Celebrating Fifty Years: The Archives of American Art, 1954-2004

Creator: Association of American Painters and Sculptors, Inc.

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Creator: Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman

Betty Parsons, ca. 1965. Photograph by Alexander Liberman. Betty Parsons papers and Gallery records, 1927–1985. Gift of the Betty Parsons estate.

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Mardsen Hartley posing in a cave, ca. 1931. Downtown Gallery records, 1824–1974. Gift of Edith Gregor Halpert.

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Creator: Kay Bell Reynal

Mark Rothko in his studio, 1952. Photograph by Bell Reynal. Photographs of Artists, Collection I. Gift of Kay Bell Reynal.

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Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, ca. 1933. Albert Kahn papers, 1888–1973. Lydia K. Malbin, Rosalie K. Butzel and Edgar A. Kahn.

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Creator: Musya Sheeler

Edward Steichen, Charles Sheeler and John Marin, ca. 1950. Photograph by Musya Sheeler. Charles Sheeler papers, 1938–1965. Transferred from the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

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Sculpture class at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, ca. 1888. Thomas Anshutz papers, 1870–1942. Gift of Elizabeth R. Anshutz. In the last quarter of the 19th century the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was one of the most prestigious and influential art schools in America. After the departure of Thomas Eakins, Thomas Anshutz (1851–1912) was among its best-known instructors. He taught there for nearly thirty years and many of his students became major figures in American art. The bare-headed man in the center of this photograph is Robert Henri.

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Stuart Davis in New Mexico, 1923. Downtown Gallery records, 1824–1974. Gift of Edith Gregor Halpert.

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Creator: Ad Reinhardt

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Creator: John Singleton Copley

John Singleton Copley, Letter to Ozias Humphry, July 2, 1775. Charles Henry Hart autograph collection, 1731–1912. Anonymous gift. Copley (1738–1815) wrote this letter to English painter Humphry from Parma, Italy. He begins with a discussion of artistic matters and concludes with current political affairs in America, stating his relief that his wife and family have reached England safely. He expresses his concern about the unrest in the American colonies, his fear of possible civil war with England, and his distress for his friends still in America. Copley settled permanently in England shortly after writing this letter.

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Creator: Frederic Edwin Church

Frederic E. Church, Letter to Martin Johnson Heade, March 1, 1871. Martin Johnson Heade papers. Gift of Robert G. McIntyre. Church (1826–1900) and Heade (1819–1904), two of the most significant American landscape painters of the 19th century, shared a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York. Church, writing from Hudson, New York, sends instructions to hold his mail and includes a sketch of a postman overwhelmed by a large box of mail.

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Creator: Winslow Homer

Winslow Homer, Letter to J. Eastman Chase, February 1882. J. Eastman Chase papers, 1877–1917. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Robbins. Homer (1836–1910) spent the winter of 1881–82 in England at the North Sea town of Cullercoats, which inspired some of his best-known work. This terse, but informative, letter to his dealer is fascinating as Homer almost casually writes: "If you like you may cut off the life boat….” Homer is also very specific about the price he wants: $250.

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Creator: Marsden Hartley

Marsden Hartley, Letter to Rockwell Kent, [1912/1913]. Rockwell Kent papers, [ca. 1840]–1993. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell Kent and Shirley (Sally) Kent Gorton. Hartley (1877–1943), a major figure in American art in the first half of the 20th century, was also a poet and prolific letter writer. His letters are often lengthy, usually informative, and an excellent resource for scholars. While in Paris and Germany in 1912 and 1913, he wrote frequently to Rockwell Kent about the writers and artists he met and his opinions about their work. In this letter he writes of Picasso’s “depth of understanding and insight into the inwardness of things.”

