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 ART DECO
the last hurrah

PENELOPE HUNTER
ResearchAssistant
Western EuropeanArts

Contents "Banzai!The presenthas arrived!"was the responsein The New

Yorker's"SkyLine"of March9, 1929, to anexhibitionof artdeco.
Art Deco 257
Contemporary acclaimwas,however,a lasthurrahfora dyingtradi-
PenelopeHunter
tion. The stylebroughtto worldattentionby the ParisExposition
JapaneseSwordguards 268 Internationale desArtsDecoratifset IndustrielsModernesof 1925
BenVincent
appearedstartlinglynew. Nevertheless,it was not the prologueto
The HudsonRiverSchool 272 the presentmechanized age,but a proudfinalchapterin the history
JohnK. Howat of Frenchdecorativearts.
JacquesLipchitz 284 Sincethe reignof LouisXIV, the monarchsof Francehad sys-
Newly Acquired AmericanPaintings 289 tematicallypromotedthe decorativearts to developthe nation's
economy,and,mostimportantly,to furtherinternational prestige.
Photographsby Tice 290 Theirsuccesswas undisputed,as everyeighteenth-century prince-
Will Bradleyandthe Poster 294 to
ling sought ape the French king'smanner of living, surrounded
RobertaWong by furniture,silver,textiles,andceramics,eachexampleof which
OutstandingRecentAccessions: wasa workof art.If luxuryantedatedthe courtof Versailles,it was
SullivanandWright 300 therebroughtto its utmostrefinement,andchicwas a Frenchcrea-
tion.Thevarioustechniquesof craftsmanship thatmadethis possi-
ble weredevelopedin royalworkshops,andartisanswere spurred
Frontispiece on by royalcommissionsandthe foreignordersthatfollowed.
A jar becomes a jewel by the glinting sparkle of its glaze
- stoneware in the art deco style, discussed in the first With the fadingof dreamsof nationalgloryafterthe fall of Na-
article. This jar is by Henri Simmen, who journeyed to the
Orient to study techniques of stoneware, but his oriental-
izing remained imbued with as much imagination as
poleon'sEmpire,Frenchdecorativearts settled into a periodof
eighteenth-century French chinoiserie. Mme O'Kin, his
Japanese wife, capped this piece with an ivory sea flower
pasticheandimitation,theFrenchequivalentof theVictorianstyle.
from the reefs of fantasy. Photographed against silk damask In the late yearsof the nineteenthcenturythe artisansthemselves
designed by Andre Mare, Compagnie des Arts Francais.
Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr., Gift, 29.127.5, 23.175.9 rallied.Everconsciousof pastachievements, theybandedtogether
On the cover
An example of Asher Brown Durand's "green and gold
formingsocietiesand schoolsto reinstatestandardsof craftsman-
vision," this is a detail of a painting by one of the leaders
of the Hudson River School, discussed in the article
shipandinnovativedesign.Thefruitof thiseffort,bornat theclose
beginning on page 272. Bequest of Mary Starr Van Winkle, of thecentury,wasartnouveau.
1970.58
When the exuberantimaginationof art nouveaufailedto gain
acceptancewith an essentiallyconservativebourgeoispublic, a
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin consciousattemptwas madeto formulatea style tailoredto this
Volume XXX, Number 6 June/July 1972
Published bimonthly. Copyright ? 1972 by The Metropoli-
twentieth-century society.Therecontinuedto be widespreadap-
tan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82 Street, New York,
N.Y. 10028. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y.
preciationof the exquisitecraftsmanshipof the ancienregime,
Subscriptions $7.50 a year. Single copies $1.50. Sent free to whichartisansaspiredto equal.For suchstandardsto be met the
Museum members. Four weeks' notice required for change
of address. Back issues available on microfilm from Univer-
sity Microfilms, 313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
productshadto be luxuryitems,as decorativeartshadalwaysbeen.
Volumes I-XXXVII (1905-1942) available as a clothbound The adoptionof new standardsof hygienein housekeepingalong
reprint set or as individual yearly volumes from Arno Press,
330 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017, or from the withthereductionof domesticstaffsmadeeasycarea consideration.
Museum, Box 255, Gracie Station, New York, N.Y. 10028.
Photographs, unless otherwise noted, by the Metropolitan It waspublicizedas an advantageof the new forms,which,though
Museum's Photograph Studio. Editor of the Bulletin: Kath-
arine H. B. Stoddert; Assistant Editor: Susan Goldsmith; derivedfroma long-established vocabulary,were radicallysimpli-
Writer: Linda Sipress. Art Director: Stuart Silver; De-
signer: G. Woodford Pratt. fiedandstreamlined.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
 rtistes-decorateurs, decorator-designers who led the move-
Louis Sue andAndreMare,headingthe
ment, integrated objects made by independent artisans with
Compagniedes ArtsFrancais,wereamong
those produced in their own workshops to create interiors the mostsuccessfulParisianartistes-decora-
in the new style. Modernizing the homes of wealthy clients, they teurs.This illustration(right) of the Grand
installed furniture and objets d'art as precious as the antiques they Salonin theirpavilionat the 1925 Paris
Expositionpresentsartdecoat its most
replaced. The impression of the updated rooms was one of deceptive grandiose.The harmonyof contourfound
simplicity. Into spacious areas were put sleek shapes of clean-cut in the paintingby Dunoyerde Segonzac,the
outline. Glossy planes replaced intricacies of relief ornament. Deco- bronzefigureby AristideMaillol,andthe
bust by Despiauis carriedout by Sie and
rative motifs were sparingly used, generally schematized, and large
Mareeven to theirshapingof the piano.
in scale. The most popular were stylized flowers in a garland or The floralcarpetanddamaskwall covering
basket. Vivid color-provided by rugs, upholstery, and painted mayappearto overburdenthe room,but
the desk and chair,purchasedby the
walls-gave impact to the style, but the objects themselves were
MetropolitanMuseumat the Exposition,
usually somber in tone. representindisputableaccomplishment. The
In the evolution from art nouveau to art deco, linear convolu- formof the deskis a streamlinedversion
tions became modulated planes, contorted plant life became sche- of a LouisXV writingtable; its chair
matized flowers and animals, a turgid flight of fantasy became the recallsa LouisXVI model.Both are
veneeredwith gleamingebony,andthe
distillation of tradition. Still, the transition was as natural a suc-
legs of the deskaresheathedin gilt-bronze.
cession as the subsidence of Louis XV rococo into Louis XVI Togethertheyfulfilltheircreators'desire
neoclassicism. that "nomatterwhat beautifulantique
shouldbe in one'shomeamidstourfurni-
ture,it shouldbe receivedas an ancestor
5W
z rhile evolution was taking place in France, revolution andnot an intruder."
occurred in Germany. Between 1919 and 1933, the con-
Desk andchair,1925. Purchase,EdwardC.
cept of living space was redefined and prototypes were Moore,Jr., Gift, 25.209.1,2
created for mass machine production at the Bauhaus. In place of the
sensual pleasure derived from a decorative object, the sole value
art deco at its
most grandiose
Pate de verre,a hybridbetweenglass
andceramics,was the chosenmediumof
Francois-Emile Decorchement.The
technique,developedin the late nine-
teenthcentury,was so difficultthat it
hadfew practitioners.Glasshadto be
groundto dust,mixedinto a paste,ap- a bowl in pate de verre,
plied to a mold,andfiredin a kiln at a mystery of
temperaturejust sufficientto fuse the translucent solidity
particles.Eachcreationwas unique
sincethe mold,andall too often the ob-
ject, wasdestroyedin the process.
Decorchementusedthe unctuoussub-
stancewith mottledcolorandmolded
sculpturalinterestto achievea noble
soliditynot seen in glasssincethe early
productsof EgyptandRome.An airof
ancientmysteryattendsthe snakes
languorouslyuncoilingfromthe handles
into the translucentgreendepthsof
his massivebowl.

Purchase,EdwardC. Moore,Jr.,Gift,
25.211
rj :irS
'1
II
was to be fulfillment of function. Painstakinglyfashioned furnish-
ings, availableonly to the privileged, were condemnedin favor of a
standardizedenvironment for universal application. In France, on
the other hand, artistes-decorateurs - absorbed as they were in the
effort to create another golden age for French decorative arts- ig-
nored even the exponent of modernismin their midst, Le Corbusier.

T heBauhaus was still little known when the French govern-

ment, reawakenedto interests of internationalprestige-not
to mention continuing rivalrywith Germany- sponsored the
1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs presenting to the world
the style we now call by derivationart deco. Its svelte luxury suited
the frenzied frivolity of the years following World War I, but the
Depression brought an abruptclose to the era and tolled the death

he ceramicachievementof artdecolay
in stoneware.Madeof a clayvitrifiedby
firing,it hadfor centuriesbeenrelegatedto
the humblestusagewhile the attentionof
Europefocusedon an effortto equalthe
fragileporcelainsof ChinaandJapan.Only
at the end of the nineteenthcenturydid
the propertiesof stonewareawakenthe
interestof Europeanpotters.Its weightand
bulkandsolidityofferedan idealmedium
for the expressionof an aestheticof
simplicity.Orientalprototypesfiguredas
importantlyin this late developmentof
stonewareas theyhadin porcelain.
EmileLenoblemarriedthe grand-
daughterof ErnestChaplet,the great
nineteenth-century innovatorof ceramics.
Takingover the studio, he honored
Chaplet'swork,but he foundhis own
inspirationin Chinesestoneware.His works
oftenresemblethe robustTz'u-chouwares
of the Sungdynasty.An immenseglobular
vase (nearright) hasa floralpatterncut
awayfromthe black-brownglazein the
Chinesemanner.Lenoble'sblossoms,how-
ever,arenot of Orientalspecies- theyare
the schematizedfloraof artdeco.
EmileDecoeurwasapprenticedto a
potterin 1890 at the age of fourteen.There
werefew experimentshe hadnot made
in ceramicsby the 1920s.Yet his master-
pieces of that decadeare serenelysimple
formsenhancedby subtlycoloredglazes
thatrecallthe stonewareesteemedamong
the artsof the Sungdynasty(960-1279).
Mosttreasuredweregreen-glazedwares
calledceladon,whichwereexportedto every
cornerof the OrientandpenetratedEurope
by the sixteenthcentury.Decoeur'slow stoneware,
bowl (far right) coveredwith a finely the serenity of
crackledgreenglazeis bornof this honor- simpple formis
ableancestry. with weight
and bulk
Purchase,EdwardC. Moore,Jr.,Gift,
29.127.4, 25.210
 Pierre Legrain was set the task of creating
suitable bindings for the manuscripts and
first editions of contemporary authors
collected by the couturier Jacques Doucet.
In doing so he initiated a revival releasing
bookbinding from the historicizing for-
mulas of the past century, while avoiding
the obvious and often trite symbolism of
art nouveau. An artiste-decorateurun-
tutored in the techniques of the craft, he
confided execution of his designs to master
artisans. He sought to convey the spirit of
each text using the cubist vocabulary to
its full decorative potential. In his binding
for Paul Valery's L'Ame et la Danse (left),
the movement of the glittering meander,
as it descends the front between angular
blocks, to reverse itself on the spine and
climb the back, may be considered an
oblique allusion to the subject. Leathers
of rich brown with contrasting beige and
black are tooled in gold and silver. Inside,
endleaves of brown suede are followed
by papers of marbleized colors. Bound into
this volume are a pencil sketch signed by
Paul Landowsky illustrating one of Valery's
verses and the manuscript poem Danse by
Anna de Noailles. In all, the book has been
rendered an object of decorative art, as
precious to look upon and touch as to read.

