An interview of Edith Halpert conducted 1962-1963, by Harlan Phillips, for the Archives of American Art.
Halpert speaks of her childhood in Russia and growing up in New York City; working at Bloomindale's, Macy's, Stern Brothers, and Cohen Goldman; her marriage to artist Sam Halpert, his health, and living in Paris in 1925; becoming an art student at the Academy of Design and feeling that Leon Kroll was an excellent art teacher until he began to correct her drawings; when George Bridgman thought she was ruining his class; the Lincoln Square Arcade, when she and Ernest Fiener and Robert Brackman would rent Conan's studio evenings and bring in instructors; how Newman Montross influenced her more than anybody about showing her art that she loved; burning all of her work because Kroll said she had no talent; receiving a painting from John Marin; her friendship and working relationship with Abby Rockefeller and other family members.
She recalls opening the Downtown Gallery, in Greenwich Village, in 1926; a brief history of modern art; many artists helping decorate the new Daylight Gallery in 1930 and the first show being called "Practical Manifestations of Art"; meeting Robert and Sonia Delaunay in France; when she refused to allow Ezra Pound to speak at one of the gallery lectures because of his anti-Semite remarks and William Carlos Williams and Ford Madox Ford argued with her over it; experiencing jealousy and professional attacks from other dealers; the successful "Pop" Hart show and book in 1929; the "Thirty-three Moderns" show in 1930 at the Grand Central Galleries; the Jules Pascin show in 1930; in America, most of the art buyers supporters of culture were women, until the WPA and World War II, when it became fashionable for men to be involved; Ambroise Vollard's advice on selling art; handling the frustrations of working in the art field; friendships with Stuart Davis,Charles Sheeler, and Ben Shahn; how artists work through dry periods in their creativity and the "Recurrent Image" show; a discussion on modern art galleries of New York City, such as Daniel, Knoedler, Ferargil, the New Gallery, 291, the Grand Central, Kraushaar, and Montross; her travels through Pennsylvania and Maine for good examples of folk art for the gallery; the "The Artist Looks at Music" show; the non-competitive spirit of the early modern American artists; of being saved financially in 1940 by selling a William Harnett painting to the Boston Museum and then renting new space for the gallery.
Also, Mitchell Siporin bringing Halpert and Edmund Gurry to Mitchell Field during World War II for a camouflage show and consequently Downtown Gallery artists and others were enlisted in the camouflage corps for the U.S. Air Force; Charles Sheeler and his wife find Halpert a house in Newtown, Conn.; her decision in 1933 to push folk art for acquisition by the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri; her great concern about what to do with her folk art literature collection; dismay and that no one writes about the history of folk art and those responsible for its creation and popularity; Louis Stern hiring her to organize a municipal exhibit in Atlantic City, N.J., with Donald Deskey designing the furniture and Holger Cahill managing the publicity; Joe Lillie helping her meet Fiorello La Guardia and Joe McGoldrick in 1934 about a municipal show in New York City, but it is moved to Radio City Music Hall through Nelson Rockefeller; the "Salons of America" show; wanting articles written about art for love rather than art for investment; working with Aline Saarinen on her book, "Proud Possessors;" letters from Stuart Davis, William Zorach and others that hurt her feelings; enjoying giving educational lectures and considering retirement because of ill health; the desire to write a book on the history of trade signs in folk art; feeling that the young artists are being ruined by too much support without working for it; planning to write a book entitled, "Unsung Heroes," about artists brave enough to experiment; organizing a show in Russia at her own expense; later representing the U.S. in art at the "American National Exposition"; the agitators and success of the exposition; Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Halpert also recalls Juliana Force, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Buckminster Fuller, George Luks, Edsel Ford, Max Weber, Danny Diefenbacker, Hamilton Easter Field, Frank Stella, Glenn Coleman, Margaret Zorach, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Henry Mercer, Romany Marie, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Mellon, Charles Pollet, Alex Brook, Lunca Curass, Dorothy Lambert, Duncan Candler, Frank Rhen, Louis Rittman, Bea Goldsmith, Arthur Craven, Robert Frost, Philip Wittenberg, Caesar de Hoke, Richard deWolfe Brixey, Seymour Knox, Walt Kuhn, Elisabeth Luther Cary, Charles Locke, Duncan Fergusson, Mrs. Solomon Guggenheim, Bob Tannahill, David Thompson, Marsden Hartley, Erwin Barrie, Robert Laurent, Conger Goodyear, Henry McBride, Edward Hopper, Charles Daniel, William Merritt Chase, Charles Hopkinson, Thomas Hart Benton, Frank Crowninshield, Alfred Barr, Lord Duveen, Jacob Lawrence, John Marin Jr., Karl Zerbe, Franz Kline, Arthur Dove, Julian Levy, Jack Levine, Valentine Dudensing, Peggy Bacon, Stefan Hirsch, Gertrude Stein, Isamu Noguchi, Jasper Johns, Chaim Soutine, B. K. Saklatwalla; Fernand Leger, Pablo Picasso, Ben Shahn, Charles Demuth, Alexander Calder, Jackson Pollock, Edward Steichen, Carl Sandburg, Clement Greenberg, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Edith Halpert (1900-1970) was an art dealer from New York, N.Y.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 27 digital wav files. Duration is 32 hrs., 27 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art 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 others. The transcript was microfilmed in 1996.
