A detailed account of uncertain authorship recalling travel to and from Urga (presently known as Ulaanbataar, Mongolia) in Outer Mongolia. The author is perhaps Georg Soderbom; a member of Sven Hedin's expedition who often worked under Frans Larson Soderbom is pictured in many of the collection's silver plates. The account is replete with descriptions of travel conditions and methods, ethnographic notes, an encounter with "the Andrews expedition" (likely the Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History led by Roy Chapman Andrews from 1922-1925), and the natural ecosystem. 79 silver prints adorn the text, depicting Soderbom, peoples encountered, vehicles, buildings, and so forth. For the purpose of this collection, all relevant silver prints are numbered as attachments to the appropriate page of the transcript; i.e., the second print affixed to page 32 of the transcript becomes 32b.
While exact provenance of the collection is unclear, it is believed the collection was owned by the Asian art dealer Abel William Bahr (1877-1959). Bahr was born to a German father and a Chinese mother in Shanghai, and became an avid collector of Chinese paintings, jades, and porcelains. He would become a prominent collector and, in 1908, helped to host the first exhibition of Chinese art under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society in Shanghai.
Arrangement:
Organized in the original manner by the creator.
Local Numbers:
FSA A1996.02
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Genre/Form:
Travel diaries
Travel diaries
Prints
Citation:
Three Roads to Urga [typescript]. FSA.A1996.02. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Identifier:
FSA.A1996.02
Archival Repository:
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives
The papers of art historian, dealer, critic, and curator Katharine Kuh measure 12 linear feet and date from 1875-1994, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930-1994. The collection documents Kuh's career as a pioneer modernist art historian and as the first woman curator of European Art and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago. Found within the papers are biographical material; correspondence with family, friends and colleagues; personal business records; artwork by various artists; a travel journal; writings by Kuh and others; scrapbooks; printed material; photographs of Kuh and others; and audio recordings of Kuh's lectures and of Daniel Catton Rich reading poetry.
Scope and Content Note:
The papers of art historian, dealer, critic, and curator Katharine Kuh measure 12 linear feet and date from 1875-1994, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930-1994. Found within the papers are biographical material; correspondence with family, friends and colleagues; personal business records; artwork by various artists; a travel journal; writings by Kuh and others; scrapbooks; printed material; photographs of Kuh and others; and audio recordings of Kuh's lectures and of Daniel Catton Rich reading poetry.
Biographical material consists of copies of Kuh's birth certificate, resumés, passports, award certificates, honorary diplomas, and address books listing information about several prominent artists and colleagues.
Four linear feet of correspondence offers excellent documentation of Kuh's interest in art history, her travels, her career at the Art Institute of Chicago, her work as a corporate art advisor, and as an author. There are letters from her mother Olga Woolf, friends, and colleagues. There is extensive correspondence with various staff members of the Art Institute of Chicago, the First National Bank of Chicago, and The Saturday Review. Also of interest are letters from artists and collectors, several of whom became life-long friends including Walter and Louise Arensberg, Cosmo Campoli, Serge Chermayeff, Richard Cox, Worden Day, Claire Falkenstein, Fred Friendly, Leon Golub, Joseph Goto, David Hare, Denise Brown Hare, Jean Hélion, Ray Johnson, Gyorgy and Juliet Kepes, Len Lye, Wallace Putnam, Kurt Seligmann, Shelby Shackelford, Hedda Sterne, and Clyfford Still. Many letters are illustrated with original artwork in various media.
There are also scattered letters from various artists and other prominent individuals including Josef Albers, George Biddle, Marcel Breuer, Joseph Cornell, Stuart Davis, Edwin Dickinson, Joseph Hirshhorn, Daniel Catton Rich, and Dorothea Tanning.
Personal business records include a list of artwork, Olga Woolf's will, inventories of Kuh's personal art collection, miscellaneous contracts and deeds of gift, receipts for the sale of artwork, files concerning business-related travel, and miscellaneous receipts.
Artwork in the collection represents a wide range of artist friends and media, such as drawings, watercolors, paintings, collages, and prints. Included are works by various artists including lithographs by David Hare and a watercolor set, Technics and Creativity, designed and autographed by Jasper Johns for the Museum of Modern Art, 1970.