L'Ame et la Danse, by Paul Valery (Paris:

Javal et Bordeaux, 1926), binding 1928-
1929. Gift of George and Florence
Blumenthal, 32.133.2

a book rendered an object

of decorative art, as precious
to look upon and touch
as to read
 knell for the decorativearts. The artistes-decorateurs'clientele was
wiped out by the economic catastrophe,and a general aesthetic for
a democratized industrial society was already in existence. The
Bauhaus principle of the hegemony of architecture,to the exclu-
sion of the decorative arts, was henceforth to characterizefine de-
sign. Those who could affordbeautiful objects of valued materials
crafted with masterly skill chose antique examples over contempo-
raryworks as safe investments.

In the early 1920s, Paris department stores had initiated the

popularizationof art deco with departmentsof modern interior
decorationcarryingmodest, well-designeditems. The successful
1925 Exposition precipitated an avalancheof imitations and loose
derivations. In these copies the essence of art deco was ignored or
misunderstood: the designs were not the result of conscientious
refinement of form and the execution rarely involved craftsman-
ship. It remains only to sort out the finest objects of art made in
France in the 1920s and place them beside those of earlier eras to
see art deco as the culminatingstyle in the great French tradition of
decorativeartsthat spannedfour centuries.

A s the protegeof JeanneLanvin,the

day's leading couturiere, Armand-Albert
Rateau breathed the rarefied atmosphere of
the Parisian haut monde. In the 1925
Exposition he did not exhibit with the other
artistes-decorateurs, but rather provided
the settings for the creations of a jeweler,
furrier, and several couturiers in the aptly
titled Pavillon d'Elegance. The Museum's
dressing table is a copy of one Rateau de-
signed for the bathroom of Mme Lanvin's
Paris apartment and repeated for the
Duchess of Alba in the Liria Palace, Madrid.
It is a confection in green patinated bronze,
its great weight resting on the tips of hair-
pin legs. The stylized peacocks adorning
the legs, mirror base, and hand mirror

I shown with it were motifs appropriate to

the tables' owners. Rateau created the
exotic furnishings of a fairy tale for the
a confection iin green descendants of a long line of ladies, stretch-
patinated ibronze ing back to Mme de Pompadour and Queen
Marie Antoinette, who also liked their
world that way.

Dressing table, Purchase, Edward C. Moore,

Jr., Gift, 25.169; hand mirror, Gift of
Armand-Albert Rateau, 25.170
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glass as ?,irateir stagnant or flouwing,

ice that 'raeks or imeilts'"

Ona visit to a glasshouse ownedby a

friend, Maurice Marinot, a fauvist painter,
became enamloredof the vitreous material.
"Old French glass, of such simple perfec-
tion, iwhichpretends neither to preciousness
of material nor to virtuosity of execution"
he found to "express perfectly, along with
the qualities of glass, the qualities of the
[French] race." More than the delicate in-
tricacies of Venetian work or the engraved
'
brilliance of Bohemian, he admired the **-'

nmodestproduct of the provincial French . VA-

glassmaker. He labored to imasterthe tech-

nique so that he too might blow thick-walled
vessels, glorifying zwhatcenturies had
deemnedimperfections. By manipulating a
mrolten niass to exploit trapped bubbles,
or by plunging a red-hot vessel into water
to dramatize its cooling, Mariiot illustrated
his vision of glass as "water stagnant or
flowing, ice that cracks or melts."

Covered vase, Rogers Fund, 1970.198.1;

bottle, Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr.,
Gift, 24.131.6
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 Thoroughly grounded in the traditions of the demise of art de'co,represents Puifor-
French silverwork by apprenticeship under cat's mature style. It is an intellectual
his father, Jean Puiforcat went on to inter- exercise in concrete geometry in the flaring
a chamipagne cooler pret in silver his passion for mathematics arc of its silhouette, the acute angles of its
of sensuous shape and geometry. Only the initial years of his moldings, and the division of its tubular
and substance, career belong to art deco. circumference by sections of glass. It would
and a silver bowl of His champagne cooler (left) was exe- have been truly modern if it had been an
intriguing concrete cuted in 1925, three years after his first industrial design for production in chrome-
geometry work. For all its stylish streamlining there plated metal instead of silver and with
is a rhythmic tension in the verticals deeply plastic in place of tinted glass. But Puiforcat
incised in the skin of the silver, the flattened clung to the technical standards and
nodules that punctuate the rims, and the precious materials of his father, even when
jagged sweep of the two parts of the handles his designs might have succeeded equally
toward the carnelian knobs that prevent well without them. He refused to concede
their joining. The cooler is stunning and that fine craftsmanship, essential to art
sensuous in form and substance, and per- deco, was irrelevant to the succeeding style.
fectly serviceable to a society well acquainted
with the delights of champagne. Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr., Gift,
A bowl (above) executed in 1934, after 25.207, 34.105.1
furniture, the distillation
of tradition

The crowninggloryof the decorativeartsdevelopedfor

Frenchkingswasfurnitureveneeredin fine woods.
Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann,hailedas the equalof the
greatestcabinetmakerof the reignof LouisXVI, was
called"theRiesenerof the twentiethcentury."He de-
signedcompleteinteriorsas settingsfor the piecesof
furnitureon whichhe lavishedintenseeffortin design
andmeticuloussupervisionof execution.He employed
onlythe finestandrarestof materials,suchas ivoryor
sharkskinwith Macassarebonyor Amboynawood.The
craftsmenof his workshopwerethe bestandhighestpaid
in Paris,that is to say,the world.Forhis productshe
chargedoutrageousprices,whichFrencharistocratsand
foreignmillionairesprovedeagerto pay.The reason
becomesclearon examiningthreeof Ruhlmann'spieces:
an ovalnighttable (left) wherethe grainof the Macassar
ebonyveneerformsa radialpatternon the top andivory
bandsframethe opening,a cabinet(above) veneeredin
honey-colored Amboynathat hasthin stripsof ivory
runningupwardfrom the feet to accentthe subtle con-
tours,andthe majesticpieceshownat the right,on which
marquetryof ivoryandamaranthwooddepictsa stream-
lined basketbrimmingoverwith the flowersof artde'co.
Ruhlmannwasacknowledgedas the stellarfigureof
artde'coby colleagues,public,andthe press.The creator
of objectsof classicbeauty,he standsas the representative
of the finalmomentof a greattradition.
RogersFund,1970.198.5,4, andPurchase,EdwardC.
Moore,Jr.,Gift, 25.231.1
The objectsdiscussedin this articleareon exhibitionin
the Museum'sgalleriesof TwentiethCenturyArt
 fra~~~~~~~~~~~~~

?1'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~1

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 An Introduction
to
WARRIOR'S
DEFENSE, Japanese Swordguards
by BenVincent
WEARER'S
DELIGHT Clawson MillsFellow, Armsand Armor

ven in ancient times most swords were and resilient. Beginning in the late 1500s, changed them accordingly: to markthe arrival
fitted with guards to protect the user's however, an evolution began to take place: of a new season, the anniversary of a histori-
hand from an opponent's blade. Unlike their tsuba started to become ornamental accesso- cal event, or simply to suit personal taste.
Western counterparts, Japanese swords were ries as well as combat equipment- in both The earliest functional iron guards can be
deeply curved in shape and were wielded with cases expertlyfashioned by master craftsmen. grouped into two categories: those made by
a slashing rather than a thrusting motion. Those made for fighting were of iron, the dec- armorers and those forged by swordsmiths.
Their specially crafted guards, called tsuba, orative ones of soft metals such as silver or They are easy to distinguish since the armor-
were removable and interchangeable, and de- copper. The protective effectiveness of the makers' works have relatively elaborate open-
veloped from a purely utilitarian device into latter was virtually nonexistent against the work and a raised rim, and the swordsmiths'
a subtle and sophisticated art form. steel edge of a good sword that, with a single very little piercing and no raised rim. This
The earliest tsuba, dating from about the stroke, could strike through many layers of difference in style is perhaps explained by the
eleventh century to the fifteenth, were entirely soft metal, not to mention how many of flesh fact that the technical construction of armor
functional, most frequently constructed of lac- and bone! Likefine jewelry, wealthy Japanese required a great deal of piercing of metal. The
quered leather, which is surprisingly strong owned attractive fittings for all occasions and armorer's guard pictured in Figure 1 is domi-
nated by a design of four tea-flower buds,
while only a small part of the rimless sword-
maker's tsuba (Figure 2) is adorned with an
openwork bird's-wingfan of the kind used for
starting fires in tea ceremonies.
It was to the decorative rather than the
more practical tsuba that artists and crafts-
men devoted their talents beginning around
the sixteenth century. Many of them worked
in or near Kyoto, seat of the imperial court
and of the civil government. They produced
extremely fine works that were as prized as
paintings or sculpture - in fact tsuba makers
often were painters.
uring the early sixteenth century a group
of metalworkers in the Mino area near
Kyotoexperimented with applying techniques
of elaborate inlaying, overlaying, and relief
carving to the design of tsuba. Figures 3 and
4 are typical Mino tsuba. The deeply carved
foliage is rather crude by later standards of
refinement. The "stippled" background, com-
posed of minute dots pounded into the metal,
is an innovation of Mino craftsmen that was
frequently used by later masters. Not substan-
tial enough to ward off the blow of a sword,
the Mino guards were probably used on cere-
monial occasions.
Totally different from Mino tsuba, yet con-
temporary with them, are the openwork iron
guards from Kyotosuch as the one shown in
Figure 5, which is obviously lacking in the
kind of reinforcement required for combat

This print by the famous artist Suzuki Harunobu

(1725-1770) clearly illustrates an openwork tsuba
on the sword a samurai warrior is about to thrust
through his sash. 11x 8 /8 inches. Bequest of Mrs.
H. O. Havemeyer, The H. O. Havemeyer Collection,
no. 1629

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
1 (left). The pierced floral design
and raised rim of this tsuba are
typical of an armormaker'sguard.
Diameter 35/8 inches. Bequest of
Howard Mansfield, 36.120.187

2 (right). The austerity of this

swordsmith's guard is broken only by
the little fan carved out on the right.
Diameter 3 15/16 inches. Bequest of
Howard Mansfield, 36.120.186

3, 4. EarlyMino soft-metal guards

such as these two reveal how artists
began to transform the functional
tsuba into an intricately designed
decorative object. Widths 215/I 6
inches, 21 i/ 6 inches. Bequest of
Herman A. E. and Paul C. Jaehne,
43.120.486,942

5 (left). A chrysanthemum in full

bloom fills the rimof this Kyoto
guard. Diameter 33/16 inches. Gift of
Mrs. Adrian H. Joline, 14.60.32

