artwork was held at the Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston in 1983, and a study center and permanent home for his artwork was established at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton through a donation made by Anne Porter. A posthumous collection of his poems was published by Tibor de Nagy Editions in 1985, and a catalogue raisonnée, edited by Joan Ludman, was published in 2001.

This biography relies heavily on information found in Justin Spring's biography of Porter, Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art (Yale University Press, 2000).

Related Material:

The Archives of American Art holds an oral history of Fairfield Porter conducted by Paul Cummings in 1968.

Provenance:

The papers of Fairfield Porter were given to the Archives of American Art by the artist's wife, Anne Porter, in five separate accessions between 1977 and 1997.

Restrictions:

The bulk of this collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website. Use of material not digitized 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 critics -- New York (State) -- Southampton  Search this

Topic:

Works of art  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- Southampton  Search this

Painting, Modern -- 20th century  Search this

Poets  Search this

Lithographers -- New York (State)  Search this

Genre/Form:

Travel diaries

Sketches

Sketchbooks

Photographs

Citation:

Fairfield Porter papers, 1888-2001 (bulk 1924-1975). Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Identifier:

AAA.portfair

See more items in:

Fairfield Porter papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9c9535998-330e-4c23-9f84-9c4dff3569e5

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-portfair

Creator:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery  Search this

Type:

Conversations and talks

YouTube Videos

Uploaded:

2021-11-03T16:54:54.000Z

YouTube Category:

Education  Search this

Topic:

Art, Asian  Search this

See more by:

FreerSackler

Data Source:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

YouTube Channel:

FreerSackler

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:yt_vqjP6zcVohs

Painter:

Marin, John 1870-1953  Search this

Medium:

Watercolor

Type:

Paintings

Owner/Location:

Cleveland Museum of Art 11150 East Boulevard Cleveland Ohio 44106

Date:

1914

Topic:

Landscape  Search this

Control number:

IAP 81070424

Data Source:

Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:siris_ari_188277

Creator:

Freer, Charles Lang, 1856-1919  Search this

Extent:

131 Linear feet (29 architectural drawings)

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Diaries

Financial records

Correspondence

Photographs

Place:

China

Syria

Egypt

India

London (England)

Japan

Boston (Mass.)

Detroit (Mich.)

Washington (D.C.)

Kandy (Sri Lanka)

Sri Lanka

Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka)

Date:

1876-1931

Summary:

The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, and photographs.

Scope Content:

The personal papers of Charles Lang Freer, the industrialist and art collector who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. The papers include correspondence, diaries, art inventories, scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeil Whistler and other press clippings, financial material, architectural drawings, and photographs.

Correspondence, circa 1860-1921, includes Freer's correspondence, 1876-1920, with artists, dealers, collectors, museums, and public figures; letterpress books contain copies of Freer's outgoing letters, 1892-1910; correspondence collected by Freer of James McNeill Whistler, and his wife Beatrix, 186?-1909, with Lady Colin Campbell, Thomas R. Way, Alexander Reid, Whistler's mother, Mrs. George W. Whistler, and others; correspondence of Whistler collector Richard A. Canfield, 1904-1913, regarding works in Canfield's collection; and correspondence of Freer's assistant, Katharine Nash Rhoades, 1920-1921, soliciting Freer's letters from his associates, and regarding the settlement of his estate.

Also included are twenty-nine pocket diaries, 1889-1890, 1892-1898, 1900-1919, recording daily activities, people and places visited, observations, and comments; a diary kept by Freer's caretaker, Joseph Stephens Warring, recording daily activities at Freer's Detroit home, 1907-1910. Inventories, n.d. and 1901-1921, of American, European, and Asian art in Freer's collection, often including provenance information; vouchers, 1884-1919, documenting his purchases; five volumes of scrapbooks of clippings on James McNeill Whistler, 1888-1931, labeled "Various," "Peacock Room," "Death, etc.," "Paris, etc.," and "Boston...London" ; three volumes of newsclippings, 1900-1930, concerning Freer and the opening of the Freer Gallery of Art.

