Masters of American Drawings
and Watercolors, Foundations of the Collection, 1904-1922
Gallery text from the exhibition
- Foundations of the Collection, 1904-1922
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- On view in this gallery are drawings and watercolors
created by some of the most important American artists of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries -- James McNeill Whistler, Winslow Homer, Childe
Hassam, to name just a few. The exhibition showcases the museum's early
collection of works on paper acquired by John W. Beatty, this institution's
first director and a discriminating collector. A printmaker, painter, and
writer, Beatty believed that drawings provided intimate access to an artist's
thought processes, and he was the driving force behind this early collection.
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- The works of art in this exhibition reflect the prevailing
taste in Pittsburgh during the first two decades of the 20th century, preferences
and attitudes that were often reserved in comparison to the more avant-garde
trends in the art world at the time. Viewers will note a commitment to
illustration, landscape, and pastoral scenes, and an interest in preparatory
drawings for murals and decorative schemes, as well as head, figure, and
drapery studies. In terms of styles and movements, the collection includes
significant examples of naturalism, aestheticism, academic art, and Barbizon-style
landscapes.
- The early collection has significant resonance with the
history of the Carnegie International exhibitions, often including
a similar cast of artists. The Carnegie International is an ongoing
series of contemporary art exhibitions that dates back to 1896 and has
been a significant source of acquisitions for the collection. Many of the
artists represented in the current exhibition had personal ties to Carnegie
Institute (Carnegie Museums today) or to Beatty. The first section of the
exhibition is devoted to the work of Childe Hassam and Winslow Homer. Hassam
was active in early Internationals and a friend to Beatty. A significant
group of his drawings came into the collection in this early period. The
first drawing to enter the collection, however, was by Winslow Homer. His
Figures on the Coast (1883) was purchased in 1904, and his 1896
Carnegie International award-winner The Wreck, was the first
painting purchased by the museum. Beatty did not act alone in the development
of the collection, but worked closely with prominent advisors, such as
Sadakichi Hartmann and more remotely with benefactors like Andrew Carnegie.
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- General support for the museum's exhibition program is
provided by The Heinz Endowments, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts,
and Allegheny Regional Asset District.
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- Arbiters of Taste
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- Carnegie Museum of Art's first collection of American
drawings and watercolors was shaped through the specific preferences and
directives of three key figures: John W. Beatty, Sadakichi Hartmann, and
Andrew Carnegie.
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- John W. Beatty (1851-1924)
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- Director of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, 1896-1922
- In 1890, John W. Beatty organized an exhibition of European
art coinciding with the opening of the Carnegie Library in Allegheny City
(Pittsburgh's North Side today). Five years later when the Carnegie Institute
was founded in Oakland, Beatty again was enlisted to organize a celebratory
loan exhibition for the opening. Impressed by the results of this endeavor,
in 1896 Andrew Carnegie appointed Beatty the first director of Carnegie
Institute's art gallery, subsequently named the department of fine arts
and later Carnegie Museum of Art. In 1896 Beatty organized the first Carnegie
International exhibition.
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- A printmaker and painter trained at the Royal Academy
in Munich, Beatty was a native of Pittsburgh. As director of the Carnegie
Institute, he had contact with some of the most prominent artists of the
day, and he was well informed about major movements in the American and
international art world. Naturalism and Aestheticism are dominant trends
that run through much of the museum's early collection. Beatty's taste,
demonstrated in his own art production, gravitated toward landscapes reflecting
Barbizon and regional Western Pennsylvania aesthetics, agrarian subjects,
marines, figure studies, and illustration. These categories are heavily
represented in the first drawings acquired for the collection. Also, many
of the drawings on view are studies for paintings or decorative schemes.
Beatty believed drawings reveal an artist's thought process. In a checklist
of the collection published in 1912 (on view nearby), Beatty wrote an introduction
to the drawings section that reveals his passion for the medium.
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- Original drawings have always a unique interest, in
that they bring us closer to the creative artist, and give us a more intimate
understanding of the art of the painter, than perhaps any other medium
of expression.
