New York N.Y. -- Buildings, structures, etc., Photographs
Date:
1840-1967
bulk 1900-1960
Summary:
The papers of New York City art critic, writer, and lecturer Forbes Watson date from 1840-1967 with the bulk of materials dating from 1900-1960 and measure 13.92 linear feet. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, business records relating to the Arts Publishing Corporation, records documenting Watson's work for the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, reference files, an exhibition file from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition, writings and notes, ten scrapbooks and loose pages, printed materials, and photographs.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York City art critic, writer, and lecturer Forbes Watson date from 1840-1967 with the bulk of materials dating from 1900-1960 and measure 13.92 linear feet. Found are biographical materials, correspondence, business records relating to the Arts Publishing Corporation, records documenting Watson's work for the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture, reference files, an exhibition file from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition, writings and notes, ten scrapbooks and loose pages, printed materials, and photographs.
Biographical material includes Watson's Harvard diploma, documents concerning his service with the Red Cross in World War II, biographical accounts, and obituaries.
Correspondence is primarily with colleagues and includes scattered letters from Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Ira Glackens, Allen Tucker, and Max Weber. Other letters are from artists, art historians, and museum curators. A notebook contains shorthand drafts of letters from Watson.
Business records include personal business records consisting of various tax and stock records. The Arts Publishing Corporation records concern Watson's tenure as editor of The Arts magazine and contains a contract, correspondence, financial records, stockholders reports, press releases, a scrapbook, and issues of The Arts. Also included are business records pertaining to the Art in Federal Buildings, Inc..
The U.S. Treasury Department file is the largest series and documents Watson's federal employment as technical director, chief advisor, and consultant for Treasury Department's public art programs - the Public Works of Art Project and the Section of Painting and Sculpture. The files contain correspondence, financial reports, prospectuses, exhibition files, typescripts, clippings, exhibition catalogs, miscellaneous printed material, and photographs, and a scrapbook. The files contain a record of Watson's and other federal administrators' interactions with many artists during the Depression Era. Correspondence is primarily between Watson and Edward Bruce, Olin Dows, Henry and Elinor Morgenthau, and Edward B. Rowan. Found are scattered letters from artists including Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Paul Manship, and William Zorach, among many others. There are exhibition files for "Art for Bonds," "Army at War," and "War Against Japan." There are also photographs of U. S. Treasury Department events including a radio broadcast by John Dewey, Robert La Follette, Jr., and Sumner Welles.
Documents from the Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition at the National Academy of Design contains a prospectus, an exhibition catalog and artists' statements.
Artist/Patron files contain reference material concerning painters, sculptors, photographers, dancers, composers, authors, art collectors, art dealers, and museum administrators. Files may include writings, notes, artworks, exhibition catalogs and other printed materials. Of particular note are photographs, which include portrait photographs of artists and of artists in their studios. Notable photographers include Ansel Adams, Arnold Genthe, Man Ray, photographs of New York City by Charles Sheeler and a photo of Henri Matisse by A. E. Gallatin. Files for Nan Watson, Symeon Shimin, and Glenn O. Coleman contain artworks. A file for Constantin Brancusi contains legal documents concerning U. S. Customs vs. Brancusi.
Art and Architecture files consist of reference material including photographs and notes concerning miscellaneous unattributed art works, American architecture, and furnishings.
Notes and writings consist of miscellaneous notes and typescripts of lectures and published articles, and notebooks.
Nine scrapbooks and loose scrapbook pages contain clippings of articles written by Watson, lists, and exhibition announcements and catalogs. Additional printed material includes clippings, copies of the Hue and Cry newspaper, exhibition announcements and catalogs, press releases, calendars of events, brochures for the Art Students League, book catalogs, published books, and miscellaneous printed material.
Photographs are of Forbes Watson; family members including his wife, painter Nan Watson; and members of the Art Students League including Peggy Bacon, Minna Citron, Stewart Klonis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Reginald Marsh. There are also photographs of juries for the Carnegie Institute International Exhibitions that include colleagues Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Gifford Beal, Guy Pene DuBois, Leon Kroll, Henri Matisse, Homer Saint-Gaudens, and Maurice Sterne.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 11 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1902-1960 (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1913-1960 (Box 1; 33 folders)
Series 3: Business Records, 1920-1944 (Box 1-3, 14, 22; 2.0 linear feet)
Series 4: U. S. Treasury Department File, 1926-1945 (Box 3-6, 14, 17, 22, OV 21; 3.4 linear feet)
Series 5: File for Pepsi-Cola Company's Third Annual Exhibition "Paintings of the Year," 1946 (Box 6; 5 folders)
Series 6: Artist/Patron Files, 1840-1967 (Box 6-9, 15, OV 21; 2.8 linear feet)
Series 7: Art and Architecture File, 1929-1930 (Box 9; 35 folders)
Series 8: Notes and Writings, 1875-1950 (Box 9-10, 22; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 9: Scrapbooks, 1904-1951 (Box 9, 11, 14, BV 18, BV 19, BV 20; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 10: Printed Material, 1900-1961 (Box 10, 12-13, 16-17, 22; 1.5 linear feet)
Series 11: Photographs, 1900-1950 (Box 13, 22; .4 linear feet)
All material is arranged chronologically, with the exception of the Artist/Patron Files which are arranged alphabetically.
Biographical Note:
Forbes Watson (1879-1960) worked primarily in New York City and Washington, D.C. as an art critic, writer, lecturer, and consultant to the U. S. Treasury Department's Public Works of Art Project and Section of Painting and Sculpture (Section of Fine Arts).
Forbes Watson was born on November 27, 1879 in Boston, the son of stockbroker John Watson and his wife Mary. Watson grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, attending the Phillips Academy in Andover, and graduating from Harvard University in 1902. After a brief period of freelance writing, he was hired by The New York Evening Post as an art critic in 1911 and worked there until 1917. In 1910, he married Agnes, professionally known as painter Nan Watson.
During World War I, Watson served with an American volunteer ambulance unit with the French army, later working with the American Red Cross in Paris. After the war, he moved back to New York City and worked as art critic for The World, from the early 1920s until 1931 and as editor of The Arts magazine from 1923-1933. Watson also lectured at the Art Students League, and at various universities and arts organizations.
In 1933, Watson moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as technical director of the U. S. Treasury Department's short-lived Public Works of Art Project. In October 1934, Watson was employed as Chief Adviser to the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture (later renamed the Section of Fine Arts) and later as Consultant to the Secretary's Office of the Treasury. During World War II, he organized various traveling exhibitions including "Art for Bonds" that promoted the sale of war bonds. Watson retired in 1946 and lived in Gaylordsville, Connecticut.
Watson was the author of numerous essays and reviews, and several books including American Painting Today and Winslow Homer, a biography of the noted American artist. With Edward Bruce, he produced a pictorial volume Art in Federal Buildings, Vol. I: Mural Designs. At his death he was working on his autobiography.
Forbes Watson died on May 31, 1960 in New Milford, Connecticut.
Provenance:
The Forbes Watson papers were donated by Watson's widow, Nan Watson, in 1961. An additional folder of material was donated in 2018 by the Museum of Modern Art via Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library and Research.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian E. P. Richardson measure 28.7 linear feet and date from 1814-1996, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1921-1996. Within the papers are scattered biographical materials; acquisition files for Richardson's personal art collection; professional and personal correspondence with colleagues, art historians and critics, artists, museums, galleries, and dealers; numerous writings, including manuscripts and research files for his published books, articles, and lectures; general research notebooks and files compiled by Richardson on a wide variety of art-related topics and artists; professional and committee files; as well as a smaller amount of Constance C. Richardson's papers.