Notes and writings include annotated engagement calendars, travel journals for Germany, a guest book for the Kuh Memorial gathering, and many writings and notes by Kuh for lectures and articles concerning art history topics. Of interest are minutes/notes from meetings for art festivals, conferences, and the "Conversations with Artists Program (1961). Also found are writings by others about Kuh and other art history topics.
Six scrapbooks contain clippings that document the height of Kuh's career as a gallery director and museum curator. Scrapbook 6 contains clippings about Fernand Léger, the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1953.
Additional printed material includes clippings about Kuh and her interests, a comprehensive collection of clippings of Kuh's articles for The Saturday Review, exhibition announcements and catalogs, calendars of events, programs, brochures, books including Poems by Kuh as a child, and reproductions of artwork. Of particular interest are the early and exhibition catalogs from the Katharine Kuh Gallery, and rare catalogs for artists including Jean Arp, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Stanley William Hayter, Hans Hofmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Kline, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Pablo Picasso.
Photographs provide important documentation of the life and career of Katharine Kuh and are of Kuh, family members, friends, colleagues, events, residences, and artwork. Several of the photographs of Kuh were taken by Will Barnet and Marcel Breuer and there is a notable pair of photo booth portraits of Kuh and a young Ansel Adams. There are also group photographs showing Angelica Archipenko with Kuh; designer Klaus Grabe; painters José Chavez Morado and Pablo O'Higgins in San Miguel, Mexico; Kuh at the Venice Biennale with friends and colleagues including Peggy Guggenheim, Frances Perkins, Daniel Catton Rich, and Harry Winston; and "The Pre-Depressionists" including Lorser Feitelson, Robert Inverarity, Helen Lundeberg, Arthur Millier, Myron Chester Nutting, and Muriel Tyler Nutting.
Photographs of exhibition installations and openings include views of the Katharine Kuh Gallery; Fernand Léger, Man Ray, and László Moholy-Nagy at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Philip Guston, Jimmy Ernst, Seymour H. Knox, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. There are also photographs depicting three men posing as Léger's "Three Musicians" and the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to the Art Institute of Chicago. There is a photograph by Peter Pollack of an elk skull used as a model by Georgia O'Keeffe.
Additional photographs of friends and colleagues include Ivan Albright, Alfred Barr, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Willem De Kooning, Edwin Dickinson, Marcel Duchamp, Claire Falkenstein, Alberto Giacometti, poet Robert Graves with Len Lye, Philip Johnson, Gyorgy and Juliet Kepes, Carlos Mérida, José Orozco, Hasan Ozbekhan, Pablo Picasso, Carl Sandberg, Ben Shahn, Otto Spaeth, Hedda Sterne, Adlai Stevenson, Clyfford Still, Mark Tobey, and composer Victor Young.
Photographs of artwork include totem poles in Alaska; work by various artists including Claire Falkenstein, Paul Klee, and Hedda Sterne; and work donated to the Guggenheim Museum.
Four audio recordings on cassette are of Katharine Kuh's lectures, including one about assembling corporate collections, and of Daniel Catton Rich reading his own poetry. There is also a recording of the Second Annual Dialogue between Broadcasters and Museum Educators.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series. Undated correspondence, artwork, and photographs of individual artists are arranged alphabetically. Otherwise, each series is arranged chronologically.