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Creator: Francis Davis Millet

Francis Davis Millet, Diary, 1908. Francis Davis Millet and Millet family papers, 1858–1984. Gift of Joyce A. Sharpey-Schafer and David M. Emerson. Millet (1846–1912) was a prominent figure in the art world on both sides of the Atlantic in the decades just before and after the turn of the 20th century. He was a cultural advisor to two presidents, and by the late 1880s was a leading member of the American expatriate community in England. His diaries vividly describe his travels around the world and his friendships with such figures as John Singer Sargent, Edwin A. Abbey, Henry James, and Mark Twain. Millet’s extraordinary life ended with the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

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Creator: Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt, Letter to John Beatty, October 6, [undated]. Carnegie Institute Museum of Art papers. The director of the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art asked each of the artists who participated in the semiannual Carnegie International Exhibitions to send a personal photograph, which would be published in the catalog. In this letter, Cassatt (1844–1926) vehemently refused his request: “…it would be very disagreeable to me to have my image in a catalogue or in any publication…. What has the public to do with the personal appearance of the author of a picture or statue? Why should such curiosity if it exists be gratified?”

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Creator: Desmond Fitzgerald

Desmond Fitzgerald, Diary, 1925. Desmond Fitzgerald papers, 1868–1930. Archives purchase. Fitzgerald (1846–1926) was one of Boston’s leading art collectors and patrons. Among his notable achievements was his arranging for the Armory Show to travel to Boston in the spring of 1913. He kept a diary for 47 years, and here he writes about visiting Claude Monet in 1925, just before the deaths of both men.

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Creator: F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald, Letter to Charles Green Shaw, June 21, 1927. Charles Green Shaw papers, 1830-1974. Charles Green Shaw bequest. Shaw (1892-1974), an abstract painter and well-connected social figure, had earlier planned to be a writer. His circle of friends included F. Scott Fitzgerald who, known to give generous advice to young writers, was particularly kind to his friend Shaw. Fitzgerald is encouraging before offering criticism: "It is a damn good piece of humorous writing from end to end. I wish you'd try something with a plot." He ends by apologizing for being "drunk and dull the other night."

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Creator: Joseph Cornell

Joseph Cornell Diary, February 26–27, 1945. Joseph Cornell papers, 1722–1973. Gift of Elizabeth Benton. The Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) papers are one of the largest collections of an individual artist's papers in the Archives. His writings and diaries reflect mundane aspects of his life, his routine activities, as well as his keenly felt observations. They constitute an intimate and detailed portrait of this reclusive but important artist.

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Creator: Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey, Letter to Windsor Utley, 1959. Windsor Utley papers, 1951–1959. Gift of Windsor Utley. Tobey (1890–1976) was one of a group of established artists in the Pacific Northwest who made a considerable mark on the art world. One of his students in Seattle was Utley, who maintained a friendship with Tobey throughout the 1950s. Tobey’s reaction to the art of that decade is fascinating; in this letter, he writes: “I really am sick of modern art really - it’s small pickins now. The best work seems to have been done in the early decades of the 20th century.”

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Creator: Irving Blum

Irving Blum, Letter to David Herbert, [undated]. David Herbert papers, 1950–1995. Gift of Jaime Andradre. Blum and Walter Hopps founded the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in 1958. The gallery was an immediate success, and Blum kept New York-based Herbert (1922–1995) abreast of the goings-on. Blum writes about the gallery opening of the Robert Irwin exhibition: “Movie stars, poodles, beggars, shopkeepers & the four Gingo’s, a family of performing Eskimos from Point Barrow, Alaska. I got stoned after awhile & starting tap dancing & whinnying like a horse.”

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Creator: Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth, Letter to Hazel Lewis, October 12, 1950. Macbeth Gallery records, [ca. 1890]–1964. Gift of Robert G. McIntyre. The Macbeth Gallery Records span 62 years (1892–1954) and comprise some 150,000 items: letters from many people significant in the art world, financial records, photographs, scrapbooks, and exhibition catalogs. Although celebrated for exhibiting “The Eight” in 1908, the proprietors of the gallery were, on the whole, not enamored of modern art. In the gallery’s later years, its best-known artist was Andrew Wyeth (b. 1917), a more traditional artist, whose first one-man show was held there in 1937, and who stayed with the Macbeth Gallery until it closed in 1954.