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- ****
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- [separate, Beatty label to accompany the checklist published,
1912]
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- This 1912 pamphlet is a checklist of Carnegie Institute's
collection at the time. It is divided into three major sections with a
brief introduction to each: Paintings, Drawings, and Japanese Prints. The
booklet also contains floor plans of the galleries and lists of committees
and trustees.
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- ****
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- [separate, Beatty label to accompany book, The Relation
of Art to Nature]
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- John W. Beatty, The
Relation of Art to Nature, New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1922
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- John Beatty's views on the role of art and artists in
society and culture remained idealistic and lofty throughout his tenure
as director. He recorded his complex theoretical views in a treatise titled
The Relation of Art to Nature. In his book, Beatty analyzes statements
by artists as varied as Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Jean François
Millet, Gilbert Stuart, James McNeill Whistler, and Winslow Homer; and
he discusses aesthetic theory by such philosophers as Plato, Aristotle,
Immanuel Kant, and Georg Friedrich Hegel. According to Beatty, art's most
important roles are to express "truth" and "character."
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- The masterpieces of art... possess a common factor
without regard to subject or period.... This factor I believe to be the
quality of truth.
- These great works owe their existence to the fact
that they faithfully represent some great outstanding type, or because
they truthfully
- reveal the characteristic and essential beauty of
nature.
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- He goes on to assert, "The highest purpose of the
artist is to faithfully represent character." These views informed
Beatty's decisions in building the American drawings and watercolors collection
as much as they informed his plans for the museum's collection as a whole
and for the early International exhibitions.
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- ****
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- Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944)
- Consultant, art critic, and art historian
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- Sadakichi Hartmann had a cosmopolitan upbringing. His
mother was Japanese, and his father was a German merchant. As a child Hartmann
lived in Nagasaki, later moving to numerous towns and schools in Germany
and the United States. By 1893 he was a recognized writer and had founded
his own art journal, The Art Critic. He was a frequent contributor
to Alfred Stieglitz's famous periodical Camera Work. And he was
the author of several art history books published around 1900, including
A History of American Art (on view nearby). Hartmann moved in colorful
and prestigious artistic and literary circles. Ezra Pound once wrote, "If
one had not been oneself, it would have been worthwhile being Sadakichi."
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- On May 5, 1906, John Beatty first contracted with Hartmann,
authorizing him to act as a consultant and scout in the art world, specifically
focused on the task of building Carnegie Institute's American drawings
and watercolors collection. A great influx of drawings to the collection
followed. Beatty would produce lists of artists whose work interested him,
and Hartmann searched for the best examples on the market. Hartmann was
authorized to approach living artists and their families, as well as to
work with galleries and dealers, and to make selections on behalf of the
museum. Beatty, however, had final approval over all purchases. The drawings
archives kept by publishers of periodicals, such as Scribner's Sons,
Colliers, and The Century, were an excellent source of work.
The collaboration between Hartmann and Beatty was very close, and it seems
clear that Hartmann was recommending artists to Beatty.
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- ****
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- Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
- Founder of the Carnegie Institute and Benefactor
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- Andrew Carnegie's role in the formation of the early
collections was less hands-on than John Beatty's or Sadakichi Hartmann's.
Yet his overriding vision for the mission of the Institute formed the backdrop
for decisions that influenced the early collection, including the early
American drawings collection. The idea for the Institute was launched in
1890 when Carnegie pledged a million dollars toward the construction of
a building that would evolve through several building expansion projects
into the museum today. The early Carnegie Institute housed a library, music
hall, assembly halls, an art gallery, and a section for the study of natural
history. Carnegie committed substantial funds in following years to finance
the maintenance and growth of the Institute. His vision was to establish
a center for culture and education enabling all Pittsburghers to enjoy
access to art, music, literature, and educational resources.