Biographical materials include certificates, awards, and honorary degrees, membership information, personal and family photographs, a few sketches, and a transcript of an oral history Interview with E.P. Richardson conducted by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1982.
There are acquisitions files for the Richardsons' personal art collection that invoices, photographs, correspondence with galleries and collectors, appraisals, price lists, and artwork examination forms.
Correspondence is with colleagues, art dealers, collectors, museums and museum curators, foreign scholars, organizations, galleries, artists, art historians and critics, publishers, editors, librarians, friends, and family. Topics regard purchasing art for various collections, consultations about art and collecting including authentications and attributions, publishing, general art history, lectures, and personal matters, among other topics. There is correspondence with the Archives of American Art, Castano Galleries, Lawrence Fleischman, James Thomas Flexner, Alfred V. Frankenstein, George Croce, Walter Heil, Earl Krentzin, Wilmarth Lewis, Russel Lynes, John Francis McDermott, Philadelphia Museum of Art, J. Hall Pleasants, Anna Rutledge, Charles Sellers, Smithsonian Institution, Regina Soria, Victor Spark, William Stevens, Robert Vose, William Woolfenden, and many others. Scattered correspondence with artists is with Isabel Bishop, Louis Bouche, William Bostick, Eve Garrison, Edward Hopper, Irene Jungwirth, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Hughie Lee-Smith, Reginald Marsh, Gerald Mast, Georgia O'Keefe, Charles Sheeler, Walt Speck, and John Wedda, among many others. The greatest extent of correspondence is with Andrew Wyeth, Harold Cohn, and Frederick Simper. There is also personal correspondence with family and friends, and between E.P. and Constance Richardson.
E.P. Richardson's prominence as an art historian, writer, and expert on collecting is well documented through his prolific writings. Materials include drafts, notes, typescripts, and outlines for articles, exhibition catalog essays, and lectures. Also found are research files and publishing documentation for Richardson's books, including Washington Allston: A Study of the Romantic Artist in America (1948), Painting in America (1956), Charles Willson Peale and his World (1983), and American Romantic Painting (1944). There are also miscellaneous notes and four diaries. Two of the diaries comment on the social and cultural life of Detroit; the authenticity of paintings; Richardson's reflections on contemporary American painting, thoughts about museums, dealers, artists, and art historians (especially Wilhelm R. Valentiner); and travel.
Notebooks compiled by Richardson on a wide variety art-related topics cover nearly six decades. There are also numerous research files organized Richardson about individual artists and art history. And, the art collector files contain reference materials about art collectors and their collections including Lamont du Pont Copeland, Michael W. Freeman, Nelson Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Allen, and the Marquis de Somerlous. There are three index card file boxes containing bibliographic data on published books and articles.
Professional and committee files document Richardson's professional and consulting work for the Art Quarterly, Detroit Institute of Arts, National Collection of Fine Arts, the National Portrait Gallery, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the John D. Rockefeller III collection, Winterthur Museum, the White House, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Constance C. Richardson's papers include business and professional correspondence with various institutions, most extensively with the Macbeth Gallery. In addition, there is a smaller amount of personal correspondence, photographs and slides of her artworks, printed materials, two illustrated notebooks on her work, and miscellaneous notes. Also included is Constance's artist palette.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, museum director, and writer E. P. (Edgar Preston) Richardson (1902-1985) served as director of the Detroit Institute of Arts (1945-1962) and Winterthur Museum (1963-1966). He was also a board member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1966-1977 and, in 1954, co-founded the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
E. P. Richardson was born in 1902 in Glens Falls, New York and died in Philadelphia in 1985. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1925 and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for the three years following graduation. In 1930 he became educational secretary at the Detroit Institute of Arts, was quickly named assistant director in 1933, and served as director from 1945 to 1962. He left Detroit to take the position of director of the Winterthur Museum, where he remained until 1966.
Richardson married Constance Coleman in 1931. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1905, Constance Coleman Richardson was an award-winning and widely exhibited realist style painter of American landscapes. She gave up painting in the 1960s and died in 2002.
While at the Detroit Institute of Arts, E. P. Richardson co-founded the Archives of American Art with Lawrence Fleischman, and served as the Archives' first director. Richardson was also art advisor to John D. Rockefeller III for over ten years, editor of Art Quarterly from 1938 to 1967, and a member of various boards, including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Smithsonian Arts Commission, and the National Portrait Gallery. He authored numerous books including ones on artists Washington Allston and Charles Willson Peale, and The Way of Western Art: American Romantic Painting (1939), Painting in America: The Story of Four Hundred and Fifty Years (1956), A Short History of Painting in America (1963), and American Art, an Exhibition of the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, 3d (1976).
Related Materials:
Related collections among the holdings of the Archives of American Art include an interview with E.P. Richardson dated February 6, 1978 conducted by Linda Downs; and several miscellaneous manuscripts that include an E.P. Richardson Letter to Rockwell Kent, June 15 1959; E.P. Richardson letters to Lawrence Arthur Fleischman, May 13, 1962 and August 22 1954; and a Yasuo Kunioshi letter to E.P. Richardson, July 25 1948.
Additional E.P. Richardson papers are found at the Detroit Institute of Arts and in the archives of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum.
Separated Materials:
The Archives of American Art also holds material lent for microfilming (reel D46) including E.P. Richardson's research material on Jeremiah P. Hardy. These materials are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum Library and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Provenance:
Edith Wilkinson first donated a letter to E. P. Richardson from herself in 1957. E.P. Richardson donated papers to the Archives of American Art in 1958 and 1960 and lent materials for microfilming in 1961. Addition material was donated by Constance Richardson in 1985, and by Martha Fleischman in 2003.
Restrictions:
Use of original material requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Contact References Services for more information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers of New York artist, critic, historian, writer, art consultant and curator Walter Pach, measure 20.7 linear feet and date from 1857-1980. The collection documents Pach's promotion of modernism through his role in the landmark 1913 Armory Show, his relationships with artists and art-world figures and his extensive writings on art. Records include biographical material, correspondence with family, friends and colleagues including noted artists, handwritten and edited versions of manuscripts by Pach, diaries and journals, business records, printed material, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and artwork by Pach and others, and photographs of Pach and his family, friends, and colleagues. The collection also includes 12 linear feet of selections from Walter Pach's library.
Scope and Contents note:
The papers of New York artist, critic, historian, writer, art consultant and curator Walter Pach, measure 20.7 linear feet and date from 1857-1980. The collection documents Pach's promotion of modernism through his role in the landmark 1913 Armory Show, his relationships with artists and art-world figures and his extensive writings on art. Records include biographical material, correspondence with family, friends and colleagues including noted artists, handwritten and edited versions of manuscripts by Pach, diaries and journals, business records, printed material, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and artwork by Pach and others, and photographs of Pach and his family, friends, and colleagues. The collection also includes 12 linear feet of selections from Walter Pach's library.
Biographical material includes a copy of Pach's birth certificate and two passports for Walter and Magda Pach, in addition to address books, association membership cards and certificates.
