Macbeth Gallery records, 1947-1948, 1838-1968, bulk 1892-1953

This subseries contains the Macbeth Gallery publications Art Notes and Biographical Notes in addition to scattered exhibition announcements, catalogs and news clippings. The bulk of the news clippings in the collection and the gallery's exhibition catalogs can be found in Series 5: Scrapbooks.

Art Notes was an occasional publication issued during the art season "in the Interest of American Art and the Macbeth Gallery" from 1896 to 1930. The booklets typically contain essays on artists, current exhibitions at the gallery and current events in the art world and are an excellent source of information on the history of the gallery until 1930 and the opinions of the owners on various artistic trends and movements. Of particular note is an essay criticizing the Modernist movement which received attention in the press as well as letters, primarily of support, from many of the gallery's clients. Most of the issues are in bound voumes although there are also some individual copies of the publication. Numbers 14, 24, and 73 are missing. Judging by the number of requests for Art Notes in the Series 1: Correspondence, it was an extremely popular publication, especially with those who artistic tastes tended toward the conservative.

Also found here is the publication Biographical Notes, a collection of short biographies of fifty artists "whose reputations and experience of over twenty years enables us to vouch with some degree of certainty." The publication was intended to satisfy "the natural curiosity of the picture collector to know who the man is who painted the picture, and what he has done in the past that may indicate his position in the future."

Several of the exhibition announcements and catalogs found here are annotated and some are accompanied by news clippings. Catalogs include those for the gallery's fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries. One catalog for an exhibition organized and circulated by the American Federation of Arts in conjunction with the Archives of American Art is included here because it documented the role of the Macbeth Gallery. The catalog contains an essay written by Robert G. McIntyre for the exhibition entitled "The Macbeth Gallery: A Capsule History."

Also found here is a folder of six scattered news clippings recording milestones in the gallery's history such as the move to 15 East Fifty-seventh Street and the gallery's fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries. At the end of the series is a box of duplicate copies of Art Notes.

These folders contain non-Macbeth Gallery printed material including magazine and newspaper articles on a variety of artists as well as exhibition announcements and catalogs from other galleries, museums, and organizations including the American Water Color Society and the National Academy of Design.

One item of particular note is a bound catalog of the exhibition Ten American Painters held at the Durand-Ruel, Inc., in 1898. The catalog is signed by each of the ten painters represented in the exhibition.

Also of note among the art publications is a set of bound volumes of the pre-Civil War American art journal The Crayon. Published monthly in New York The Crayon was the first substantial periodical devoted entirely to the arts and is an indispensable resource for research on developments in the art world of the immediate pre-Civil War period. The volumes comprise an almost complete run of the journal which was published between 1855 and 1861. The Macbeth Gallery set dates from 1855 to 1859.

At the end of the series are two delightful pamphlets concerning Frederick Keppel's relationship with James MacNeill Whistler. The first was "privately printed and copyrighted by Frederick Keppel" in 1904 and entitled The Gentle Art of Resenting Injuries, some "unpublished correspondence addressed to the author of "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies." The second is entitled "One Day With Whistler," published by Keppel in 1908. The first booklet describes an altercation between Keppel and Whistler in the form of reprinted correspondence between the two men and Keppel's commentary on the incident which he describes as a "brilliant specimen of characteristic abusive Whistlerism." There are two copies of the pamphlet, which Keppel published in "very limited edition" solely for a few of his friends, one addressed to "To Robert W. Macbeth from his friend-the author," and another to William Macbeth. The second pamphlet further describes "Whistler's intercourse with me and mine with him."