FEATURED CATALOG-

"Silver by the Fox Family of Silversmith. A Major Collection & Various Properties"

Gallery/Date: London; Phillips: September 23, 1988.

Discussion: The sale of a unique collection of silver spanning the 19th century, all made by the Fox family of silversmiths, Charles Fox and his family. The private collection was amassed with care over several decades, and some other Fox family silver is added to round out the sale.

Description: Softcover. 7”x9.5”, 68+ pages, 104 lots, color and black & white illustrations.

Condition Notes: Light soil to the covers, contents fine.

$50.00

FEATURED BOOK- First Impressions are important...

“Lasting Impressions. American Painters in France 1865-1915”

By William H. Gerdts, et al.

Published by the Musee Americain Giverny & Terra Foundation for the Arts in 1992.

DISCUSSION: A magnificent catalog to the loan exhibition at the Musee Americain Giverny, paired with the fine extended essay (pp 13-124) “American Art and the French Experience” by Professor Gerdts.

DESCRIPTION: Hardcover. 9”x12”, 286 pages, 98 color and 140 black & white illustrations, dust jacket.

CONDITION NOTES: Minor wear, but overall clean and nice, with a tight binding and no marks.

PRICE: $35.00

Our March Catalog-

Figuring “better late than never”, and having finally been cleared for interstate travel by the Department of Homeland Security, the Book Elves packed up the lime-green VW microbus with shovels and rakes and implements of disruption, and debauched for Florida and Spring Break.

[Editor’s Note: astute readers will have noticed the completely incorrect use of the word “debauched” by the author; he assures me that, taking into account the confluence of the Book Elves, Florida, Spring Break, and unlimited quantities of beer and inflatable pool toys, the word “debauched” fits, if not in a technically correct sense, then at least in a moral one].

But before they left us trying to figure out how they got the snowblower up on top of the carriage house roof, and how much bail money we are going to need to wire down when the inevitable call comes in from the Florida State Police, the Book Elves finished our latest catalog-

CATALOG 335: RECENT ACQUISITIONS:

Books on the Fine and Decorative Arts, Antiques,

Design & related subjects is now ready for viewing!

You can see the entire catalog,

with illustrations, on our website!

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Our New February Catalog-

It’s been snowing here more or less constantly since December, and as the drifts hit six feet the Book Elves collectively threw their snow shovels aside and announced that it was a grand time to go sledding. The only problem with this otherwise engaging idea was that all the sleds had been destroyed last July in the Great Goat-Sled Rodeo Disaster. Where the stupi-, er, imaginative idea of substituting kayaks for sleds came from has now been lost, and perhaps it’s better that way.

So up to the top of Mt. Crumpet, um, Mt. Tom, the Book Elves trudged with their fleet of Kayaks, in a real-life “Paddle to the Sea” moment. And in fact, that may be where they ended up, because ever since they slid back down Mt. Tom in the general direction of the Connecticut River, nobody has seen a trace of them. Or the kayaks. Or ten cases of beer that we had been storing for our Super Bowl party.

But before the Book Elves launched themselves down the icy mountain slope of fame or disaster, they finished our latest catalog-

“RECENT ACQUISITIONS for FEBRUARY, 2011”

features books and catalogs on the decorative and fine arts, design, trades, and related subjects, and it is browsable on our website.

20% Off 285 Selected Books!

It was 13 degrees this morning- that's not a temperature, that's a football score. To keep themselves warm before the coffee kicked in this morning the Book Elves got busy and marked down 285 selected books from our stock by 20%. You can see them, and pictures, here at our Ebay store->

http://tinyurl.com/jhrb-sale

If you see something you want you don't have to order thru Ebay, you can also call or email us, and we'll put it aside for you.

All right, now I have to go peel three Book Elves off the radiator.

Our New Winter Catalog!