Correspondence is both personal and professional. Family correspondence includes letters from Pach's son, Raymond, his first wife Magdalene (Magda), and his second wife Nikifora, whom he married in 1951 following the 1950 death of Magda. General correspondence includes letters from artists including Jean Charlot, Arthur B. Davies, Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Maurice Prendergast, Diego Rivera, Morton Livingston Schamberg, John Sloan, and Jacques Villon; and other art-world figures including writers Van Wyck Brooks and Elie Faure, and Bryson Burroughs, curator of painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Writings series represents an extensive collection of hand-written manuscripts, typescripts, annotated drafts and notes for published and unpublished writings by Pach, including lectures, monographs such as Queer Thing, Painting and Ananias, or The False Artist, and journal and newspaper articles such as "Pierre-Auguste Renoir" (1912).
Diaries and journals include one of particular note recording Pach's trip to Europe circa 1903-1904, with William Merritt Chase's class.
Business records include 2 notebooks recording sales at the Armory Show in New York, Boston and Chicago, a record book with handwritten lists of paintings owned and sold by Pach in the early 1930s, and two books, one maintained by Nikifora Pach, recording pictures sold, lectures and publications by Pach from the early 1900s to the early 1960s.
Printed material documents Pach's career through exhibition catalogs of Pach's solo and group exhibitions, news clippings about Pach, including reviews of his writings on art, and an almost comprehensive collection of copies of Pach's published journal and newspaper articles.
Scrapbooks include a book of reviews and original letters pertaining to Pach's book Ananias or the False Artist, and a scrapbook documenting Pach's activities during the 1920s which included his first one-man show at the Brummer Gallery in New York and the publication of his books Masters of Modern Art and Raymond Duchamp-Villon.
Artwork inlcudes a small group of drawings and three sketchbooks by Pach. Also of note are two print portfolios published in 1947 by the Laurel Gallery which include an essay and an etching by Pach, in addition to hand-pulled prints by artists such as Milton Avery, Reginald Marsh and Joan Miro.
Photographs are of Pach from childhood through to the 1950s, in addition to Magda and Raymond Pach and other family members, artists, colleagues and friends. Included are photographs of William Merritt Chase's class and Robert Henri's class at the New York School of Art, circa 1904, and photos of artists including Robert Henri, Moriye Ogihara, and Pablo Picasso. Photographs of artwork by Pach and other artists can also be found here including Mexican mural projects by José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera, and works by Antoine-Louise Barye and George Of.
Selections from Pach's library include works written by or translated by Pach, and items central to Pach's interests and work.
Arrangement note:
The Walter Pach papers are arranged as ten series.
Series 2: Correspondence, 1883-1980 (Box 1-3, FC 23; 2.1 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1899-circa 1950s (Box 3-5; 2.5 linear feet)
Series 4: Diaries and Journals, 1903-circa 1950s (Box 5; 5 folders)
Series 5: Business Records, circa 1913-circa 1960s (Box 5-6; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Printed Material, circa 1900-1977 (Box 6-7, 9; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Scrapbooks, circa 1890-circa 1940s (Box 7, 9; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 8: Artwork, circa 1860-circa 1950s (Box 7, 10; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 9: Photographs, 1857-1959 (Box 7-8, 10; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 10: Selections from Walter Pach's Library, 1880-1963 (Box 11-22; 12 linear feet)
Biographical/Historical note:
New York artist, critic, writer, art consultant, and curator, Walter Pach (1883-1958) was an influential promoter of modern art and was instrumental in organizing the landmark Armory Show in 1913.
Walter Pach was born in New York City, July 11, 1883. His father, Gotthelf Pach, was a prominent commercial photographer who, along with his family, ran the New York firm of Pach Brothers. The company did the bulk of the photographic work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the young Pach often accompanied his father on museum assignments. In 1903, Pach graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in art. He also studied with Robert Henri at the New York School of Art and went abroad to paint with William Merritt Chase in the summers of 1903 and 1904.
In 1906 Pach presented his first art history lecture at the Westfield State Normal School in Westfield, Massachusetts.
In 1907, Pach went to France and as an artist and critic moved among the Parisian avant-garde and became part of the Gertrude and Leo Stein circle. Gertrude Stein's "Portrait of Walter Pach was painted in 1908. Pach wrote extensively about modern art and through his numerous books, articles, and translations of European art texts, brought an emerging modernist viewpoint to the American public. In 1908 he wrote the first article published in America on Cézanne, and also wrote on such established artists as Claude Monet, whom he interviewed in 1908 for Scribner's Magazine..
Pach organized exhibitions of contemporary art for important New York City galleries of the period, as well as the landmark exhibition of 1913, "The International Exhibition of Modern Art," commonly known as the Armory Show. Along with painters Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn, he brought together leading contemporary European and American artists. Pach served with Kuhn as administrator, publicist and gallery lecturer for the Armory Show Chicago for the run of the exhibition.
Pach helped to form major collections for John Quinn and Walter Arensberg. He was also instrumental in securing individual works of art for museums, such as a portrait for the Louvre Museum by American master Thomas Eakins, and Jacques-Louis David's Death of Socrates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pach married artist Magdalene Frohberg in February 1914, and their son Raymond was born at the end of that year. The Pachs lived primarily in New York, but spent time abroad from 1928 to 1932. Intermittently, they lived on the West Coast, where Pach taught at the University of California at Berkeley. In the 1920s he taught at the University of Mexico on a Shilling Fund grant, lecturing and writing on Native American art and developing a strong interest in Pre-Columbian art. He took an active interest in organizing exhibitions and raising money for a museum to be dedicated to the indigenous art of the Americas. In addition, he was a friend of José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera and helped organize the Mexican chapter of the Society of Independent Artists, the New York-based organization he founded in 1917 with Walter Arensberg and Marcel Duchamp.
While not well known today as a painter, Walter Pach devoted much of his creative effort to painting. He considered himself both an artist and a writer, even though friends like art historian Bernard Berenson urged him to devote all his time to writing. Among his writings are monographs on a wide range of subjects, social commentary on the art world, and a book on museum structures. Among his first publications were a series of brochures produced for the 1913 Armory Show, including Odilon Redon and, in the same year, A Sculptor's Architecture, a book about the work of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, a close friend whom he admired greatly. In 1923, Pach wrote Georges Seurat, a book later cited by art historian John Rewald as an important early text on the artist. Masters of Modern Art and the monograph Raymond Duchamp-Villon were published the following year, and in 1928 Pach's well-known indictment of opportunistic artists and corruption in the art world, Ananias, or The False Artist, created a stir in art circles. Pach considered Vincent Van Gogh to be a seminal figure in the development of modern art and was the first historian to lecture on him in America. In 1936, he published his well-received monograph, Vincent Van Gogh. His recollections of a life spent in art, Queer Thing, Painting appeared in 1938. Ingres was published in 1939, as well as Masterpieces of Art, written for the 1939 New York World's Fair, for which Pach was exhibition director. His Art Museum in America, published in 1948, called into question the relevance, responsibility, and future direction of the American art museum. He long championed the artists of Mexico and published an essay on Diego Rivera in 1951 for the National Museum of Fine Arts, Mexico, for its 50-year retrospective exhibition on the artist. The Classical Tradition in Modern Art, Pach's last book, was published posthumously in 1959.
