The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. Through extensive correspondence files, financial and inventory records, printed material, scrapbooks, reference and research material, and photographs of artists and works of art, the records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.
Scope and Content Note:
The Macbeth Gallery records provide almost complete coverage of the gallery's operations from its inception in 1892 to its closing in 1953. The records document all aspects of the gallery's activities, charting William Macbeth's initial intention to lease his store "for the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures" through over sixty years of success as a major New York firm devoted to American art. The collection measures 131.6 linear feet and dates from 1838 to 1968 with the bulk of the material dating from 1892 to 1953.
The gallery's correspondence files form the core of the collection and illuminate most aspects of American art history: the creation and sale of works of art, the development of reputations, the rise of museums and art societies, change and resistance to change in the art market, and the evolution of taste. Ninety-five feet of correspondence house substantial and informative letters from dozens of important American painters and sculptors, including older artists and younger contemporaries of the gallery in its later years. There are also letters from collectors, curators, other galleries, and critics.
The financial files found in the collection offer insight into the changing economic climate in which the gallery operated. They include information ranging from the details of individual sales and the market for individual artists, to consignment activities and artist commissions, to overviews of annual sales. This information is augmented by the firm's inventory records and the photographs of artwork with their accompanying records of paintings sold. The inventory records provide details of all works of art handled by the gallery, both sold and unsold, and the buyers who purchased them; the photographs of artwork include images of artwork sold with accompanying sales information.
The highlight of the gallery's printed material is the publication Art Notes. Although published only until 1930, Art Notes provides an excellent and detailed view of the gallery's exhibition schedule and the relationship of the gallery owners with many of the artists whose work they handled. It was a house organ that also provided a running commentary on events in the art world. The gallery's 19 fragile scrapbooks, maintained throughout the firm's history, provide further coverage of activities through exhibition catalogs and related news clippings. Printed material from other sources provides a frame of reference for activities in the art world from the mid-19th to the mid-20th-centuries and includes an almost complete run of the rare and important pre-Civil War art publication The Crayon.
Reference files record the interest which the gallery owners took in the work of early portrait painters and in later artists such as George Inness and Winslow Homer. Together with the immense volume of correspondence with buyers and sellers of paintings by the great portraitists and the Hudson River School found in the gallery's correspondence files, these records are still useful sources of information today and underscore the deep interest that the Macbeths and Robert McIntyre took in 18th and 19th-century American art.
The photographs of artists found here are a treasure trove of images of some of the major figures of the 19th and 20th-centuries. There are photographs of artists such as Chester Beach, Emil Carlsen, Charles Melville Dewey, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, George Inness, Maurice Prendergast, and Julian Alden Weir, many of them original prints and the majority of them autographed.
With the exception of the "The Eight" and a few of their contemporaries, an important aspect of art history, the modernist movement, is generally represented in the Macbeth Gallery records only in a negative form as the three successive proprietors of the gallery showed very little interest in this area. Nevertheless, the collection is a highly significant source of information on many of the major and minor figures in American art in the period after 1890.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into eight series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Correspondence, 1838-1968 (Box 1-95, 163-164, OV 165; 96.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Financial and Shipping Records, 1892-1956 (Box 96-110; 11.8 linear feet)
Series 3: Inventory Records, 1892-circa 1957 (Box 111-113; 3.0 linear feet)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1838-1963 (Box 114-119, 162; 5.0 linear feet)
Series 5: Scrapbooks, 1892-1952 (Box 120-130; 3.3 linear feet)
Series 6: Reference Files, 1839-1959 (Box 131-132; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 7: Miscellaneous Files, 1912-1956 (Box 133-134; 0.8 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1880-circa 1968 (Box 135-161; 12.1 linear feet)
Historical Note:
The Macbeth Gallery was established in 1892 by William Macbeth, a Scotch-Irish immigrant who had spent ten years with the print dealer Frederick Keppel before he opened his doors to the art-buying public at 237 Fifth Avenue in New York. Despite the prevailing interest in foreign art at that time, particularly in that of the Barbizon and Dutch schools, Macbeth was determined to dedicate his gallery to "the permanent exhibition and sale of American pictures, both in oil and water colors."
Although some of the gallery's earliest exhibitions were of work by European artists, the business soon became the only gallery in continuous operation that kept American art permanently on display. In the January 1917 issue of Art Notes, Macbeth recounts those early days remembering that "The opening of my gallery......was a rash venture under the existing conditions, and disaster was freely predicted." Nevertheless, he struggled through the financial crisis of 1893 and persisted with his devotion to American art; slowly the market for his pictures grew more amenable.
Macbeth moved to more spacious quarters at 450 Fifth Avenue in 1906 and two years later undertook what was to become the major event in the gallery's early history: the 1908 exhibition of "The Eight," featuring work by Arthur B. Davies, Willam J. Glackens, Robert Henri, Ernest Lawson, George Luks, Maurice Prendergast, Everett Shinn, and John Sloan. "The Eight" were an unlikely combination of social realists, visionaries and impressionists eager to challenge the dominating influence of the National Academy. The exhibition received an immense amount of publicity and instantly entered into art history as a successful assault on tradition.
Despite the splash that the exhibition made and its implications for the future of American art, nothing that the gallery did subsequently indicated that Macbeth intended to capitalize on its significance. It is true that Macbeth supported many artists later considered leaders in American art when the public would pay no attention to them because of their modernist tendencies; Arthur B. Davies, Paul Dougherty, Maurice Prendergast, Theodore Robinson, and F. Ballard Williams all held their first exhibitions at his gallery. Nevertheless, neither Macbeth nor the gallery's two successive proprietors, Robert G. McIntyre (William's nephew) and Robert Macbeth (William's son), who joined the gallery in 1903 and 1906 respectively, ever developed a true interest in modern art. The November 1930 issue of Art Notes summarizes their collective disdain for modernism, stating: "We believe that, by and large, modern art is amusing. We are heretical enough to believe that much of it was started for the amusement of its creators and that no one was more surprised than they when it was taken seriously by a certain audience to whom the bizarre and the unintelligible always makes an appeal." So while the Macbeths and McIntyre cetainly championed American artists and insisted they deserved as much recognition as the Europeans, their deepest and most abiding interest was undoubtedly the established artists of the 18th and 19th-centuries and those of the early 20th-century who continued in a more conservative style. Artists such as Emil Carlsen, Charles Harold Davis, Frederick C. Frieseke, Robert Henri, Winslow Homer, Chauncey F. Ryder, Abbot Handerson Thayer, J. Francis Murphy, A. H. Wyant were the gallery's bread and butter.