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Photograph of David Smith, ca. 1942. Photographer unknown, caption by Dorothy Dehner. Dorothy Dehner papers, 1927–1987. Gift of Dorothy Dehner. Smith (1906–1965), the pre-eminent American sculptor of the mid-20th century, is shown here uncharacteristically at work on a marble sculpture. Some 35 years after the photograph was taken, Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994), Smith’s first wife, wrote the extremely informative caption stating that Smith “did it mainly with Freeman’s power tools. He was always fascinated by industrial methods & had never hand carved marble, even though this picture depicts hammer & chisel.” This sort of specific information proves how valuable a well-labeled photograph can be for art historical research.

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Creator: Dorothy Dehner

Photograph of David Smith, ca. 1942. Photographer unknown, caption by Dorothy Dehner. Dorothy Dehner papers, 1927–1987. Gift of Dorothy Dehner. Smith (1906–1965), the pre-eminent American sculptor of the mid-20th century, is shown here uncharacteristically at work on a marble sculpture. Some 35 years after the photograph was taken, Dorothy Dehner (1901–1994), Smith’s first wife, wrote the extremely informative caption stating that Smith “did it mainly with Freeman’s power tools. He was always fascinated by industrial methods & had never hand carved marble, even though this picture depicts hammer & chisel.” This sort of specific information proves how valuable a well-labeled photograph can be for art historical research.

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Catalog of an exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery, January 20–February 8, 1947. Betty Parsons papers and Gallery records, 1927–1985. Gift of the Betty Parsons estate. Gallery records provide fascinating and sometimes startling documentation concerning the economics of the art world. On this page of a Betty Parsons Gallery catalog, the asking prices, which were not always the same as selling prices, have been written in pencil next to each work.

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Creator: Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer, Letter to Edward Larrabe Barnes, March 10, 1946. Marcel Breuer Papers, 1920–1986. Gift of Constance L. Breuer. Breuer’s (1902–1981) long and productive career and brilliant innovations put him in the forefront of modern architecture and design. From the Bauhaus to the Whitney Museum of American Art, from the Wassily chair to Harvard, his extraordinary career is reflected in myriad documents. In this letter, Breuer writes to Barnes about the major decision he had made to leave Harvard to set up full time as an architect in New York.

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Creator: Marie Harriman Gallery

Catalog of Juan Gris exhibition, Marie Harriman Gallery, February 1932. Marie Harriman Gallery exhibition catalogs and announcements 1932–1961. Gift of W. Averell Harriman. The records of the Marie Harriman Gallery have disappeared, like those of many other small or short-lived galleries. Fortunately, scholars can reconstruct a record of the gallery’s important exhibitions through individual catalogs such as this. Marie Harriman was married to W. Averell Harriman and established a gallery, which was in operation from 1930 to 1942, on East Fifty-seventh Street. Her specialty was French Post-Impressionists and School of Paris painters, but she showed Americans as well, particularly Walt Kuhn, who was a friend and advisor.

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Creator: Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper, Letter to Frank K. M. Rehn, September 15, 1926. Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries records, 1858-1969. Gift of John Clancy. Hopper (1882-1967) writes to art dealer Frank Rehn during a visit to Gloucester, Mass., where he painted some of his best-known watercolors. In this letter, he focuses his keen interest on the framing of his pictures. He includes a sketch of the frame, as well as the precise type of mat and where to buy it. He even suggests that, at the framer's shop, the woman at the desk will give a better rate than the framer would.

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Creator: Leo Holub

Imogen Cunningham on Leo Holub’s porch, San Francisco, 1972. Photograph by Leo Holub. Leo Holub papers, 1936–2001. Gift of Leo Holub.

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Creator: Leo Holub

Richard Diebenkorn, visiting artist at Stanford University, 1963. Photograph by Leo Holub. Leo Holub papers, 1936–2001. Gift of Leo Holub.