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- The art gallery, subsequently the Fine Arts Department
and then Carnegie Museum of Art, was not founded with Carnegie's personal
collection of art. Instead, he promoted a collection strategy focusing
on the acquisition of contemporary art. He hoped the art gallery would
purchase two paintings each year, beginning with the year 1896, and that
these pairs would be displayed in chronological order. Carnegie's goal
was to showcase the progress in American art within the international art
world. Juried Carnegie International exhibitions were initiated
in 1896 to further this collecting strategy. Carnegie's dedication to contemporary
art is striking. His famous directive in a letter from 1907 to the board
of trustees stated,
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- The Art Department should... confine itself to the
acquisition of such pictures as are thought likely to become Old Masters
with time. The Gallery is for the masses of the people primarily, not for
the educated few.
- William Glackens
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- William Glackens is an important figure in the early
history of Carnegie Institute, and the early collection of American drawings
contains three impressive examples of his skill as an illustrator and his
interest in combining media within his drawings. These drawings also are
examples of Glackens' eccentric paper preferences for his work, namely
grocery paper and wallpaper.
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- A native of Philadelphia, Glackens began his career as
an illustrator for the Philadelphia Record and the Press, where
he met fellow artists John Sloan, George Luks, and Everett Shinn. The
four young men joined with four other artists to form the Ashcan school,
otherwise known as The Eight. The group had its first exhibition in 1908
and was most noted for focusing attention on urban realism. The bustling
urban street scenes depicted in Glackens' In Town It's Different
and in Vitourac Had Never Before Been the Scene of Such a Splendid Fete
are typical Ashcan subjects.
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- Sadakichi Hartmann was particularly proud of the acquisition
of the imposing, highly detailed, and finished In Town It's Different,
which appeared as the frontispiece for Scribner's August 1899 publication
and was meant to illustrate a poem titled "An Urban Harbinger"
by E. S. Martin. The grittiness of the pub scene and bleak style in The
Huddled with Heads Bent Low also strongly evoke the tone of Ashcan
school work.
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- Glackens was a frequent exhibitor at the early Carnegie
Internationals, displaying 26 works between 1905 and 1938. He was an
award winner in 1905, 1929, and 1936.
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- Frederick Childe Hassam
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- A leader among American Impressionists, Frederick Childe
Hassam began his career as an illustrator. From 1887 to 1889, he was in
Paris studying at the Académie Julien, a period of time that
coincided with the heyday of Impressionist exhibitions in Paris. During
his stay, Hassam solidified his famed Impressionistic style.
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- In 1907 the museum acquired 30 drawings, watercolors,
and pastels, a selection of which are on view here. Many are on boldly
colored or black paper; some of the papers-Hassam's "scraps"-are
re-used backs of pamphlets, invitations, and stationery. Some scraps were
chosen for the impact of their color on the mood of a drawing or for the
wittiness conveyed by the paper's original use.
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- Hassam experimented with different combinations of media,
which was a departure from the conventional English method of pure watercolor
advocated by important yet conservative period art groups, such as the
American Watercolor Society. He also experimented with graphic strategies
for producing images. The economy of line, the distinctive use of outlining
and modeling, and the relationship between the unusual papers and the imagery
all work to create compelling works of art often based on suggestion and
evocation rather than exhaustive description or extensive detail. Some
of these drawings reflect Hassam's travels, some provide insight into his
preparations for paintings, and some are autonomous works of art. They
reflect a broad chronological range in Hassam's career; the earliest dates
to c. 1883, and the most recent examples were done around 1906. Over many
years Hassam exhibited 90 paintings at different Carnegie International
exhibitions, and in 1910 he was granted a solo exhibition.
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- Winslow Homer
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- An iconic figure in the history of American art, Winslow
Homer, like many artists in this exhibition, began as an illustrator and
maintained an interest in drawing throughout his career. He was one of
the most famous artists working for Harper's Weekly and other popular
periodicals of the late 19th century. He gained particular fame for his
illustrations of events and battles of the Civil War. As a mature artist,
Homer turned increasingly to the sea for his subject matter, and many of
his best-known works depict coastal communities in England and New England.
He was famous during his lifetime and is remembered today as a virtuoso
watercolorist. Characteristically he employed pure watercolor techniques
and pushed the medium to emotionally evocative and expressive heights.
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- Homer was very friendly with John Beatty and was an important
figure in the early history of the Carnegie Internationals. His
painting The Wreck was the first painting purchased by the Institute.