6 (right). A katydid creeps under-

neath a willow tree on this Akasaka
guard. Width 37/8 inches. Bequest of
Howard Mansfield, 36.120.134
tsuba. Note the delicate outlines of the chry- unfortunately, to forgers who have exploited treme southern Japan, far from the court in
santhemum. The refined carving on this kind this artist's signature on countless occasions. Kyoto- reflect a style particular to the area,
of guard reflects the somewhat effeminate, The Kaneiye illustrated here is an irregularly unaffected by courtly taste. The tsuba from
pacific nature of the court aristocracy whose shaped iron guard depicting a man guiding Higo usually exhibit a certain amount of func-
aesthetic taste strongly influenced Kyoto'sart. his boat past distant mountains. The man's tionalism, probably because of the unsettled
By the middle of the sixteenth century face is overlaid with silver and his pole inlaid political conditions in that region. The Metro-
masters of the Akasaka school, who also lived with gold. Comparing the pictorial, raised politan's tsuba made by a member of the
near Kyoto, produced magnificent tsuba that designs of Kaneiye with the simple, incised, Jingo school of Higo (Figure 11) shows a
combined both aesthetic and functional qual- abstract patterns of the Nobuiye master, it is stylized brass dragon on a roughly hewn iron
ities. Treasured by the samurai or warrior interesting to see how two artists, both from plate, the intention being to produce a strong
class, their excellent quality iron and care- the Kyotoarea and both at work at the same natural look rather than the slick finished
fully reinforced points of stress were hitherto time, originated such radically different ap- appearance of contemporary Kyotowork.
unequaled. They were designed with bold proaches to tsuba decoration. Contact with Europeans resulted in a cer-
thick lines that did not take away from the Also in the late sixteenth century Umetada tain degree of Western influence on Japa-
strength of the guard. One of the Metropoli- Myoju,a talented sword carver, perfected the nese art. It was probably considered very
tan's outstanding Akasaka works (Figure 6) technique of inlaying alloys into tsuba. Flow- avant-garde to own Western-inspired sword-
has a compact rendering of a katydid under ing designs created with fine tapering lines guards, although their low price also contrib-
a willow tree. It may not look as sturdy as it are distinctive to his style, and for this inno- uted to their popularity. Most of them are
originally was, because the branch on the vation his guards are greatly esteemed. Good more or less copies of Western designs, such
right has rusted away and no longer touches forgeries of his work are practically nonexist- as the one illustrated in Figure 12, which is in
the tree trunk. Hard to see, too, are the tiny ent, since his technical skill is almost impos- the style of a seventeenth-century European
triangles of iron that fortify all points where sible to duplicate. The Myoju tsuba pictured court swordguard.
the design connects with the guard. here (Figure 9) has a wisteria vine of a dark As years of peace continued into the eigh-
oward the end of the sixteenth century, alloy set into a brass plate. teenth century, tsuba became more and more
craftsmen began to sign their works. After the Tokugawafamily fought its way to ornate. This is seen in the works of Mogarashi
Among the first to do so were a group or power in the early seventeenth century, most Soten, who produced intricately carved and
school that called themselves "Nobuiye."They of Japan enjoyed a period of relative peace. detailed tsuba that usually depict battle
created strong iron guards of an unusual blu- From this time on, the majorityof tsuba were scenes. In the Museum's piece (Figure 13),
ish steel with incised decorations of austere created simply as fashionable ornaments dated 1757, no less than fifteen warriors are
simplicity. The Museum's Nobuiye (Figure 7) ratherthan as utilitariandevices, although the crowded into its tiny rim!
has a tortoise-likecreature (at the upper right, influence of socio-economic status, geograph- Eventually this excessive decoration de-
but almost invisible in the illustration) carved ical location, and individual taste produced a clined into a gaudiness that soon became
into a background patterned like a tortoise's variety of styles. tiresome. There resulted a radical change in
shell. The artist's signature appears just to Tsuba crafted by HamanoShozui, for exam- taste, with artists returning to restrained,
the left of the center opening. ple, were bought by the noblemen of Kyoto, classic guards in the styles of earlier crafts-
Contemporarywith the Nobuiye tsuba, but who prized them as status symbols and for men. From this reaction arose the supreme
stylistically completely different from it, is their splendid ornament. Shozui placed great master of simplification, Kano Natsuo. Illus-
one by an artist called Kaneiye (Figure 8). His emphasis on pictorial design and on charm trated here (Figure 14) is a sparsely adorned
pictorial designs in relief accented with soft- and mood, epitomized by the copper guard yet powerful dagger guard with two gold ants
metal inlays and overlays are totally unlike shown in Figure 10 on which bickering birds on a plate carved to resemble rotten wood.
anything seen before. The naive charm of his flutteragainsta backgroundof abstractclouds. When Natsuo died in 1898, the long line of
tsuba make them appealing to collectors and, Swordguards from the Higo area-in ex- great tsuba artists came to an end.

7 (left). The artist who made this

Nobuiye guard was one of the first
to sign his work. His signature is
discernible just left of the center
opening. Width 3/4 inches. Gift of a
trustee, 17.208.65

8 (right). This Kaneiye guard depict-

ing a boatman and faraway
mountains includes a miniature land-
scape. Width 37/ 6 inches. Bequest
of Howard Mansfield, 36.120.43
9 (left). A branch of flowering
wisteria hangs gracefully from the
top of this guard by Umetada
Myoju. Diameter 3 inches. Bequest
of Howard Mansfield, 36.120.83

10 (right). Hamano Shozui has

created a charming scene of billow-
ing clouds and flying birds on this
tsuba. Width 23/4 inches. Bequest of
Herman A. E. and Paul C. Jaehne,
43.120.705

11 (left). A fierce dragon writhes

around the edges of this Higo guard.
Width 29/ 6 inches. Gift of Mary
LarkinJoline, 14.60.11

12 (right). This Western-style

Japanese tsuba is inspired by
swordguards of European craftsmen.
Width 25/8 inches. Gift of a trustee,
17.207.1 lb

13 (left). A host of fighting warriors

are crowded into this guard by
Mogarashi Soten. Width 2 15/ 6
inches. Funds from various donors,
46.122.92

14 (right). This guard by Kano

Natsuo shows how the last great
tsuba master rejected the ornate
compositions of his immediate
predecessors and returned to the
restrained simplicity of earlier
artists. Width 1 15/ 6 inches. Bequest
of Howard Mansfield, 36.120.99
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T heHudson River School, America's first homegrown, coherent, and sizable group of
landscape artists, began in the 1820s. It grew rapidly, developed its own theories, and
occupied the center of the national art stage until it faded in the 1870s and 1880s, thrust
aside as an unfashionable, provincial, and tedious occurrence in our art history. The term
"Hudson River School" is accepted today not for its accuracy, since its members traveled widely
and painted an almost endless variety of locations, but for these artists' similarity of thought and
style.
The growth and development of the school were centered primarily in New York City around
its patrons and promoters. The nation and New York had discovered themselves, following
independence and renewed unity after the War of 1812, to be behindhand in providing the
humane delights of art, literature, and music that made Europe such a discovery for Americans
to visit and made most European travelers to these shores so condescending about the "New
Man." Self-consciousness and proud reaction to criticism were not the least reasons why
thoughtful leaders like Washington Allston, Samuel F. B. Morse, Thomas Cole, and Asher B.
Durand among the artists, and Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper among the
writers set out to establish the arts on a firm footing in this country. Few art or literary
movements are begun by an interested group setting out specially to be a "movement" or a
"school," but the Hudson River School came as close as any American art movement to being
willed into existence as a concrete gesture and contribution to national life. The successful

WILLIAM G. WALL The Irish-born Wall arrived in America in 1818, and by 1820 had
published a large number of his watercolors in the Hudson River Portfolio, a renowned publi-
cation that contributed to the growing awareness of American landscape. The greater breadth
and luminosity of this view on the Hudson (left) suggest a date later than watercolors painted
for the Portfolio. Possibly it was executed while Wall was living in Newburgh, New York,
during his second visit to America around 1856 to 1862. Here, three-dimensional forms emerge
from Wall's sensitivity to light and shadows, heightened by the free use of washes and the
beautifully rendered details. Watercolor, 14 8 x 1934 inches
WILLIAM HENRY BARTLETT The Englishman Bartlett made four trips to America
between 1836 and 1852, producing large numbers of sensitive topographical views in pencil
and watercolor. His pictures served as illustrations for N.P. Willis's American Scenery, pub-
lished about 1840, a widely circulated book that provided inspiration for numberless American
artists. In this view of the bay and harbor of New York from Gowanus Heights, Manhattan
extends across the background, lying north of Brooklyn. Watercolor, 714 x 11 Y inches. Both,
Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints,
Maps, and Pictures, 54.90.107, 54.90.163
PAVEL PETROVICH SVININ A genre quality reflects this son first anchored the 'Half Moon' after leaving Yonkers. The high-
Russian artist's interest in all facets of American life that he ob- land Indians flocked to the vessel in great numbers. One of them
served during his two-year stay here, beginning in 1811. This view, was killed in an affray, and this circumstance planted the seed of
with shad fishermen in the foreground, looks upstream from hatred of the white man in the bosom of the Indians in that region."
Crugers toward Verplanck's Point, an area steeped in historical Watercolor, 10 x 1512 inches. Rogers Fund, 42.95.9
significance. Lossing wrote, "It was off this point that Henry Hud-

development of the school depended upon Hudson River views that Trumbull spied ought not to be neglected, it is the faculty
a number of factors, such as the new impor- in a framemaker'sshopwindow rapidly that has given that superiority of the fine
tance of New York following the opening found their way into the collection of over mechanical arts.
of the Erie Canal, the urge of an expanding Philip Hone, then mayor of New York.
nation to record and celebrate its untapped Such recognition by the wealthy and most Thus privately Cole articulated the basis for
natural wonders, the resumption of cultural his work and the whole flourishing of the
important collector of the city went far to
and commercial ties with Europe, the in- establish Cole and the type of art he Hudson River School that followed his
creasing number of painters and engravers represented. example in the production of both pure
who relied upon the growing patronage of Cole, writing (in 1826) to his Baltimore landscapes and imaginary compositions.
business and businessmen-collectors, the patron Robert Gilmore, said During the late summer of 1825, Cole
took his first sketching trip up the Hudson.
development of art schools and galleries
where artists could learn their craft and I believe with you that it is of the greatest Three of the pictures resulting from the
display their works, and a felt need to importance for a painter always to have his trip were the ones discovered by Trumbull,
mind upon Nature.... He who would paint who complimented Cole: "You surprise
promote a sense of our own history.
compositions, and not be false, must sit me, at your age, to paint like this. You have
down amidst his sketches, make selections, already done what I, with all my years and
and combine them, and so have nature for
experience, am yet unable to do."
THOMAS COLE every object that he paints. This is what I Cole was an unusual combination of
should endeavor to do: and I think you will
The traditional and by now almost hallowed writer, poet, philosopher, observer, and
date for the beginning of the Hudson River agree with me that such a course embraces
all the advantages obtained in painting painter. Two of his most interesting writ-
School is 1825, when Thomas Cole was actual views, without the objections. I ings refer to Hudson River and Catskill
discovered by three of New York's leading think that a young painter ought not to Mountain scenes, which he painted as well,
artists, John Trumbull, William Dunlap, indulge himself too much in painting and reveal to what a great extent Cole was
and Asher Durand. Two of the three scenes, yet the cultivation of his mind a poet-painter who saw significance in
274
PAVELPETROVICHSVININ This is anotherof the morethan movementthat contrastswith the verticalPalisades,"a namegiven
fifty watercolorsin which Svinin capturedthe Americanscene, probablyfor the ribbedappearanceof somepartsof the cliff, which
paintingfromlife in his usualdirectand precisemanner.After the seemlike rudebasalticcolumns,or huge trunksof old and decayed
developmentof the steamboat,the sailingpacketwas used almost trees,placedclose togetherin a perpendicularformfor a barricade
exclusively as a freight carrier.Here one named "Mohawkof or defense,"as J. S. Buckinghamwrote. 9s x 15Y8inches.Rogers
Albany"dominatesthe composition,creatinga pleasantdiagonal Fund,42.95.8