Ah, Christmastime in New England! And what better way to celebrate the holidays (thought the Book Elves), than to set up a traditional Nativity Scene on the front lawn! What better way indeed? No problem- except the Book Elves are not into plastic, made-in-China stuff from Wal*Mart. Oh no- they’re into bigger, more inventive, more, um… “realistic” projects.

And we all know what that means, don’t we? Yes, it’s time double-check that our lawyer & the Fire Dept. are on speed-dial.

But before the Book Elves started answering angry questions from the DPW about the three dumptruck-loads of sand that disappeared from their facility last Thursday night, and from the Springfield zoo about their missing camels, and from the SPCA about the possible use of duct tape to keep the sheep from wandering away, and from the TSA about the three odd men in flowing robes and turbans who were detained at Logan Airport, they finished our latest catalog-

CATALOG 333: RECENT ACQUISITIONS:

Books on the Fine and Decorative Arts,

Antiques, Design & related subjects

is now ready for viewing!

You can see the entire catalog,

with illustrations, here!

Happy Birthday, Frida Kahlo

July 6, 1907 - Frida Kahlo, Mexican Realist, Symbolist, and Surrealist painter, was born. "Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 – July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, and a communist born in Coyoacán. She painted "pain and passion" using intense, vibrant colors. Her style "close to folk art" was influenced among others by indigenous cultures of Mexico, European Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits. Kahlo was married to Mexican muralist and communist Diego Rivera."

Robert Adam & John Singleton Copley

ALMANAC-

July 3, 1728 – Robert Adam, Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer, was born in Kircaldy. "Robert Adam was the son of William Adam, Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his older brother John, Robert took on the family business, which included lucrative work for the Board of Ordnance, after William's death. In 1754 he left for Rome, spending nearly five years on the continent studying architecture under Charles-Louis Clérisseau and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. On his return to Britain he established a practice in London, where he was joined by his younger brother James. Here he developed the "Adam Style", and his theory of "movement" in architecture, based on his studies of antiquity and became one of the most successful and fashionable architects in the country. Adam held the post of Architect of the Kings Works from 1761 to 1769. Robert Adam was leader of the first phase of the classical revival in England and Scotland from around 1760 until his death. He influenced the development of Western architecture, both in Europe and in North America. Adam was not content with providing houses for his clients but very ready to design the fittings and accessories as well."

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July 3, 1738 – Colonial portraitist John Singleton Copley was born. "John Singleton Copley (1738[1] – 1815) was an American painter, born presumably in Boston, Massachusetts and a son of Richard and Mary Singleton Copley, both Irish. He is famous for his portrait paintings of important figures in colonial New England, depicting in particular middle-class subjects. His paintings were innovative in their tendency to depict artifacts relating to these individuals' lives. According to art historian Paul Staiti, Copley was the greatest and most influential painter in colonial America, producing about 350 works of art. With his startling likenesses of persons and things, he came to define a realist art tradition in America. His visual legacy extended throughout the nineteenth century in the American taste for the work of artists as diverse as Fitz Henry Lane and William Harnett. In Britain, while he continued to paint portraits for the élite, his great achievement was the development of contemporary history painting, which was a combination of reportage, idealism, and theatre. He was also one of the pioneers of the private exhibition, orchestrating shows and marketing prints of his own work to mass audiences that might otherwise attend exhibitions only at the Royal Academy, or who previously had not gone to exhibitions at all. Boston's Copley Square, Copley Square Hotel and Copley Plaza bear his name."

Copley's portrait of silversmith Paul Revere

The Wreck of the Medusa

July 2, 1816: The French frigate Medusa grounds and subsequently begins to break up –the ensuing tragedy became the subject of Gericault's famous painting "Raft of the Medusa".

"The Raft of the Medusa is an oil painting of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). Completed when the artist was just 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. It is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on July 2, 1816. At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation, dehydration, cannibalism and madness. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain acting under the authority of the recently restored French monarchy."