Between 1896 and 1908, Homer exhibited 36 works of art in different Internationals,
and he served as a juror in 1897 and 1901.
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- J. Alden Weir
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- James Alden Weir was one of the leaders in the school
of American Impressionism. He first studied at the National Academy of
Design, and went on to Paris in the mid-1870s, where he continued to work
in the traditional academic manner, exhibiting several works at the Paris
Salon. During this period Weir was exposed to the Impressionist exhibitions
in Paris, but he was highly critical of the avant-garde style. Ironically
as his career progressed, he became increasingly associated with the American
Impressionists and the practice of plein-air painting. His work
displays the broken or loose brushwork and bright, light-inspired color
palette, characteristic of the style.
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- In 1877 he returned to the United States and became associated
with groups like the American Watercolor Society. By 1882 he was elected
president of the Society of American Artists, and that same year he acquired
his famous farm in Branchville, Connecticut. The farm became a hub of activity
for the American Impressionists.
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- Weir was well represented in the early Carnegie Internationals,
contributing 66 works to the exhibition between 1896 and 1921. He was
a frequent award winner and occasionally served as an exhibition juror.
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Labels for art objects in the exhibition
(some labels are accompanied by images)
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- Edwin Austin Abbey
- American, 1852-1911
- The Tinker's Song, 1880
- pen and ink on cardboard
- Purchase, 14.4
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- Edwin Austin Abbey executed this drawing for a book on
the poetry of the 17th-century English poet Robert Herrick published by
Harper & Brothers in 1882. Abbey was a stickler for extreme accuracy
and minute detail in his drawings and paintings. Upon receiving this commission,
he set off on a trip to England to research an appropriate setting for
this work, namely an authentic17th-century inn and historically accurate
furniture and props.
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- Abbey soon made England his permanent residence. In 1898
he became a Royal Academician, and in 1902 upon Edward VII's coronation,
Abbey was named a court artist. That same year, Carnegie Institute acquired
Abbey's imposing painting The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester
(on view in Scaife Gallery 5).
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- Twelve years later, in 1914, this illustrative pen-and-ink
drawing came into the collection upon the enthusiastic recommendation of
the art dealer and critic Sadakichi Hartmann. Abbey was not only a successful
painter, but also maintained a long career as a draughtsman producing illustrations
for Harper's Weekly.
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- ****
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- John White Alexander
- American, 1856-1915
- Frank Stockton, 1886
- charcoal on paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.3.1
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- This handsome charcoal profile portrait depicts the author
Frank Stockton, who was best known for his children's poems and stories;
perhaps the most popular of these was "The Lady, or The Tiger?"
published in The Century in 1882. This drawing appeared along with
a biographical essay on Stockton in July of 1886.
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- John White Alexander, had numerous ties to Pittsburgh
and Carnegie Institute. A native of Allegheny City, he was a lifelong friend
of John Beatty, the first director of the art gallery. Alexander had a
prestigious career, eventually becoming president of the National Academy
of Design from 1909 until his death. Between 1891 and 1901, he lived and
worked in Paris and counted such established artists and writers as James
McNeill Whistler, Edwin Austin Abbey, August Rodin, Oscar Wilde, Henry
James, and Stéphane Mallarmé among his friends and associates.
Alexander was on the advisory committee to the second Carnegie International
exhibition in 1897, and in 1905 he began work on the The Apotheosis
of Pittsburgh murals, a project that occupied him until his
death in 1915. The murals are on view in the Grand Staircase of the museum;
and his painting A Woman in Rose, c. 1901, is on view in Scaife
Gallery 5.
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- ****
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- E. M. Ashe
- American, 1870-1943
- Woman Arranging Hair, c.
1900
- charcoal and pastel on gray paper
- Purchase, 10.6.1
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- This early work by E. M. Ashe is an atmospheric, heavily
textured drawing depicting a woman at her toilette in a relatively humble
bedroom. The artist took great care in describing details, distinguishing
different textures, and observing the play of light and shadow, which imparts
a moodiness to the work.
