Henri Bella Schaeffer and the Women of 1950s New York City

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As a processing intern with the Archives of American Art, I organized donated collections into a standardized arrangement, to make them accessible to researchers. I personally think processing archivists have the best job in the field; we get to immerse ourselves in stories and shape how the materials which hold them will be understood. I get to see an artist’s process, from journaled ideas to preliminary sketches to exhibition. I get to read their most intimate self-reflections. I get to hold snapshots of their community.

Of the collections which I processed this past summer, my favorite was the papers of Henri Bella Schaeffer. Despite being a relatively obscure artist without—as of this writing—her own Wikipedia page, Schaeffer led an impressive life, both as an artist and a philanthropist. Born in 1908, she studied at the Académie André Lhote and the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and under the tutelage of muralist William A. Mackay. She would go on to become an admired postimpressionist painter, notably included in the International Women’s Salon and the Salon d'Automne.

Much of Schaeffer’s collection surrounds her dedication to the Artists Equity Association (AEA), a national organization that, according to their constitution and by-laws, “formed to advance, foster, and promote the interests of those who work in the Fine Arts.” Schaeffer began this philanthropic commitment in 1950 as a member of the AEA New York Chapter’s Welfare Committee. She would advance steadily within the organization over the next decade, serving as a member of the National Welfare Committee from 1953 to 1959; director of the New York Chapter from 1954 to 1956; AEA director-at-large from 1956 to 1959; and AEA national secretary from 1961 to 1963.

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The AEA formed its chapter-level and national welfare committees during a period of political change and American artistic redefinition; in New York City where Schaeffer worked, this change was embodied in the invention of Abstract Expressionism. Following the end of World War II and the uptick of the Cold War, the United States’ new status as a strong ally led many European Modernists to immigrate to New York City. Art historian Michael Leja argues that American artists in New York City were influenced by this imported Modernism, a broad genre that embraces experimentation, to create art that encapsulated individualistic reactions to America’s rising role as an imperialist force. The rise of this new artistic genre in combination with America’s increasing global influence lifted New York City as a new center of the art world scene, supported by a booming postwar economy and the Works Progress Administration’s recent federal legitimization of artistic careers.

Using the example of abstract expressionism, we can gain insight into how women artists fared in 1950s New York City. In her book, Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics, Ann Eden Gibson argues that Abstract Expressionism is remembered as a “triumph of the outsider,” a daring venture by artists to take their political messages from the margins to the global art scene. However, because Abstract Expressionism fundamentally relies on the personhood of the artist, those with societal advantages ironically became the dominant voices in a genre defined by its supposed marginalization. As Joan Marter notes in her essay “Missing in Action: Abstract Expressionist Women,” women abstract expressionists in New York City were largely excluded from the commercial art scene, limited in their participation within key artist clubs, and their portrayals of postwar existentialism were largely dismissed. With white women experiencing this level of discrimination, it is no surprise that artists of color saw even less recognition within the budding genre of abstract expressionism.

Due to professional dismissal, some women artists in 1950s New York City were desperate for work. As a member of the New York Chapter’s Welfare Committee, Schaeffer received many letters from women artists or the wives of artists, asking for financial and professional assistance. Common stressors included debt, medical access, and housing insecurity. The women writing to Schaeffer and the New York Welfare Committee expressed their lack the references and connections needed to apply for jobs and their desperation to support their families.

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Schaeffer heard the pleas of these women and with the help of the New York Chapter Welfare Committee provided support in a variety of ways. Oftentimes this took the form of loans, to cover the rent and debts of recipients. When the situation was less immediate, the Committee connected women to job opportunities that could provide immediate cash. When a Mr. Loius Ferstad was sent to a sanitorium, the Welfare Committee covered the cost and, unable to find artistic employment on such short notice, set his wife up with “some typewriting work to do at home” to support their children in his absence. The Committee’s support always came with the expectation that its recipients would work hard to better their situations and would repay the AEA in time.

The Committee also supported women artists when the strain of poverty and personal losses to war became too much to bear. When Mrs. Dasha, the wife of a deceased veteran, wrote in requesting a same-day loan to purchase coal and clothes for her son, the Committee provided loans, artistic employment, and relocation assistance, hoping that the support would create “a possible incentive to her to try and help herself.” And when sculptor Irma Rothstein lived through a suicide attempt after losing her brother in World War II, the Committee covered her hospital bill, sold some of her artwork, and kept her company, as she had no family in the country. Schaeffer and the AEA stood with these women when they had no one else to which they could turn.

Henri Bella Schaeffer would continue to support artists through her other roles with the AEA, but her work with the New York Welfare Committee allowed her compassionate nature to directly reach women creatives in need. In the words of Schaeffer, “the right human relationship is … of utmost importance.” People like Henri Bella Schaeffer, a woman and an artist and an impactful philanthropist with a small digital footprint, are the reason I am training to be an archivist: to discover their stories, to place their legacies in the hands of others.

Emma Eubank is earning an M.A. in Public History at North Carolina State University and a M.S. in Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She interned with the Collections Processing department of the Archives of American Art in 2023.