"In choosing the tragedy as subject matter for his first major work—an uncommissioned depiction of an event from recent history—Géricault consciously selected a well-known incident that would generate great public interest and help launch his career. The event fascinated the young artist, and before he began work on the final painting, he undertook extensive research and produced many preparatory sketches. He interviewed two of the survivors, and constructed a detailed scale model of the raft. His efforts took him to morgues and hospitals where he could view, first-hand, the colour and texture of the flesh of the dying and dead. As the artist had anticipated, the painting proved highly controversial at its first appearance in the 1819 Paris Salon, attracting passionate praise and condemnation in equal measure. However, it established his international reputation, and today is widely seen as seminal in the early history of the Romantic movement in French painting."

"Although The Raft of the Medusa retains elements of the traditions of history painting, in both its choice of subject matter and its dramatic presentation, it represents a break from the calm and order of the then-prevailing Neoclassical school. Géricault's work attracted wide attention almost immediately from its first showing, and was subsequently exhibited in London. It was acquired by the Louvre soon after the artist's early death at the age of 32. The painting's influence can be seen in the works of Eugène Delacroix, J. M. W. Turner, Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet.

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July 2, 1864: Legislation to create National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building, is passed. The Hall, one of the earliest examples of Neoclassical architecture in America, contains statues of important Americans, contributed by all 50 states.

Salvador Dali Dives for Surrealism & Almost Doesn't Return-

ALMANAC-

July 1, 1936: During The International Surrealist Exhibition in London, Salvador Dali attempts to give the lecture 'Fantomes paranoiaques authentiques' while wearing a deep-sea diving suit, but almost suffocates and has to be rescued by the young poet, David Gascoyne, who arrives with a hammer in the nick of time. In his 1942 autobiography Dali recounted the adventure-

“Lord Berners was in charge of renting the diving suit in question, and over the telephone they asked him to specify exactly to what depth Mr Dali wished to descend. Lord Berners replied that I was going to descend to the subconscious, after which I would immediately come up again. With equal seriousness the voice answered that in this case they would replace the helmet with a special one.”

“I got into the diving suit, and the mechanic from the diving-suit establishment bolted my helmet on tight. The diving suit had extremely heavy lead shoes which I could barely lift. I therefore had to walk very slowly, leaning on friends who helped to move me, as though I were completely paralysed, and thus I appeared before the audience holding two luxurious white Russian wolfhounds on a leash.

“My apparition in a diving suit must have had a very anguishing effect, for a great silence fell over the audience. My assistants managed to get me to my seat behind the microphone. It was only at this moment that I realised that it would be impossible for me to deliver my speech through the glass window of my helmet. Moreover, I had been shut up in this thing for 10 minutes and became heated from the exertions I had made in walking across the stage to reach my chair, so that I was dripping with perspiration, and felt faint and on the point of suffocating.

“I made the most energetic gestures I could to have the helmet of my diving suit removed. Gala and Edward James, immediately understanding my painful situation, came running to take off my helmet. But it was solidly bolted on, and there was nothing to be done, for the worker who had put it on me had disappeared. They tried to open a slit between the helmet and the suit with a billiard cue so that I would be able to breathe. Finally they brought a hammer and began to strike the bolts energetically to make them turn. At each blow I thought I would faint.

“The audience for the most part was convinced that all this was part of the show, and was loudly applauding, extremely amused at the pantomime that we were playing so realistically. When I at last got out of the diving suit everyone was impressed by my really deathly pallour, which constituted the accurate gauge of that Dalinian dramatic element which never fails to attend my most trivial acts and undertakings.”

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There is, of course, no video of this, so I had to make do with this Dali-esque moment-

Let's Take a Sleigh Ride with the Greek Slaves to the Globe Theatre!