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- In 1920, ten years after this drawing was acquired for
the collection, Ashe was hired by Carnegie Institute of Technology (now
Carnegie Mellon University) as professor of illustration. By 1934 he was
head of the department of painting and sculpture, and he spent 20 years
on the faculty. Earlier in his career, he worked as an instructor at the
New York School of Art and at the Art Students' League. Illustration remained
his main interest as a draughtsman.
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- ****
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- George Randolph Barse
- American, 1861-1938
- Moths, c. 1899
- graphite heightened with white on brown paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.24
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- This prepatory drawing was made for the ceiling decoration
of the entrance hall of a New York City residence on 55th Street.
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- ****
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- Cecilia Beaux
- American, 1863-1942
- Sketch of Ida Tarbell, 1917-1918
- crayon on paper
- Purchase, 18.25.1
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- This portrait depicts a famous female journalist from
the early 20th century, drawn by one of the most prominent female artists
of the era. The two women maintained an acquaintance for a number of years,
and in the 1920s they both kept apartments on 19th Street between Irving
Place and Third Avenue, a New York City neighborhood regarded as an enclave
for artists and writers. As a portraitist, Cecilia Beaux was happy to add
a prestigious person like Tarbell to her list of sitters.
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- Ida Tarbell (1857-1944), was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania,
graduated from Allegheny College in 1880, and studied at the Sorbonne in
Paris from 1891 until 1894. She was a trailblazing writer and investigative
journalist, who exposed the corrupt business practices of John D. Rockefeller
and Standard Oil.
- Cecilia Beaux was born in Philadelphia, trained at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and later studied in France. In 1895
she became the first female instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine
Arts, where she conducted portrait classes for 20 years. Accordingly, Beaux
was internationally recognized for her work in portraiture. In 1907 she
wrote about her high regard for the genre of portraiture, explaining that
the key to a successful portrait was combining "Imaginative Insight
and Design [with a] fusion of Sense and Spirit."
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- Beaux had strong ties to Carnegie Institute and was active
in the early Internationals. This sketch was associated with her
contribution to the American Artist's War Emergency Fund portfolio of prints
compiled by the National Arts Club.
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- ****
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- Albert F. Bellows
- American, 1830-1883
- Landscape, c. 1870
- charcoal on paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.23
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- ****
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- Ralph Albert Blakelock
- American, 1847-1919
- Untitled, c. 1870
- graphite, pen and ink, and wash on paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.18.1
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- Acquired for the collection in 1906, this small, darkly
atmospheric drawing is among Ralph Blakelock's most accomplished efforts
on paper. An artist who struggled financially and for recognition in the
art world, Blakelock was confined to a psychiatric facility toward the
end of his life. Ironically this is the same period during which his reputation
within the art world increased along with demand for his work.
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- A self-taught artist, Blakelock was born in New York.
Between 1869 and 1872, he sought western landscapes and Native American
subjects during his travels in the American West and Southwest. This period
is considered by many to be the pinnacle of his artistic output. Moody,
moonlit landscapes and Native American themes remained his hallmark subjects
throughout his career.
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- ****
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- Edwin Howland Blashfield
- American, 1848-1936
- Study Fragment from Decoration in Court of Appeals,
New York, 1899
- graphite on paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 07.5
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- In the early 1900s, Edwin H. Blashfield was one of the
most respected muralists in the United States; his allegorical, monumental,
and heroic style earned him many prestigious commissions. This drawing
is a study for a figure in a nearly 10-foot-square mural titled The
Power of the Law for the courtroom of the New York City Appellate Court.
This is a head-study for the full-length reclining figure in the upper-left
corner of the finished work. The figure reaches to crown the central figure
of Justice. The twelve figures in the mural appear in various garments-some
in classical togas, some with powdered wigs and black robes, and one wearing
lavish, clerical attire. They hold a variety of swords, scrolls, and books
and are adorned with ribbons bearing mottos relating to the law.
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- Blashfield studied art in Paris, where he was inspired
by the city's grand, historic murals, such as those found in the Panthéon.
