The papers of post-impressionist painter Henri Bella Schaeffer measure 2.8 linear feet and date circa 1930 to 1974. Her papers document her career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographic material. A large portion of the collection documents her time working for the Artists Equity Association as the N.Y. Chapter and National Secretary, in the forms of correspondence, minutes, notes, mailing lists, reports and printed material.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of post-impressionist painter Henri Bella Schaeffer measure 2.8 linear feet and date circa 1930 to 1974. Her papers document her career through biographical material, correspondence, writings, printed material, artwork, and photographic material. A large portion of the collection documents her time working for the Artists Equity Association as the N.Y. Chapter and National Secretary, in the forms of correspondence, minutes, notes, mailing lists, reports and printed material.
The biographical material series includes her CVs, professional memberships, honors and awards, and documentation of her fellow artist Helen West Heller. Also included is documentation related to the career of her husband, Themis De Vitis. The correspondence series contains both personal and professional letters with recipients including, Helen West Heller, Carl Sprinchorn (a close friend and fellow artist), and the Dorothy Yepez Galleries. The writings series contains Schaeffer's notes, longer prose, and manuscripts of writing prepared for publication. The printed material series contains clippings, exhibition advertising, and art journals. The artwork series contains drawings by Themis De Vitis, Carl Sprinchorn, and an unatributed artist. The photographic material series contains photographs of artwork by Lilly Stein as well as portraits of Schaeffer, De Vitis and friends. The Artists Equity Association records include documents from the national and regional chapters as well as the Welfare Committee, featuring by-laws, correspondence, and minutes of executive board meetings.
Arrangement:
This collection is arranged as 7 series:
Series 1: Biographical Material, circa 1945-1973 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1930-1974 (0.6 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1940-1967 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 4: Printed Material, circa 1940-1972 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 5: Artwork, circa 1950-1970 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 1)
Series 6: Photographic Material, circa 1933-1970 (0.1 Linear feet: Box 2)
Series 7: Artists Equity Association Records, circa 1945-1967 (1.7 Linear feet: Boxes 2-4)
Biographical / Historical:
Henri Bella Schaeffer (1908-unknown) was a post-impressionist painter who worked primarily in New York City. She was born in France and studied art at both the Academie L'Hote at Grand Chaumier in Paris and the Alliance Francaise in the 1930s. After marrying Italian painter Themis De Vitis, the couple moved to New York City in the late 1930s, where she studied with muralist William A. Mackay and went to Columbia University for her bachelor's degree. Schaeffer exhibited her rhythmic and bright impressionist paintings across the United States and France from the 1940s well into the 1960s, including at the Artists Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Salon des Tuileries in Paris.
Schaeffer joined the Artists Equity Association in the 1950s. The AEA aimed to support artists' economic interests across the nation. Its regional chapters connected artists with work, supported them financially, and lobbied for protective legislation. From 1952 to 1957, Schaeffer served as Chairman of the Artists Equity Association New York Chapter Welfare Committee, providing struggling artists with food, bill aid, insurance, and rehousing. She continued advancing in the AEA, eventually holding a position on the National Board in 1954 and serving as the Director-at-Large in 1956.
Provenance:
The Henri Bella Schaeffer papers were donated by the artist in several accessions between 1966 and 1974.
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
Arts administrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
The papers of painter Alexander Brook measure 4.3 linear feet and date from 1900-1982. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence; writings; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork; and photographs of Brook, his family and friends, and his work.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of painter Alexander Brook measure 4.3 linear feet and date from 1900-1982. Found within the papers are biographical material; personal and professional correspondence; writings; personal business records; printed material; scrapbooks; artwork; and photographs of Brook, his family and friends, and his work.
Biographical materials include an address book, award certificates, curriculum vitae, marriage and divorce documents, passports, biographical information on Brook's wife, Gina Knee Brook, and 4 interview transcripts.
Correspondence is primarily with Brook's family, friends, fellow artists, and business associates discussing personal relationships, teaching opportunities, art sales, and exhibitions. Included in this series are letters to Brook's second wife, Gina Knee Brook. Additional correspondents include Brook's children, Belinda and Sandy (Alexander) Brook, Peggy Bacon, artists Niles Spencer and George Biddle, and writer Haniel Long.
Writings by Brook consist of reminiscences, 6 essays, a lecture, a memorium to Catherine Brett, 6 short stories, 2 notebooks, and miscellaneous notes. Writings by others consist of a notebook by Mrs. Beeton containing humorous recipes, an essay, 2 memoirs, poetry, and a short story from unknown authors.
Personal business records include sales invoices, tax returns noting income from sales of artwork, and receipts for various art supplies.
Printed material includes brochures, chapbooks, clippings, city guides, exhibition announcements and catalogs, periodicals, and miscellaneous printed material.
There are two scrapbooks, a clippings scrapbook titled Unstruggling Artist, and an untitled scrapbook containing clippings and interspersed with correspondence, catalogs, and photographs.
Artwork consists of ink, pencil, and pen sketches; etchings and 2 etching plates; mixed media illustrations; and watercolors by unknown artists. There are also 9 sketchbooks, most likely by Alexander Brook, and a drawing by Miguel Covarrubius.