When William Macbeth died in 1917 Robert Macbeth took up the reins with the assistance of Robert G. McIntyre . Although they incorporated the business as William Macbeth, Inc., in 1918 the gallery continued to be known, as it always would be, simply as Macbeth Gallery. Macbeth and McIntyre continued to show work in the same vein as the elder Macbeth. They concentrated primarily on oil paintings at this time, having found by the 1920s that "oils are all that our gallery owners will buy," though they also exhibited an occasional group of watercolors and pastels in addition to bronzes and other sculpture by contemporary American artists such as Chester Beach and Janet Scudder.
Of the early American painters the Macbeths and McIntyre were particularly interested in colonial portraits and miniatures, especially those painted by prominent artists in the latter part of the eighteenth century such as John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully and John Trumbull. In its early years the gallery also handled the work of a few prominent American etchers including Frank W. Benson, Emil Fuchs, Daniel Garber, Childe Hassam and Chauncey F. Ryder. The print department was generally discontinued, however, in the late 1930s although the gallery continued to show prints by contemporaries such as Stow Wengenroth.
In 1924 relative prosperity allowed the gallery to move uptown to 15 East Fifty-seventh Street. When the 1930s brought new financial hardship for the gallery Macbeth and McIntyre took a variety of approaches to boosting sales. In 1930 they decided to hold only group exhibitions throughout the season to the exclusion of one-man shows, and also held some special exhibitions of paintings priced at a hundred dollars each in the hope that they could tempt those "willing to take advantage of a rare chance to secure representative examples of good art at a most attractive price." A move to smaller quarters at 15 East Fifty-seventh Street in 1935 was made with the intention of concentrating their efforts on the work of fewer contemporary artists, while continuing to handle the work of the older Americans they had long supported.
When Macbeth died suddenly and unexpectedly in August 1940 following an operation for appendicitis, McIntyre continued to run the gallery with the assistance of Hazel Lewis. During the 1940s McIntyre and Lewis showed primarily contemporary art in a wide range of media including oil, watercolor, pastel, drawing and sculpture, while continuing, as always, to show the occasional group of 19th-century Americans. The great success of the gallery's later years was undeniably Andrew Wyeth whose first exhibition, held at Macbeth Gallery in 1937, resulted in the sale of all twenty-two paintings cataloged.
Although subsequent Wyeth exhibitions were also successful, McIntyre struggled financially throughout the 1940s and periodically considered liquidating the company. Although "vitally interested" in contemporary art by people such as Robert Brackman, Jay Connaway, Carl Gaertner, James Lechay, Herbert Meyer and Ogden M. Pleissner he found that, for the most part, it did not pay. McIntyre continued operations until 1953 when he decided that doing so for profit was not only a financial burden but also ran contrary to his desire to spend more time devoted to his first love, early American art. When the lease expired on 11 East Fifty-seventh Street in April 1953 McIntyre did not renew it. After closing the gallery's doors he sold art from his New York apartment and from his home in Dorset, Vermont. He officially dissolved William Macbeth, Inc., in 1957.
The history of the Macbeth Gallery is a long and distinguished one with each successive proprietor making a significant contribution to art in America. William Macbeth helped establish an audience and a market for American art when few were willing to give it serious consideration. Robert Macbeth continued to cement the gallery's reputation as one of the leading firms in New York and was instrumental in organizing the American Art Dealers Association. Robert G. McIntyre claimed in a letter to Lloyd Goodrich, dated 22 June 1945, that the thing of which he was most proud was "the share I have had in the formation of the collection of the Addison Gallery of American Art, at Andover, Massacusetts." McIntyre was widely respected in the art community as a dealer, as an adviser to curators, and as a scholar whose research and book on Martin Johnson Heade helped "rediscover" an important American artist. One of his most significant and lasting contributions to the history of art in America, however, was undoubtedly his gift of the gallery's historical records to the Archives of American Art.
Related Material:
Among the holdings of the Archives of American are a small collection of scattered Robert McIntyre's papers and 9 items of William Macbeth's papers. Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also available in the American Art Exhibition Catalog collection and the Brooklyn Museum Records, both loaned and microfilmed collections.
An extensive collection of Macbeth Gallery exhibition catalogs are also held by the Frick Art Reference Library and the Watson Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Provenance:
The bulk of the Macbeth Gallery records were donated and microfilmed in several installments between 1955 and 1966 by Robert G. McIntyre and Estate. Additional Macbeth Gallery printed material was donated by Phoebe C. and William Macbeth II, grandchildren of William Macbeth, in 1974.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center.
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.
Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968, bulk 1892 to 1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Getty Grant Program. Digitization of the scrapbooks was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee. Correspondence, financial and shipping records, inventory records, and printed material were digitized with funding provided by the Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Foundation for the Arts, the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.
Biographical material; diaries; correspondence, financial material; notes; writings; art work; printed material; and photographs
REEL D30 (fr. 420, 521, 542): Three letters from Bruce Crane, 1930, mentioning his election to the Allied Artists of America, from Will Hicok Low, 1930, concerning Cole's election into an art organization, and from Chauncey Foster Ryder, 1921, saying "You may count on me."
