Charles Bregler: Difference between revisions

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
add source
Line 41: Line 41:
==References==
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
{{reflist|2}}
===Sources===
* Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher." ''The Arts'', vol. 17 (March 1931), pp. 376–86.
* Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher." ''The Arts'', vol. 17 (March 1931), pp. 376–86.
* Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher, Second Article." ''The Arts'', vol. 18 (October 1931), pp. 27–42.
* Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher, Second Article." ''The Arts'', vol. 18 (October 1931), pp. 27–42.
* Kathleen A. Foster and Cheryl Leibold, ''Writing about Eakins: Manuscripts in Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection''. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. ISBN 0-812-28107-1.
* Kathleen A. Foster, ''Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts''. Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-300-06174-9.
* Kathleen A. Foster, ''Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts''. Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-300-06174-9.
* Gordon Hendricks, ''The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins'' (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974).
* Gordon Hendricks, ''The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins'' (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974).

Revision as of 21:14, 4 February 2017

Portrait of Thomas Eakins (1920s) by Susan Macdowell Eakins, Philadelphia Museum of Art, gift of Charles Bregler

Charles Bregler (May 1864–September 24, 1958) was an American portrait painter, and a student (and disciple) of artist Thomas Eakins.[1] Bregler wrote about Eakins's teaching methods, and amassed a large collection of his minor works and memorabilia.[2] Following Bregler's death, his widow safeguarded the Eakins collection for decades before selling it to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[3]

Bregler & Eakins

Bregler was an art student at PAFA in the mid-1880s.[4] Eakins, who had trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, was director of the art school and its principal painting instructor. In early January 1886, Eakins had a male model remove his loincloth during an anatomy lecture before either an all-female or a mixed male-and-female class.[5] Using a fully-nude male model was contrary to PAFA policy, and Eakins received a January 11 letter of reprimand. The loincloth incident ignited a firestorm of sordid accusations against Eakins, and he was forced to resign.[6]

All 55 of the school's male students and 18 of the 30 female students signed petitions threatening to withdraw from PAFA unless Eakins was reinstated.[7] PAFA's board declined to do so. Bregler was one of 16 students (all men) who left to form the Art Students' League of Philadelphia, with Eakins as their unpaid teacher.[8] The League's tuition was initially set at $25, but was raised to $40 for the 8-month 1886-87 season, and finally $50. The school never had more than forty-one students, and sometimes had as few as twelve.[9] Bregler was enrolled for all 7 years of the League's existence.[10]

Bregler exhibited a portrait at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,[11] and one at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.[12] He participated occasionally in PAFA's annual exhibitions: 1892, 1896, 1898 and 1903.[13] He was one of four former Eakins students who held a joint 1924 Philadelphia exhibition of their paintings.[14]

Bregler considered Eakins to have been an extraordinary teacher. In 1931, he published two articles describing Eakins's teaching methods in the magazine The Arts.

Bregler Collection

Following Eakins's 1916 death, Bregler acted as assistant to his widow, Susan Macdowell Eakins (1851–1938), helping to catalogue, frame and clean his paintings.[15] She gave Bregler a number of her husband's works, and painted at least two portraits of Bregler.[16] Following Mrs. Eakins's 1938 death, her executors emptied the house at 1729 Mount Vernon Street, removing the items that they deemed salable at auction.[17] Bregler described the aftermath as the "most tragic and pitiful sight I ever saw. Every room was cluttered with debris as all the contents of the various drawers, closets etc. were thrown upon the floor as they removed the furniture. All the life casts were smashed... I never want to see anything like this again."[18] He rescued a trove of her husband's minor works, and disobeyed her instructions to burn certain items.[19] Mrs. Eakins had painted a posthumous portrait of her husband in the 1920s (probably from a photograph). Bregler donated the portrait to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1939,[20] and later donated a sketch related to PMA's William Rush Carving His Allegorical Figure of the Schuylkill River.[21]

Bregler helped to organize the 1944 centennial exhibition of Eakins's works at PMA.[22] He sold a number of Eakins works in the 1940s and 1950s, many of which are now in the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.[23] He also donated Eakins photographs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[24]

Following Bregler's death in 1958, his widow Mary safeguarded the collection in their South Philadelphia rowhouse. She resisted requests from art dealers to see the works or offers to broker a sale of them.[3] Mrs. Bregler allowed PAFA curator Kathleen Foster and art historian Elizabeth Milroy to examine the works in 1983.[25] That visit led to PAFA's 1985 purchase of the collection, with grants provided by the Mable Pew Myrin Trust and other funds.[3]

PAFA's Bregler Collection consists of nearly 1,600 items—29 paintings (most oil sketches for larger works), 12 sculptures, 261 drawings, 535 photographs, about 380 glass-plate negatives, 361 documents, and memorabilia such as Eakins's watercolor box and paintbrushes.[3]