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Certificates of Authenticity for portraits Catlin painted from life, 1831–1832. George Catlin papers, 1821–1904, 1946. Deposited at the Archives of American Art 1981 by the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution. In 1828 George Catlin (1796–1872) began recording American Indian culture through his portraits and scenes from daily life, including buffalo hunts. To bankroll his life’s work, he traveled with his own exhibition to many American cities, London, and Paris. Never financially successful, Catlin was eventually rescued from debt by Joseph Harrison Jr., a wealthy American industrialist, who purchased the paintings, papers, and related artifacts in 1852. They were left neglected in a warehouse, but ultimately Harrison’s widow donated the entire collection to the Smithsonian Institution.

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Creator: Thomas Eakins

Thomas Eakins, Photograph of William Rudolf O’Donovan, May 1891. Photographs of Artists, Collection II. Gift of Margaret O'Donovan Polhemus. Documentary photographs are indispensable to art historical research, and the Archives’ collections are a rich resource with the total number of photographs approaching one half million. The Archives also holds photographs that are works of art in themselves. The photography of Thomas Eakins (1844–1916) is fascinating for both its documentary and artistic qualities, as in this image of the portrait sculptor William Rudolf O’Donovan (1844–1920).

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Creator: Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp, Letter to Jean Crotti, July 8, 1918. Jean Crotti papers, 1910–1973. Gift of Alice Buckler-Brown. Of all the champions of the avant-garde in the first half of the 20th century, no one is more famous than Duchamp (1887–1968). This letter is part of a group written to his sister, Suzanne, and to Jean Crotti, with whom Duchamp had shared a New York studio, and who later became Suzanne’s husband. These letters reveal insights into the private world of this idiosyncratic and complex artist. In them, he discusses much of his art from the 1910s and 20s, when he was producing some of his most important work.

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Creator: Lilla Cabot Perry

Monet’s Garden at Giverny, ca. 1889–1909. Photographer unknown. Lilla Cabot Perry photographs, [ca. 1889–1909]. Gift of James Holsaert. American painter Perry (1848–1933) became acquainted with Claude Monet in the summer of 1889 when she and her husband visited Giverny. The Perrys were so smitten with Giverny that they eventually took the house and garden next door. Perry later wrote about her years in Giverny, and her papers contain a wonderful visual record of Monet’s studio and garden between 1889 and 1909.

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Creator: Rockwell Kent

Rockwell Kent, Letter to his wife, Frances, September 13, [1926]. Rockwell Kent papers, [ca. 1840]–1993. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell Kent and Shirley (Sally) Kent Gorton. Kent’s (1882–1971) papers form an extraordinarily rich collection, which sheds light on all aspects of his life as painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, lecturer, explorer, and political activist. In 1969 just as the papers were packed ready to be shipped to the Archives, his house in upstate New York and its contents were destroyed by fire. By sheer good fortune, the papers survived. Afterward, as Kent prepared to send the papers to the Archives he wrote: “we wish that the whole house, with all its now irreplaceable contents, had been sent to the Archives.”

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Creator: Association of American Painters and Sculptors, Inc.

Armory Show catalog, button and pin, 1913. Walt Kuhn, Kuhn family papers, and Armory Show records, 1882–1966. Gift of Brenda Kuhn. Perhaps the most celebrated items in the Archives are the primary documents that constitute the records of the Armory Show of 1913 (officially titled the “International Exhibition of Modern Art”). Walt Kuhn, who had served as secretary of the exhibition’s sponsoring organization, zealously guarded the scholarly treasures for years—even to the point of denying their existence. Thanks to his daughter, the papers were given to the Archives in 1962 and have been available to researchers ever since.

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Creator: Joan Miró

Joan Miró, Sketch and note, November 21, 1961. Dwight Ripley papers relating to Joan Miró, [ca. 1945]–1961. Gift of S. Dillon Ripley. Collector Dwight Ripley (d. 1973) was the fortunate recipient of this charming sketch by Miró (1893–1983).