REEL 420 (fr. 453-652): Letters written by Timothy Cole, 1885-1928, primarily to Alphaeus and to painter Edward Ertz of Sussex, England, discussing engraving, work for the CENTURY, World War I, and personal matters; a letter to Alphaeus from sculptor John Angel, 1946, discussing Alphaeus' portrait of him; a poem and notes for a speech by Timothy Cole; writings by Alphaeus describing his engraving techniques and his recollections of his father; printed material, including a program for a dinner honoring collector Alexander Wilson Drake, 1913, an address by Timothy to the National Arts Club, 1916, 11 exhibition catalogs for Timothy, 1927-1931, and for Alphaeus, 1922-1952, a catalog from the Grand Central School of Art, and a few clippings; and 2 photos of Alphaeus, ca. 1912 and 1970.
REEL 3481 (fr.467-700): 64 letters, 1910-1927, and 2 sonnets from his father Timothy Cole and a letter to his future daughter-in-law regarding her upcoming marriage to Alphaeus; a letter to Timothy Cole from Calvin Coolidge thanking him for an engraved bookplate; 12 letters to Cole, 1931-1964, from Maurice Bloch, Paul Bransom, A. B. Butts, Will H. Low, Hermann Dudley Murphy, Hudson Strode, R. P. Tolman, and Mahonri Young; a typescript of an article by Cole on Charles C. Curran; 2 photographs of Cole at work, and a photograph of 26 members of the National Academy of Design, ca. 1925, including 19 autographs on the mat; and miscellaneous printed material and writings.
REELS 4783-4791: Biographical accounts and documents; 70 diaries, 1889-1982, containing accounts of Cole's daily activities and 7 photographs; correspondence, 1891-1988, including letters from his father, Timothy Cole, and other family members, 2 notes from Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant, comments by Cole about his colleagues in 1901-1902, Solon Borglum, Joseph Pennell, Edward Steichen, and a Mr. Yeats, and a description of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, 1902; receipts for art expenses and doctor bills; 4 income tax returns, 1936-1980; an address book, ca. 1933; 6 notebooks on the German language, travels in Orvieto, religious symbols in art, and art history, 1889-1898;
writings by Cole and others, including poems to Eugene and Anita Higgins; prints and drawings by Cole, 1899-1958, including a self-portrait and a portrait drawing of Jean Paul Laurens; 2 prints by John W. Evans, 1935, and Keith Shaw Williams; 26 prints of religious paintings by Italian masters; printed material, including clippings, exhibition catalogs for others, reproductions of art work, material concerning Anita Rio, a postcard album, 1901-1934, and picture postcards, and miscellany; and photographs of Cole, Anita Rio, family, friends, models, residence, travels, art work by Cole and others, and gallery installations.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, portrait painter; New York, N.Y. Born in New Jersey, Cole was the son of wood engraver Timothy Cole. After studying under Isaac Craig in Italy, he began studies at the Academie Julian in 1892, under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. His painting of Dante was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1900. He moved to England and married sculptress Margaret Ward Walmsley in 1903. They moved to the United States in 1911, where Cole joined the Salmagundi Club, 1918, and served as president of the New York Water Color Club from 1931 to 1941. He taught at Cooper Union, 1924-1931, and was elected a National Academician in 1941. A widower in 1962, Cole married Anita Rio, the widow of painter Eugene Higgins.
Provenance:
Material on reel D30 donated 1955-1962 by Charles E. Feinberg, an active donor and friend of the Archives of American Art. Material on reels 420, 3481, and 4783-4791 donated 1965-1989 by Alphaeus Cole, in part through his nephew Orlando, and by his estate.
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.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Journalists
Date:
1856-1929
Summary:
The papers of painter Henry Mosler (1841-1920), who began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio, lived in Germany and Paris for at least 2 decades, and finally settled in New York, measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1856-1929. The collection documents Mosler's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional letters from members of the military, museums, family, friends and colleagues, writings including an 1862 Civil War diary, personal business records, printed material, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of Mosler, his family, colleagues and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of painter Henry Mosler (1841-1920), who began his career in Cincinnati, Ohio, lived in Germany and Paris for at least 2 decades, and finally settled in New York, measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1856-1929. The collection documents Mosler's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional letters from members of the military, museums, family, friends and colleagues, writings including an 1862 Civil War diary, personal business records, printed material, artwork and sketchbooks, and photographs of Mosler, his family, colleagues and artwork.
Writings and notes include an 1862 Civil War diary and two illustrated notebooks from 1862 and 1863 containing sketches, and travel and financial notes. Also found are two biographical accounts of Mosler's career and poems by various authors, many inspired by Mosler's paintings.
Personal business records include an account book documenting Mosler's income and expenses from 1869-1878 and 1886-1892, and Library of Congress copyright certificates for four of Mosler's pictures.
Printed material documents Mosler's career in the United States and Europe through news clippings, a brochure, and an exhibition catalog for an 1897 exhibition of his paintings at Galleries of Pape Bros.
Artwork and sketchbooks include six sketches and an engraving by Mosler, and two books containing sketches by Mosler and other artists including James Henry Beard. The series also contains one ink drawing each by Leon Germain Pelouse and E. Hillery.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1863-1892, 1921 (Box 1, OV 10; 4 folders)
Series 2: Letters,1861-circa 1920 (Boxes 1-2; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings and Notes, circa 1860-circa 1900 (Boxes 2-3, 6; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1869-1905 (Box 3; 4 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1860s-1929 (Box 3; 10 folders)
Series 6: Artwork and Sketchbooks, 1856-1917 (Box 4, OVs 10-11; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographic Material, 1860-circa 1910 (Boxes 5-9, BV 12; 2.0 linear feet)
Biographical Note:
Henry Mosler (1841-1920) worked primarily in Ohio, New York City, and Europe as a painter of portraits and scenes of rural life in Europe. Mosler served as an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly during the Civil War.
Born in Silesia (Poland) in 1841, Henry Mosler immigrated to New York City with his family in 1849. In the early 1850s the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Mosler received art instruction from James Henry Beard, becoming an accomplished portrait painter and an active participant in the Cincinnati art scene.
Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Mosler became an artist correspondent for Harper's Weekly, documenting the Western Theater in Kentucky and Tennessee. He served as a volunteer aide-de-camp with the army of Ohio from 1861-1863 and was present at the engagement at Green River, and "present and under fire" at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville.