NOTED-

- Adding the Personal to the Purely Sacred: "Illuminations of sacred and ritualistic texts are forms of eruptions. Out of familiar and formulaic script leap the strange and extravagant. Rigorous textual arguments give way to decorative ornamentation. Formulaic words submit to a rich brocade of image. Go to the Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History and you can begin to see how this urge to illuminate text helped shape the Jewish tradition. An exhibition there, “A Journey Through Jewish Worlds: Highlights from the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books,” has extended its stay until Aug. 1; it will then travel to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem..." read more

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ALMANAC-

June 29, 1613: The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground. "The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. The Globe was built in 1599 using timber from an earlier theatre. On 29 June 1613 the Globe Theatre went up in flames during a performance of Henry the Eighth. A theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. According to one of the few surviving documents of the event, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. It was rebuilt in the following year."

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June 29, 1805: Hiram Powers, American sculptor, was born. "The son of a farmer, Powers was born in Woodstock, Vermont, on the July 29, 1805. In 1826 he began to frequent the studio of Frederick Eckstein, and at once conceived a strong passion for the art of sculpture. In 1837 he settled in Florence, where he remained till his death, though he did travel to England during this time. He developed a thriving business in portraiture and "fancy" parlor busts, but he also devoted his time to creating life-size, full-figure ideal subjects. In 1843 he produced his celebrated statue The Greek Slave, which at once gave him a place among the leading sculptors of his time. It was exhibited at the centre of the Crystal Palace Exhibition and Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a sonnet on it. The sculpture The Greek Slave became an abolitionist cause and copies of it appeared in many Union-supporting state houses."

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June 29, 1908: Leroy Anderson, American composer, was born. "Leroy Anderson (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as "one of the great American masters of light orchestral music." His pieces and his recordings during the fifties conducting a studio orchestra were immense commercial successes. "Blue Tango" was the first instrumental recording ever to sell one million copies. His most famous pieces are probably "Sleigh Ride" and "The Syncopated Clock", both of which are instantly recognizable to millions of people. Anderson's musical style, heavily influenced by George Gershwin and folk music of various lands, employs creative instrumental effects and occasionally makes use of sound-generating items such as typewriters and sandpaper. Anderson would occasionally appear on the Boston Pops regular concerts on PBS to conduct his own music while Fiedler would sit on the sidelines. For "The Typewriter" Fiedler would don a green eyeshade, roll up his sleeves, and mime working on an old typewriter while the orchestra played."

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Did Rubens Sing Along with Richard Rodgers?

NOTED ON THE INTERWEBS-

- A glimpse from dawn of photography- Peabody Essex Museum brings to light image possibly taken by pioneer of camera: "In a dark corner of a back room at the Peabody Essex Museum, the curator stumbled upon a faded shoebox. Inside was a small treasure wrapped in paper: a gold-framed daguerreotype showing a Parisian street scene. On the back, somebody had written the date of its origin: 1839, the dawn of photography..." read more

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June 28, 1577: Peter Paul Rubens, painter, was born. "Sir Peter Paul Rubens (June 28, 1577 – May 30, 1640) was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality. He is well-known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. His fondness of painting full-figured women gave rise to the term 'Rubenesque' for plus-sized women. In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp which produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically-educated humanist scholar, art collector, and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV, King of Spain, and Charles I, King of England."

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June 28, 1902: American composer Richard Rodgers was born. "Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his songwriting partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the present day, and have an enduring broad appeal. Rodgers is one of only two persons to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (known collectively as an EGOT), and a Pulitzer Prize (Marvin Hamlisch is the other)."

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Bernard Berenson & Peter Lorre LOVE New York-

NOTED IN THE INTERWEBS-

- Antiques Beach Reading (Yes, That’s Right): "When told with enough four-letter words and forensic research, the back stories of antiques can make for the kind of nonfiction thrillers that publishers save up for summer release. One of this year’s page turners, David Howard’s “Lost Rights: The Misadventures of a Stolen American Relic” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), tracks the covert travels of North Carolina’s copy of the Bill of Rights. Mr. Howard, an editor at Bicycling magazine, explains that, in 1789, a state clerk tucked the document into the files, where it stayed until a Union soldier looted the place in 1865...." read more-

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June 26, 1865 - Bernard Berenson, American art historian specializing in the Renaissance, was born. "Among US collectors of the early 1900s, Berenson was regarded as the pre-eminent authority on Renaissance art. His verdict of authenticity increased a painting's value. While his approach remained controversial among European art historians and connoisseurs, he played a pivotal role as an advisor to several important American art collectors, such as Isabella Stewart Gardner, who needed help in navigating the complex and treacherous market of newly fashionable Renaissance art. In this respect Berenson's influence was enormous, while his 5% commission made him a wealthy man.