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1945-1992 (Box 1; 16 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1908-1994 (Boxes 1-5, 13-14, OV 15; 4.0 linear feet)
Series 3: Personal Business Records, 1941-1989 (Box 5; 19 folders)
Series 4: Artwork, 1931-1986 (Boxes 5, 13-14, OVs 15-23; 1.7 linear feet)
Series 5: Notes and Writings, 1914-1994 (Boxes 5-7; 1.7 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, 1935-1953 (Box 7; 8 folders)
Series 7: Printed Material, 1916-1992 (Boxes 7-10, 13, OV 22; 3.0 linear feet)
Series 8: Photographs, 1875-1993 (Boxes 10-13; 1.2 linear feet)
Series 9: Audio Recordings, 1977 (Box 12; 1 folder)
Biographical Note:
Katharine Kuh (1904-1994) worked primarily in the Chicago area as an modern art historian, dealer, critic, curator, writer, and consultant. She operated the Katharine Kuh Gallery from 1935-1943 and was the first woman curator of European and Art and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Katharine Kuh (née Woolf) was born on July 15, 1904 in St. Louis, Missouri, the youngest of the three daughters of Olga Weiner and Morris Woolf, a silk importer. In 1909, the family moved to Chicago, Illinois. While traveling with her family in Europe in 1914, Katharine contracted polio, causing her to spend the next decade in a body brace. During this time of restricted movement, she developed an interest in art history through the collecting of old master prints.
After her recovery, Katharine Woolf attended Vassar College where one of her professors, Alfred Barr, encouraged her to study modern art. She graduated from Vassar in 1925 and received a master's degree in art history from the University of Chicago in 1929. Later that year, she moved to New York to pursue a Ph.D. in Renaissance and medieval art at New York University.
In 1930, Katharine Woolf returned to Chicago and married businessman George Kuh and began to teach art history courses in the suburbs of Chicago. After divorcing George Kuh in 1935, she opened the Katharine Kuh Gallery, the first gallery devoted to avant-garde art in Chicago. It was also the first gallery to exhibit photography and typographical design as art forms, and featured the work of Ansel Adams, Josef Albers, Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, and Man Ray, among others. From 1938 to1940, Kuh was the Visiting Professor of Art at the University School of Fine Arts, San Miguel, Mexico.
After the Katharine Kuh Gallery closed in 1943, Kuh was hired by museum director Daniel Catton Rich to fill a position in public relations at the Art Institute of Chicago. During the following years, Kuh edited the museum's Quarterly publication, took charge of the museum's Gallery of Interpretive Art, and began a long term relationship with Rich. In 1946, Kuh was sent on a special mission for the U. S. Office of Indian Affairs to make a detailed study of Native American totemic carvings in Alaska.
In 1949, Kuh persuaded Mr. and Mrs. Walter Arensberg of Los Angeles to exhibit their collection of modern art, creating the first post-war exhibition of modern art in Chicago. She published her first book Art Has Many Faces in 1951, and in the following year, she began writing art criticism for The Saturday Review. In 1954, Kuh was appointed the first woman curator of European Art and Sculpture at the Art Institute. She assembled the American contribution for the Venice Biennale in 1956 and during these years, Kuh helped acquire many of the works of modern art currently in the museum's collection.
A year following Daniel Catton Rich's 1958 resignation from the Art Institute of Chicago, Kuh also resigned and pursued a career in New York as an art collection advisor, most notably for the First National Bank of Chicago. In 1959, Kuh was made art critic for The Saturday Review, and she continued to publish books, including The Artist's Voice in 1962, Break-Up: The Core of Modern Art in 1965, and The Open Eye: In Pursuit of Art in 1971.
Katharine Kuh died on January 10, 1994 in New York City.
Provenance:
The Katharine Kuh papers were donated in several installments from 1971 to 1989 by Katharine Kuh and in 1994 by her estate. Artwork was donated in 1995 by Kuh's former employer, the Art Institute of Chicago.
Restrictions:
Authorization to quote, publish or reproduce requires written permission until 2019. Contact the Archives of American Art Reference Services department for additional information.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of New York-based painter, teacher and art director Anna Walinska measure 2.1 linear feet and date from 1927 to 2002, with the bulk of material from 1935 to 1980. The papers include biographical material, correspondence, writings, travel diaries, printed material, scrapbooks, artwork, sketchbooks, and photographs.
Biographical material consists of awards, certificates, curriculum vitae, biographical outlines, exhibition lists, passports and other material. There is a partial transcript from a radio interview of Anna Walinska. Also included are limited financial records.
Correspondence includes Anna Walinska's letters to her family from her 1954-1955 trip abroad to multiple countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. There is personal and professional correspondence with friends, artists and art institutions. Notable correspondents include Milton Avery, Louise Nevelson, Beata Welsing, Bracha Hacohen, William Littlefield, and Walinska's brother Louis Walinsky.