Mosler returned to the United States temporarily during this period, including a trip in 1885-1886 to visit the West and collect material for paintings of Native American life.
In 1894 Mosler returned to the United States and settled in New York, where he became a popular teacher and an active participant in the New York art scene. In 1895 he was made an associate member of the National Academy of Design, and in his last decades took up landscape painting during summers in the Catskill mountains, and produced genre paintings depicting scenes from colonial and rural life. Mosler continued to enjoy widespread popularity until his death in 1920.
Provenance:
The bulk of the collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by J. F. McCrindle, a great-grandson of Mosler, in 1976 and 1977, having been previously lent to AAA for microfilming. A photograph album was donated in 1993 by Paul M. Hertzmann, a dealer who acquired it through purchase. Additional materials were donated in 2008 and 2009 by McCrindle via John T. Rowe, president and CEO of the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation.
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.
Expatriate painters -- France -- Paris Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Diaries
Sketchbooks
Illustrated notebooks
Drawings
Sketches
Citation:
Henry Mosler papers, 1856-1929. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art.
The papers of the portraitist and art theorist William Page and the Page family measure 11.06 linear feet and date from 1815 to 1947, bulk 1843-1892. In addition to the papers of William Page, the papers include documents related to Page's wife's career as a writer and records documenting their personal lives and the lives of their family members. Types of documents found include personal documents and artifacts, correspondence, essays, lectures, diaries, poems, notes and notebooks, financial records, legal records, published works, clippings, catalogs, photographs, and artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of the painter William Page and the Page family measure 11.06 linear feet and date from 1815 to 1947, with the bulk of papers dating from 1843 to 1892. Papers contain records related to the life and career of William Page, president of the National Academy of Design from 1871 to 1873 and prominent portraitist and art theorist of his day. Also found are records related to his wife's career as a writer and records documenting their personal lives and the lives of their family members. Types of documents found include personal documents and artifacts, correspondence, essays, lectures, diaries, poems, notes and notebooks, financial records, legal records, published works, clippings, catalogs, photographs, and artwork.
Correspondence includes the personal and professional correspondence of William and Sophia Page, and their parents, siblings, and children. Significant correspondents include Thomas Hicks, Enoch Wood Perry, William Stark, Theodore Tilton, Lemuel Wilmarth, Wendell Phillips, William Walker Scranton, Francis G. Shaw; James Russell Lowell, Charles Frederick Briggs, George W. Curtis, Charlotte Cushman, Thomas K. Beecher, Mary Olmsted, and Bertha Olmsted.
Writings include the essays and lectures of William Page, as written by him and revised by Sophia Page in the late 1870s, as well as Sophia's writings as a columnist in Europe in the 1850s. Notes, notebooks, diaries, and poems are also found. Personal Business Records include business records related to the sale and exhibition of artwork as well as financial and legal documents. A small number of memoranda and documents related to Page's work at the National Academy of Design are also found. Printed Materials include exhibition catalogs, published works by William and Sophia Page, and clippings and articles about Page.
Photographs consist mainly of portraits, most of them mounted cabinet photographs or cartes-des-visites, some of which appear to have been used as studies for Page's painted portraits. Among those pictured are William Page, James Russell Lowell, Henry Ward Beecher, Reuben Fenton, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, William R. O'Donovan, and William Lloyd Garrison. Many of the photographic portraits are unidentified. Artwork includes sketches, drawings, prints, and a small number of notes made by Page in the course of painting portraits.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into 7 series. Glass plate negatives are housed separately and closed to researchers.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials and Artifacts, 1847-1917 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1815-1942 (Boxes 1-4, 9-10; 3.2 linear feet)
Series 3: Notes and Writings, 1839-1888, 1949 (Boxes 4-5, OV 10; 1.3 linear feet)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, 1848-1932 (Boxes 5 and 9; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Materials, 1845-1938 (Boxes 5-7, 9, OV 11; 1.6 linear feet)
Series 6: Photographs, 1845-1947 (Boxes 7-9, OV 12, MGP 5-6; 1.4 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, 1856-1874 (Box 8, OV 13-16, rolled documents 17-19; 0.6 linear feet and 3 rolled documents)
Biographical Note:
The painter William Page was born in 1811 in Albany, NY. He attended public schools in New York City, and after working briefly in the law firm of Frederick de Peyster, was placed in the studio of the painter/engraver James Herring in 1825, where he received his first formal art training. He took classes at the National Academy of Design the year it was formed, in 1826, under Samuel F.B. Morse, and in 1827 he was awarded one of the National Academy's first annual student prizes.
Page joined the Presbyterian church and attended Phillips Academy and Amherst with the intention of becoming a minister, but his artistic ability won out, and by 1830 he was painting commissioned portraits in Albany, Rochester, and New York. He married Lavinia Twibill in 1833, and they had three daughters between 1834 and 1839. He joined the American Academy and served on its board of directors in 1835. He exhibited at the American Academy, the National Academy of Design, the Boston Athenaeum, and other venues throughout the 1830s. Favorable reviews brought steady portrait commissions, including John Quincy Adams and the New York governor William L. Marcy. He was made a full member of the National Academy in 1837.
In the 1840s, Page's reputation and maturity as a painter grew. His first wife left him around 1840, and in 1843 he married Sarah Dougherty. The couple moved to Albany, Boston, and back to New York seeking portrait commissions and patronage. He became friends with the poet James Russell Lowell and the writer and publisher Charles Frederick Briggs, two writers and editors who helped to promote his artwork in Boston and New York and published his theoretical writings. In 1844, Lowell dedicated his first published book of poetry to Page, and the following year, Briggs published a series of articles by Page in the Broadway Journal, entitled "The Art of the Use of Color in Imitation in Painting." The series described Page's arduous experiments with color and glazes, and his ideas about correspondences between spirituality and the natural world as expressed in art.