detailsof natureandpaintedaccordingly: As the years passed before his early death allegorical series such as Morning and
in 1848, he became increasingly devoted Evening, he concentrated on painting the
SunriseFromthe CatskillMountains- The
mistswererestingon the vale of the to religious thought and to painting landscape as he saw it to be - verdant,
Hudsonlike driftedsnow: tops of distant scenes that held an obvious word message. shining, and welcoming. In 1855 Durand
mountainsin the eastwerevisible- things His most famous allegories include The wrote a characteristic letter to the New
of anotherworld.The sun rosefrombars Course of Empire, five canvases showing York art magazine The Crayon from North
of pearlyhue: abovetherewereclouds the rise and decay of a great ancient city, Conway, New Hampshire, noting that in
light andwarm,andthe clearskywas of a and The Voyage of Life, done in 1839 and the White Mountains
cool grayishtinge.... Seenthroughthe 1840, showing life's religious stages from passages of the sublime and the beautiful
breakingmists,the fieldswereexquisitely childhood to youth to manhood and finally are not infrequent, and for those who have
freshandgreen.... The Hudson,whereit old age. The final major series, The Cross the physical strength and mental energy to
was uncoveredto the sight,sleptin deep and the World, was never completed. confront the former among the deep
shadow. chasms and frowning precipices, I doubt
Today's taste for Cole's pure landscapes in
One of Cole'saxioms,not surprisingly,was preference to his allegorical scenes is un- not it would be difficult to exaggerate....
"Towalkwith natureas a poet is the derstandable, but does not change the fact But to one like myself, unqualified to
necessaryconditionof a perfectartist."His that most of the public Cole worked for penetrate the "untrodden ways" of the
landscapeshavea freelydeveloped,paint- latter, the beautiful aspect of the White
preferred the allegories. Mountain scenery is by far the predominant
erlyqualityandrichcoloringthatgo well feature.
with the extremelydramaticarrangements
of billowingclouds,massivegnarledtrees, ASHER BROWN DURAND Durand reached his pre-eminence as a
deepchasms,toweringpeaks,andgolden Asher Brown Durand easily assumed the painter after a long career as America's
light that arecommonin the pictures. leading role among American landscape most successful engraver. He played an
As earlyas 1826 Colecreatedallegorical painters upon Cole's death, and while he important role in establishing the National
andimaginaryscenesas well as landscapes. occasionally attempted to rival Cole with Academy of Design and was, with Cole, an
275
JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT Kensett's poetry was based Putnam (the ruins of which are shown in the extreme right fore-
upon carefully delineated forms and subtle handling of color. He ground opposite Mount Taurus) was likely the result of studies
executed detailed studies directly from nature, usually during his made during an 1853 summer's trip touring West Point and upstate
summer trips, then selected and combined them into large paintings New York. Oil on canvas, 32 x 48 inches. Gift of H. D. Babcock,
during the winters. This view north toward Storm King from Fort in memory of S. D. Babcock, 07.162

intimate of New York's cultural and intel- at length his feeling about painting: JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT
lectual leaders such as William Cullen Yes! go first to Nature to learn to paint John Frederick Kensett exhibited his first
Bryant and Gulian Verplanck. landscape, and when you shall have learnt landscape in 1838 at the National Academy,
With the founding of the National to imitate her, you may then study the where it met with mild interest as "a very
Academy, Durand began to paint, doing a pictures of great artists with benefit.... fair production from a young engraver; a
few landscapes and religious scenes. In the True Art teaches the use of the embellish- little too green, however, to be a good
1830s he did considerably more painting ments which Nature herself furnishes, it representation of nature."
never creates them. Kensett's plucky spirit is one often seen
and, in 1836 or before, gave up almost
entirely the arduous work of engraving. Although Durand's methods and finished in the younger, or "second generation,"
His history and genre paintings were not pictures differed from Cole's, both men Hudson River School painters. They knew,
unsuccessful, but they appeared then to the agreed in their puritan transcendentalism and often said, they had to work hard to get
critics, as they do today, to be rather stiff that art must be a vision of God through recognition for their art, and prestige for
and lifeless. Fortunately Durand, in love nature and never a thoughtless whim or the United States. Kensett returned to New
with landscape painting, produced an in- attempt by the artist to be technically York in 1847 after having painted and
creasing number of country scenes in the exciting or picturesque. traveled widely in England, France, Ger-
late 1830s. Durand's green and gold vision had an many, Switzerland, and Italy. Everything
Durand, the master of detail and obser- army of admirers and imitators. When he began to go perfectly for him: he sold pic-
vation, wrote a famous series, "Letters on died in 1886 at the age of ninety, his tures with ease; he met the right people,
Landscape Painting," for The Crayon in example had also been set in his ideas, joined their clubs, became a leader in New
1855. In these eight letters, supposedly recommendations, and Jovian presence York art politics, and, in general, rode the
directed to an aspiring landscapist, he gave among his fellows. crest of the growing wave of enthusiasm for

276
WILLIAM G. WALL This scene of the bay of New York and count of the chestnut, oak, and hickory trees with which it had
Governor's Island from Brooklyn Heights was one of the numerous once abounded," and is said to have been the first place the Dutch
subjects not published in the influential Hudson River Portfolio. It occupied in the bay. Watercolor, 2058 x 2958 inches. Bequest of
is typical of Wall's work in its expansive feeling and pastel tonality. Edward W.C. Arnold, The Edward W.C. Arnold Collection of
Governor's Island, at the entrance to the East River, had once been New York Prints, Maps, and Pictures, 54.90.108
referred to by the Dutch settlers as Noten (Nut) Island, "on ac-

art.The sarcasticGeorgeTempletonStrong, miss a thing. Using his small brushes like probably America's best-known landscape
a New Yorksocialleaderanddiarist,de- chisels, he built up his rocks, trees, waters, painter at home and abroad. He studied
scribeda "respectable"partyhe gave: and skies touch by tiny touch. He painted with two Hartford painters for a short
"Rossiter,Kensett... andotherartists the quiet, serene, rather ordinary aspects of while before going to Catskill in 1844,
assisted,whomit's not only creditablebut nature, paying particular attention to the where Thomas Cole took him as a student
aestheticandrefinedto haveat one's air and its effects. He wrote at one point, for two years, and Church learned his use
parties."The artistshadindeedcomea long "Bright colors are sparingly distributed of the loaded brush and dark colors.
wayfrom1825,when the gentryrefused throughout the natural world. The white, From the first, Church was a great eye
themequalmembershipin the American red, blue and yellow blossoms of plants, and a keen technician with the oils and
Academyof the Fine Arts. shrubs, and trees are not prominent even in traveled more widely than most of his col-
Kensettscouredthe picturesquepartsof their season of bloom; while the main leagues in search of demanding subjects.
the northeast,the GreatLakes,andColo- masses are made up of cool greens, grays, In 1853 he made an extended trip to Colom-
radoduringhis subsequentshortcareerin drabs and browns intermingled, and are bia, Ecuador, and Panama and thereafter
searchof subjects,producinghundredsof always harmonious and agreeable." He was appropriated the unfamiliar mountainous
sketchesandfinishedoil "rockportraits."A widely admired as a charitable person, and South American scene as his primary sub-
conscientiousandthoughtfulfollowerof his pictures were highly influential. ject matter.
Durand,Kensettselectedandpaintedwhat Church's great fame came from the "full-
he saw andneverconcernedhimselfwith length" showpiece landscapes, especially
idealor allegoricalcompositions.Like FREDERIC E. CHURCH his Niagara and Heart of the Andes, which
Durand,Kensettcartedhis oils, canvases, Frederic E. Church, during his greatest stood the art world and the general public
andtrappingsinto the fieldin ordernot to popularity in the late 1850s and 1860s, was on their ears when first shown in the late

277
1850s. His remarkable ability as a painter artisticaim.Theyarevast illustrationsof ... properlybelongin styleto the early
of detailed sketches served him perfectly scenery,carelesslyandcrudelyexecuted, anddistinctivelyAmericanschoolof land-
as he compiled the massive landscapes, andwe fail to discoverin themthe merits scape,while his recentmethodhadidenti-
whichrenderedhis earlierworkscon- fiedhimwith the latergraduatesof the
bringing together a mind-boggling variety
of minutiae in vast panoramas. Church cre- spicuous. ateliersof Paris."Benjaminwas one of the
ated his fantastic scenes believing that they Bierstadt'sstylehadnot changedso much criticalholdoutsin favorof the Hudson
expressed in their scale and beloved detail as criticalattitudestowardpanoramicart. RiverSchoolandfelt uneasyaboutthe in-
his most profound ideas of man's intimate The bloomwas definitelyoff the rose. vasionof Frenchstyle into Americanart.
but minor relationships to the marvels of Church,Bierstadt,andothers,as theyde- He makeslittle mentionof the factthat
nature. He delivered, as it were, Cole's and clinedinto obscurityandrepetitiousness fromColeonwardthe Americanlandscap-
Durand's ideas with a showman's flourish. duringthe 1880s,provedthe point that art ists absorbedEnglish,German,andItalian
is not andcannotbe a staticthing.The artquitefreelywithoutfeelingthatthey
publicandthe artistget boredwith same- weredebasingAmericanartisticcurrency.
ness, andthe fatiguedeye beginsto look If we grantthat all Americanartgrewto
aroundfor new exercises.Everyartmove- greateror lesserextentout of Europeanim-
ALBERT BIERSTADT menthaswithin it individualswho are pulses,then the exampleof Innessshows
Cole and Church constructed very large and capableof movingon to new ideasandnew the influenceof Pariswinningover the
impressive landscapes of foreign and East styles- the HudsonRiverSchoolwas no influenceof RomeandDiisseldorfin New
Coast locations, but it was the German- exceptionto the rule. York'sstudios.Innesswas an earlywarning
born and -trained Albert Bierstadt who of this majorchangeof tastethat shook
chose to explore and depict the scenic the Americanartworldandput the Hudson
wonders of the American West on a truly RiverSchoolout of business.
epic scale. His timing was perfect - he was GEORGEINNESS Cosmopolitanism hadovertakenthe
active during the 1860s and 1870s, when GeorgeInness,who workedin a detailed Americanartsceneas a host of new artists,
the popular press gave considerable atten- naturalisticstylefromthe late 1840s particularlyportrait,figure,andgenre
tion to the opening of mountainous regions throughthe 1860s,went to Europeseveral painters,displacedthe old guard.The
of the West. His fame approached or timesandspentthe years1870 to 1874 in youngerartistswantedto pursuenew ave-
equaled that of Church, and his subject Italy andFrance.In the early1850she nues,workingin the Barbizonandeven
matter has guaranteed him a lasting na- discoveredthe Barbizonpaintersof France impressioniststyles,combiningtechnical
tional reputation. The West was big and andmovedawayfromhis earlieradmiration freedomandpainterlybravurawith poetic
Bierstadt painted it gigantic in such crush- for Cole andDurand.He told his son that vision.Thereis no questionthat America's
ing masterpieces as The Rocky Mountains "aslandscape-painters I considerRousseau, artvisionhadbroadenedandgainedvitality
and The Domes of the Yosemite. Like Daubigny,andCorotamongthe verybest." as a resultof the new tastes.The criticsof
Church, Bierstadt was a fluent and gifted Varyingconsiderablyfromprevious the 1880s, 1890s,andafterlookedon Cole,
draughtsman and oil sketcher who turned HudsonRiverSchoolexample,Innesssaid, Durand,andtheirprogenyas naive.The
out countless preparatory pieces for his "Neverput anythingon yourcanvasthat latermenpreferredto see paintusedfor its
large machines, ranging from pencil isn'tof use, neveruse a detailunlessit own sake,as a surfacewith a life somewhat
sketches to finished medium-scale canvases. meanssomething."As he developedhis independentof the subjectdepicted.Tech-
The bottom went out of Bierstadt's mar- style, it becamefreer,almostimpetuous, niqueassumeda roleof beingasbeautiful
ket, just as it did for Church, in the late moreatmospheric,andremarkablefor the andadmirableas the content.Todaytasteis
1870s and the 1880s. After having nearlypalpableatmosphereof light andair perceptiblyswingingbackin favorof the
astounded and pleased the public for thathe created.He increasinglymoved romanticvisionof the mid-nineteenthcen-
twenty very lucrative years, Bierstadt must awayfromrepetitiousnessanddrudgelike tury,andwe cancongratulateandadmire
have found it devastating to read Yale copyingof nature.Innesshad,in fact,ap- the landscapepioneerswho workedin the
Professor John Weir's Official Report of the plied the broadtechniquesof the Barbizon studiosof New Yorkfor theirremarkable
American Centennial Exhibition of 1876: paintersto his own highlymysticalview contributionsto Americanart,aswell as
. .. [Bierstadt's] pictures exhibited at Phila- of nature.Writingin 1879, S. G. W. Ben- for theirsympatheticpresentationof a
delphia indicate a lapse into sensational jamin,authorof Artin America,commented simplerworld,of the beautiful,unravaged
and meretricious effects, and a loss of true that"the firstlandscapesof GeorgeInness landof America.