Pach's fluency in French, German, and Spanish allowed him to understand and interpret new avant-garde ideas developing in Europe and to translate them for an English-speaking audience. His language skills also allowed him to communicate personally with many noted artists in Europe and Mexico and to mediate between gallery dealers and museum curators on their behalf. His correspondence with major figures in 20th-century art are a fascinating and important source of information, not only about the artists themselves but about the art world in general during the first half of this century.
Chronology of Exhibitions and Writings
1908 -- "Cézanne," by Walter Pach, the first American article on the subject, published in December issue of Scribner's.
1911 -- "Albert P. Ryder," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Scribner's.
1912 -- Met with Arthur B. Davies and Walt Kuhn to begin preparations for the Armory Show. Was responsible for the exhibition's European operations. Completed Portrait of Gigi Cavigli (exhibited at the Armory Show the following year). "Pierre-Auguste Renoir," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Scribner's.
1913 -- Exhibited 5 paintings and 5 etchings in "The International Exhibition of Modern Art" (Armory Show), which opened in New York City on February 13. Served as administrator, publicist, and gallery lecturer for the Armory Show Chicago with Kuhn for the run of the exhibition. At the close of the show, Matisse, Brancusi, and Pach were hanged in effigy by the students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
1915 -- Publication of The John Quinn Collection, catalog of a collection Pach was instrumental in assembling.
1916 -- Founded Society of Independent Artists in collaboration with Marcel Duchamp, Walter Arensberg, and others. Adviser to collector Walter Arensberg.
1917 -- Designed sets for Wallace Stevens's play, Bowl, Cat and Broomstick, produced at the Neighborhood Playhouse, New York City. Arranged a Gino Severini exhibition at Stieglitz's 219 gallery, New York City.
1918 -- "Universality in Art," by Walter Pach, published in February issue of Modern School. "Jean Le Roy," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Modern School
1919 -- "The Schamberg Exhibition," by Walter Pach, published in May 17 issue of the Dial. Wrote introduction for Odilon Redon, the catalog for a graphics show at Albert Roulliers Gallery, Chicago.
1920 -- "The Art of the American Indian," by Walter Pach, published in January 20 issue of the Dial. His paintings abandoned the cubist-futurist mode and returned to a more naturalistic style.
1921 -- Publication of History of Art: Ancient Art, volume 1, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach.
1922 -- Lecturer, University of Mexico, where he developed a strong interest in Pre-Columbian art. Lectured at Société Anonyme. Publication of History of Art: Mediaeval Art, volume 2, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. Contributed a chapter, "Art," to Civilization in the United States: An Inquiry by Thirty Americans, edited by Harold E. Stearns.
1923 -- Publication of Georges Seurat by Walter Pach. Publication of The Art of Cineplastics and History of Art: Renaissance Art, volume 3, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "Georges Seurat," by Walter Pach, published in March issue of the Arts.
1924 -- Publication of Masters of Modern Art, by Walter Pach. Publication of Raymond Duchamp-Villon, by Walter Pach. Publication of History of Art: Modern Art, volume 4, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "The Greatest American Artist," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Harper's Magazine.
1926 -- "Graveur Américain," by Léon Rosenthal, an article about Pach's graphics (illustrated with an original etching, New York), published in September issue of Byblis, Miroir des Arts du Livre et de L'Estampe. "Brancusi," by Walter Pach, published in December 1 issue of the Nation. Instructor, New York University. First solo exhibition at Brummer Gallery, New York, New York.
1927 -- "What Passes for Art," by Walter Pach, published in June issue of Harper's Magazine
1928 -- Publication of Ananias, or The False Artist, by Walter Pach. Pach family relocated to Europe.
1929 -- "The Evolution of Diego Rivera," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Creative Art. "John Ruskin and Walter Pach: Defenders of the Faith," by W.H. Downes, published in August issue of American Museum Art.
1930 -- Publication of An Hour of Art, by Walter Pach. Publication of History of Art: The Spirit of the Forms, volume 5, by Elie Faure, translated by Walter Pach. "Notes sur le classicisme de Delacroix," by Walter Pach, published in June issue of L'Amour de L'Art.
1931 -- Solo exhibition at Kraushaar Gallery, New York City, with review published in March 21 issue of Art News. "Raymond Duchamp-Villon," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Formes XV.
1932 -- "Le Classicisme de Barye," by Walter Pach, published in November issue of L'Amour de L'Art . Returned to the United States.
1933 -- "Address at the Worcester Opening of International, 1933," by Walter Pach, and "Georges Rouault," by Walter Pach, both published in January issue of Parnassus. "American Art in the Louvre," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Fine Arts 20. "On Owning Pictures," by Walter Pach, published in August issue of Fine Arts 20. "Rockefeller, Rivera and Art," by Walter Pach, published in September issue of Harper's Magazine.
1934 -- Organized Maurice Prendergast retrospective for Whitney Museum of American Art.
1935 -- Exhibition at Knoedler Gallery, New York City included Walter Pach's Respice, Adspice, and Prospice, a fresco commissioned for the City College of New York by the Class of 1903.
1936 -- Exhibition of watercolors at Kleemann Galleries, New York City. Publication of Vincent Van Gogh, by Walter Pach." The Raphael from Russia," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Virginia Quarterly Review. "First Portfolio of American Art," by Walter Pach, published in October 3 issue of Art News. Wrote foreword to First Exhibition in America of Géricault, catalog of exhibition at Marie Sterner Gallery, New York City. "The Outlook for Modern Art," by Walter Pach, published in April issue of Parnassus. Article about Pach's City College mural published in February issue of City College Alumnus Magazine.
1937 -- Publication of The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, translated by Walter Pach. Publication of Thomas Eakins, by Walter Pach, catalog of exhibition at Kleemann Gallery, New York City.
1938 -- Publication of Queer Thing, Painting: Forty Years in the World of Art, by Walter Pach. "Delacroix Today," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Magazine of Art.
1939 -- Publication of Ingres, by Walter Pach. Appointed general director, "Masterpieces of Art" exhibition, New York World's Fair.
1940 -- Publication of Masterpieces of Art, New York World's Fair, 1940, Official Illustrated Catalogue, by Walter Pach.
1941 -- Solo exhibition at Schneider-Gabriel Gallery, New York City.
1942 -- "Newly Discovered Ingres: The Lovers," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Art in America Exhibition at Whitney Museum of American Art, "Between the Wars: Prints by American Artists, 1914-1941," included Walter Pach's etching Saint-Germain-des-Pres (1911). Lecturer, University of Mexico, Shilling Fund grant.
1943 -- "A Newly Found American Painter: Hermenegildo Bustos," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Art in America. "Unknown Aspects of Mexican Painting," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Marriage of son, Raymond.
1944 -- "The Eight, Then and Now," by Walter Pach, published in January issue of Art News. "Problemas del arte americano," by Walter Pach, published in December issue of Origenes.
1946 -- "La Barricade in America," by Walter Pach, published in July issue of Art News. "On Art Criticism," by Eugène Delacroix (first published in Revue de Paris, May 1829), translated by Walter Pach for catalog of exhibition at Curt Valentin, New York City.
1947 -- Publication of Picasso, by Juan Larrea, edited by Walter Pach. Publication of "Museums Can Be Living Things," by Walter Pach, in Laurels Number One, Laurel Gallery. Etching, Scopasian Head, by Walter Pach, included in Laurels Number Two, Laurel Gallery.