In 1850, Page traveled to Florence, Italy, where he painted several copies of the works of Titian in the galleries of the Uffizi and Pitti palaces, studying his use of color and further developing his own experimental techniques. He became friends with the sculptor Hiram Powers, who introduced him to the writings of Emmanuel Swedenborg, a Christian metaphysician whose ideas fueled Page's interest in the spiritual aspects of art. In 1852, Page moved to Rome, a city with an international artists' community and a strong market for art. Page found a loyal following in Rome's large circle of American ex-patriates, including the sculptors Thomas Crawford and Harriet Hosmer, the actress Charlotte Cushman, and the poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, all of whom sat for portraits by Page.
In 1854, Page's second wife left him amidst public scandal, and he sank deep in debt to his bankers at Packenham and Hooker, an English firm that by 1856 had a lien on all the paintings in his studio. That same year Page met Sophia Stevens Hitchcock, an American widow traveling in Rome with Bertha Olmsted, Frederick Law Olmsted's sister. Hitchcock was from Barnet, Vermont and came to Europe after her first husband died in 1852 after only a year of marriage. She traveled to England and Paris, where she wrote regular columns on local customs and events for the New York Tribune that were published under the by-line "An American Woman in Paris." She and Page met in Rome in 1856, and in October 1857, after Page traveled back the United States to obtain a divorce from Sarah Dougherty, he and Sophia married.
The couple stayed in Rome until 1860. His wife's three brothers, all businessmen, helped to promote his artwork in Europe and America. Page's paintings of this period include several Venus subjects, one of which was championed by his most loyal patrons, who raised $3000 by subscription to buy the painting for the Boston Athenaeum. A later Venus painting was rejected from the Paris salon for indecency, a controversy that was later leveraged for publicity in a touring exhibition in the United States.
The Pages returned to the United States in 1860 and settled in Tottenville, New York. They had six children between 1858 and 1870. Page had a studio at Eagleswood, NJ, and later in the Studio Building on 10th Street in Manhattan, where he held a large exhibition in 1867. In the 1860s, he painted a self-portrait and a companion portrait of Sophia set in Rome, as well as a series of civil war heroes including Robert Gould Shaw, Winfield Scott, and David Farragut. Photographs played a consistent part in Page's technique of portraiture, and he is known to have worked with the photographer Matthew Brady, who attended art classes early on with Page, as well as the photographers Sarony and Charles Williamson, who taught classes on drawing from enlarged photo-transparencies. Brady photographs taken for Page include David Farragut and Reuben Fenton.
Page lectured frequently on Titian and Venetian art, a subject in which he was considered an expert, and on painting technique and his philosophical ideas about nature, art, and spirituality. In 1871, Page was elected the president of the National Academy of Design, a post he held until 1873, but his poor health following a collapse in 1872 limited his accomplishments in office. Despite these limitations, he continued to paint, including portraits of General Grant, an idealized portrait of the president based on early photographs and Charles Sumner. He also became interested in portraiture of William Shakespeare around this time, and his studies resulted in a book, Shakespeare's Portraits, a bust based on existing portraiture, and a full-length portrait entitled "Shakespeare Reading," based on Page's measurements of a supposed death mask in Darmstadt, Germany, which he went to inspect against the advice of his doctor in 1874.
In 1877, another collapse left Page incapacitated for the remainder of his life. Sophia Page tried editing and publishing his writings and lectures, but with little success. Page died in 1885. A life marked by personal scandal ended the same, when two of his daughters from his first marriage contested his will, tying up his estate in a lengthy and public probate trial. Their suit was dismissed in 1889, and Sophia Page died in 1892.
This biography relies heavily on Joshua Taylor's William Page: The American Titian (1957).
Separated Material:
The Archives of American Art also holds materials lent for microfilming (reel 1091) including letters from Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, Lydia Maria Child, Charlotte Cushman, James Russell Lowell, Charles A. Dana, and others. Lent material was returned to the donor and is This material is not described in the container listing of this finding aid.
Provenance:
A portion of the collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Mrs. Lesslie S. (Pauline Page) Howell, William Page's grandaughter, in 1963. William S. Page, Pauline Page Howell's nephew, donated additional papers in 1964 and 1973. Pauline Page Howell and William S. Page also loaned a group of letters to the Archives in 1964 which were microfilmed on reel 1091 and then returned to the donors. Mrs. Howell's son, William Page Howell, donated material in 1980.
Letters of Charles F. Briggs to James Russell Lowell (Series 2.2) were a part of Pauline Page Howell's 1963 donation to the Archives of American Art. They had been given to Mrs. Howell by Charlotte Briggs, daughter of Charles F. Briggs, because of her father's lifelong friendship with William Page. Letters from Lowell to Briggs are in the James Russell Lowell papers in Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Restrictions:
The collection has been digitized and is available online via AAA's website.
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.
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painting -- 19th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Sketches
Poems
Drawings
Diaries
Citation:
William Page and Page Family papers, 1815-1947, bulk 1843-1892. 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. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
The papers of painter Shirley Gorelick measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1939-2008, 2016, with the bulk of the material dating from 1939-1980s. The collection documents Gorelick's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, scattered writings, professional files recording her involvement with art collectives and galleries owned and/or run by women, printed and photographic material, and nine sketchbooks and loose sketches.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter Shirley Gorelick measure 4.8 linear feet and date from 1939-2008, 2016, with the bulk of the material dating from 1939-1980s. The collection documents Gorelick's life and career through biographical material, personal and professional correspondence, scattered writings, professional files recording her involvement with art collectives and galleries owned and/or run by women, printed and photographic material, and nine sketchbooks and loose sketches.
Biographical material includes resumes and some early employment and education records. Personal correspondence primarily records the first years of Gorelick's marriage and provides insight into her early career through detailed correspondence with her husband, Leonard Gorelick. Professional correspondence is with multiple art galleries, organizations, and institutions primarily relating to exhibitions, pricing of her artwork, sales, and press reviews of her work, including by Lawrence Alloway who corresponded with Gorelick.
Scant writings include artists statements and notes as well as two papers Gorelick wrote as a student.
