Interview of Thomas Carr Howe and Robert Neuhaus, conducted by Peter Fairbanks and Paul Karlstrom for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in San Francisco, CA, on September 25, 1987.
Carr and Neuhaus, both former directors of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, speak of the San Francisco art scene in the 1930s, with emphasis on museums, patronage, and collecting; their backgrounds and schooling; the Panama-Pacific Exhibition; art galleries in the 1930s; the museum staff at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in the 1930s; and the art climate in the Bay Area. Carr and Neuhaus also recall the McAgys, Grace Morley, Clyfford Still, Alma Spreckels, the Crockers, the Gettys, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Carr and Neuhaus were former directors of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, in the 1930s. Howe was Assistant Director, 1931-1939, and Director, 1939-1968. Neuhaus was Director of Education, 1938-1940; he establishedd a gallery in 1941, Robert Neuhaus Services, which remained opened for about six months. Artists represented included Clyfford Still, George Post, and Joseph Raphael.
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, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- San Francisco Search this
Museum directors -- California -- Interviews Search this
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.
7 letters to Neuhaus from and about Still, 2 copies of Neuhaus' replies, 15 photographs of paintings completed by Still between 1930 and 1940, and one letter from Albert Bierstadt, 1884.
Still writes to Neuhaus in 1941 in order to introduce himself and inquire about the possibility of having his work exhibited at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. In 1942 and 1945, Still writes to Neuhaus regarding available teaching positions and his painting production. Henry Hibbs of the College of William and Mary writes Neuhaus requesting information on Still. A scholar working on a dissertation, 1978-1979, writes twice to Neuhaus about a Still lithograph on loan to the Oakland Museum. Two transcriptions of Neuhaus' replies outline his relationship with Still in the 1940s. One letter from the Oakland Museum to Neuhaus requests the loan of the Still painting PORTRAIT OF MARYLY NEUHAUS.
15 photographs of Still paintings. Ten of the paintings are portraits, the other five consist of three landscapes and two "abstractions." All photographs are annotated, some by Still.
Letter from Bierstadt,1884, concerning an unpaid invoice from the American Artists Union.
Biographical / Historical:
Historian and art dealer; Walnut Creek, Calif.; d. 1995 Neuhaus was Director of Education, 1938-1940, at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. In 1941, he established a gallery, Robert Neuhaus Services in Fine Arts, in San Francisco, which remained open for approximately six months. Artists represented included Clyfford Still, George Post and Joseph Raphael. Still was a painter, and died in 1980. Bierstadt was a landscape painter active in both the U.S. and Europe.
Provenance:
Donated 1986 by Robert Neuhaus.
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.
Letters, writings, business records, sketches and drawings, scrapbooks, printed material and photographs relating to Neuhaus' career and works of art.
REELS 4176-4177: Corresondence with Max Doerner, Robert Sproul, Walter Heil, Roi Partridge, and Robert Neuhaus, among others. Topics include the publication of Eugen Neuhaus' translation of Doerner's book, THE ARTIST AND HIS MATERIALS, and the donation of works of art from the Neuhaus estate. Of interest among the exhibition catalogs and announcements is an illustrated catalog of a 1907 exhibition of Western painters held at the Hotel Del Monte, California.
Also included are two articles by Neuhaus, "Masters Old and New" and "History of the Art Department, University of California"; one of the two hundred printed copies of Neuhaus' 1937 monograph on Christian Nahl; an inventory of Neuhaus' paintings; a scrapbook, 1916-1966, containing clippings, lecture and exhibition announcements, reproductions of Neuhaus' paintings, photographs, and greeting cards with printed illustrations by Neuhaus; photographs, including several portraits of Neuhaus prior to his emigration from Germany and a 1941 portrait taken by Johan Hagemeyer; 23 prints made from original nitrate negatives, presumably exposed by Neuhaus, of the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition; still lifes and landscapes, possibly used as sources or references for paintings; and numerous photographs of Neuhaus' paintings.
REEL D181: Thirty-eight letters, 1908-1942; catalogs; photographs and reproductions of his paintings; 4 sketchbooks; clippings, 1931- 1945, including many reviews of his book, HISTORY AND IDEALS OF AMERICAN ART (Stanford University Press, 1931); and scrapbooks containing clippings (1904- 1925), exhibition announcements and catalogs.
Biographical / Historical:
Educator, painter; Berkeley, Calif. Taught at the University of California, Berkeley from 1908 to 1949 where he served as the first chairman of the art department.
Provenance:
Material on reel D181 was lent for microfilming by Neuhaus' son, Robert, in 1964. Robert Neuhaus donated the material on reels 4176-4177 in 1987.
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.
Interviews conducted by Kathleen Berrin, Letitia Brown, Elayne Marquis, Stacy Schaefer and Thomas K. Seligman, 1982, in connection with the exhibition, "The Bay Area Collects: art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," held at the H. M. de Young Memorial Museum, July 3, 1982-October 3, 1982. Interviewees are: Margery Anneberg, Charles Campbell, Herschel Browning Chipp, Lawrence E. Dawson, Ruth and Marc Franklin, Melinda Young Frye, John and Monica Haley, Erle and Clyta Loran, Allen Maret, Robert Neuhaus, Bill Pearson, Al Stendahl and James Willis.
Other Title:
Tapes labelled: The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, 7/81-12/81.