Correspondence regarding Freer's gift and bequest to the Smithsonian Institution, 1902-1916; and photographs, ca. 1880-1930, of Freer, including portraits by Alvin Langdon Coburn and Edward Steichen, Freer with others, Freer in Cairo, China and Japan, Freer's death mask, and his memorial service, Kyoto, 1930; photographs of artists and others, including Thomas Dewing, Ernest Fenollosa, Katharine Rhoades taken by Alfred Stieglitz, Rosalind B. Philip, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Abbott H. Thayer, Dwight Tryon, and Whistler; and photographs relating to Whistler, including art works depicting him, grave and memorial monuments, works of art, the Peacock Room, and Whistler's memorial exhibition at the Copley Society.

Organization of the Papers:

This collection is organized into twelve series.

Series 1: Genealogical and Biographical Data

Series 2: Correspondence

Series 3: Diaries

Series 4: Freer Colleague Materials

Series 5: Art Inventories

Series 6: Financial Materials

Series 7: Exhibition Loan Files

Series 8: Biblical Manuscripts and Gold Treasure Files

Series 9: American School of Archaeology in China

Series 10: Printed Material

Series 11: Outsize Material

Series 12: Photographs

Biographical Note:

1854 February 25 -- Born in Kingston, New York

1873 -- Appointed accountant and paymaster of New York, Kingston and Syracuse Railroad by Frank J. Hecker (1846-1927)

1876 -- Moves to Indiana to work, with Hecker, for the Detroit and Eel River and Illinois Railroad

1880 -- Moves to Detroit, participates in organization of the Peninsular Car Works with Hecker

1883 -- Becomes vice president and secretary of Peninsular Car Company when it succeeds Peninsular Car Works

1883 -- Begins collecting European prints

1884 -- Peninsular Car Company constructs plant on Ferry Avenue

1887 -- Meets Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)

1887 -- Acquires proofs of 26 etchings, Venice, Second Series(1886), by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

1887 -- Purchases a small Japanese fan attributed to Ogata Korin(1658-1715)

1887 -- Buys land on Ferry Avenue

1889 -- Meets Frederick Stuart Church (1826-1900) and Dwight William Tryon (1849-1925) in New York

1890 -- Commissions Wilson Eyre (1858-1944) to design house on Ferry Avenue, Detroit, Michigan

1890 -- On first trip to London, meets James McNeill Whistler(1834-1903)

1892 -- Moves to Ferry Avenue house

1892 -- Tryon and Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938) undertake decoration of reception rooms

1893 -- Lends American paintings to World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

1893 -- Purchases first piece of Chinese art, a small painting of white herons by an anonymous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) artist

1894 -- Begins yearlong trip around the world, which includes visit to the Whistlers in Paris and first trip to Asia, stopping in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, China, and Japan

1896 -- Meets Matsuki Bunkyo (1867-1940) in Boston

1899 -- Takes part in consolidation of railroad-car building companies then retires from active business

1900 -- Attends Exposition International Universelle in Paris

1900 -- Buys villa in Capri with Thomas S. Jerome

1901 -- Meets Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) in Paris and Ernest Fenollosa(1853-1908), who visits Freer in Detroit

1902 -- Meets Dikran Kelekian (1868-1951)

1902 -- Spends summer in Britain building Whistler collection

1902 -- Views Whistler's, Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room

1904 -- Purchases Whistler's Peacock Room

1904 -- Offers his art collections and funds to build a museum in which to house them to the Smithsonian Institution

1905 -- Smithsonian committee visits Freer in Detroit

1906 -- United States government formally accepts Freer's gift on January 24

1906 -- Freer signs Deed of Gift to Smithsonian Institution on May 5

1907 -- On second tour of Asia, meets Hara Tomitaro 1868-1939) in Yokohama, Japan

1908 -- Takes third trip to Asia, specifically to West Asia to study Rakka ware

1909 -- Tours Europe to study art museums

1909 -- On fourth trip to Asia, attends memorial ceremony for Fenollosa (d.1908 September) at Miidera, Japan, and meets Duanfang (1861-1911) in China