Thomas Eakins works once owned by Bregler

  • Drawing of The Statue of Freedom (1861), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    Drawing of The Statue of Freedom (1861), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • Drawing of Girard Avenue Bridge (c. 1871), Study for Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Drawing of Girard Avenue Bridge (c. 1871), Study for Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Sketch for The Surrender of General Lee at Appomatox (c. 1875), deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Sketch for The Surrender of General Lee at Appomatox (c. 1875), deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Sketch for The Surrender of General Lee at Appomatox (c. 1875), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston[26]
    Sketch for The Surrender of General Lee at Appomatox (c. 1875), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston[26]
  • Interior of a Woodcarver's Shop (c. 1876-77), Philadelphia Museum of Art
    Interior of a Woodcarver's Shop (c. 1876-77), Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Perspective drawing for The Dancing Lesson (c.1878-79), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    Perspective drawing for The Dancing Lesson (c.1878-79), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • Sketch for The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand (c. 1879), deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Sketch for The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand (c. 1879), deaccessioned from Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Sketch for Spinning (1881), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    Sketch for Spinning (1881), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • An Arcadian (1883) plaster bas relief, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    An Arcadian (1883) plaster bas relief, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • History of a Jump (1884) Marey wheel photograph, Philadelphia Museum of Art
    History of a Jump (1884) Marey wheel photograph, Philadelphia Museum of Art
  • Sketch for The Swimming Hole (1884), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Sketch for The Swimming Hole (1884), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Illustration for The Law of Perspective (c. 1884-87), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Illustration for The Law of Perspective (c. 1884-87), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Sketch for Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing (1895), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Sketch for Portrait of Frank Hamilton Cushing (1895), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Portrait of Mrs. Eakins (1899), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Portrait of Mrs. Eakins (1899), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
  • Self-portrait (c. 1902), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    Self-portrait (c. 1902), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

References

  1. ^ Glenn B. Opitz, ed., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers (1986), p. 1081.
  2. ^ Photograph of Charles Bregler, Age 74, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.
  3. ^ a b c d Edward J. Sozanski, "Philadelphia Corners Art of Eakins," Knight-Ridder Newspapers, June 24, 1986.
  4. ^ Charles Bregler, Age 20, from PAFA.
  5. ^ McKinney states that there were 2 nude models: one male, one female, and it was Eakins's "side by side ... comparison" that sparked the uproar. McKinney, p. 16.
  6. ^ Foster, Kathleen A. "Thomas Eakins – Scenes from a Modern Life: Biography 1886: Indicted by Rumor". PBS. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
  7. ^ Hendricks 1974, p. 173.
  8. ^ The Evening Bulletin, February 16, 1886, quoted in Hendricks 1974, p. 143.
  9. ^ McHenry, p. 102.
  10. ^ Rosenzweig, p. 120.
  11. ^ #200. Portrait of a Woman. Moses Purnell Handy, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Official Catalogue, (W. B. Conkey Company, 1893), p. 14.
  12. ^ #72. Portrait of My Sister. Official Catalogue of Exhibitors. Universal Exposition. St. Louis, U.S.A. 1904. (Official Catalogue Company, 1904), p. 24.
  13. ^ Peter Hastings Falk, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Volume 2, (Soundview Press, 1989), p. 104.
  14. ^ 1924 exhibition from Brooklyn Museum.
  15. ^ Holland Cotter, "Eakins Artifacts Give Context to Works in Philadelphia Show," The New York Times, April 1, 1992.
  16. ^ Portrait of Charles Bregler (1920s) by Susan Macdowell Eakins, from PAFA.
  17. ^ Rosenzweig, p. 11.
  18. ^ Foster, 1997.
  19. ^ Kirkpatrick, p. 9.
  20. ^ Portrait of Thomas Eakins, from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  21. ^ Interior of a Woodcarver's Shop, from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  22. ^ Rosenzweig, p. 12.
  23. ^ Bregler sold a number of the works to Baltimore collector Joseph Katz. Joseph Hirshhorn bought the collection from Katz's estate in 1961. Rosenzweig, pp. 11-14.
  24. ^ Charles Bregler, Age 20, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  25. ^ Kirkpatrick, p. 10.
  26. ^ Sketch for The Surrender of General Lee at Appomatox, from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Sources

  • Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher." The Arts, vol. 17 (March 1931), pp. 376–86.
  • Charles Bregler, "Thomas Eakins as a Teacher, Second Article." The Arts, vol. 18 (October 1931), pp. 27–42.
  • Kathleen A. Foster and Cheryl Leibold, Writing about Eakins: Manuscripts in Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. ISBN 0-812-28107-1.
  • Kathleen A. Foster, Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-300-06174-9.
  • Gordon Hendricks, The Life and Work of Thomas Eakins (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1974).
  • Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).
  • Margaret McHenry, Thomas Eakins who painted (by the author, 1946).
  • Roland McKinney, Thomas Eakins (New York: Crown Publishers, 1942).
  • Phyllis Rosenzweig, The Thomas Eakins Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Smithsonian Institution, 1977.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charles_Bregler&oldid=763716508"