Archives of American Art Blog

Calling all art sleuths!

This photograph of a tea party in an artist’s studio has long remained a mystery at the Archives of American Art. Can you help us identify the woman between Holty and Miró, and the two men on the far right? Do you know whose studio this could be?

Carl Holty (left) and Joan Miró (center), with others at a tea party in an artist’s studio, 1947. Photographer unknown. Carl Holty papers, circa 1860s-1972. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Here are the clues:

• American painter Carl Holty (1900-1973) is on the far left.
• Spanish painter Joan Miró (1893-1983) is in the center.
• In 1947, Miró borrowed Holty’s studio in New York while he worked on a mural for a restaurant in Cincinnati.
• The Museum of Modern Art exhibited Miró’s mural before it traveled to its final destination in Ohio.
• Nothing is written on the back of the photograph that indicates the guests’ identities.

Leave a comment or tweet us at @ArchivesAmerArt if you know something about this photo!

Beards of Note - William Morris Hunt

William Morris Hunt, ca 1860. Macbeth Gallery records, 1838-1968. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

William Morris Hunt, ca. 1866. James Wallace Black, photographer. Miscellaneous photograph collection. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

William Morris Hunt should be considered one of Boston’s most important painters, becoming one of the most prolific creators of landscapes and portraits in the 19th century. He also traveled in Boston’s most prominent intellectual circles.

Unfortunately, Hunt suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1879 at the age of 55. Hunt looks much older than 55 in both of these images and (I think) his state of mind is clearly reflected, as well.

The image on the above left is a photograph of Hunt’s 1866 self portrait, found at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA.

The photograph below shows Hunt in a painter’s smock with his palette and brushes at his studio in Boston, his beard a bit shorter and whiter in 1879, shortly before his death.

Jennifer Snyder works with oral history interviews at the Archives American Art. When not sending interviews out for digitization, she is writing about extraordinary examples of facial hair for this blog.

Mustaches of Note - Elihu Vedder

Elihu Vedder, ca. 1910. Unidentified photographer. Elihu Vedder papers, 1804-1969. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Doesn’t he look ready to jump on his bicycle and join a modern day Tweed Ride?*

Elihu Vedder is best known for his illustrations of the 1884 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. You can browse his digitized papers in our collections online. If you happen to be in Washington, DC you can visit some murals by Vedder in the Library of Congress, in the Thomas Jefferson building outside the Main Reading Room.

*More on the Tweed Ride in DC last fall from the Washington Post and DCist -- and there is a Seersucker Social on June 12!

Jennifer Snyder works with oral history interviews at the Archives American Art. When not sending interviews out for digitization, she is writing about extraordinary examples of facial hair for this blog.

Beards of Note - Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper, 187-?. Brown Brothers, photographer. From the Miscellaneous photograph collection. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Peter Cooper was the inventor of the first steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb. The National Museum of American History has a model of the Tom Thumb in their transportation collection.

Interestingly, Cooper is also credited with inventing the first gelatin dessert—something we now call JELL-O.

More on Peter Cooper.

Jennifer Snyder works with oral history interviews at the Archives American Art. When not sending interviews out for digitization, she is writing about extraordinary examples of facial hair for this blog.

The Archives' Brides

With 13% of the Archives’ staff planning a wedding this year, I wondered whether we could find inspiration among the collections.

Marriage certificate of John Frederick Peto and Tena [Christine] Pearl Smith, 1889 Jun. 16. John Frederick Peto and Peto family papers, circa 1850-1983. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Maud Ramsdell Beal on her wedding day, 1908 May 26. Unidentified photographer. Gifford Beal sketches, sketchbooks and papers, 1902-1953. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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Nancy Douglas Brush and Robert Pearmain on their wedding day with Gerome and George de Forest Brush, 1909 Sept. 11. Unidentified photographer. Nancy Douglas Bowditch papers, ca. 1900s-1970s. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

It would take a bold bride to wear Christo’s 1967 “Wedding Dress.”:

Christo’s wedding dress design notes, 1967. Joan Kron papers, 1959-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

The chains of wedlock may be heavy, but the silk ropes of wedlock are even heavier.  Are there strings attached to this bride’s marriage?  Does her dress represent the behemoth wedding industry?  Or is she merely the ultimate fashion victim?

Julie Schweitzer is a processing archivist at the Archives of American Art.

The Art of Hockey

Vancouver youth hockey team sponsored by N.E. Thing Co., ca. 1970. Lucy R. Lippard papers, 1940s-2006. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Hockey is Canada’s sport. The boisterous crowds cheering on Team Canada in their gold medal winning game against the United States at the Vancouver Olympics have recently reinforced this fact. Generations of young Canadians have long aspired to become Olympic medalists and NHL hockey stars.

This photograph shows just one of the countless youth hockey teams. Yet upon close examination, not everything about this photograph is from the ordinary. For starters, it’s in the papers of renowned scholar of conceptual art, Lucy Lippard. Also, the players’ jerseys indicate that the sponsor is N. E. Thing Company. No, Lucy Lippard did not moonlight as a hockey coach and this company with a mysterious name did not manufacture hockey pucks.

The wiles of this photograph reveal the subversive tactics of a conceptual art collective based in—of all places—Vancouver. Founded by Iain and Ingrid Baxter, N. E. Thing Company (NETCO) pioneered the conceptual art movement in Canada. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, NETCO borrowed from corporate models to create and disseminate art. In this example, NETCO sponsored a local youth hockey team, intentionally corrupting the profitable business of hockey into a conceptual art project. Photographs like this remain as the trace evidence of NETCO’s practices.

And I thought the only art found in hockey games were the painted bodies of avid fans.

Mary Savig is a curatorial assistant at the Archives of American Art.

Read more about Lucy Lippard and the N.E. Thing Co. in James Nisbet's article in Vol 47:1-2 of the Archives of American Art Journal [PDF pages 30-33]

Mustaches of Note - Carolus-Duran

Carolus-Duran, 1878. From the Charles Scribner’s Sons Art Reference Dept. records, 1839-1962. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

John Singer Sargent studied under French art instructor and painter Carolus-Duran (Charles Auguste Émile Duran, 1837-1917). Sargent’s signature brushwork was developed during his time in Paris with Carolus-Duran.

The lovely portrait of Carolus-Duran Sargent painted of his mentor in 1879 (featuring that signature brushwork and the above pictured facial hair) can be found at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA.

More on Mustaches of the 19th-Century.

Jennifer Snyder works with oral history interviews at the Archives American Art. When not sending interviews out for digitization, she is writing about extraordinary examples of facial hair for this blog.

Stolen Moment

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in the interior court of the Detroit Institute of Arts, 1932. From the Florence Arquin papers, 1923-1985. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

How lucky was Florence Arquin to have caught this moment on film? Frida and Diego certainly were not shy about showing their affection for one another in front of others. But this moment, shot from afar, through scaffolding and building construction, was not necessarily meant for public consumption.

Was this a quick kiss in greeting or goodbye? Or was it a passionate kiss? Did Florence catch this moment out of the corner of her eye and decide to quickly snap a picture? Or had she been watching them through her lens for awhile?