Writings consist of Walinska's notes, notebooks, lectures, essays, and a handwritten prospectus for Guild Art Gallery. There is one folder of writings by others about Walinska at the end of the series.
There are four travel diaries that describe Walinska's trip around the world from 1954-1955, during which she traveled to many countries, and later trips to locations such as Israel and Trinidad.
Printed Material include clippings about Anna Walinska, group and solo exhibition catalogs, announcements, event invitations, and course catalogs for the Master Institute of United Art in New York City, where Walinska taught painting and drawing classes.
There are three scrapbooks: one scrapbook is about Guild Art Gallery, the second scrapbook is about the Holocaust exhibition, the third oversized scrapbook documents Walinska's career and activities overall.
Artwork consists of two bound sketchbooks as well as drawings and sketches in a variety of mediums from pencil and ink to watercolors and oils.
Photographs are of Walinska, friends, family, artists, artwork, exhibition installations, and other subjects. One album includes photos of Anna Walinska and her travels, along with images of friends and colleagues. The second album includes photographs of Walinska's solo exhibition at Sunken Meadow Gallery (1959). There is also one folder of photocopies of photos of assorted artwork by Walinska.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 8 series.
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1927-2002 (Box 1; 11 folders)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1949-1995 (Box 1; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 3: Writings, circa 1935-circa 1983 (Box 1; 8 folders)
Series 4: Travel Diaries, 1954-1973 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)
Series 5: Printed Material, 1942-2002 (Boxes 1-2; 0.4 linear feet)
Series 6: Scrapbooks, circa 1929-1980 (Boxes 2, 4; 0.5 linear feet)
Series 7: Artwork, circa 1929-1963 (Box 3; 5 folders)
Series 8: Photographs, circa 1932-1980 (Box 3; 0.3 linear feet)
Biographical / Historical:
Anna Walinska (1906-1997) was a New York artist, teacher and gallery director who traveled widely and is most well known for her paintings related to the subject of the Holocaust.
Anna Walinska was born in London, England in 1906 to labor organization leader Ossip Walinsky and poet Rosa Newman Walinska. She had two siblings, Emily and Louis. The family immigrated to New York City in 1914, and Anna Walinska began studying at the Art Students League in 1918. In 1926, she travelled to Paris and studied art at the Academie de Grande Chaumier with Andre L'Hote. France was her primary residence until 1930.
In 1935, Walinska and artist Margaret Lefranc co-founded the Guild Art Gallery at West 57th Street in New York and gave Arshile Gorky his first solo exhibition in the city. The gallery closed its doors in 1937. In 1939, Walinska was the Assistant Creative Director of the Contemporary Art Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. During this time, Walinska also pursued her own art and exhibited work in numerous group shows.
From 1954 to 1955, Walinska traveled around the world, visiting the capitals and major cities of many countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Places she went included Japan, Burma (now known as Myanmar), Pakistan, Greece, Italy, France and Spain. During her four month stay in Burma, she painted a portrait of Prime Minister U Nu and she later became a highly respected portrait artist who painted numerous illustrious subjects such as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, artists Louise Nevelson and Mark Rothko, and many others.
In 1957, Walinska became the artist-in-residence at the Riverside Museum where she also taught and exhibited with other artists. That same year, she had her first retrospective at the Jewish Museum in New York City.
Walinska exhibited widely and often. Holocaust: Paintings and Drawings, 1953-1978, which opened at the Museum of Religious Art at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, is probably the most well-known of her exhibitions and it traveled across the country to several other sites such as the War Memorial Building in Baltimore and Mercy College of Detroit. Works from this exhibition were acquired by multiple museums to become part of their permanent collections.
Walinkska died on December 19, 1997 at the age of 91 in New York City. In 1999, there was a retrospective of her work titled Echoes of the Holocaust: Paintings, Drawings, and Collage, 1940-1989 held at Clark University's Center for Holocaust Studies. The Onisaburo Gallery at New York's Interfaith Center also held a solo exhibition titled Portraits of Faith (2000). Her art is part of the collections at the Denver Art Museum, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Rose Art Museum, and other museums.