278
THOMAS COLE Cole's creative freedom
and individuality are perfectly embodied in
this expressive view (above) from the Cat-
skill foothills south toward the Hudson
Highlands, painted about 1827. Cole incor-
porates weather-blasted tree trunks, trailing
mists, impressive variations of mass, and
theatrical lighting to give the scene an over-
whelming sense of the presence of nature.
This painting, early in Cole's work, is among
his finest in its perfect appreciation of light
and atmosphere. Oil on panel, 1834 x 2514
inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT Henry ASHER BROWN DURAND Born in New FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH Church,
Tuckerman described the picture shown at Jersey and apprenticed as an engraver, Du- a native of Hartford, Connecticut, began
the upper left - a view near Cozzen's Hotel rand achieved prominence in that field and studying art at the age of sixteen and
from West Point - and other Kensett paint- as a portraitist. Then at thirty-eight he be- worked with several local painters before
ings as "memorable illustrations of the gan a career as a landscape painter. The moving to Catskill in 1844 to study with
scope and character of our natural land- formal composition of the picture shown at his idol, Thomas Cole. Church settled in
scape .... The calm sweetness of Kensett's the lower left and on the Cover, and the in- New York in 1847 and set out on a dis-
best efforts, the conscientiousness with troduction of cattle as subject matter, harks tinguished career that included extensive
which he preserves local diversities- the back strongly to Dutch and English land- sketching tours of North and South Amer-
evenness of manner, the patience in detail, scape traditions, despite Durand's stated ica, Europe, Egypt, and the Middle East.
the harmonious tone-all are traceable to rejection of European models in his work. From Cole, Church learned the cursive han-
the artist's feeling and innate disposition, as Durand combines closely rendered fore- dling of paint that characterizes his beauti-
well as to his skill." An almost impression- ground details, such as rocks and shrubbery, ful oil sketches such as the one illustrated
istic urge is seen in the suffused atmospheric with tantalizingly distant vistas along wood- above. An English critic wrote perceptively
light that is subtly reflected in the waters of land paths and into the hazy distance. The that his landscapes were "great in concep-
the Hudson. Initialed and dated 1863. Oil view is toward the southern entrance to the tion, brilliant in execution, and with a finer
on canvas, 20 x 34 inches. The New-York Highlands from Peekskill Bay. Signed and perception of the beautiful, a more tender
Historical Society, New York dated 1854. Oil on canvas, 24 x 34Y8 and elevated poetical feeling, than have
inches. Bequest of Mary Starr Van Winkle, been displayed in this branch of the art
1970.58 since Turner." This winter scene looks south
and west from Church's estate, Olana, above
Hudson, downriver toward the Catskills,
and comes as close to perfection as anything
done by American artists painting in the
field. About 1870. Oil on paper, 1158 x
18 8 inches. Olana Historic Site, New York
State Historic Trust
GEORGE INNESS Inness was born near This article is adapted from The Hudson
Newburgh, New York, and raised in New- River and Its Painters by John K. Howat,
ark, New Jersey. His interest in art led him the Metropolitan Museum's Curator of
away from his father's grocery business to American Paintings and Sculpture. Pub-
study drawing under John Jesse Barker, a lished this spring by The Viking Press, the
Newark artist and drawing master. In 1846 book includes 102 illustrations, seventy of
he studied briefly with Regis Gignoux in them in color, accompanied by descriptive
Brooklyn. Inness made frequent study and captions providing information about the
painting trips to Europe, the first in 1847. artists and localities, as well as an essay on
As a result of these trips, he was strongly America's first school of landscape painters.
influenced by the French Barbizon land- There is a preface by James Biddle, Presi-
scapists, who had developed a broad plein- dent of The National Trust for Historic
air style of realistic painting. Inness became Preservation, and a foreword by Carl Car-
the foremost exponent of their work in mer. 208 pages, 12 x 912 inches. Hard-
America and moved away from the minute bound, $25; special price for Museum mem-
techniques advocated by Durand and his bers, $18.75
followers. The scene of this painting is near
Kingston, New York, on the Hudson's west-
ern shores. Signed and dated 1868. Oil on
canvas. Private collection, New York
PROGRESS?

These pictures dramatizewhat can happen when

modern"development"invadesNew York'sbeau-
tiful landscape. Three of the nineteenth-century
paintings illustrated in the preceding article are
juxtaposedwith a photographof the samelocation
as it appearsnow. The modernphotographswere
takenby C. P. Noyes.

\U7.1 k. -

The bay of New York and Gov-

ernor'sIslandfromBrooklyn J
Heightsin the 1800s andtoday
(note the Statueof Libertyin
the far distance)
JACQUES
LIPCHITZ
his life

in sculpture
through September 12
Therareopportunity of seeingandhearing TheperiodduringtheFirstWorldWarwasa very
anartistdiscusshisworksis offeredby the excitingtimein Paris,with artists,philosophers,and
Museum'scurrentexhibitionof thesculp- poetscontinuallydiscussingandarguingaboutthe
workwithwhichtheywereinvolved.AlthoughI my-
tureof JacquesLipchitz.A charming and self amlittleconcernedwith abstracttheory,I cer-
articulateraconteur, Lipchitzhascooper- tainlydo thinkof cubismasa formof emancipation
atedin a seriesof interviews,filmedby essentiallydifferentfromartisticmovementsthathad
televisionproducerBruceBassett,which precededit. Thus,impressionism, whileit wasa
havebeenincorporated into a specialeduca- revolutionary technique,was still anessentiallynatu-
tionalinstallationthatmakesuseof the ralisticmovementconcernedwith a preciseexami-
nationof thenatureof lightandtheeffectof changing
mostup-to-dateaudiovisual techniques.
lightson representational scenesandobjects.Cubism
the
Throughout show, the works of artare didadda newdimensionto paintingandsculpture,
accompanied byMr.Lipchitz'sownwords, a dimensionthatchangedourwayof lookingat
tellingthe storybehindtheircreation,their natureandtheworkof art.Thisfact,whichis now,
placein theevolutionof hisstyle,andthe in the 1970s,acceptedasacommonplace, wasthena
ideasthatinspiredthem.Thismaterial tremendousrevelationto meandto theotherswho
participated in cubism.
providesinsightintoLipchitz'scareer,which I amfrequentlyaskedaboutthe relationshipof my
spansthetwentiethcentury,andintohis cubistsculptureto thecubistpaintingsof Picasso,
aestheticaspirations.
Braque,Gris,andothers.CertainlyI wasinfluenced
Mostof thecommentary presentedin the in myideasby cubistpaintingwhichhadpreceded
showis includedin MyLifein Sculpture me,particularly by thatof Picasso.Whenartistsare
(TheVikingPress,1972 ), anautobiog- and
living workingascloselytogetheraswe werein
raphybyLipchitzwithHarvardH. Arnason, thoseyears,theyareallobviouslyinfluencedin some
arthistorianandguestcuratorof theexhi- degreeby one another;theyallderivemotifsfrom
oneanother.I remember onedaywhenJuanGristold
bition.Thefollowingpassagesadaptedfrom meabouta bunchof grapeshe hadseenin a painting
thebookgivetheflavorof Lipchitz'scandid
by Picasso.Thenextdaythesegrapesappearedin
analysisof hislife andsculpture. a paintingby Gris,thistimein a bowl; andtheday
after,thebowl appearedin a paintingby Picasso.This
wasnot simplyimitation;we wereallworkingwith
a commonlanguageandexploringthevocabulary
of thatlanguagetogether.ButI mustreiteratethat
284