1948 -- Publication of The Art Museum in America, by Walter Pach. "The Past Lives On," by Walter Pach, parts 1 and 2, published in October and November issues of American Artist.
1949 -- "Thus Is Cubism Cultivated," by Walter Pach, published in May issue of Art News.
1950 -- Contributed a chapter, "The State of the Arts in the Democratic Way of Life: A Postscript," to Perspectives on a Troubled Decade: Science, Philosophy and Religion, 1939-1949, edited by Lyman Bryson, Louis Finkelstein, and R. M. MacIver. Death of wife, Magdalene.
1951 -- "Reaciones entre la cultura nordeamericana y la ombre de Diego Rivera," a major essay by Walter Pach published in Diego Rivera, 50 años de su labor artistica, exposition de normenaje nacional, Museo nacional de artes plasticas, Mexico City. Married Nikifora.
1953 -- "A Modernist Visits Greece," by Walter Pach, reprinted in autumn issue of Archaeology.
1954 -- "John Sloan," by Walter Pach, published in August issue of Atlantic Monthly.
1956 -- "Introducing the Paintings of George Of (1876-1954)," by Walter Pach, published in October issue of Art News.
1958 -- Professor, City College of New York. Died, New York City, following an operation for stomach ulcers.
1959 -- Publication of The Classical Tradition in Modern Art, by Walter Pach.
1986 -- Exhibition, "Walter Pach, A Retrospective," at Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina.
1988 -- Exhibition, "The Art of Walter and Magda Pach," at Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio.
1990 -- Exhibition, "Discovering Modernism: Selections from the Walter Pach Papers," at the Archives of American Art, New York City.
1991 -- Exhibition, "The Paintings of Walter Pach," at Forum Gallery, New York City.
Related Materials:
Papers of Walter Pach, 1885-1956, are also located at the Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives.
Separated Materials note:
When the Archives of American Art acquired the Walter Pach Papers, some portion of his library was also received. The bulk of the library was transferred to the Smithsonian's American Art/Portrait Gallery Library where the items could be properly cataloged, cared for, and used.
Provenance:
The Walter Pach papers were acquired in several installments. After Pach's death his widow, Nikifora Pach, sold Pach's papers to Salander-O'Reilly Galleries. They were purchased by the Archives of American Art in 1988 with a grant from the Brown Foundation, Inc.
Eight family photographs, donated by Raymond Pach, son of Walter Pach, were received in 1990.
In 2012 Francis M. Naumann donated an additional 5.7 linear feet of material to the Archives of American Art.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Walter Pach papers, 1857-1980. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the initial digitization of the microfilm of this collection was provided by the Gladys K. Delmas Foundation. Funding for the processing of the addition to the Walter Pach papers and digitization of the fully re-processed collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers measure 5.4 linear feet and date from 1833 to 1904, with the bulk of the material dating from 1870 to 1890. The collection consists primarily of Koehler's extensive correspondence to and from many notable artists and printmakers such as Jean F. Harfin, John M. Falconer, Frederick Juengling, and James D. Smillie, as well as friends, and family members and professional correspondence concerning Koehler's activities as a writer, curator, and editor of the American Art Review. The collection also contains financial records and other miscellaneous items.
Scope and Content Note:
The Sylvester Rosa Koehler papers measure 5.4 linear feet and date from 1833 to 1904, with the bulk of the material dating from 1870 to 1890. The collection consists primarily of Koehler's extensive correspondence to and from many notable artists and printmakers such as Jean F. Harfin, John M. Falconer, Frederick Juengling, and James D. Smillie, as well as friends, and family members and professional correspondence concerning Koehler's activities as a writer, curator, and editor of the American Art Review. The collection also contains financial records and other miscellaneous items.
Correspondence includes hundreds of letters to and from Koehler. Correspondents include many prominent artists, engravers, architects, art critics, curators, historians, journalists, authors, educators, publishers, and others during the late 1800s. Also found is correspondence with family, most of which is in German. Much of the correspondence concerns Koehler's role as editor of the publication American Art Review, and his work promoting American graphic arts.
Financial Records include Koehler's receipts, primarily from 1885, and a handwritten estimate of costs for publishing the American Art Review.
Miscellany includes biographical information on the wood engraver, Alexander Anderson, various notes by unidentified authors, news clippings, programs and handwritten song texts for music performances.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Series 1: Correspondence, circa 1833- circa 1904 (Box 1-6; 5.1 linear feet)
Series 2: Financial Records, circa 1870-circa 1890 (Box 6; 14 folders)
Series 3: Miscellany, circa 1859-circa 1896 (Box 6; 11 folders)
Biographical Note:
Art historian and curator Sylvester Rosa Koehler was born in Leipsic, Germany in 1837. He came to the United States with his family in 1849 and settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1868 he became the Technical Manager of Louis Prang and Company, a lithograph publisher. Koehler was the founding editor of the American Art Review, which commissioned artists for original etchings, and ran from 1879-1881. Through this publication, as well as his work as writer and exhibition curator, Koehler encouraged an American etching revival in the 1880s. Koehler also published many books on American art and was the first Curator of Prints at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. From 1886 to 1900 he served as the first Curator of Graphic Arts at the United States National Museum, part of the Smithsonian Institution. While there, he created a permanent and traveling exhibition of graphic arts. His knowlege of the art world and his extensive personal contacts brought many important collections to the museum. Koehler died in Littleton, New Hampshire in 1900.
Related Material:
Additional correspondence can be found at the Library of Congress, which houses the Papers of S. R. Koehler, 1868-1904, and includes approximately 3,500 letters. Syracuse University Library houses S. R. Koehler Correspondence, 1879-1896, and includes 107 items.
Provenance:
The collection was purchased from Argosy Book Stores, Inc, in 1959. A letter from John Sartain and eleven letters from William Merritt Chase were donated by Charles E. Feinberg, 1955-1962. Two postcards were donated in 2009 by William A. Turnbaugh, an autograph collector. In 2017, John F. McGuigan Jr. and Mary K. McGuigan donated
sixty-nine letters from A. Barry, Truman Howe Bartlett, William Merritt Chase, Timothy Cole, Edward Henry Clement, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, Robert Swain Gifford, George Inness, Anna Lea Merritt, Stephen Parrish, John Sartain, Francis Hopkinson Smith, and Frederic Porter Vinton.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Occupation:
Art historians -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955)
Date:
1905-1983
bulk 1920-1976
Summary:
The papers of art historian and museum curator W.G. (William George) Constable measure 25.7 linear feet and date from 1905 to 1981, with the bulk of the material from 1920 to 1976. The papers include biographical material; professional and personal correspondence; extensive lectures, writings, and notes; exhibition and book research files; printed materials; and photographs, glass plate negatives, and slides. There is substantive correspondence related to Constable's participation in the American Defense Harvard Group and about the formation of the Roberts Commission, including correspondence with Ralph Perry, Hugh Hencken, Paul Sachs and George L. Stout. There are numerous official reports prepared by Constable after World War II for the U. S. Office of Military Government for Germany.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of art historian and museum curator W.G. (William George) Constable measure 25.7 linear feet and date from 1905 to 1981, with the bulk of the material from 1920 to 1976. The papers include biographical material; professional and personal correspondence; extensive lectures, writings, and notes; exhibition and book research files; printed materials; and photographs, glass plate negatives, and slides. There is substantive correspondence related to Constable's participation in the American Defense Harvard Group and about the formation of the Roberts Commission, including correspondence with Ralph Perry, Hugh Hencken, Paul Sachs and George L. Stout. There are numerous official reports prepared by Constable after World War II for the U. S. Office of Military Government for Germany.