Occupation:
Art dealers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Letters to Cassatt, from Cassatt, and from and to Cassatt's family and others; a typescript of a family history written by Cassatt's father, and other genealogical and biographical material; and pages from Paris Salon exhibition catalogs of 1872-1876 referencing Cassatt. The materials were primarily in the possession of Art Institute of Chicago curator Frederick Sweet at the time of microfilming; Sweet coordinated the microfilm project with the then newly formed Archives of American Art. The microfilm also identifies the owner at the time of microfilming (1955) and some of Sweet's correspondence concerning permission to microfilm from the various owners.
Among the recipients of letters from Cassatt are Cecilia Beaux, Electra Havemeyer Webb, Mrs. Potter Palmer, Theodate Pope, Mary Gardner Smith, Carroll S. Tyson, Ambroise Vollard, Harris Whittemore, her nephew Robert Kelso Cassatt and his wife Minnie Drexel Fell Cassatt; her sister-in-law Jennie (Mrs. J. Gardner Cassatt); and others. [Microfilm label: Frederick A. Sweet papers]
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming in 1955 by Frederick Sweet, author of the exhibition catalog Sargent, Whistler, and Mary Cassatt (1954) and Miss Mary Cassatt, Impressionist From Pennsylvania (1966). The owners of the letters at the time of microfilming are listed on the microfilm and the inventory. Letters and the typescript family history filmed on CI frames 1-869 were subsequently donated by their owner Mrs. John B. Thayer of Rosemont, Pa. to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1967, and letters from Cassatt to her nephew Robert Kelso Cassatt that were lent by Mr. Alexander Cassatt, Robert's brother in 1955, were subsequently donated to the Archives of American Art in 1986 by Alexander's son, also named Alexander Cassatt (microfilm reel 3684).
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Rights:
Authorization to publish, quote or reproduce requires written permission from the owners of the letters. [Frames 1-869 owned by Philadelphia Museum of Art] Contact Reference Services for more information.
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 -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia Search this
Ledgers detailing the art purchases of John Quinn. Entries include the Association of American Painters and Sculptors listing purchases from the Armory Show, February to June 1913, of works by Cezanne, Renoir, Raymond Villon-Duchamp, Andre Derain, Jules Pascin, Odilon Redon, Walt Kuhn, Jacques Villon and others. Also entered are purchases from Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession Gallery for paintings by Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Severini and Stanton Macdonald-Wright. Purchases from art dealers include M. Knoedler & Co. (for works by Morton Schamberg), Montross Gallery (for works by Arthur B. Davies, Maurice Pendergast, Walt Kuhn, Charles Sheeler, Max Weber), William Macbeth Gallery, Durand Ruel & Sons, and Ambroise Vollard.
Other entries of note include those for Jacob Epstein, one for Tiffany Studios detailing extensive refurbishing and refinishing of numerous items of furniture, and one for the Penguin Club enumerating the cost incurred for the installation of the VORTICIST EXHIBITION.
Biographical / Historical:
Art patron and lawyer; New York, N.Y.
Provenance:
Lent for microfilming 1986 by Thomas F. Conroy, Quinn's nephew by marriage. Mr. Conroy intends to donate these papers to the New York Public Library where the John Quinn Memorial Collection is housed.
Restrictions:
The Archives of American art does not own the original papers. Use is limited to the microfilm copy.
Mary Cassatt : prints and drawings from the collection of Ambroise Vollard / catalogue by Marc Rosen and Susan Pinsky ; foreword by Warren Adelson ; essays by Nancy Mowll Mathews, Marc Rosen, Sarah Bertalan
Title:
Prints and drawings from the collection of Ambroise Vollard
Recollections of a picture dealer. Translated from the original French manuscript by Violet M. Macdonald and now first published in any language. With thirty-two plates in collotype
Cézanne to Picasso : Ambroise Vollard, patron of the avant-garde / Rebecca A. Rabinow, editor ; Douglas W. Druick ... [et al.] ; with essays by Maryline Assante di Panzillo ... [et al.]