Through a secret agreement in 1912, Berenson enjoyed a close relationship with Joseph Duveen, the period's most influential art dealer, who often relied heavily on Berenson's opinion to complete sales of works to prominent collectors who lacked knowledge of the field. Berenson was quiet and deliberating by nature, which sometimes caused friction between him and the boisterous Duveen. Their relationship ended on bad terms in 1937 after a dispute over a painting, the Allendale Nativity (a.k.a. the Adoration of the Shepherds now at the National Gallery in Washington), intended for the collection of Samuel H. Kress. Duveen was selling it as a Giorgione, but Berenson believed it to be an early Titian. The painting is now widely considered to be a Giorgione. Beside assisting Duveen, Berenson also consulted for other important art dealerships, such as London's Colnaghi and, after his breakup with Duveen, New York's Wildenstein.

As Renaissance scholarship has evolved, a number of Berenson's attributions are now believed to be incorrect. There is also ongoing speculation as to whether some of these misattributions were deliberate, since Berenson often had a considerable financial stake in the matter. Due to the strong subjective element in connoisseurship, such accusations remain hard to either disprove or substantiate."

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June 26, 1904: Actor Peter Lorre was born. "Peter Lorre (26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner. He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M. Later he became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries, notably alongside Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet, and as the star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

Lorre was born as László Löwenstein into a Jewish family in Austria-Hungary. He began acting on stage in Vienna at the age of 17, where he worked with Richard Teschner, then moved to Breslau, and Zürich. The German-speaking actor became famous when Fritz Lang cast him as a child killer in his 1931 film M. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Lorre took refuge first in Paris and then London where he was noticed by Ivor Montagu, Alfred Hitchcock's associate producer for The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), who reminded the director about Lorre's performance in M.

Eventually, Lorre went to Hollywood where he specialized in playing wicked or wily foreigners, beginning with Mad Love (1935), directed by Karl Freund. He starred in a series of Mr. Moto movies, a parallel to the better known Charlie Chan series, in which he played a Japanese detective and spy created by John P. Marquand. He did not much enjoy these films — and twisted his shoulder during a stunt in Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation — but they were lucrative for the studio and gained Lorre many new fans. In 1940, Lorre co-starred with fellow horror actors Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in the Kay Kyser movie You'll Find Out. Lorre enjoyed considerable popularity as a featured player in Warner Bros. suspense and adventure films. Lorre played the role of Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and portrayed the character Ugarte in the film classic Casablanca (1942). Lorre demonstrated a gift for comedy in the role of Dr. Einstein in Arsenic and Old Lace (filmed in 1941, released 1944). In 1946 he starred with Sydney Greenstreet and Geraldine Fitzgerald in Three Strangers, a suspense film about three people who are joint partners on a winning lottery ticket.

A story is told that in 1956, both Lorre and Vincent Price attended Bela Lugosi's funeral. According to Price, Lorre asked him "Do you think we should drive a stake through his heart just in case?"

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June 26, 1929: Graphic designer Milton Glaser was born. "Milton Glaser (born June 26, 1929 in New York City) is a graphic designer, best known for the I Love New York logo,] his "Bob Dylan" poster, the "DC bullet" logo used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005, and the "Brooklyn Brewery" logo. He also founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.