Photographs are of people, exhibition installations, and works of art. These include childhood photos of Alexander Brook and Gina Knee Brook, photos of the Brooks together in Savannah, Georgia and Sag Harbor, Long Island, as well as photos of Alexander Brook with friends, an artist model, at home, and in various studios. There are also photos of Peggy Bacon, Louis Bouché, Niles Spencer, and Jackson Pollock. Exhibition installations include a show at the Carnegie Institution and unidentified one man shows.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1907-1979 (14 folders; Box 1)
Series 2: Correspondence, circa 1930-1975 (0.6 linear feet; Box 1)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1921-1975 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1-2)
Series 4: Personal Business Records, circa 1931-1982 (0.3 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1918-1982 (1.4 linear feet; Box 2-3)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1935-1975 (0.4 linear feet; Box 3, 5)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1935-1975 (0.4 linear feet; Box 4)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1900-1980 (0.6 linear feet; Box 4)
Biographical / Historical:
Alexander Brook (1898-1980) was a painter and art instructor who lived and worked in Woodstock, Sag Harbor, and New York City, New York, and Savannah, Georgia.
Brook was born in Brooklyn, New York to Russian immigrants Eudoxia Gelescu and Onufri Brook. After contracting polio at the age of twelve, he remained bed-ridden for a year and his formal schooling was suspended. At this time, he began to show an interest in art and began receiving his first lessons in painting. In 1914, he enrolled in the Art Students League where he won scholarships and cultivated friendships with other art students, including Louis Bouché, Niles Spencer, and Peggy Bacon, whom he married in 1920.
Brook and Bacon's two children, Belinda and Alexander Bacon Brook, were born in 1920 and 1922, and the couple divided their time between a summer house in Woodstock and a series of apartments in New York City. Their circle of artist friends included the Bouchés, Niles Spencer, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andrew Dasburg, and many of the other artists who lived and worked in Woodstock. Brook and Bacon continued to produce art, with Brook focusing on his painting, and Bacon publishing her illustrations and prints in nationally syndicated magazines.
In the 1920s, Brook also wrote articles for The Arts and caught the attention of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. She invited him to promote and organize exhibits for her Whitney Studio Club, and from 1923 to 1927, he worked as assistant director of the Club, which was later to become the Whitney Museum of Art. By the late 1920s, Brook's realist paintings of landscapes, still lifes, and posed figures of women were gaining wide recognition and he was given his first retrospective at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1929, at the age of thirty-one. In the early 1930s, within the span of three years, Brook exhibited one man shows at the ACA, Valentine, Charles Daniel, and Downtown Galleries in New York City, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931.
In 1938, Brook moved to Savannah, Georgia and began visiting and painting realist scenes based on visits to the city's oldest black neighborhoods. When Brook's marriage with Bacon ended in 1940, he continued to live in Savannah with his second wife, Libby Berger. After his second marriage ended, he returned to New York in 1942 to teach at the Art Students League and, during World War II, served as a correspondent and artist for the Army based out of Panama.
In 1944, Brook returned to Savannah with his third wife, the artist Gina Knee Brook. Through the mid-1940s, Brook continued to exhibit his works, primarily through the Rehn Gallery, contributed articles and essays to art journals, and was commissioned to paint two covers for the Saturday Evening Post. In 1948, the Brooks purchased and moved to their last home in Sag Harbor, Long Island. Believing realist work was no longer well received in critical and contemporary art circles, Brook slowly retreated from the art world, exhibiting his last solo show at Knoedler Galleries in 1952, and retiring from painting in 1966. Brook died on February 26, 1980.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art holds an oral history interview with Alexander Brook conducted by Paul Cummings, July 7-8, 1977. There is also substantial correspondence from Alexander Brook in the Peggy Bacon papers.
Separated Materials:
The photocopied typescript, "Myself and Others," was microfilmed upon receipt and is available on reel 3928.
Provenance:
The bulk of the papers were donated in several accretions by his Brook's wife, Gina Knee Brook, from 1981 to 1982. In 1982, she loaned a scrapbook for microfilming, which was later donated to the archives by Brook's son, Sandy Brook, in 1994. In 1985 and 1986, the Whitney Museum and Eloise Spaeth each donated a copy of Brook's typescript "Myself and Others."
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.
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.
Impressionism, post-impressionism : XIX & XX century paintings from the Robert Lehman Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art : [exhibition] Oklahoma Museum of Art, April 23, 1983-July 18, 1983 / [catalogue by George Szabo]
French paintings of the nineteenth century from the collection of Mrs. Mellon Bruce : an exhibition / sponsored by patrons of art and music at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco
Author:
California Palace of the Legion of Honor Search this
Japan & Paris : Impressionism, Post impressionism, and the Modern Era / with essays by Christine M.E. Guth, Alicia Volk, Emiko Yamanashi ; catalogue entries by Redmond Entwistle ... [et al.]
Hidden treasures revealed : Impressionist masterpieces and other important French paintings preserved by the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg / Albert Kostenevich ; [translated from the Russian by Elena Kolesnikova, Catherine A. Fitzpatrick, and Stas Rabinovich]
Author:
Kostenevich, A. G (Alʹbert Grigorʹevich) Search this
Gogen : vzgliad iz Rossii : alʹbom-katalog, Moskva, Leningrad, 1989 / [avtory vstupitelʹnykh stateĭ M. Bessonova, A. Kantor-Gukovskaia, F. Kashen ; sostaviteli kataloga M. Bessonova ... et al. ; nauchnyĭ redaktor M. Bessonova]
The Collection of John A. and Audrey Jones Beck: Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings; a catalogue issued on the occasion of the first public exhibition of the Beck Collection, the Jesse H. Jones Galleries