Biographical material includes W.G. Constable's curriculum vitae; club memberships; personal, educational, and military records; three memorial essays and obituaries; five address books; appointment books dating from 1930-1968; and financial records related to personal business travels.
Correspondence is mostly professional and arranged into General, Committee, Condolences, and J.G. Links. General correspondence is with friends, business associates, auction houses, galleries, and museums. The letters cover a wide variety of professional work, such as research projects, letters of inquiry and recommendation, and work done for Christie's and the Internal Revenue Service. Correspondents include Mortimer Brandt, Helen Frick, Helen Gluck, William Ivins, Duncan Phillips, Paul Sachs, and Rudolph Vasalle, among many others.
Committee related correspondence includes letters, memoranda, and reports related to ongoing committee objectives, projects, and routine activities. There is correspondence related to Constable's advisory work with the Art Gallery of Toronto, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Watts Gallery, among other projects. Condolences consists of letters and cards received by Constable's wife, Olivia, after Constable's death. Correspondence with J.G. Links is primarily about the second edition revision of Constable's book Canaletto.
There are over 170 drafts of Constable's notes and outlines for lectures. Topics range from 13th-20th century European and American art to museum conservation, ethics, art education, and art collecting. The series also includes lecture notes from organized touring trips to Canada, Northern Europe, Scandanavia, and Poland.
Writings consist of Constable's published and unpublished articles, articles submitted for the Encyclopedia of World Art, essays, notes, exhibition catalogs, translations, and drafts and research material related to Art Collecting in the United States, Art History and Connoisseurship, and The Painter's Workshop.
Files specifically documenting Constable's advisory role in the World War II American Defense Harvard Group drafting and organizing lists of men with curatorial, museum conservation, or library/archives backgrounds to aid in the protection European most valued cultural artifacts, artwork, and architecture. There are letters documenting the formation of the Harvard Group and its goals and objections. The files also include many of the original lists that were forwarded to the Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe, also known as the Roberts Commission, eventually leading to the formation of the U.S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives division. The series also includes the Harvard Group's manual Safeguarding and Conserving Cultural Materials in the Field, committee minutes, and clippings related to their work. Correspondents include Ralph Perry, Paul Sachs, George L. Stout, and Hugh Hencken.
Constable's work after the war for the U.S. Office of Military Government for Germany is documented through numerous reports, memoranda, letters, and other official documents from the U. S. Army to Constable about surveying the state of German and Italian art institutions after World War II. The series also includes Constable's notebook "Visits in Germany" (1949), and a copy of his report Art and Reorientation: Status and Future of Museums and the Teaching of Art in Western Germany.
Exhibition files contain correspondence, notes, lists, research material, and reports related to exhibitions that Constable organized prior to his employment by and after his retirement from the Boston Museum of Art.
Research files contain materials relevant to Constable's interests and include notes, lists, correspondence, and printed and photographic reference material. These subject areas cover artists, including extensive files on Canaletto and other vedute painters, museum conservation, museums and galleries, private and public art collections, and schools of art.
Printed materials include clippings, programs, book excerpts and other miscellaneous printed materials.
Photographic materials include prints of Constable with friends and family, as well as prints, glass negatives and slides of artwork. There are also prints of the Fogg Art Museum's interiors and exterior and interior shots of Tennessee Valley Authority dam projects.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 10 series.
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1905-1983 (1.2 linear feet; Box 1-2, OV 28)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1906-1981 (6.2 linear feet; Box 2-8, OV 28-29)
Series 3: Lectures, 1909-1963 (4.6 linear feet; Box 8-12)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, 1910-1974 (2 linear feet; Box 13-14)
Series 5: American Defense Harvard Group, 1942-1946 (0.6 linear feet; Box 15)
Series 6: Office of Military Government for Germany, 1947-1952 (0.3 linear feet; Box 15)
Series 7: Exhibition Files, 1930-1969 (1 linear foot; Box 15-16, OV 29)
Series 8: Research Files, 1922-1976 (7.5 linear feet; Box 16-24, OV 28-29)
Series 9: Printed Material, 1921-1977 (0.5 linear feet; Box 24)
Series 10: Photographic Materials, circa 1940-1960 (1.4 linear feet; Box 24-27, OV 28-29)
Biographical / Historical:
W. G. (William George) Constable (1887-1976) was a museum curator and art historian who worked in England and Boston.
Born in Derby, England, Constable studied for the bar at Cambridge University, but was encouraged to pursue art over law by the Lord Chancellor who told him that law would be too strenuous after a two year convalescence from gassing during World War I. For three years, he studied at the Slade School and the Bartlett School of Architecture. In 1923, he joined the National Gallery of London where he became the Assistant Director in 1929. In 1930, he accepted the first Director's position at the newly formed Courtauld Institute, where he worked to develop one of the first programs on art history. In 1938, Constable became Curator of Paintings at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and worked there until his retirement in 1957.
Throughout his career as an arts administrator, Constable remained an accomplished lecturer and held appointments as the Slade Professor of Art at Cambridge (1933-1936), Ryerson Lecturer at Yale University (1940), and the Lowell Lecturer at the Lowell Insitute (1958). As a researcher and art historian, he published a steady stream of essays on European and American art connoisseurship, and authored over ten scholarly books, including The Painter's Workshop (1953), Richard Wilson (1953), and Canaletto (1962), the definitive work on the Venetian master.
Constable was a trusted arts advisor and, in this capacity, worked for the Wadsworth Atheneum from 1943-1945.
He also worked closely with Lord Beaverbrook to establish the National Gallery of Canada and later consulted for Sotheby's and the U. S. Internal Revenue Service.
In the years leading to World War II, Constable served as an advisor to the American Defense Harvard Group and was later appointed to the Commission for the Protection of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe (the Roberts Commission) by President Roosevelt. The Roberts Commission was responsible for the establishment of the U. S. Army's Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. After the war, Constable served the U.S. government as a member of a commission responsible for the recovery of looted art work and the evaluation of the state of the arts in Germany and Italy.
After his retirement from the Boston Museum, Constable continued to research and write, and also served as president of the International Institute of Conservation (1958-1960) and the Renaissance Society of America (1959-1961). From 1957 to 1966, he worked on behalf of Christie's auction house, where he met with prospective clients and provided preliminary valuations of private art works and collections.
On February 4, 1976, Constable died in Cambridge, Massachusetts from natural causes.
Related Materials:
The Archives also holds additional materials related to W.G. Constable, including an oral history interview with Constable conducted by Robert Brown in 1972-1973, and a photograph and clipping of Constable donated by Eleanor Barton in 1982.
Additional W.G. Constable papers are located at archival materials are also located at St. Johns College in Cambridge,England; the Warburg Institute in London, England; the National Gallery in London, England; and the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning in London, England. Photographs of works art collected by Constable are found at the British Studies Center at Yale University. Records relating to his tenure at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are housed there.