Related Materials:
The Archives of American Art also has the Guild Art Gallery records, which consists of material related to the gallery that was co-founded by Anna Walinska.
Provenance:
The papers were donated by Anna Walinska in two installations in 1976 and 1981. Rosina Rubin, Anna Walinska's niece, made a third donation of material in 2017.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C., research center.
Occupation:
Gallery directors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Educators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company and include the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family.
Scope and Contents:
The collection documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company primarily in the early part of the century. It includes product designs and samples; advertising and marketing materials, as well as, correspondence and financial papers. In addition, there are the papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, founder of the company, and her immediate family. These materials consist primarily of diaries, photographs, correspondence, family histories and genealogies. The collection is arranged into four series. Series one documents the business activities of the Sandford Card Company. Series two contains the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford, her husband Frank Sherman Sandford and their children. Series three is the personal papers of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's parents and siblings. Series four is the personal papers of extended family members mostly by marriage.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into four series.
Series 1: Sandford Card Company Records, 1880-1967; undated
Series 4: Other Family Papers, 1840s-2004; undated
Subseries 4.1: Durkee Family, 1864-2004; undated
Subseries 4.2: Gilman Family, 1840s-1902
Subseries 4.3: Gilman Family, 1916-2004; undated
Subseries 4.4: McDowell Family, 1920; undated
Subseries 4.5: Pease Family, 1953-1984; undated
Biographical / Historical:
Mary Elizabeth Kennedy Sandford founded the Sandford Card Company in Dansville, New York in 1907. The Sandford Card Company was intended to provide consumers a means to send messages to family and friends. Such products contained more thought out verses and images than the typical postcards that were available during this time period. Initially, Mary Elizabeth created four verses with images and had five thousand of each printed by the F. A. Owen Publishing Company. The four samples were sent to two hundred bookstores and drugstores. Sales were later made with distributors and agents in various cities throughout the country. In addition, the company also sold cards to fraternal organizations using their symbols or mottos in the design. Eventually, fraternal organizations became a big part of the company's customer base expanding to more than fifty groups. The company grew as a mail order business. All card shipments were made directly from Dansville, New York to forty-eight states and countries including Canada, Alaska, Cuba, Japan, Guam, Philippines, Hawaii, Panama, and Netherlands, West Indies, England and Scotland. Although the Sandford Card Company started as a greeting card business it eventually offered place cards, calling cards, calendars, program folders, napkins, banquet supplies, gifts and souvenirs to its product line. All printing work was contracted out to lithographic businesses in New York, Boston and Cincinnati. With the death of Mary Elizabeth Sandford and her husband Frank Sherman Sandford the company continued to be operated under the guidance of their daughter Ruth Louise Sandford. In 1948, Ruth Sandford hired John G. Holden as business manager. In 1965, the company moved from Dansville to Baldwinsville, New York under the management of the third generation of the founding family. It continued to operate as a family business until it was sold to John G. Holden. The company was later purchased by Rodney Pease the grandson of Mary Elizabeth Sandford's sister Lillian Frances Pease. Pease eventually changed the name and direction of the company.
Related Materials:
Materials in the Archives Center
Lillian Pease Card Company Records (AC1251)
Provenance:
Donated to the Archives Center in 2011 by R. Thompson Gilman, Executor for the estate of Elizabeth G. Essley.
Restrictions:
Collection open for research on site by appointment. Unprotected photographs must be handled with gloves.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
The papers of Virginia painter Eliot Candee Clark measure 6.14 linear feet and date from 1839 to 1984. The papers include biographical materials, correspondence, 21 diaries and notebooks, writings and notes, personal business records, photographs, 9 sketchbooks, and artwork and artifacts. Many of the materials relate to Clark's travels in Europe, India, and throughout the United States.
Scope and Contents:
The papers of Virginia painter Eliot Candee Clark measure 6.14 linear feet and date from 1839 to 1984. The papers include biographical materials, correspondence, 21 diaries and notebooks, writings and notes, personal business records, photographs, 9 sketchbooks, and artwork and artifacts. Many of the materials relate to Clark's travels in Europe, India, and throughout the United States.