He earned national recognition during the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition
in 1893 after receiving the commission to paint the dome of the large manufacturer's
building. In addition to murals for courthouses, Blashfield's designs decorate
state capitols (including Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), churches (including
St Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC), hotels (the ballroom of the
Waldorf-Astoria in New York City) and grand private residences (including
the New York mansion of William H. Vanderbilt). Perhaps his greatest commission
was the mural Evolution of Civilization, 18956, for the rotunda
of the Great Reading Room of the Library of Congress.
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- ****
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- Robert F. Blum
- American, 1857-1903
- Jefferson Reading the Declaration of Independence, 1880
- graphite, brush and ink, and gouache on buff paper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.3.3
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- The ambiguous combination of figures and setting in this
drawing has produced an enigmatic subject. Yet, the technically complex
and vigorous handling of pigment is visually arresting. The writer and
critic Sadakichi Hartmann praised Robert Blum in the first volume of his
1901 book, A History of American Art. Hartmann described the effect
of the vivid highlighting and graceful, almost dainty detail seen in this
drawing. "His work is always brilliant, animated, and refined, his
pictures fairly sparkle with crisp and delicate effects."
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- ****
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- Robert F. Blum
- American, 1857-1903
- Japanese Girl with Habatshi,
late 19th century
- graphite and pastel on fine-grained sandpaper
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.9.1
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- Japanese subjects are a hallmark of Robert Blum's work
as a draughtsman. The artist lived in Japan between 1890 and 1892, and
his treatment of Japanese subjects reflects his fascination with the country
and its culture. This delicate, glowing pastel on sandpaper is an extremely
impressionistic, ethereal glimpse of a Japanese woman. The work seems related
to art critic Sadakichi Hartmann's observation: "If one desires to
know Japan as it looks to Western eyes, one will find that Blum [has done]
the most poetical [work]."
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- ****
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- Robert F. Blum
- American, 1857-1903
- A "Wakaishi"-A Japanese Bachelor Who Manages
Public Festivities, 1891
- pen and ink and ink wash, heightened with white, on paper
mounted on cardboard
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.19.2
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- Robert Blum was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, where he
received some early training in a realist style, and went on to study at
the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. He achieved early
renown as an illustrator, but by the turn of the century, he had shifted
his energies to mural painting. Blum's drawing style reveals his admiration
for the Spanish illustrator Mariano Fortuny. The delicate, painterly use
of brushwork and the shimmering approach to highlighting are qualities
the two artists share.
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- Blum lived in Japan between 1890 and 1892, working on
commissions for Scribner's Magazine. He was enamored of Japanese
culture and wrote enthusiastically about his experiences in Japan. This
drawing, characterized by the use of lush brushwork and washes was published
as an illustration to John H. Wigmore's essay, "Starting a Parliament
in Japan," published by Scribner's Magazine in July 1891.
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- ****
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- Ernest L. Blumenschein
- American, 1874-1960
- An Indian Chief, 19171918
- graphite, pen and ink, and ink wash on paper
- Purchase, 18.25.2
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- Ernest Blumenschein was a friend and colleague to Eanger
Irving Couse (whose work is on view nearby); and like Couse, he earned
national recognition and was interested in the landscape of the American
West and Southwest as well as Native American subjects. This drawing was
acquired in 1918 along with 15 other drawings by various artists made in
preparation for a print portfolio for the American Artist's War Emergency
Fund compiled by the National Arts Club during World War I. The project
was intended to raise funds to support victims of the war. Blumenschein
was a frequent exhibitor at Carnegie Internationals, showing 26
different works between 1907 and 1946.
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- ****
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- Eanger Irving Couse
- American, 1866-1936
- Indian Hunter, 19171918
- crayon on paper
- Purchase, 18.25.5
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- Born in Saginaw, Michigan, Eanger Couse began working
on Native American subjects early in his career, particularly focusing
on members of the local Chippewa tribe. He went on to study at the Art
Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design in New York, and L'Académie
Julien in Paris.