Provenance:
The papers of W.G. Constable were donated in multiple gifts from 1978 to 1979 and in 1987 to 1988 by his son Giles Constable. Additional material regarding Constable's research on Canaletto was donated by researcher J.G. Links in 1985.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and closed to researchers.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Citation:
W.G. Constable papers, 1905-1983, bulk 1920-1976. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art. Digitization of this collection was funded by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
An interview of Eleanor M. Garvey conducted 1997 February 28-June 13, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art in Garvey's office, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Garvey discusses her childhood in Worcester, Massachusetts; majoring in art history at Wellesley College under Serape der Nersessian, Alexander Campbell, Agnes Abbott, and Kenneth Conant; study of education at Clark University, with drawing classes at the art school of the Worcester Art Museum; and the extremely useful experience working at the Museum under Charles Sawyer and Louisa Dresser.
Working as an art librarian and museum curator at Wellesley College (1947-1952), and art history professors John McAndrew, Sidney Freedberg, James O'Gorman; moving on to the Newark Museum (1952-1953) and its collections and administration under Katherine Coffey.
Joining the Dept. of Printing and Graphic Arts of the Houghton Library in 1953 beginning as secretary to curator Philip Hofer; Hofer's work on illustrated books; the development of the Houghton Library from the so-called "Treasure Room" of the main Harvard Library under the direction of George Parker Winship; Garvey's close relationship with William Bentinck-Smith, a Houghton patron and an authority on type design; the status of women professionals at Harvard.
Continued discussion of Houghton patron William Bentinck-Smith; publications and exhibitions while at Houghton, including: "The Artist and the Book, 1860-1960" (1961), "The Turn of a Century, 1885-1970" (1970), "Henry Hobson Richardson and His Office: Selected Drawings" (1974), and "Artists of the Book in Boston, 1890-1910" (1988), as well as her current project producing a catalog of 18th century Venetian illustrated books and her involvement in seminars on artists' books.
Biographical / Historical:
Eleanor M. Garvey (1918- ) is a curator and writer from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 sound cassettes as X digital wav files. Duration is 3 hrs., 30 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.
An oral history interview with Peter and Paula Lunder conducted 2017 October 19-20, by James McElhinney, for the Archives of American Art and the Center for the History of Collecting in America at the Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.
Mr. and Ms. Lunder discuss their time living in Waterville and Dexter, Maine and Mr. Lunder's work as a partner at the Dexter Shoe Company; their exposures to art and culture while growing up in Boston and Chicago; their initial interests in art collecting and the shift of their focus from European art to American art; their associations with Hugh Gourley and other directors and curators at the Colby College Museum of Art; the relationships they made with fellow art collectors, museum curators, art dealers and gallery owners while growing their collection and when working on finding a home for their collection; their relationship with the former director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum Betsy Broun; Mr. Lunder's initial interest in Southwestern art and the development of their collection to include a wide range of American art; and Mr. Lunder's partial ownership of the Boston Red Sox beginning in 1977. Mr. and Ms. Lunder also describe living part-time in Florida and their patronage of the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach; their desire to endow their collection to a Northeast regional museum in Maine; their belief in the importance of art conservation and their focus on having the collection be used for teaching; Ms. Lunder's work as a volunteer docent at the Colby Art Museum; and their work with the Clark Art Institute to support a place for art conservation in the region. Mr. and Ms. Lunder also recall Max Stern; Jere Abbott; Bro Adams; Thomas Colville; Margaret MacDonald; Sharon Corwin; Ann and Gil Maurer; Alice Walton as well as Jay Cantor; Seelye Bixler; Michael Greenbaum; George Gurney; Cy Twombly; Stephen Hannock; Doug Baxter; Christa Gaehde; and Michael Conforti, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Peter Lunder (1933-) and Paula Lunder (1934- ) are art collectors and philanthropists in Boston, Massachusetts. James McElhinney (1952- ) is a painter and educator of New York, New York.
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:
This transcript is open for research. Access to the entire recording is restricted. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Philanthropists -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Interviews Search this
Genre/Form:
Interviews
Sound recordings
Sponsor:
Funding for this interview was provided by Barbara Fleischman.
A black and white photograph of Constable with an unidentified woman, and an undated clipping describing Constable's recollections of Nikolai Lenin.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian, curator; Boston, Massachusetts.
Provenance:
Donated 1982 by Eleanor Barton, for research on Constable.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
The bulk of the papers consist of Nagel's files on his various positions and projects (ca. 3.3 ft), containing a variety of materials, including correspondence, writings, notes, art works, clippings, photographs and printed material. Also included are files pertaining to Nagel's father, lawyer and statesman Charles Nagel, and to his mother, Anne; and papers of and relating to Nagel's friend and associate, architect Victor Proetz (0.6 ft).
Nagel's files on positions and projects are arranged chronologically, and relate to: design projects while a student at Yale University, ca. 1926-1928; his struggle with career choices (mostly typescripts of letters to his father), ca. 1927-1931; his appointment to the Yale University Gallery of Fine Arts; commissions during his partnership in Nagel & Dunn (includes photographs of Fred Dunn, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and other designs); organizing the exhibit "Italy at Work: Her Renaissance in Design Today, 1950-1951," his publication American Furniture, 1650-1850, and other activities while director of the Brooklyn Museum, 1946-1955; his position as juror and secretary for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Competition and working with other jurors Fiske Kimball and William Wurster, and design winner, Eero Saarinen; the Independence National Historical Park Project, Philadelphia, Pa.; positions at the City Art Museum, St. Louis, Mo.; establishment of the National Portrait Gallery (includes photographs of staff, the building, exhibitions, and opening celebrations, 1964-1969, notably Chief Justice Earl Warren, Smithsonian Secretary S. Dillon Ripley, and artist Peter Hurd); his emigration to Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mex.; and alterations and additions to St. Michael and All Angels Church in Cuernavaca, 1983. Included in several files are photographs of Nagel, his residences, and colleagues, and architectural drawings.
Files on his father contain honorary degrees and awards, photographs and printed material relating to the naming of a post office in his honor, St. Louis, Mo., and other events honoring him.
The papers of Victor Proetz, ca. 1928-1966 (ca. 0.6 ft), include obituaries; correspondence; a Last Will and Testament; a list of Proetz's commissions, 1934-1943; writings by Proetz and others; Proetz's "The Astonishment of Words," 1971, posthumously published; a scrapbook; exhibition announcements and catalogs; printed material; and photographs of Proetz and his designs for interiors and furniture.
Biographical / Historical:
Museum director; architect. Nagel was born in St. Louis, Mo. He attended Yale University, earning a B.A. in 1923, a B.A. in architecture in 1926 and M.F.A. in architecture in 1928. Upon graduation, he was employed at the firms of Jamieson & Spearl, and Hall & Proetz, St. Louis, and with Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch, Abbott in Boston.
He taught art history at Yale, and served as curator of Decorative Arts at Yale's Gallery of Fine Arts, 1930-1936, returning to architecture with the firm Nagel & Dunn, St. Louis, from 1936-1942. His positions as museum director include the City Art Museum in St. Louis, 1942-1946 (acting) and 1955-1964; the Brooklyn Museum, 1946-1955; and the National Portrait Gallery, 1964-1969.
Provenance:
Donated 1992 and 1994 by Lucie O. Nagel, widow of Charles Nagel. According to Mrs. Nagel, the material relating to Victor Proetz was given to Nagel by Proetz, who was a close friend and associate, and by the Proetz estate following his death in 1966.
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.
Occupation:
Museum directors -- Missouri -- St. Louis Search this
Museum directors -- New York (State) -- Brooklyn Search this
Interview of Jeanne L. Wasserman, conducted by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Cambridge, MA from January 28, 1993-July 19, 1994.