In 1954 Glaser was a founder, and president, of Push Pin Studios formed with several of his Cooper Union classmates. Glaser's work is characterized by directness, simplicity and originality. He uses any medium or style to solve the problem at hand. His style ranges wildly from primitive to avant garde in his countless book jackets, album covers, advertisements and direct mail pieces and magazine illustrations. He started his own studio, Milton Glaser, Inc, in 1974. This led to his involvement with an increasingly wide diversity of projects, ranging from the design of New York Magazine, of which he was a co-founder, to a 600 foot mural for the Federal Office Building in Indianapolis.

Throughout his career he has had a major impact on contemporary illustration and design. His work has won numerous awards from Art Directors Clubs, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the Society of Illustrators and the Type Directors Club. In 1979 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and his work is included in the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Israel Museum and the Musee de l'affiche in Paris. Glaser has taught at both the School of Visual Arts and at Cooper Union in New York City. In 2009, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama."

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Stanford White Shot; Gaudi, Venturi & Henri Offered as a Lot-

NOTICED ON THE INTERWEBTUBES-

-Shouldn’t a Museum’s Collection Include its Designed Landscapes? "Flush economic times in the past decade resulted in ambitious museum expansions and expansion plans, while the recent economic downturn has led to the downscaling of some plans and a pause for others. This hiatus [is] an opportunity for expansion-minded institutions to engage in a more holistic reevaluation of their proposed building and site expansion programs; one that would result in built work in which curatorial values previously placed solely on architecture and collections would be extended to include landscape..." Read more...

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ALMANAC-

June 25, 1852: Antoni(o) Gaudí, architect, was born. "Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet, often referred to by the Spanish translation of his name, Antonio Gaudí, was a Spanish Catalan architect who was famous for his unique and highly individualistic designs. Gaudí's first works were designed in the style of gothic architecture and traditional Catalan architectural modes, but he soon developed his own distinct sculptural style. French architect Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, who promoted an evolved form of gothic architecture, proved a major influence on Gaudí. The student went on to contrive highly original designs – irregular and fantastically intricate. Some of his greatest works, most notably La Sagrada Família, have an almost hallucinatory power."

"Gaudí's originality was at first ridiculed by his peers. Indeed, he was first only supported by the rich industrialist Eusebi Güell. His fellow citizens referred to the Casa Milà as La Pedrera ("the quarry"), and George Orwell, who stayed in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, admittedly loathed his work. As time passed, though, his work became more famous. He stands as one of history's most original architects. Gaudí, among others, promoted the Catalan movement for regaining sovereignty from Spain by incorporating elements of Catalan culture in his designs. Gaudí was involved in politics since he supported the Catalanist political party Regionalist League. For example, in 1924 Spanish authorities (ruled by the dictator Primo de Rivera) closed Barcelona's churches in order to prevent a nationalist celebration (11 September, National Day of Catalonia), Gaudí attended to Saints Justus and Pastor's church and was arrested by the Spanish police for answering in Catalan."

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June 25, 1865: American painter Robert Henri was born. Henri (born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio) "began teaching at the New York School of Art in 1902, where his students included Joseph Stella, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, George Bellows, and Stuart Davis. In 1906, he was elected to the National Academy of Design, but when painters in his circle were rejected for the Academy's 1907 exhibition, he accused fellow jurors of bias and walked off the jury, resolving to organize a show of his own. He would later refer to the Academy as "a cemetery of art." In February 1908, Henri organized a landmark show entitled "The Eight" (after the eight painters displaying their works) at the Macbeth Gallery in New York. Besides his own works and those produced by the "Philadelphia Four" (who had followed Henri to New York by this time), there were paintings by Maurice Prendergast, Ernest Lawson, and Arthur B. Davies."