1910 -- On last trip to Asia, visits Longmen Buddhist caves in China

1911 -- Suffers stroke

1912 -- Lends selection of objects for exhibition at Smithsonian Institution

1913 -- Meets Eugene (1875-1957) and Agnes E. (1887-1970) Meyer

1913 -- Commissions Charles Adams Platt (1861-1933) to design museum building in Washington

1914 -- Meets Katharine Nash Rhoades (1885-1965) in Detroit

1915 -- Settles in New York City

1915 -- Site of future Freer Gallery of Art is determined

1916 -- Platt's plans for Freer Gallery are approved by Smithsonian Regents and Commission of Fine Arts and ground is broken in September

1918 -- After falling ill in Detroit, Freer travels to New York for treatment

1918 -- Work on the museum building is delayed by the war

1919 -- Freer appends codicil to will permitting acquisitions of Asian, Egyptian, and Near Eastern (West Asian) art

1919 -- Dies in New York City on 25 September and is buried in Kingston, New York

1919 -- Construction of Freer Gallery completed

1920 -- John Ellerton Lodge (1876-1942) is appointed director of the Freer Gallery

1923 -- Freer Gallery opens to the public on May 9

1930 -- Memorial ceremony for Freer is held at Koetsuji, Kyoto

Charles Lang Freer was an American industrialist who founded the Freer Gallery of Art. He was a well-known collector of Asian art, and strongly supported the synthesis of Eastern art and Western art. One of his most famous acquisitions was James McNeill Whistler's Peacock Room.

Index:

Index to cross-referenced correspondents in the series Charles Lang Freer correspondence

Beal, Junius E. -- See: -- Warring, Joseph Stephens

Black, George M. -- See: -- Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Board of Education (Kingston, New York) See: Michael, M. J.

Bonner, Campbell See: University of Michigan

Boughton, George H. See: Yardley, F. C.

British Museum See: Binyon, Laurence; Hobson, R. L.

Brown, Harold H. See: Art Association of Indianapolis

Buchner, Evelyn B. See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Buckholder, C. H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Butler, S. B. See: Unidentified correspondents

Carnegie Institute See: Balken, Edward Duff; Harshe, Robert B.

Carpenter, Newton H. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Caulkins, Horace James See: Pewabic Pottery

Chao, Shih-chin See: Gunn, Chu Su

Chicago & North Western Railway Co. See: Hughett, Marvin

Clark, Charles Upson See: Clark, Arthur B.

Cleveland Museum of Art See: Whiting, Frederic Allen

Columbia University See: Braun, W. A.; Gottheil, Richard; Hirth, Friederich

Commission of Fine Arts See: Moore, Charles

Corcoran Gallery of Art See: Minnigerode, C. Powell

Crocker, Anna B. See: Portland Art Association

Dannenberg, D. E. See: Karlbeck, Orvar

De Menoncal, Beatrice See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

De Ricci, Seymour See: Ricci, Seymour de

Defnet, William A., Mrs., See: Franke, Ida M.

DeMotte See: Vigouroux, J.

Detroit Institute of Arts See: Detroit Museum of Art

Detroit Publishing Company See: Livingstone, W. A.

Detroit School of Design See: George Hamilton; Stevens, Henry

DeVinne Press See: Peters, Samuel T.; Witherspoon, A. S.

Dyrenforth, P. C. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eddy, Arthur J. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Eggers, George Williams See: Art Institute of Chicago

Farr, Daniel H. See: Robinson and Farr

Farrand School (Detroit) See: Yendall, Edith

Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) See: Laufer, Berthold

Flagg, Frederick J. See: Allen, Horace N.

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University See: Forbes, Edward; Pope, Arthur Upham; Sachs, Paul J.

French, M. R. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Fu, Lan-ya See: Pang, Lai-ch'en

Fujii, Yoshio See: Yoshio, Fujii

Gerrity, Thomas See: Knoedler, M., and Company

Goupil Gallery See: Marchant, William

Gray, William J. See: Barr, Eva

Great Lakes Engineering Works See: Hoyt, H. W.

Grolier Club See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Heinemann, W. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Holden, Edward S. See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

Hudson, J. L. See: Weber, William C.