Scattered biographical materials include awards, an address book, printed material relating to various memberships, and resumes. Records of the Fowler family are also found. Clark's correspondence is with family including Walter Clark, friends, colleagues, and galleries and institutions. Notable correspondents include Leon Sparks and Andrew Wyeth.
Twenty-one volumes of diaries and notebooks are written by Clark and his wife, Margaret Fowler Clark. The diaries contain traditional dated diary entries; others document travels. The notebooks include drafts of writings, lists of artists, financial notes, sketches, and school assignments.
Writings include drafts of articles, book manuscripts, plays, and essays by Clark. A small amount of personal business records consist of legal records, price lists, receipts for personal purchases, and sales and consignment records for Clark's works of art.
Printed materials include books containing works of art by Clark, clippings, a dismantled clippings scrapbook, exhibition announcements and catalogs, magazines, and blank postcards. Photographs are of Clark, the Clark family, friends, colleagues, events, homes, and of works of art. Travel photographs are from Clark's trips to Europe, India, Morocco, and the United States.
Nine sketchbooks depict Nova Scotia, Canada, Albemarle County, Virginia, and India. Artwork and artifacts consist of scattered sketches by Clark, and prints by others.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as 9 series
Missing Title
Series 1: Biographical Material, 1839-1980 (5 folders; Box 1, OV7)
Series 2: Correspondence, 1874-1984 (1 linear foot; Box 1-2)
Series 3: Diaries and Notebooks, circa 1900-1977 (0.8 linear feet; Box 2)
Series 4: Writings and Notes, circa 1940-1978 (1.6 linear feet; Box 2-4)
Series 5: Personal Business Records, 1917-1983 (0.2 linear feet: Box 4)
Series 6: Printed Material, 1878-1975 (1.0 linear feet; Box 4-5)
Series 7: Photographs, 1880s-1980 (0.5 linear feet; Box 5-6, OV7, MGP2)
Series 8: Sketchbooks, 1916-1940s (0.5 linear feet; Box 6)
Series 9: Artwork and Artifacts, circa 1900-circa 1940s (0.5 linear feet; Box 6, OV7)
Biographical / Historical:
Eliot Candee Clark (1883-1980) was a landscape painter, writer, and art historian who worked primarily in Virginia.
Eliot Clark was born in 1883 in New York City to artist Walter Clark and Jennie Woodruff Clark. As a child with his father's encouragement and guidance, Eliot Clark began exhibiting as early as the age of nine. submitted works to be exhibited at various New York City clubs as a child. By 1896, at the age of thirteen, he began exhibiting regularly at the National Academy of Design. In 1900, at the age of seventeen, Clark exhibited at the Society of American Artists' Annaul. At one point he even shared a studio with his father. From 1904 to 1906, he traveled throughout Europe and painted en plein air. Clark returned to the New York City area and summered in Kent, Connecticut where he continued to paint and exhibit his work. His first one-man show was at Doll & Richards Gallery in New York City.
Eliot Clark was also an art historian, critic, and educator. In 1916 Clark published his first monograph on Alexander H. Wyant. His other works included a book on John Henry Twachtman, published in 1924 and History of the National Academy of Design (1954). Clark also served as president of the American Watercolor Society between 1920 and 1923. He taught at the Art Students League in New York City but ultimately settled in Charlottesville, Virginia where he taught summer painting classes.
Throughout his life, Clark travelled throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, India, and to Africa. A lengthy trip to India from 1937 to 1938 inspired his study of the religion, mysticism, and art of the country.
Eliot Clark served as president of the National Academy of Design in the 1950s and exhibited until his death in 1980 at the age of ninety-seven. He was survived by his second wife, Margaret Fowler Clark.
Separated Materials:
The Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries also holds Eliot Candee Clark papers.
Provenance:
The Eliot Candee Clark papers were donated by his widow Margaret Fowler Clark between 1980 and 1984.
Restrictions:
Use of original papers requires an appointment. Use of audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Eliot Candee Clark papers, 1839-1984. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund. Glass plate negatives in this collection were digitized in 2019 with funding provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
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