"These painters and this exhibition would become associated with the Ashcan School, although the content of the show was diverse and that term was not coined until 1934. Henri was at the heart of the group who led the depiction of the tough, exuberant city. Having spurned academic painting and Impressionism as an art of mere surfaces, Henri wanted art to be akin to journalism, and, 'for paint to be as real as mud, as the clods of horseshit and snow that froze on Broadway in the winter.' Looking at Henri's Salome of 1909 the critic Robert Hughes observed: " Her long legs thrust out with strutting sexual arrogance, and glint through the over-brushed back veil. It has far more oomph than hundreds of virginal, genteel muses, painted by American academics. He has given it urgency with slashing brush marks and strong tonal contrasts. He's learned from Winslow Homer, from Édouard Manet, and from the vulgarity of Frans Hals."

"In 1910, Henri organized the Exhibition of Independent Artists, a no-jury, no-prize show modeled after the Salon des Independants in France. Works were hung alphabetically to emphasize the egalitarian philosophy. Henri admired anarchist and Mother Earth publisher Emma Goldman, and taught from 1911 at the Modern School. Goldman, who later sat for a portrait by Henri, described him as "an anarchist in his conception of art and its relation to life." From 1915 to 1927 he was a popular and influential teacher at the Art Students League of New York. His ideas on art were collected by former pupil Margery Ryerson and published as The Art Spirit (Philadelphia, 1923). Henri's other students include George Bellows, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. In the spring of 1929 Henri was chosen as one of the top three living American artists by the Arts Council of New York."

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June 25, 1906 – Beaux-Arts architect Stanford White, partner in McKim, Mead and White and designer of townhouses and mansions for the rich and very-rich, was shot to death while dining at Madison Square Garden (which he had designed) by Harry Thaw, the drug-addled & jealous husband of Evelyn Nesbit, actress, chorus girl and one the most famous models for Charles Dana Gibson's "Gibson Girls".

"During the suggestive chorus song, "I Could Love a Million Girls," at the premiere performance of the musical revue Mam'zelle Champagne at the Madison Square Roof Garden, Stanford White was shot point blank in the face and killed by Harry Kendall Thaw. Thaw was the mentally-unstable millionaire husband of Evelyn, with whom White had had a sexual relationship many years before she had met Thaw. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers sensationalized the murder, and it became known as the Trial of the Century. The first trial resulted in a hung jury, the second, a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity."

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June 25, 1925: Architect Robert Venturi was born. "Robert Charles Venturi, Jr. (born June 25, 1925 in Philadelphia) is an American architect and founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates. Robert Venturi and his wife and partner, Denise Scott Brown, are regarded among the most influential architects of the twentieth century, both through their architecture and planning, and theoretical writings and teaching. Venturi was awarded the Pritzker Prize in Architecture in 1991. He is also known for coining the maxim "Less is a bore" as antidote to Mies van der Rohe's famous modernist dictum "Less is more".

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You MUST Sit Down in a Rietveld Chair to View Picasso's First Paris Exhibition-

NOTICED ON THE INTERWEBS-

- Michelangelo hid anatomical sketches in Sistine Chapel in Church attack: "Michelangelo concealed anatomical sketches in the robes and faces of the figures he painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in a coded attack on the Church's disdain for science, researchers believe... read more-

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ALMANAC-

June 24, 1888: Dutch architect & designer Gerrit Rietveld was born. "One of the principal members of the Dutch artistic movement called De Stijl, Rietveld is famous for his Red and Blue Chair and for the Rietveld Schröder House, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Rietveld was the son of a joiner and began work as an apprentice to his father. He afterwards set up in business as a cabinet-maker. Rietveld designed his famous Red and Blue Chair in 1917. In 1918, he started his own furniture factory, and changed the chair's colors after becoming influenced by the 'De Stijl' movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect. He designed his first building, the Rietveld Schröder House, in 1924, in close collaboration with the owner Truus Schröder-Schräder. Built in Utrecht on the Prins Hendriklaan 50, the house has a conventional ground floor, but is radical on the top floor, lacking fixed walls but instead relying on sliding walls to create and change living spaces. The design seems like a three-dimensional realization of a Mondrian painting. Rietveld broke with the 'De Stijl' in 1928 and became associated with a more functionalist style of architecture known as either Nieuwe Zakelijkheid or Nieuwe Bouwen. The same year he joined the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. He designed the "Zig-Zag" chair in 1934 and started the design of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which was finished after his death. He built hundreds of homes, many of which in the city of Utrecht. His work was neglected when rationalism came into vogue but he later benefited from a revival of the style of the 1920s thirty years later."