Professional files include price lists and an inventory of Gorelick's fine art collection, and also document her involvement with SOHO 20 and Central Hall Gallery and her contribution to The Sister Chapel installation.
Printed material documents Gorelick's extensive exhibition history through announcements, catalogs, and press reviews of her solo and group exhibitions and related awards.
Gorelick's sketchbooks comprise 9 volumes with some additional loose sketches enclosed, primarily containing figure studies in pencil. The series also includes an etching and a pencil study.
Photographic material provides what appears to be a comprehensive catalog of Gorelick's artwork from the 1960s through the 1980s, including slides and photos of many of her paintings, intaglio prints, and silverpoint drawings, as well as some of the models Gorelick worked with repeatedly. Also found are photos of Gorelick including portraits, studio photos, and photos of her with friends, colleagues, and family, and of Gorelick at events including exhibition openings and installations.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as seven series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1942-2000 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1939-1994 (Box 1; 0.7 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, 1942-circa 1980s (Box 1; 4 folders)
Series 4: Professional Files, circa 1960-1996, 2016 (Box 1; 7 folders)
Series 5: Printed Material, circa 1940s-2008 (Boxes 2-3, OV 7; 1.8 linear feet)
Series 6: Sketchbooks, circa 1960s-circa 1980s (Boxes 2, 6; 0.3 linear feet)
Series 7: Photographic Material, 1960s-1990s (Boxes 3-5; 1.7 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
New York and Washington, D.C. painter Shirley Gorelick (1924-2000) is known primarily for her large-scale portraits in acrylic. Gorelick described her work as "psychological portraiture," that depicted couples and families through an intimate and empathic lens.
Gorelick was born Shirley Fishman in Brooklyn, New York. Her education involved studying with Chaim Gross, Moses Soyer, and Raphael Soyer, and then with Serge Chermayeff at Brooklyn College where she earned her B. A. in 1944. Gorelick subsequently earned an M. A. at Teachers College, Columbia University, briefly attended the Hans Hofmann School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and also studied with Betty Holliday in Port Washington, Long Island. In 1944 Gorelick married Leonard Gorelick, a dentist with a passion for art and science.
Gorelick's early work was influenced by Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism, but she ultimately gravitated towards realistic, figurative portraits painted from photographs and direct observation. While working primarily in acrylic, she was also known for her silverpoint drawings and intaglio prints. Working with middle-aged couples and family groups repeatedly in the 1970s and 1980s, Gorelick's work explores the psychological state of her subjects as they directly engage the viewer.
In 1973, Gorelick was a founding member of Central Hall Gallery, a cooperative run by all women artists in Port Washington. She also had six solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows at SOHO 20, the second all-women artist-run exhibition space in New York City. She was one of thirteen women artists who collaborated on The Sister Chapel, painting a nine-foot portrait of Frida Kahlo for the installation which premiered at P.S. 1 in Long Island City in 1976.
Gorelick's work was widely exhibited, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, and she is represented in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others.
Gorelick died in Washington D.C. in 2000.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives of American Art in 2021 and 2022 by Jamie Gorelick, Shirley Gorelick's daughter.
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.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of artist Isabella Howland measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1899-1979. The collection documents her career through biographical material, correspondence, personal business records, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter, sculptor, caricaturist, and portraitist Isabella Howland measure 1.2 linear feet and date from 1899-1979. Correspondence makes up about a third of the collection, with the remainder comprised of biographical material, writings, printed material, photographs, and artworks.
Correspondence is found between Isabella Howland and other artists or dealers. Among these are Eugenie Gershoy, Henry Strater, Edith Halpert, Peggy Bacon, Forbes Watson, Jerry Bywaters, Adolph Dehn and Dorothea Greenbaum. Letters from Juliana Force, the first director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, are present. Many invitations to exhibit are included. The collection includes a small number of letters with Howland's family. She maintained written communication with several individuals over decades.
The biographical material contains Isabella Howland's handwritten notes and typed documents about her life. Some legal documents and financial records are present. The writing series includes her story 'Willy Nilly' with accompanying illustrations of animals, in addition to some other writings. The artwork series includes sketches and sketchbooks from childhood into adulthood. Photographs include images of Howland as well as her paintings and portraits.
Arrangement:
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1901-1972 (4 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1917-1973 (22 folders; Box 1)
Series 3, Writings, 1935-1964 (8 folders; Box 1)
Series 4: Printed Material, 1928-1976 (5 folders; Box 1)
Series 5: Photographs, circa 1900-1979 (4 folders; Box 1, OV 2)
Series 6: Artwork, 1899-circa 1940s (8 folders; Box 1, OV 2)
Biographical / Historical:
Isabella Howland (1895-1974) lived and worked in New York City. She drew portraits, painted on canvas, sketched on paper, and sculpted caricature busts of people in the art world. She wrote that she could do anything with her hands.
Howland had many friends in the art world and regularly received requests to exhibit at museums. She became known as an accomplished portrait artist, and she was commissioned many times to execute drawings or sculptures. She dabbled in writing and illustrating stories, and produced a set of 33 Christmas cards featuring two monks.
Provenance:
Donated between 1975-1976 by Mrs. Martha Craig and Barbara Summer. Three photographs of works of art were donated by Eugenie Gershoy in 1979.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Caricaturists -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Inman writes from New York to McMurtrie in Philadelphia. He discusses the pricing for one of his works (which he refers to as "the retouched Bishop"), and mentions a full-length portrait of Benjamin West.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, portrait painter; New York, N.Y.
General:
Letter is tipped onto a sheet which has a clipping pasted on with a short biography of Inman.
Provenance:
Purchased 1956 through the Steele purchase.
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.
Occupation:
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Subject files generated by Goodrich in the course of writing a book (never published) and compiling an exhibition catalog for the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, N.Y., on painter Frederick R. Spencer. Files contain biographical data, primarily from printed sources; correspondence between Goodrich and galleries, historical societies, individuals, and surviving Spencer family members concerning the Spencer family genealogy, and the provenance of Spencer's paintings; the files on Spencer's paintings contain photographs, correspondence, and data on portrait subjects, and a few original Spencer letters.