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theideasof cubistsculpturewereessentiallydifferent explore.To me,fantasyhasa particular andsomewhat
fromthoseof cubistpaintings,in somewayssimpler disagreeable connotation, thatof uncontrolled
andmoredirect,sincecubismlentitselfso naturally Freudianexperience.I opposeto it whatI thinkof as
to sculpturalconstruction. imagination orcontent,whichI wasseekingand
havecontinuedto seek,butimagination witha human
It is naturalthatwe shouldhavebeeninterestedin baseandthecontrolof myhard-earned formalvo-
machines,notonlybecausewe wereseekingin our I
cabulary. recognize thatthere is anelement of
paintingandsculpturesomethingof theclarity surrealistexpressionin theartof manydifferentcul-
andprecisionof machineformsbutbecausethiswas tures.Evenso traditionala workas theVenusde Milo
a momentin historywhenthe machineloomed is, in fact,greatlydistortedin termsof humanpro-
verylargein ourconsciousness. It wasthebeginning portions,andcouldbe calledsurreal.Thisis even
of moderntechnologyandmuchof modernindustrial truerof thehighlyelongatedRomanesque sculptures;
expansion.I wasneverinterested,likethefuturists, we couldarguethata table,whichis madeoutof a
in machineformsas symbolsof speedandpower, woodtreetrunkbutchangedoutof allrecognition,
butratherasmodelsfora kindof clarityandorder. is a surrealistobject.
Thiswasalsotheapproachof Legerin his machine I haveevenexperimented with a kindof semi-
paintings.We tendedto angularity of designnotonly automatism. I rememberanassistantof mine,Isadore
asa consequenceof themachineaestheticbut asa who
Grossman, wasalsoattendingschoolandwho
reactionagainstthe soft,curvilinear emphasesof art reportedthata professorof hishaddroppeda lumpof
nouveau. clayon thefloorandthen,pickingit up, said,"That's
I remember in 1915 whenI wasdeeplyinvolvedin a Lipchitz."Thisintriguedmeto thepointwhere
cubistsculpturebutwasstillin manywaysnot I startedtakingmeltingpiecesof wax,coolingthemin
certainof whatI wasdoing,I hada visitfromthe a basinof coldwater,andthenmoldingthemblindly
writerJulesRomains,andhe askedmewhatI was withmyhandsto seewhathappened.Sometimessome
tryingto do. I answered,"I wouldliketo makeanart extremelyinterestingimagesemerged,butthecrucial
aspureas acrystal."Andhe answeredin a slightly pointwasthatI thenhadto takethesefirstsugges-
mockingway,"Whatdo youknowaboutcrystals?" tionsand,with theknowledgeandcontrolI possessed,
At firstI wasupsetby thisremarkandhis attitude, transformthemintoa workof sculpture.
butthen,as I beganto thinkaboutit, I realizedthat ButI stillgo backto thisquestionof a personal
I knewnothingaboutcrystalsexceptthattheywere vocabulary whichtheartistmustlearn,whichmust
a formof inorganiclife andthatthiswasnotwhatI becomeaninnatepartof him,whetherhe realizes
wantedto make.In mycubistsculptureI always it ornot, andwhichthencontrolsordirectseverything
wantedto retainthe senseof organiclife, of humanity. thathe does.I neverdesertedthesubject,evenin
I thinkthatRomainswantedonlyto warnmeasa mymostabstract,cubistsculptures,becauseI have
youngartistthatmythinkingwastoo simple,andhis alwaysbelievedthattheremustbe communication
warningworked. betweenthe artistandthe spectator.Thespectator
mustin thelastanalysisbe ableto seethehuman
Bytheearly1920sI knewthatI neededto move imagein thesculpture,to be able- eventhoughit
beyondthesimplecubistvocabulary I hadlearned requiresa longandpainfulprocessof educationsuch
andto finda newcontent,a newpersonalexpression.
Abstractionwasneverenoughforme. Text Copyright ? 1972 by Jacques Lipchitz and H. H.
Thiswasnot a consciousprogramof changingfrom Arnason. Reprinted with the permission of The Viking Press
onethingto another.I didnotdeliberatelyset out Overleaf: Jacques Lipchitz and an assistant in his studio at
to developa newsubjectmatter.I was,in fact, Hastings-on-Hudson, a few miles up the Hudson River from
New York City. It was built after his New York studio was
stronglyagainstwhatI considertheexcessesof fan- destroyed by fire in 1952. Photograph: George Moffett -
tasticsubjectthatthesurrealistswerebeginningto Lensgroup
285
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astheartisthadto go throughin makingthepiece myselfexperimented with almosteverythingthat
- to cometo anunderstanding,a meetingof theminds. canbe done bronze.Yet, whenI saythis,I realize
in
thatI amconstantlyfindingnewpossibilities.I
AlthoughI hadbeencollectingAfricansculpture havetriedothermetals,suchas aluminum,butbronze
(wheneverI hadanymoney)eversinceI firstcameto is myfirstandcontinuinglovebecauseit is so alive,
Paris,therearefew of myworksin whichI feel a so direct,warm,andfluid.Eachpiecehasmyfinger-
definiteinfluencefromNegroart.I haveneverbelieved printsalloverit.
thatAfricanprimitivearthadmuchrealinfluencein
thedevelopmentof cubism.CertainlyPicasso,Braque, Oneof the greatesttragediesof mylife wasthe burn-
andothers,includingmyself,sawandwereintrigued ingof myNew Yorkstudioin 1952. It was on a
by examplesof primitiveartin theEthnological SaturdayandI wasin Hastingswith two visitors
Museum;andPicassoandBraque,particularly in their when,aboutseveno'clock,therewasa callfromthe
protocubistpaintings,usedsomedetailsfromprim- New Yorkpolicedepartmentsayingthatmystudio
itive art,asin themasklikeheadsin theDemoiselles hadburnedandthatI hadbettercomeat onceto see
d'Avignon.Butthegreatestsourceforcubismwas whatcouldbe saved.Thiswasthefifthof January,
unquestionably in thelateworksof Cezanne;youcan 1952. Oneof myvisitorsdrovemeto New Yorkbut
seeimmediatelytherelationshipbetweenthese we couldnot go intothebuildingthateveningbe-
worksandthefirstprecubistpaintingsof Braque causeit wastoo dangerous,so we returnedearlythe
andPicasso. nextmorningandit washorrible;thestudiowas
Mycollectionof objectsfromallperiodsin history nothingexcepta holein theground.
practically
is of immenseimportanceto me,evenif someof the Almosteverythingin the studiohadburnedaway,
piecesin it arenot so important,so significantin them- andsomepartsof plasterthathadnotburnedwere
selves;butit is likea universityto me. I havelearned demolished.I hadsomebronzesstoredin adjoining
somethingfromeverywork,somethingthathashelped roomsandthese,fortunately,wereuntouched,but
meto understandcertainthingsaboutsculpturein the studiono longerexisted.Papersandpaintings,
generalandaboutmyown sculpturein particular.It includinga CourbetI hadrecentlybought,hadbeen
is a sculptor'scollection,andthisis why I hopeit thrownout ontoa balconyby thefiremen.Mypieces
canbe kepttogether.I thinkthatfuturegenerations frommycollection,someof mybestAfricanpieces
of artistsandartstudentscanlearnaboutthemselves thathadnotyetbeenunpacked,weredestroyedalong
andtheirownworkby studyingit. with a portfolioof drawings,suchthingsasthree
WhenI speakof mylearningfromthecollection,I Cezannes,a Goyainkdrawing,andothersby Poussin
do not, of course,meantakingsubjectsor evenmotifs. andGris.Myfirstreactionwasthatof horror,as
Rather,whatI havelearnedby constantlyhandling thoughmyentirelife, allmychildren,hadbeen
theseobjectsandlookingat them,livingwith them, destroyed,but thenthischangedto a kindof fury,a
aresuchthingsasforms,techniques,thewaysinwhich passionateneedto beginworkingagainto recoverall
anancientorprimitivesculptor-artist approached the lost years.
his material.
Forinstance,I amcontinuallyfascinatedby the I do not cometo mystudioandwaitforinspiration,
waysthatancientandprimitivepeoplesexperimented forangelsto speakto meandtell mewhatto do.Every
withbronze;howfrequentlydaringandimaginative dayI beginto workimmediately,realandimportant
theycouldbe in theirhandlingof the material,much work,workthatinvolvesthingsandlearningand
moreso thanmanybronzesculptorsof Renaissance teachingotherpeople.If theresultis successfulit is
andmoderntimes.I havebeenabronzeworkernow not throughanyaccidentbut throughtheexperience
foroversixtyyears,constantlyin foundries,since of a longlife of thought,experiment,andcontinual
bronzeis a materialI love, andI thinkI haveseenand hardwork.
 Seascapes and landscapes, splendid still lifes and charming portraits, paintings by colo-
RECEN\TLY nial artists as well as by masters of the Hudson River and American impressionist schools
-all are brought together in a small exhibition of the most significant eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century works acquired by the American Paintings and Sculpture Department
ACQUIRED over the past five years. The show features such celebrated painters as Benjamin West,
Gilbert Stuart, Winslow Homer, and Asher B. Durand. Their works, along with the others
on display, are evidence of the standards of excellence that guide Museum curators in
AMERICAN selecting new material for the collections.

Marine painting has had many skilled practitioners in the United States: men who have
PAl NTI NGS lived by the sea, been upon it, and learned to capture its essence on canvas. Among the
most successful was WilliamBradford, born and brought up near the whaling port of New
Bedford, Massachusetts. Bradford was taught drawing, coloring, and composition by a
local Dutch marine painter named Van Beest, but his intimate knowledge of ship's rigging
and the tempestuous character of sea and sky, dramatically rendered in Shipwreck off
Nantucket (below), came directly from personal experience. There are few American
pictures that depict so powerfullythe force of a storm and the horrorof shipwreck.
The MetropolitanMuseum owns a relatively small number of American marine paint-
ings, and most are not of great significance. The purchase of this one represents a major
step toward rectifying the situation.
John K. Howat

Painted about 1859-1860. Oil on canvas, 40 x 64 inches. Purchase, John Osgood

and Elizabeth Amis Cameron Blanchard Memorial Fund, Fosburgh Fund, Inc., Gift,
and Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, 1971.192

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PATERSON,
NEW JERSEY

THIRTY
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
GEORGE A.TICE
through July 31
GeorgeA. Tice, a nativeof Thesephotographsof the city of Paterson,New Jersey,cameabout
Newark,hasbeenphoto- indirectlyout of a tripto California
whichI tookin 1965.Californiais a land
of brilliantsunlight;allof it looksnewlybuilt.AfterseveralmonthsI came
graphingthe city of hometo theEast,andthereturnproduceda revelation.The stronglight
Paterson,offandon, for andsharpcolorsof Californiahadpreparedmyeyefora freshlookat this
aboutfiveyears.Thirty olderworld.Herewastime-colored country,almostanancientcivilization,
photographsfromthis andthe atmosphere whichenvelopedit waspredominantly gray.Then,
serieswill be on view in the too, it wasa worldwhichwaseverywherepatternedby men,bothliving
PrintsandDrawings anddead.As I looked,I beganplanningto photographtheobviously
Galleries,documenting, dominantexpressionof theeasternseaboard- thecity.
austerelyandsensitively,a I selectedPaterson.Whatoriginallyattractedmewereits two natural
city whosemagnificent areas,GarretMountainandthePassaicFalls.Patersonlies in thevalley
naturalsettingformsa belowthe mountain,fromthetopof whichtheentirepanorama of thecity
disturbingcontrastto the canbe seen,likea scalemodelof itself.As I lookedout anddownfrom
shoddinessof its manmade GarretMountain,I experienceda senseof thecityfromits creation- how
environment. it began,whatits pastwaslike,thepatternsof its present,andeven,
perhaps,somesuggestionof its future.
ButevenfromGarretMountainit is possibleto see thatthe cityof
Patersondoesnot matchthemagnificence of its naturalsetting.Thereis
a cleardeterioration here.Greedandindifference havetarnishedthenoble
promisesof the site.I thoughtof allthepeoplewhohavepassedthrough
Paterson,spendingtheirliveson the way,the diminishingqualityof their
lives,andI thoughtalsoof thepeopleyet to come.EverythingI wanted
to photographwas spreadout beforeme, waitingto be rediscovered
throughthe camera.
I didnot startmycityenterprisewith immediacies, thedetailsof time,
setting,andpeople.I beganbyphotographing therockformationson
GarretMountain,andthecorruptedmajestyof PassaicFalls.Then,gradu-
ally,I beganto recordthe streetsandbuildingsof thePatersonof today.
I attemptedtheimpossibilityof beingat oncesubjectiveandobjective,so
thepicturesmightservebothasdocumentandinterpretation.

