Writings, photographs, letters, and printed material and address books relating to Irving Ramsey Wiles.
A majority of the collection consists of writings including thirty leatherbound journals containing daily appointments and notes regarding trips to London, Paris, and Italy.
Photographs are of Ramsey's studio at 106 West 55th St and 130 West 57th St., New York, his artwork, and photographs of Wiles and other attendees (including a large group photograph with identifications) at a dinner honoring painter Henry B. Snell at the Salmagundi Club, New York, March 16, 1919. Also included is a photograph of French portrait painter, Jean-Jacques Henner, in his Paris studio, 1872.
Two letters to Ramsey are from Michael L. McGarry inquiring about commissioning a portrait, and Mrs. A.M. Kemp regarding her availability as a model. Printed material includes newspaper clippings, and printed reproductions of commerical illustrations and the publications St. Nicholas, January 1887, M.A.P. in America, May 1906, and The Mentor, Dec. 1928, illustrated by Wiles.
Also included are two address books.
Biographical / Historical:
Irving Ramsey (1861- 1948) was a portrait painter, illustrator and teacher in Utica, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 2007 and in 2010 by art historian and scholar, D. Frederick Baker, Baker-Pisano Collection. Baker received the papers as a gift from Gladys Wiles, Irving Wiles' widow.
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.
47 photographs of 43 artists in their Paris studios. Artists include: Louise Abbema, Albert Aublet, Riene Bellcourt, Jean Beraud, Paul Albert Besnard, Maurice Bompard, Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, Gustave Rodolphe Clarence Boulanger, William Adolphe Bouguereau, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Georges Jules Victor Clairin, Louis Joseph Rapheal Collin, Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant, Fernand Cormon, Gustave Courtois, Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan, Jean Baptiste Edouard Detaille, Ernest Ange Duez, Carolus Duran, Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere, T. R. Fleury, J. Frappa, Walter Gay, Jean Leon Gerome, Henri Gervex, George Peter Alexander Healy, Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert, Jean Jacques Henner, Charles Jacques, Jean Paul Laurens, Jules Lefebvre, Albert Maignan, Luc Olivier Merson, Aime Nicolas Morot, Mihaly Munkacsy, Alphonse Wane de Neuville, Georges Rochegrosse, Alfred Philippe Roll, John Singer Sargent, Alfred Stevens, and George Adolphus Storey.
The studios show mainly a strong Moorish influence.
Provenance:
Donated by the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1971, which had received them from a Mrs. Kirkham?, a painter who probably purchased them while studying in Paris.