Biographical / Historical:
Art historian; New York state. Dr. Goodrich was a professor at State University of New York at Oneonta. Frederick R. Spencer (occasional spelling: Spenser) was a painter and portraitist based in New York City. He became a member of the National Academy in 1838.
Provenance:
The donor, Mrs. W. J. [Vivian G.] Schmidt, Jr., is the daughter of Dr. Laurence Goodrich, and gave the collection in accordance with her mother's wishes. Goodrich died before completing the works on Spencer. The exhibition catalog was finished by the staff at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute.
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.
Griffin, writing from Paris, advises and encourages Hepworth in his work as a portrait painter. He suggests contacting Mr. Lamb about a commission, and mentions Seldon C. Fox and Louis Orr, former students of Griffin's.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, dentist; Born Portland, Maine. Lived in New York and Nice, France from 1887-1915.
Provenance:
Donated 1978 by Lois L. Blomstrann.
Occupation:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Topic:
Painting, Modern -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painting -- 20th century -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of New York painter Alice Neel measure 1.0 linear foot and date from 1933 to 1983. The bulk of the collection documents the last fifteen years of Neel's career as an artist. Found within the papers are letters from galleries, museums, and art organizations; writings and notes by Neel; exhibition catalogs, clippings, and other printed material; and photographs depicting Neel, exhibitions, and her artwork.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of New York painter Alice Neel measure 1.0 linear foot and date from 1933 to 1983. The bulk of the collection documents the last fifteen years of Neel's career as an artist. Found within the papers are letters from galleries, museums, and art organizations; writings and notes by Neel; exhibition catalogs, clippings, and other printed material; and photographs depicting Neel, exhibitions, and her artwork.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as # series:
Missing Title
Series 1: Letters, circa 1968-1983 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 2: Writings and Notes, circa 1960-1979 (Box 1; 2 folders)
Series 3: Printed Material, 1933-1983 (Box 1; 0.6 linear feet)
Series 4: Photographs, 1940-1983 (Box 1; 6 folders)
Biographical Note:
Alice Neel (1900-1984) was a painter in New York, NY. She was known for her portraits of New York artists and intellectuals. Neel studied painting at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (now the Moore College of Art and Design) from 1921-1925. She married Cuban artist Carlos EnrÃquez, and they briefly lived in Havana, Cuba. After the break-up of their marriage, she settled in New York City. During the 1930s she worked for the Public Works of Art Project and the Works Progress Administration, painting scenes of urban poverty and developing her distinctive portrait style. She pursued a career as a figurative painter during a period when abstraction was favored, and she did not begin to gain critical praise for her work until the 1960s. Neel received an honorary doctorate from the Moore College of Art and Design in 1971 and a retrospective of her work was held at the Whitney Museum in 1974. During the last decade of her life she finally received extensive national recoginition for her paintings. Neel was also a notable public speaker and often spoke on the topic of women artists.
Related Material:
Also found in the Archives of American Art are printed material on Romare Bearden, Alice Neel, and Howard Newman, 1975-1990, compiled by Dennis Florio, and a videorecording of "Art and Alice Neel," 1975, recorded as part of University of Georgia Television station WGTV's "Forum" program.
Provenance:
The collection was donated from 1974 to 1983 by Alice Neel.
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.
Topic:
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painting -- 20th century -- United States Search this
Biographical material; correspondence with Harrison Cady, John Cosigan, the Columbus Museum, Georgia Institute of Technology, Grand Central Galleries, Musemont Fine Art Camp, the Salmagundi Club, the Art Students League, Laurence Schmeckebier (Nordhausen's biographer), Syracuse University, the United States Navy, and others, mostly concerning portraits by Nordhausen; bills and receipts; a diary, 1923-1924, concerning his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and his travels in Europe; day books and engagement calendars, ca. 1940-1985; address books; guest books; 9 scrapbooks, 1919-1991, containing photographs, clippings and letters; exhibition catalogs and announcements; photographs of works of art by Peter A. Juley; certificates of merit from the Salmagundi Club, 1950-1974; and photographs of Salmagundi Club dinners, 1938, 1940, 1942, 1947, 1949, 1961, and 1962.
Biographical / Historical:
Painter, portrait painter; Columbus, Ga. Died 1993.
Provenance:
Bequest of A. Henry Nordhausen, 1994.
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:
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Letters, writings, business records, and printed materials.
Genealogical and biographical data; correspondence (and transcripts) with Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, members of the Astor family, Elizabeth Caton, Felicia Hemans, Washington Irving, Aaron Vail, Mary Caton Patterson Wellesley, West's sister Jane Woods, and others; letters to West's neice Aduella Price Bryant and to Laura Simpson, requesting biographical and genealogical information on West, and research notes by Bryant on West's correspondents; West's account of his visit with Lord Byron in 1822; and a yearbook belonging to Felicia Hemans.
Lists compiled in 1929 and 1961 of West's paintings and portraits; excerpts from William L. Stone's book HISTORY OF NEW YORK CITY and biographies of West's contemporaries in England; clippings on West's portraits, his genealogy, and the history of Nashville, Tenn.; and miscellany.
Biographical / Historical:
Portrait and figure painter; London, England and New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Donated 1983 by Gertrude M. Meissner, a descendent of West.
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.
Herring's handwritten autobiography, March 13, 1863, accompanied by a typescript.
Biographical / Historical:
Portrait painter and engraver; New York City. Born in London, moved to U.S. in 1805. Worked as teacher, distiller, librarian, gallery operator and painter. Died in Paris.
Provenance:
The donor, Mrs. Helen Adams, is the grand-daughter of Caroline Herring and the great-grand-daughter of James Herring.
Restrictions:
Microfilmed materials must be consulted on microfilm. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Engravers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Portrait painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The microfilmed Charles Baskerville papers consist of 40 letters (1937-1972), mostly about portraits done by Baskerville from friends and clients; biographical data; two magazine articles pertaining to Baskerville; and 25 exhibition catalogues and announcements (1936-1976). Also included are two albums, one containing photographs of portraits by Baskerville, and one containing photographs of Baskerville and miscellaneous printed material; and 12 loose photographs of Baskerville, including one with Gene Tunny and Charles Lindbergh.