Car for Sale. 1969. Lent by George A. Tice, L 1972.19.1

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ii

~~ ~
-~~~ ~ ~ 4~

-/?JEi?;?"1~
'a-r ?- y~g;~~&s( _d
 The use of the bulky 8x10 view camerawhich I employed
for most of the photographswas time-consuming.I seldom
managedto expose more than four or five sheets of film in a
single day.On occasionI found myself a minorstreet attraction;
a smallcrowd of childrenwould gatherround andagitateto
look under the focusingcloth. Or, with an irrepressiblehuman
enthusiasm,they would demand:"Hey! Mister! Take my
picture!"
The people on Main Streetwere photographedwith a 35 mm.
handcamera.As I walked down the street I releasedthe shutter
on impulse,hoping to reveal the momentaryfigurationsof the
city's people againstthe timelessnessof the mountainand
the patternof the city. And then, at the end of the day, I would
returnhome realizingthat photographinga city in this personal
fashion- a privateprojectundertakenover a long spanof
months and even years- is quite differentfrom anyusual pro-
fessional assignmentof a week or so. I found also that as the
groupof Patersonpicturesgrew, my own ideas were changing.
The usual commercialassignmentweek allows for little more
thanfirstimpressions.But as I returnedto PatersonI began
to appreciatethe complexityof detail my camerawas recording.
Dispassionatelyit revealedboth beauty and ugliness, and I
began to see that eachof those attributeswas a function of
the other.
I believe, too, that it was good that I did not live in Paterson.
That would have been too close to the subject;I would have
tended to become a partof it. Vision might have become casual,
andwhen vision does that, you fail to see the significanceof
the commonplace.Repeatedandperiodicvisits returnyou
to the scene refreshed,vision acute andresponsive.
February12, 1972 George A. Tice

Fromthe introductorystatementto Patersonby George A. Tice

(Copyright? 1972 ), publishedby the RutgersUniversityPress
r7
4~ -Or
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60 - &
House on Franklin Street. 1967. The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1972.500.3
 i/

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WILL
BRADLEY The remarksquoted at the left, written by a Chicagoartist in 1896, capture
the sentiment of an age that encouragedone of America'sfinest illustrators,
AND THE Will H. Bradley,to experimentwith the poster at a time when this art
form underwenta dramaticrevivalboth here and abroad.
The poster was not new to this country.Barnumand Baileybillboards
POSTER and theaterposters had long adornedcity streets and countrybarnsand
broughtrealisticpicturesof stage or circusdramato the people.
WONG
ROBERTA About 1890, however, Europeanplacardsbegan to appearin the United
CuratorialAssistant States, primarilyin the form of covers and advertisementsfor such maga-
Printsand Photographs
zines as Harper'sBazarand Century.Throughthese the Americanpublic
was introduced to the latest developments in poster design - strong,
simplifiedcompositions,often enlivened by bold color.
The Americanposter renaissancewas formallyinitiated in April 1893,
Thepeople who stillscoff at when EdwardPenfield, the young art editor of Harper's,publishedthe first
postersand postercollect- of his monthly designs advertisingHarper'sMagazine.Their successcan
ing (and theyare nota be judgedby commentsin Publishers'Weekly: "The advertisingposter is
few), shouldbear in mind fast becoming a work of art.... Harperand Brothersare said to have
two things:First,that the received so many requests for the series of monthly colored posters of
Harper'sMagazinethat no more areobtainable."
great periods of artwere The publishingindustrywas the principalpatronof the new art move-
those inwhichitallied itself
ment. Following the precedentset by Harper's,Scribner's,Century,and
mostintimatelywiththe daily McClure's,the avant-gardeChicagopublishers,Stone and Kimball,com-
lifeof the people.... Sec- missioned Will Bradleyin 1894 and 1895 to design seven posters to
ond, that manyof the best advertisetheir magazine,The Chap-Book.
artistshave devoted their Bradley'sfirstposter in this series, The Twins, andhis second, The Blue
seriousattentionto the sub- Lady, reveal why his designs were so successful (Figures 1, 3 ). Simple and
direct, they arecomposedof strongoutline andflat patterns.The rhythmof
jectof the poster,and that his line varied: usually it was the dynamicallycurvilinearconfiguration
therefore,we laymenshould found in The Twins (the earliestAmericanart nouveauposter), but it could
give seriousattentionand be angularas in The Blue Lady. Bradleydrew and arrangedhis composi-
intelligentappreciationto tions, as one contemporaryobserved, accordingto "the Japaneseway of
theirworkinthisline. / makingpicturesby a few colored plain surfaces."Although Japanesearthad
been studied and appreciatedin this countryfor severaldecades,Bradley
was one of the first to assimilatethe principlesbehind Orientaldesign,
two-dimensionalityand asymmetry.He absorbedthese lessons along with
similarconcepts that he saw in some contemporaryEnglishblack-and-white
illustrationand Americanpen-and-inkwork.
Bradley'sclearlyseparatedcolor areasand large,flat, simple shapes
facilitatedthe job of the technicianwho printed the poster. In addition,
Bradleywould carefullyselect a few colors that could producea varietyof
An exhibition of posters, illustra-
tones: in The Blue Lady, the red ink used in the lettering when combined
tions, book designs, and printing by
Will Bradley will be on view in the with the blue of the backgroundbecamea richblack-purplein the trees and
Prints and Drawings Galleries the woman's dress. By restrictingthe numberof colors, Bradleyreducedthe
through July 31 numberof printingplates needed for the finishedwork (and thus its cost).
1. The Twins, by Will Bradley (1868- Bradley'sChap-Bookposters and later designs for The Echo (Figure 2)
1962), American. 1894. Zincograph,
20 x 1418 inches. 57.627.4 (12)

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 and Bradley:His Book, along with those by Penfieldfor Harper's,stimu-
lated the growth and influencedthe developmentof the Americanposter
movement. Each had his own group of followers: Bradleyled a troop of art
nouveauenthusiasts,while Penfieldwas imitatedby designerswho were
working in the mannerof Alexandre-TheophileSteinlen and Toulouse-
Lautrec.Together they turnedout a remarkablenumberof posters in
1895 and 1896.
By 1896, poster productionhad become a big business in the United
States, supportingabout twenty companieswith a capitalinvestmentof
almost $3,000,000. The magazinesthat proliferatedin Americaduringthe
1890s helped the industrythrive. As The Poster, one of the contemporary
publications,reported,"Harper'shave issued over a hundreddifferent
posters, the CenturyCompanyas manymore, and Lippincott'ssomething
like fifty." EyecatchingplacardsadvertisedThe Lark,Moods,The Philistine,
andM'lle New York in bookstorewindows.
The ubiquitousposter becamepartof daily life: up-to-datehostesses gave
poster partiesto which guests camedressed as subjectsfrom their favorite
placards.Poster exhibitions sprangup everywherefrom New Hampshire
and Connecticutto Chicago,and many featuredBradley'swork. In March
1896, the Kit-KatClub of New York showed two hundredBradley
"originals,"and, accordingto The Echo, "On the opening evening several
hundredprominentartistsvisited the rooms, and willingly or unwillingly,
all came to the opinion that Mr. Bradleyis the greatestdecorativedesigner
in Americatoday."
Manycontemporariesreiteratedthe accoladesBradleyreceivedat the
Kit-KatClub and comparedhim favorablywith other recognizedartists.
"The well-known Chicagoartist, Will H. Bradley... was using bold blacks
connected with sweeping lines and elaborateornamentsa yearor two before
the weird Englishman[AubreyBeardsley]was heardof." Some believed
that he, in fact, surpassedhis English mentor,for he "eliminatedthe utter
insanity,utilized the decorativeeffect of strikingcontrasts,and ... madea
reputationas a designer,bringingsome good out of the mess of evil."
Like any new and popularart movement, the poster had arousedconsid-
erable controversy,and the art nouveau poster was particularlyvulnerable
to artisticand even moralcondemnation.Not a few derided the unfamiliar
style, and Bradley,as America'sleadingdecorativeillustrator,provoked
more thanhis shareof criticalwrath. For example,when The Twins
appeared,a reviewer for the AmericanPrinterwrote, "The very funniest
thing out is the "Chap-Book"poster. No mortal man can possibly tell
without deliberatelyinvestigating,what it meansor what it represents.Ten
feet away one would be willing to makeoath that it was a very, very red
turkeygobbler very poorly represented.On closer inspection it seems to
have been intended for two humanbeings, one at least being in a red gown
very short at both ends. .. ." Some criticswho acknowledgedBradley's
2. The Echo,by Bradley.1895. Litho- talents as an artist and poster designerlamentedhis associationwith this
graph, 24 12 x 16 inches. Gift of
DavidSilve, 36.23.22
 -

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I
 "grotesquecraze."Theiraversionto artnouveaupromptedthemto predict
thatthe surfeitof strange,curvilineardesignswouldprecipitatethe demise
of theposter.
Bradleytooka standbetweenthosewhobelievedthattheposterwasthe
firstsignof a renaissance andthosewho foresawthe downfallanddegrada-
tionof thisartform.He wasskepticalaboutthefamewonby posterartists
of hisdayandcriticalof muchcontemporary designthathe analyzedas:
"Acertainamountof color,somemeaningless lines,andmoreorlessbad
drawing.... Todaya galleryis devotedto anexhibitionof paintings,and
howonewisheshe wasrepresented, but thejuryhassaid'no.'Tomorrow
the samegalleryopensits doorsto a posterexhibit,andbehold,one'swork
is there;it blazesforthin allthecolorsof therainbow.Thepublicflocksto
seeit. Theycommentuponit. It is criticizedandpraised.Result- more
orlessnotoriety."
Yet he didnot considertheposteranartisticdeadend."If we canonly
lookoverall the work,studyit andunderstandit, we will findthatwe are
on the thresholdof a newart,anartcomposedof threethings:First,and
paramount, theindividuality of the artist;second,clearandvigorous
thought;third,theutmostsimplicityof themodeof expression."It is quite
remarkable thatBradley,workingat theendof thenineteenthcentury,
perceivedthisas theimportantcontributionof thenewartmovement.
Theposterhadbegunto educatetheeyeof bothartistandpublicto appre-
ciatesimpleandstriking,oftenratherabstractcompositions.Unlikemany
nineteenth-century artist-theoreticianswho advocatedsimplicityin their
bookswhiletheyindulgedin Victorianextravagances in theirwork,Bradley
carriedout thisideain hisdesigns.Thebeautyandsensitivityof his arrange-
mentof rhythmiclineandpattern,andthedirectnessof hiscompositions
REFERENCES makehis postersappreciated asmuchtodayastheywerein the 1890s.
The introductoryquotationwas takenfrom
We canalsosympathize withhis attitudetowardhis ownworkandhis
ClaudeFayetteBragdon'sarticle,"Poster
Hunting in Paris"in Poster Lore 1 (1896), philosophy of the minorarts."Thepaintingof frescoes,stage
so-called
p. 24. S. C. de Soissonsnoted the relation- scenes,orof postersfor sellingdriedfish,maynotbe in itselfa highgradeof
ship betweenBradley'swork andJapanese art,butevenin suchworktherearethingswhichmayeducateus, if we
designin "WilliamH. BradleyandHis Art"
in The Posterand Art Collector1 (1898), regardthemaright."Whenanartistdesigneda placard,Bradleybelieved
pp. 158-160.Commentson Bradley'sde- thathe hadto considerbothbusinessandartisticneeds,forhe hadto
signscan be found in The Echo 2 (1896), "appealto thepeoplewhowill wantto buydriedfish,andconsiderthe
p. 294; The Poster 1 (1896); The Inland
Printer14 (1895), p. 560; andThe Ameri-
positionin whichthatposterwill finditselfwhendisplayedin a fish-
canPrinter 19 (1894), p. 174. Bradley's monger'sstore.If theposteris to attractbuyersfora periodicalorbook,
analysisof the postermovementwas drawn theremustbe anappealto differentimpulsesandsensibilities."Concessions
frominterviewsconductedby The Sunday madeto suchmundanerequirements wouldnot diminishthequalityof
Inter Ocean (October 27, 1895), p. 13;
The Book Buyer 13 (1896), pp. 233-236;
hiswork,forhe assertedthata goodadvertisement mustbe goodart.
andThe AmericanChap-Book1 (1904). Onceagain,he realizedtheseviewsin hiswork:he decoratedbook
shops,grocerystores,andcitystreetswithpostersthatcaughttheattention
anddelightedtheeye.AlthoughtheAmericanpostermovementbeganto
waneby 1897 andBradleypractically ceasedto designthemby 1907,his
3. The Blue Lady, by Bradley. 1894. regard for the poster and his own work continueto speakto us in the
Zincograph, 20 x 13 s inches. Gift of secondhalfof thetwentiethcentury.
David Silve, 36.23.20
"In1
OUTSTANDING
RECENT
ACCESSIONS