Hutchins, Harry B. See: University of Michigan

Hutchins, Charles L. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Kelekian, H. G. See: Kelekian, Dikran G.

Kent, H. W. See: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lee, Kee Son See: Li, Chi-ch'un

Levy, John See: Schneider, A. K.

Library of Congress See: Rice, Richard A.; Wright, Helen

Louvre (Paris, France) See: Midgeon, Gaston

Matsuki, Z. See: Matsuki, Kihachiro

McKim, Mead and White See: White, Stanford

Mills, A. L., Colonel See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Miner, Luella See: Lien, Hui Ch'ing Collection

Minneapolis Institute of Arts See: Breck, Joseph; Van Derlip, John R.

Monif, R. Khan See: Rathbun, Richard

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston See: Lodge, John Ellerton

Naser, Katen & Nahass See: Katen, K.

Nordlinger, Marie, Miss See: Meyer-Riefstahl, Marie

Panama Pacific International Exposition See: Moore, Charles C.; Trask, John E. D.

Peabody Museum See: Morse, Edward Sylvester

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Trask, John E. D.

Perry, Mary Chase, Miss., See: Pewabic Pottery

Philip, Ronald M. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Pope, G. D. See: Barr, Eva

Reinhart, A. G. See: Gottschalk, E.

Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien Bosch See: Bosch-Reitz, Sigisbert Chrétien

Rutgers College See: Van Dyke, John C.

Saint-Gaudens, Augusta H. See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Saint-Gaudens, Homer See: Saint-Gaudens, Augustus

Samurai Shokai See: Nomura, Yozo

San Francisco Art Association See: Laurvik, J. Nilsen

Scribner's, Charles, Sons See: Van Dyke, John C.

Shaw, Wilfred B. See: University of Michigan

Shirae, S. Z. See: Yamanaka and Company

Smith College See: Clark, Arthur B.

Smithsonian Institution See: Holmes, William Henry; Rathbun, Richard; Ravenel, Walcott, Charles D.

Society of Arts and Crafts (Detroit) See: Plumb, Helen

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens, George W. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Stratton, Mary Chase Perry See: Pewabic Pottery

Tanaka, Kichijiro See: Yamanaka and Company

Tuttle, William F. See: Art Institute of Chicago

Union Trust Company (Detroit) See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

United States Military Academy See: West Point, U. S. Military Academy

University of Chicago See: Zug, George Breed

University of Pennsylvania, Univ. Mus. See: Gordon, George Bryon

Ushikubo, D. J. R. See: Yamanaka and Company

Wallis & Son See: Barr, Eva; Thompson, C. Croal Ward, Clarence See: Oberlin College

Warren, Edward K. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Warring, Stephen See: Warring, Joseph Stephens

Watkin, Williams R. T. See: Philip, Rosalind Birnie

Watson, Margaret, Miss See: Parker, Margaret Watson

Whistler, Anna See: Stanton, Anna Whistler

Whiting, Almon C. See: Toledo Museum of Art

Williams College See: Rice, Richard A

Wright, F. G. See: Orbach and Company

Yatsuhashi, H. See: Yamanaka and Company

Index to cross-referenced correspondence in the series Whistler correspondence

Bell, William See: Unidentified correspondents

Brown, Ernest See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Cowen, John T. See subseries: Charles Lang Freer Correspondence

Ford, Sheridan See: Reid, Alexander

Haden, Francis Seymour See: Painter Etchers' Society, Committee

Haden, Francis Seymour, Lady See: Haden, Deborah Whistler

Leighton, Frederick, Baron See: Campbell, Lady Colin

Moore, Albert See: Reid, Alexander

Morley, Charles See: Pall Mall Gazette

Morris, Harrison S. See: Reid, Alexander

Pennell, Joseph See: Miscellaneous typescripts

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Prange, F. G. See: Reid, Alexander

Societe des Beaux-Arts See: Reid, Alexander

Society of Portrait Painters See: Reid, Alexander

Stevens Fine Art See: Reid, Alexander

Studd, Arthur See: Miscellaneous typescripts

[Vanderbilt?], George, Mrs. See: George, Mrs.