Wasserman speaks of her parents' cultural interests; first becoming interested in sculpture after visiting a Rodin exhibition in Paris with her family; visiting art galleries and studying painting in New York City as a young woman; her education at Fieldston and Radcliffe; trying to get a job in New York after college; working in advertising; meeting her husband, Max, and building a business with him; beginning to collect art; putting together a collection for the condominium project, 180 Beacon; the opening of 180 Beacon; working on a condominium project in the Virgin Islands; curating sculpture exhibitions at the Fogg Museum and at Wellesley; writing the catalogue for a Daumier exhibition at the Fogg; serving on the board of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; organizing forums on contemporary art with the Council of the Arts at MIT; becoming involved with Harvard's Institute for Learning in Retirement; and notable purchases of work by Daumier, Rodin, Degas, Giacometti, de Chirico, Nicolas Schöffer, Henry Moore, and others. Wasserman also recalls Alfred Stieglitz, Peppino Mangravite, Elie Nadelman, Hyman Swetzoff, Joseph Hirshhorn, Erica Brausen, René and Charles Gimpel, Louise Nevelson, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Robert Indiana, Claes Oldenburg, Denise René, Yaacov Agam, George Rickey, George Segal, David Ross, Milena Kalinovska, Jacques de Caso, Yulla Lipchitz, Vera List, Jim Cuno, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Jeanne L. Wasserman, (1915-2006) was a museum curator and art collector from Boston, Massachusetts.
General:
Originally recorded on 5 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 10 digital wav files. Duration is 7 hrs., 12 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.
Topic:
Art -- Collectors and collecting -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Art museum curators -- Massachusetts -- Interviews Search this
Function:
Art museums -- Massachusetts
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Sponsor:
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Philippines -- History -- Japanese occupation, 1942-1945
Spain -- History -- 1939-1975
Date:
1993 April 19-1997 January 10
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Eleanor Sayre conducted 1993 April 19-1997 January 10, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Sayre talks about her early childhood in Williamstown and Cambridge, Mass.; her family background; visits to the White House with her maternal grandfather, Woodrow Wilson; living abroad while her father was in government service in Bangkok, then Siam (now Thailand), Paris, and Switzerland, with extensive recollections of her brothers and schooling in Europe.
Attending Winsor School in Boston; her mother's death; her years at Bryn Mawr College, including her switch to art history from political science; Georgianna Goddard King as an influential teacher; an internship under Laura Dudley at the Fogg Art Museum's Print Room and the lasting effect of this experience.
Being a graduate student in fine arts at Harvard and the importance of Edward Forbes and Paul Sachs as teachers; her decision not to pursue a PhD; working with Jakob Rosenberg; helping to get young Jews out of Europe; her position as assistant for exhibitions at Yale University Art Gallery under Theodore Sizer; the trauma of her father's internment by the Japanese in the Philippines, where he was High Commissioner and his rescue; and her decision to turn down a military intelligence job in order to work with German Jewish refugees.
Her brief tenure at Lyman-Allyn Museum, Conn., under Winslow Ames; her years in the education department under Lydia "Ma" Powel at the Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design with Gordon Washburn as director; and working closely with Heinrich Schwartz on prints and drawings.
The liberal tradition of her father's wealthy family; her father; being brought to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by its curator of prints, Henry Rossiter and on the charming collector and benefactor, Maxim Karolik; MFA curator of paintings, William George Constable; and George Harold Edgell, MFA director.
The collector, Philip Hofer, who by putting his Goya proofs on loan at the MFA, led to Sayre's life-long study of the artist; her research on Goya in Spain; raising of a large sum from Boston businesses to purchase Hofer's prints for the MFA, and the MFA's eminence by the 1960s in Goya's graphic work; the disgusting repression of dissent in Franco-era Spain; Goya's passionate self-assertion, which is what principally attracted Sayre to his work, and his conceptual process and method of work.
Earlier years at the MFA, Boston, including the accessibility of the print department's study rooms; Edwin J. Hipkiss, curator of American decorative arts; the Christmas poetry and prints exhibitions designed as profound learning experiences for a broad public; and being chosen as successor to Rossiter; and further comments on Maxim Karolik.
W.G. Russell Allen and other collectors who gave their collections to the MFA; her efforts to effectively present art to the broad public; her methods of appealing to the public coalescing at the MFA in 1989 with the "Goya and the Spirit of the Enlightenment" exhibition; and an exhibition of the work of Beatrix Potter.
Spain under the dictator, Francisco Franco; her first study in Spain of Goya's drawings and her urging the Prado Museum to conserve its drawings; the Prado's director, F. Sanchez-Canton; her research on prostitution at the Ministry of Justice; being decorated for her recommending the preservation of Goya's art and the marvelous private collections of Goya in Spain; and her obsession with interpreting the meaning of Goya's work.
The MFA, Boston, under the directorship of Perry Rathbone, who wanted many more people involved than had his predecessor, George Harold Edgell, who ran it like a Boston Brahmin Club; Rathbone's accomplishments; his downfall and that of his assistant (and curator of European decorative arts and sculpture) Hanns Swarzenski in bringing a so-called Raphael into this country by irregular means, which led to Rathbone and Swarzenski's firing by George Seybolt, the trustee president; Rathbone's reluctance to hire women curators and Sayre's finally becoming curator of prints and drawings in 1967; her philosophy as curator; on Hanns and Brigitte Swarzenski as dear friends; her exchange of positions with the curator of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where she put their valuable but neglected print collection in order.
The exhibition and catalog, "Rembrandt: Experimental Etcher," (1969) in collaboration with the Pierpont Morgan Library; general views on exhibitions; co-authoring the exhibition catalog "Goya and the Spiris of Enlightenment" (1989); her contributions to Goya research; her current research and writing on Goya's Capaprichos print series; and her satisfaction in having spent her career in art museums.
Biographical / Historical:
Eleanor A. Sayre (1916-2001) was a curator and art historian from Boston, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 11 hrs., 21 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.
Ca. 600 letters, 1961-1990, from artists, authors, poets, editors, curators, publishers, critics and others, primarily in response to Taylor's reviews, columns, and books, and some supplying information for his columns. Among the correspondents are Darby Barnard, Claire Leighton, Will Davenport, Fritz Eichenberg, Clement Greenberg, Jack Levine, Patrick McGilligan, Henry Schwartz, Beverly Swan, William Styron, John Updike, and Tom Wolfe. A 1983 letter from Davenport encloses a mss. of a paper he wrote in 1956, "Search for the Most American of American Painters." Also included are 5 scrapbooks, 1952-1957, containing clippings of Taylor's reviews and columns, and letters of appreciation; and loose reviews and articles by Taylor written for various Boston area arts magazines.
Enclosed in the correspondence are a few photographs, including two of Taylor, 3 of Carl Nelson, one of G.D. Hackett and Andre Kertisz, and one of Fred Allen and Herman Wouk.
Biographical / Historical:
Art, literary, and music critic; author; educator; lecturer, Boston, Mass. Wrote for the Boston Herald, 1952-1967, Boston Globe, 1968-1989. Columns for New Boston Review, later appearing in Atlantic Monthly, were written under pseudonym Count Bibesco.
Provenance:
Donated 1984 and 1990 by Robert Taylor.
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.
Occupation:
Art critics -- Massachusetts -- Boston Search this
