Letter from Erle Loran, Berkeley, Calif., to "Mr. Wattenmaker," Toronto, thanking him for sending "the magnificent catalogue of your Puvis de Chavannes exhibition. I realize how much we have forgotten about Puvis and how far reaching his influence on modern french painting was." He mentions Puvis' influence on Seurat and Cézanne, and congratulates Wattenmaker on "a very important piece of scholarship."
Biographical / Historical:
Loran (1905-1999) was a painter, writer, teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of "Cézanne's Compositions: Analysis of his Form, With Diagrams and Photographs of his Motifs" (1943-1963). In 1976, Richard J. Wattenmaker was Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, where he curated the exhibition "Puvis de Chavannes and the Modern Tradition," October 24-November 30, 1975.
Provenance:
Donated 2000 by Richard J. Wattenmaker.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., Research Center. Contact Reference Services for more information.
47 photographs of 43 artists in their Paris studios. Artists include: Louise Abbema, Albert Aublet, Riene Bellcourt, Jean Beraud, Paul Albert Besnard, Maurice Bompard, Leon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, Gustave Rodolphe Clarence Boulanger, William Adolphe Bouguereau, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Alexandre Cabanel, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Georges Jules Victor Clairin, Louis Joseph Rapheal Collin, Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant, Fernand Cormon, Gustave Courtois, Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan, Jean Baptiste Edouard Detaille, Ernest Ange Duez, Carolus Duran, Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguiere, T. R. Fleury, J. Frappa, Walter Gay, Jean Leon Gerome, Henri Gervex, George Peter Alexander Healy, Antoine Auguste Ernest Hebert, Jean Jacques Henner, Charles Jacques, Jean Paul Laurens, Jules Lefebvre, Albert Maignan, Luc Olivier Merson, Aime Nicolas Morot, Mihaly Munkacsy, Alphonse Wane de Neuville, Georges Rochegrosse, Alfred Philippe Roll, John Singer Sargent, Alfred Stevens, and George Adolphus Storey.
The studios show mainly a strong Moorish influence.
Provenance:
Donated by the George Walter Vincent Smith Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1971, which had received them from a Mrs. Kirkham?, a painter who probably purchased them while studying in Paris.
Puvis de Chavannes : 1824-1898 : [exposition], Paris, Grand Palais, 26 novembre 1976-14 février 1977 : Ottawa, Galerie nationale du Canada, 18 mars-1er mai 1977 : [catalogue / rédigé par Louise d'Argencourt et al.]