Whistler, William McNeill, Mrs. See: Whistler, Nellie

Whistler Memorial Committee See: Miscellaneous typescripts

Related Material:

The Archives of American Art microfilmed portions of the Freer papers in 1992. The microfilm is available at the Archives of American Art's Washington D.C. office, the Freer Gallery of Art Library, and through interlibrary loan.

Provenance:

Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Rights:

Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository.

Topic:

Art, American -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art, Asian -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Art -- Collectors and collecting  Search this

Architecture -- Asia  Search this

Genre/Form:

Diaries

Financial records

Correspondence

Photographs

Citation:

Charles Lang Freer Papers. FSA.A.01. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Gift of the estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Identifier:

FSA.A.01

See more items in:

Charles Lang Freer Papers

Archival Repository:

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/dc3f1a0e3e0-630c-48d4-ba28-485946b1d615

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-fsa-a-01

Collection Creator:

Hills, Patricia  Search this

Container:

Box 38, Folder 51

Type:

Archival materials

Date:

circa 2014

Collection Restrictions:

This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing. Contact Reference Services for more information.

Collection Rights:

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Writings by Patricia Hills: The donor has retained all intellectual rights, including copyright, that she may own.

Collection Citation:

Patricia Hills Papers, circa 1900-2022, bulk 1968-2009. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

See more items in:

Patricia Hills papers

Patricia Hills papers / Series 8: Writings / 8.3: Talks, Not Published

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw90e8d0ee9-dfb9-410f-a726-c2a0110a3444

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-aaa-hillspat-ref1189

Creator:

Poor, Henry Varnum, 1887-1970  Search this

Names:

Montross Gallery  Search this

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture  Search this

Benton, William, 1900-1973  Search this

Biddle, George, 1885-1973  Search this

Billing, Jules  Search this

Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967  Search this

Caniff, Milton Arthur, 1907-1988  Search this

Ciardi, John, 1916-  Search this

Czebotar, Theodore  Search this

Deming, MacDonald  Search this

Dickson, Harold E., 1900-  Search this

Dorn, Marion, 1896-1964  Search this

Duchamp, Marcel, 1887-1968  Search this

Esherick, Wharton  Search this

Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973  Search this

Garrett, Alice Warder  Search this

Houseman, John, 1902-1988  Search this

Marston, Muktuk  Search this

Meredith, Burgess, 1907-1997  Search this

Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990  Search this

Padro, Isabel  Search this

Poor, Anne, 1918-  Search this

Poor, Bessie Breuer  Search this

Poor, Eva  Search this

Poor, Josephine Graham  Search this

Poor, Josephine Lydia  Search this

Poor, Peter  Search this

Sargent, Elizabeth S.  Search this

Smith, David, 1906-1965  Search this

Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968  Search this

Watson, Ernest William, 1884-1969  Search this

Extent:

12.9 Linear feet

Type:

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Motion pictures (visual works)

Diaries

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Date:

1873-2001

bulk 1904-1970

Summary:

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:

Missing Title

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.

Occupation:

War artists  Search this

Educators -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Ceramicists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Muralists -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Painters -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Designers -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Topic:

Architects -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

World War, 1914-1918  Search this

Pottery -- New York (State) -- New York  Search this

Genre/Form:

Motion pictures (visual works)

Diaries

Drawings

Sketchbooks

Citation:

Henry Varnum Poor papers, 1873-2001, bulk 1904-1970. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Sponsor:

Funding for the digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art

Identifier:

AAA.poorhenr

See more items in:

Henry Varnum Poor papers

Archival Repository:

Archives of American Art

GUID:

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw96265d653-098f-4ccc-abed-0bc649c50516

EDAN-URL:

ead_collection:sova-aaa-poorhenr

Container:

Box 92 of 117

Type:

Archival materials

Collection Citation:

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 313, National Collection of Fine Arts, Central Administrative File, Records

See more items in:

Central Administrative File, Records

Central Administrative File, Records / Series 11: STATE AND FOREIGN COUNTRY FILES / Box 92

Archival Repository:

Smithsonian Institution Archives

EDAN-URL:

ead_component:sova-sia-faru0313-refidd1e16989