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June 24, 1901: 19 year old Pablo Picasso’s first Parisian art exhibition opened at the Vollard Gallery. "Like his friendship with Renoir, Vollard’s relationship with Picasso was one long-lived. It began in 1901 when the artist was nineteen. Vollard gave Picasso his first show (along with paintings by Francisco Iturrino) in Paris in 1901. Vollard did not think the exhibition was a success, but in fact many works did sell at low prices. Vollard purchased several important pieces from Picasso’s Blue and Rose periods in 1906, once American expatriate collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein began collecting the artist's works. In 1910, as Picasso’s Cubism developed into near abstraction, Vollard mounted a retrospective of his works from the previous decade, emphasizing his earlier periods. As Picasso’s reputation grew, Vollard continued to make regular purchases from the artist but never offered him a contract. Beginning in 1909, as Picasso sought to find a primary dealer, he painted portraits of leading candidates, such as Ambroise Vollard. Vollard called this portrait “notable” but nevertheless sold it to a Russian collector three years later. In the 1920s and 1930s, Vollard commissioned several livres d’artiste from Picasso. Through Vollard’s publications of bronzes, engravings, and illustrated books, Picasso became better known in Europe and the United States. Above all, it was the association, made possible through Vollard, of Picasso’s art with Cézanne’s that cemented Picasso’s reputation in the early 20th century." (from the catalog Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde, Art Institute of Chicago, 2007).

Ambroise Vollard by Pablo Picasso

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ON OUR SHELVES-

“Gebogenes Holz. Konstruktive Entwurfe Wien 1840-1910”

Published by the Kunstlerhaus Wien in 1979.

Modernism in chair design- the catalog to an exhibition of chairs by Michael Thonet, Adolf Loos, Otto Wagner, Kolo Moser, Josef Hoffman, Gustav Siegel, Josef Urban, Fritz Nagel, Marcel Kammerer and Anton Lorenz. German text.

$150

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Judging a Book by Its Cover at the American Folk Art Museum-

NOTICED ON THE INTERWEBS-

- Who Says You Can Judge a Book By Its Cover? : Well... we do. Take a pile of 1950s pulp paperbacks and a pair of sharp scissors, and it's very surprising what secrets are revealed... see more!

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June 23, 1961: The American Folk Art Museum is founded, with galleries in a rented townhouse at 49 West 53rd Street. The Museum opened to the public on December 11, 2001. "The 30,000-square-foot structure, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects LLP, is clad in sixty-three panels of lightly textured tombasil, a white bronze alloy. The eight-level, 85-foot tall structure is capped by a skylight above a grand interior stair connecting the third and the fourth floors, with dramatic cut-throughs at each floor to allow natural light to filter into the galleries and through to the lower levels. As a result, dramatic interior spaces are animated by a wash of light, enhancing the experience of the visitor."

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ON OUR SHELVES-

“Encyclopedia of American Folk Art”

Edited by Gerard C. Wertkin.

Published in New York by Routledge in 2004.

“This is the first comprehensive, scholarly study of a most fascinating aspect of American history and culture. Generously illustrated with both black and white and full-color photos, this A-Z encyclopedia covers every aspect of American folk art, encompassing not only painting, but also sculpture, basketry, ceramics, quilts, furniture, toys, beadwork, and more, including both famous and lesser-known genres. Containing more than 600 articles, this unique reference considers individual artists, schools, artistic, ethnic, and religious traditions, and heroes who have inspired folk art. An incomparable resource for general readers, students, and specialists, it will become essential for anyone researching American art, culture, and social history.”

$225.00

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