Biographical / Historical:
Charles Baskerville, Jr. (1896-1994) was a painter and muralist in New York, New York known primarily for his portraits of heads of state, military leaders, prominent members of society. Baskerville served in the Rainbow Division during World War I and sketched his fellow soldiers while convalescing from a wound. During World War II he was a lieutenant colonel with the Army Air Force and was the official portrait painter, creating more than 60 portraits of officers and enlisted men.
Related Materials:
The Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections holds the Charles Baskerville papers.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1976 by Charles Baskerville.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Twenty-five photographs of Moore's sculpture and Steuben glass designs executed between 1935 and 1965.
Biographical / Historical:
Bruce Moore (1905-1980) was a portrait painter and sculptor in New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Unmicrofilmed material donated 1978-1980 by Alice H. Moore, widow of Bruce Moore; material on reel 2029 lent for microfilming 1980 by the office of Visual Resources, National Collection of Fine Arts. Unmicrofilmed material (40 boxes, 1 sol, 7 ov, 11 rd, ) transferred to Wichita Art Association November 4, 1996 and (1 bx, 2 sols) on July 14, 2008.
Restrictions:
Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm.
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.
Correspondence, biographical and genealogical information, poems, notes, diaries, artwork, sketchbooks, photographs, business papers and printed material relating to the Longacre family, especially James Barton Longacre and Andrew Longacre.
REEL P1-P2: Correspondence and papers of James Barton Longacre, 1819-1857, mostly concerned with his position as engraver of the U.S. Mint, Philadelphia, and his publication THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS. Letters include correspondence with Asher B. Durand, James Herring, John Neagle, Thomas Sully and George Catlin. Additional material includes diaries, sketches and designs for coinage, a biography, autobiographical notes, and printed material.
REEL 986: Five sketchbooks, ca.1861-1894, of Reverend Andrew Longacre. Sketches depict landscapes, interiors, and monogram designs made in the United States, Europe, North Africa and the Near East. In addition there is a memoranda book kept by Longacre, ca. 1890.
REELS 1046-1048: Letters, including: correspondence between James and his wife; between James and Andrew during the Civil War; and Lydia Longacre's letters from Europe, 1899-1900; and letters from Theodore Bolton to Mrs. James M. Longacre about including James in his book, EARLY AMERICAN PORTRAIT DRAUGHTSMEN IN CRAYONS. Also included are biographical notes on James; an autobiography of Andrew; poetry and writings by James; accounts of a trip to Egypt by Andrew; financial documents relating to James; artwork; designs for coins and sketchbooks by James, Andrew and Lydia and material relating to an engraving of Charles Carroll by James.
REELS 1083 & 1050: Genealogical information on the Stiles and Longacre families; letters from Andrew to his father, James Barton Longacre, and his sister, Sallie, and other family members and friends; a copy of James Barton's 1825 diary; poems and compositions by Andrew; financial and business papers, 1898-1918; 28 photographs depicting portraits of James and Andrew, Lydia E. Longacre and her miniature paintings.
REEL 3091: Two engravings by James after paintings by Benjamin West and a letter from Augusta M. Longacre to Bolton regarding Bolton's biography of James.
Biographical / Historical:
Artists; Philadelphia and New York. James Barton Longacre was an engraver and portrait painter. Chief engraver at the U.S. Mint, Philadelphia, from 1844-1869. His engravings and portraits illustrate several books including THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS, and BIOGRAPHY OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. His son, Andrew Longacre was an engraver, watercolorist, and Methodist minister. His daughter, Lydia Longacre was a miniature painter, pupil of the Art Students League of New York, under Chase and Mowbray, and under Whistler in Paris.
Provenance:
Material on reels P1-P2 lent for microfilming by the Library Company of Philadelphia; Material on reel 986 lent 1975 by Fred Longacre; material on reels 1050 and 1083 lent 1975-1976 by Mrs. Andrew Longacre who also donated the material on reels 1046-1048 in 1982; material on reel 3091 donated 1981 by the NMAA-PG Library.
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.
342 letters, 1792-1901, chiefly addressed to Benjamin and Faith Huntington, including frequent correspondence with Faith's siblings Ann Channing Richards, Daniel Huntington, Elizabeth Moore Huntington and Harriet Smith DeWitt. Included are ca. 35 letters, ca. 1840s, from Daniel mainly to his father, his brothers Gurdon and Jedediah Vincent, his brother-in-law Cornelius Ver Bryck, written from London, Florence, Rome and New York, describing his travels throughout Italy, his New York studio and the visitors there, and discussing his current portrait and allegorical work, including his proposal to complete Henry Inman's work for the Rotunda left incomplete at his death in 1846. Letters from the 1870s-1890s are addressed to his nephew Channing.
Also included are an 11 p. draft of an article about Daniel Huntington; excerpts from the Book of Revelation on "Future Life and Rewards"; a poem "To Charlotte"; calling cards; a photograph of Daniel Huntington; household accounts possibly of Faith Huntington; stocks and bonds; a mortgage; and two deeds. Total microfilmed: 1 linear ft.
Biographical / Historical:
Daniel Huntington (1816-1906) was a portrait painter from New York. His father, Benjamin, married Faith Trumbull in 1812, daughter of Revolutionary War general Jedediah Huntington (1743-1818). Daniel Huntington spent a year at Yale before entering Hamilton College in New York where he met Charles Loring Elliot who encouraged him to paint. Upon graduation in 1836, he returned home to New York City where he studied under Samuel F.B. Morse and Henry Inman. Beginning in 1839, he made several extended journeys to Europe, spending three years in Rome just after his marriage in 1842 to Harriet Sophia Richards, and seven years in London from 1851-1858.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1993 by Channing M. Huntington II, whose great grandfather was Daniel Huntington's brother, Gurdon.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