9th -Century
Architecture for
The American Wing:
Sullivan and W right

_ Staircose from the north stair-

well of the Chicago Stock Ex-
change. American Wing Restricted
Building Fund, 1972.50.1. Photo-
graph: Richard Nickel

l4.
i I 1s _ _
tw1_~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~t

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
 any significant American buildings are faced with destruction
every year, and only rarelycan museums preserve parts of them
for public enjoyment. In the case of the recently demolished
Chicago Stock Exchange Building, the Metropolitanwas able to save four
of its ornamental staircases. As functional units of the new American
Wing, the stairs will face each other much as they did in their original
setting designed in 1893 by Louis Sullivan.An even more gratifying oppor-
tunity arose when it became apparent that the house Frank LloydWright
built for Francis Little could not be preserved on its spacious site over-
looking Lake Minnetonkaoutside Minneapolis.The Museum prevented the
total loss of this important landmark by purchasing the building outright.
Its vast living room will be installed in the American Wing with a view into
Central Park, and the remaining rooms are being made available to other
public institutions.

American architecture came of age in the late nineteenth century with

Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Henry Sullivan, and Frank LloydWright
-each an architect of immense stature at home and demonstrable in-
fluence abroad. Richardson is remembered for his monumental masonry
designs and shingled houses; Sullivan for his skyscrapers and architec-
tural ornament; and Wright for, among other things, his organically con-
ceived "prairiehouses."

THE SULLIVAN STAIRCASES

Sullivan is the ornamentalist par excellence among architects of the last
hundred years. He was at his most creative between 1881 and 1895, dur-
ing his partnership with the brilliant engineer Dankmar Adler. Their
collaboration resulted in a series of splendid skyscrapers in Chicago: the
2. Chicago Stock ExchangeBuilding,by Louis
Auditorium(1887-1889), the Schiller Building, later known as the Garrick
Henry Sullivan (1856-1924), American. 1893-
Theater (1891-1892), and the Stock Exchange (1893-1894). After his split
1895. Reproduced from The American Architect
with Adler in 1895, Sullivan designed only one more major commercial
and Building News (October 16, 1897)
building.
The Stock Exchange (Figure 2) was one of Adler and Sullivan's most
important commissions; except for the Auditorium, it was the largest
building they ever undertook. The steel-framed structure is immortalized
in architectural history as the first skyscraper using a caisson foundation,
an innovationof Adler'sto solve a problem arising from the site's location.
The presses of the nearby Chicago Herald would have been damaged by
the vibrations of pile drivers ramming wooden pilings into the Chicago
clay, so Adler introduced a type of caisson to replace pilings on the
western side. Large pipelike cylinders were sunk into the ground while the
earth within them was being removed. The resulting shafts were filled with
concrete and served to support the footings of the building. This pro-
cedure later became accepted practice in Chicago.
Louis Sullivan conceived of the skyscraper as divided into three distinct
parts-the base, the shaft, and the cap-as opposed to the undifferentiated
wall treatment of the now-popularslab or tower types. The exterior walls of
the Stock Exchange were clad in terracotta, originally an eggshell white
ratherthan the brownstone black (an accumulation of dirt) to which recent
generations were accustomed. A two-story arcade above the ground-floor
storefronts forms the base of the building. Since these masonry areas
would be visible to the pedestrian at close hand, Sullivan covered them 3. Typical office floor plan of the Chicago
with exquisite, abstracted floral ornament. Ten stories above, he capped Stock Exchange (individual offices have not
the building with a squat colonnade and a bold, projecting cornice, crudely been delineated). From Randall J. Biallas, Chi-
detailed: the ornament was to be "read" from the ground about two cago. A indicates the staircases, and B the
hundredfeet below. elevators
 Inside, the great Trading Room was enriched with molded plaster orna-
ment and stenciled wall coverings. The bank of elevator cages at the 4. Francis W. Little house, by Frank Lloyd Wright
center of the building and the staircases at either end were of elegantly (1867-1959), American. 1912-1915. Photograph: Kevin
decorated ironwork(Figure 1). It is four complete sets of these steps-two Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates, New York
from either end - that the Museum has acquired.
The staircases ran continuously from the third to the thirteenth floor.
Between floors each one consisted of two flights ascending in opposite
directions, linked by a rectangular landing. The staircases were placed at
the junctures of the main axis with the long arms of the E-shaped plan
(Figure 3). Sullivan took advantage of this location to omit the wall at the r
- 'lk
outer side of each stairwell, thus exposing to view the flanks of the stair-
cases and affording him more opportunities to decorate. The surfaces of I

the massive stringers that support the steps display star or pinwheel
motifs, and the shieldlike balusters repeat on a large scale the circle-
within-an-ovalof the stringers.
Except for the white marble treads and mahogany handrails, the stair- I

cases are made of pieces of cast iron bolted or riveted together. The iron
i
was cast by The Winslow Brothers Company's Ornamental Iron Works in
Chicago, then the leading American foundry for architectural ornament.
The firm's elaborate illustrated catalogue of 1894 featured two recent
works: an entrance gate (in the full-blown Louis XV style) that had been
awarded highest honors at the World'sColumbian Expositionof 1893, and
the stairs and elevators of Chicago's Stock Exchange. The design of these :biX
last was proudly acknowledged to be Sullivan's. The stairs were electro-
plated in bronze and then coated with asphaltum varnish - a colored finish
that served to darken the recessed portions of the design and highlight
the raised.

THE WRIGHT LIVING ROOM

FrankLloydWrightcame to Chicago in 1887. For six years he worked as a
devoted disciple of and design assistant for Louis Sullivan on the Audi-
torium, the Stock Exchange, and other commissions. Then he established
his own office and switched immediately from commercial to domestic
architecture. His first few months in Chicago had been spent with J. L.
Silsbee, a Massachusetts architect who had brought the Richardsonian
style of shingle-clad houses with him to the Midwest. Wright'sfirst auton-

5. Plan of the Francis W. Little house. Reproduced

from H. R. Hitchcock's In the Nature of Materials: The
Buildings of FrankLloydWright, 1887-1941 (New York,
1942). A indicates the terrace, B the living room, and
C the family quarters
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omous work, a home for himself in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago in
1889, was shingled but already showed a strong sense of order and line- 6. Living room from the Francis W. Little house, seen
arity hitherto lacking in such buildings. The characteristic features of his from the fireplace end. Purchase, Estate of Emily C.
"prairie style" soon evolved-generally, a low, horizontal mass, hugging Chadbourne, 1972.60.1. Photograph: Kevin Roche,
the ground; specifically, wide, overhanging roofs, grouped windows with John Dinkeloo and Associates, New York
leaded-glass designs, and natural wood and brick for interior trim. The
Robie House of 1909 is perhaps the best known of the dozens of such
houses Wrightbuilt in the Chicago area.
In 1910 Wright left his family and Chicago for Europe, where the Ger-
man publisher Wasmuth issued a famous portfolioof drawings of Wright's
work, changing him overnight from a Midwestern architect into an inter-
national figure. Returning in 1911, Wrightsettled in Wisconsin and began
his new residence and office, Taliesin I. The next year he designed a sum-
mer house in the prairie style for F. W. Little, a client for whom he had
built a house in Peoria a decade before. In 1914 construction was pro-
ceeding well, when tragedy struck: Wright'swife and children were killed,
and Taliesin burned, by a demented servant. Thereafter Wright shifted
his sights to Japan, immersing himself in the Imperial Hotel project in
Tokyo.The first phase of his career was over.
Francis Little had acquired several acres of land on a bluff high above
Lake Minnetonka,where he wanted a house that would serve for both inti-
mate family life and large-scale entertaining. Wright'ssolution emphasized
the separateness of the two functions within a plan that had an overall
coherence. Approaching the house by the main steps, one saw a large,
freestanding pavilion with hipped roof extending way out on all sides,
dominating the scene (Figure 4). It housed a great living room intended
for entertainment and the musical recitals so loved by the family. The
living quarters of the house were barely visible off to the left. The visitor
now had a choice- straight ahead into a vestibule, then left into the great
living room; or left and along the outer flank of that room to another set of
doors leading directly into the family quarters (Figure 5). On the inside,
public and private sectors are connected only by a narrow door adjacent
to the living-roomfireplace, but on the outside they are effectively linked
by the terrace path. The monumental steps and the screened porch were
placed at right angles to the predominant axis of the house, counteracting
its tremendous length.
It is the public part of the house-the vast, self-contained living room,
35 by 55 feet-that the Museum will reerect in New York (Figure 6). Its
spatial effect is breathtaking: the ceiling floats high above the beholder;
light floods the room-natural light during the day, soft electric light at
night. A bank of exquisitely designed leaded-glass windows made up of
twelve interrelated panels is centered in each side wall. Clerestory win-
dows repeat the leaded-glass motifs, and a window seat runs the full length
of the bank of glass below. The focus of the flat-coved ceiling is a series
of five stained-glass skylights with the original electric lighting behind
them. Throughout the room the architectural trim is finely executed in
native white oak, and its old wax finish remains intact. Much of the Wright-
designed furniture-standing lamps, easy chairs, and tables-survives in
the room. It should be remembered that Wrightconceived of his interiors
as a totality, the furniture playing an integral part in the design.
As the Bicentennial celebration of the American Revolutionapproaches,
the American Wing is making plans for a new building in which to display
the arts of the United States and give special recognition to the masters
of American architecture. Will the incorporationof works by Sullivan and
Wright in the MetropolitanMuseum lead to increasing popular support in
the battle to save other outstanding buildings threatened with destruction?
We hope so.
MorrisonH. Heckscher
Assistant Curator,The American Wing
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