Oscar Bluemner papers, 1886-1939

Bluemner defined many of his groups of sketches and notes as either "Travel Sketches" or "Art Motifs". Many of these were developed into themes for his paintings. The folder titles listed below are Bluemner's own titles and definitions, such as "Alley", "Central Port", or "House & Mountain." The most extensive motif found here is "Trees" consisting of sketches and notes on various types of trees, including notes on the compositional layout of trees in his paintings. Bluemner also had art motif files of travel sketches of various places, mostly of towns in New Jersey, where he lived, but also of Italy, which he visited in 1912. Additional sketches of these same places are found among other files of art motifs.

There is a group of sketches Bluemner called "Mixed Themata." Other terms he used to label this same material are "Very Valuable" and "Vermilion Themata." The items found here are the same types of sketches as the rest of his motif files, and some are labeled as "copies." It appears from his notes, found among these items, that these sketches and notes were pulled from his files of motifs and reorganized, perhaps because they were of greater importance to him. They were sorted by Bluemner according to his own coding system or set of abbreviations.

The files include pencil, charcoal, and colored sketches, most of which are heavily annotated with notes about color and composition. Other items found in the files may include newspaper clippings of images related to the motif, and original file tabs and file dividers which Bluemner created. Bluemner recorded the date and place on almost all of the sketches.

Art motifs and travel sketches are arranged alphabetically by subject according to Bluemner's original arrangement. Most of the categories of material are preceded by an envelope, originally containing the items, on which Bluemner wrote a title for the contents, dates, and extensive notes. It is believed, based on these notes, that Bluemner rearranged these papers and removed certain items while he was preparing to give them to John Davis Hatch. Researchers should be aware that items are generally not in chronological order, and every attempt has been made to keep the pages in Bluemner's original order.

This series has been scanned in its entirety.