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- The graphic economy of this drawing might seem surprising
for an artist with a strong academic style. The traditional techniques
for modeling, shading, and perspective give way here to a reliance on outlining,
reserving areas of blank paper, and using relatively uniform passages of
hatching. The composition and figural pose relate to numerous paintings
by the artist that focus on crouching figures viewed in stark profile.
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- Couse was a good friend of Ernest Blumenshein (whose
work is on view nearby); both artists were interested in Native American
subjects. Couse first visited Taos in 1902 upon Blumenshein's recommendation,
and by 1906 he had settled there. He became known for evocative, highly
finished, and often dramatically lit paintings of Native Americans and
the western landscape. He exhibited 20 paintings at different Carnegie
Internationals between 1901 and 1925. As with many drawings on view
here, this work was made into a print for the American Artist's War Emergency
Fund portfolio.
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- ****
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- Frederick Stuart Church
- American, 1842-1923
- Beneath the Sea, c. 1900
- charcoal on paper mounted on board
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.12.2
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- Before launching his art career, Frederick Stuart Church
was a soldier in the Civil War, serving under General Sherman. Later he
trained at the Chicago Academy of Design, the National Academy of Design,
and the Art Students' League in New York. Church first found success as
an illustrator for Harper's Weekly, and by the mid-1870s,
he was a respected painter, draughtsman, watercolorist, etcher, and illustrator.
He focused largely on fantastic and imaginary beings such as the mermaids
shown here.
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- Church's work relates to the Art Nouveau movement in
America that came to fruition in the 1890's. His drawing style often relies
on graceful, elegant flowing lines typical of the Art Nouveau style. His
signature subjects also reflect trends popular among Art Nouveau artists.
Church belonged to numerous artist groups aligned with three dominant interests
in his career: the American Watercolor Society, the New York Etching Club,
and the Society of Illustrators. He became a member of the National Academy
in 1885 and was an influential artist in the etching medium, helping to
spearhead its revival in the 1880s.
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- ****
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- Kenyon Cox
- American, 1856-1919
- Drapery Study for Figure of Letters, Minnesota State
Capitol, 1904
- graphite on laid tracing paper mounted on board
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.6.3
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- ****
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- Kenyon Cox
- American, 1856-1919
- Nude Study for Figure of Letters, Minnesota State
Capitol, 1904
- graphite on laid tracing paper mounted on board
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.6.6
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- ****
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- Kenyon Cox
- American, 1856-1919
- Drapery Study for Figure of Contemplation, Minnesota
State Capitol, 1904
- graphite on laid tracing paper mounted on board
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.6.8
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- ****
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- Kenyon Cox
- American, 1856-1919
- Nude Study for Figure of Contemplation, Minnesota
State Capitol, 1904
- graphite on laid tracing paper mounded on board
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.6.4
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- ****
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- Kenyon Cox
- American, 1856-1919
- Scale Drawing for the Contemplative Spirit of the
East, Minnesota State Capitol, 1904
- graphite, sepia, and ink on canvas
- Andrew Carnegie Fund, 06.6.7
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- Kenyon Cox was among the most recognized muralists of
his generation. He was frequently commissioned to work on the same projects
as Edwin Blashfield, whose mural study is on view nearly. Cox began
his career as a muralist at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
This imposing scale drawing on canvas with its accompanying graphite studies
were part of one of his most significant mural projects, the stairway to
the Supreme Court in the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul.
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- Cox's subject is "The Contemplative Spirit of the
East." He depicts "Thought" as a massive, winged, and regally
robed figure whose pose and expression are intended to convey contemplation.
She is flanked by "Law" and "Letters"; they hold a
bridle and a book respectively. By extending and replicating the dull yellow
stone of the surrounding wall in his design, Cox effectively integrated
the mural into the surrounding architecture.
- Cox's handling of his subject matter reflects his scholarly,
deeply conservative approach to art. He was the author of the 1911 treatise,
The Classic Point of View and an unabashed advocate for traditional
and academic art.
- Cox was one of 15 artists commissioned to produce murals
or other decoration throughout the building. Among the group of 15 were:
Edwin Blashfield, Frederick Dielman, John La Farge, and Howard Pyle, all
represented elsewhere in this exhibition.
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- ****
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