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Creator: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock, Letter to Betty Parsons, [1951]. Betty Parsons papers and Gallery records, 1927–1985. Gift of the Betty Parsons estate. By 1951 Pollock (1912–1956) was well known in the art world, but his work had few buyers. He had, nonetheless, strong views on the monetary value of his work. In this letter to Parsons, he refers to his precarious financial position and his attempt to relieve the situation by trying to get mural commissions. He makes it clear that, if he is successful without her help, she would not get a fee. Pollock left the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1952.

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Creator: Kay Bell Reynal

Alfred Stieglitz, ca. 1940. Photograph by Kay Bell Reynal. Downtown Gallery records, 1824–1974. Gift of Edith Gregor Halpert.

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Creator: Doug Stewart

Wendell Castle at Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina, 1969. Photograph by Doug Stewart. Fendrick Gallery records, 1952–2001. Gift of Barbara Fendrick.

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Creator: Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt, Letter to Mrs. Parsons, January 20, 1860. Archives purchase. Born in Germany, Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) moved to America with his family when he was two years old. As a young man, he traveled to Europe to study art. Upon his return to America, he exhibited his first painting at the National Academy of Design and was elected an Associate Member. Shortly thereafter, Bierstadt traveled to the American West and discovered the landscapes that would influence his career. Returning to New York he began his first of many monumental paintings of western scenes.

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Creator: Samuel Finley Breese Morse

Samuel F. B. Morse, Letter to Miss Elizabeth Breese, January 20, 1827. Breese and Morse family papers, 1772–1846. Gift of Constance K. Clarke. Morse (1791–1872), a painter and inventor of the Morse code, studied with Benjamin West in London, beginning in 1811. He later settled in New York and by 1826 was a founder and first president of the National Academy of Design. This charming illustrated letter was written to one of his upstate New York cousins. He begins the letter by saying he feels “more like dropping asleep than writing a letter.” He breaks from this desire to write of his work on a painting in progress and with the National Academy of Design, which had just been established.

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Creator: Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud, Sketch, ca. 1995. Wayne Thiebaud papers, 1994–2001. Gift of Wayne Thiebaud. Thiebaud (b.1920) established his career in California (where he still lives) and achieved fame with his first exhibition at the Alan Stone Gallery in New York in 1962. His thickly painted and evocative paintings of cakes, pies, tie racks, and the like seemed characteristic of the same consumer culture that the Pop artists of the early 1960s depicted, but Thiebaud’s art always seemed to have a somewhat different sensibility.

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Creator: Worthington Whittredge

Worthington Whittredge, Ledger, ca. 1860. Worthington Whittredge papers, [undated] and 1836–1932. Gift of L. Emory Katzenbach and W. W. Katzenbach. Whittredge (1820–1910), a Hudson River School painter, kept this ledger with several pages inscribed “Completed Commissions and other Pictures.” Dating from about 1860, this “liber veritatis” was an extremely useful method of record keeping for Whittredge and is a valuable document for art historians.

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Creator: Jervis McEntee

Jervis McEntee, Diary, 1886. Jervis McEntee papers, 1850–1905. Gift of Mrs. Helen S. McEntee. An obscure figure today, landscape painter McEntee (1828–1891) was at the center of artistic life in New York for thirty years. His detailed diary from 1872 to 1890 records a remarkably complete picture of the art world in late 19th-century New York. We learn of his own life, and more importantly, about numerous other artists, collectors, writers, even politicians. Fascinating moments in the life of the metropolis are described, such as the openings of the Metropolitan Museum and the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Creator: Association of American Painters and Sculptors, Inc.

Armory Show catalog, button and pin, 1913. Walt Kuhn, Kuhn family papers, and Armory Show records, 1882–1966. Gift of Brenda Kuhn. Perhaps the most celebrated items in the Archives are the primary documents that constitute the records of the Armory Show of 1913 (officially titled the “International Exhibition of Modern Art”). Walt Kuhn, who had served as secretary of the exhibition’s sponsoring organization, zealously guarded the scholarly treasures for years—even to the point of denying their existence. Thanks to his daughter, the papers were given to the Archives in 1962 and have been available to researchers ever since.

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Creator: Lilla Cabot Perry

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Creator: Lilla Cabot Perry

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Creator: Alexander Calder

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