Charles Bregler
Charles Bregler (1864–1958)[1] was an American portrait painter, and a student and disciple of artist Thomas Eakins.[2] Bregler chronicled Eakins's teaching methods and amassed an enormous collection of his memorabilia.[3] Following Bregler's 1958 death, his widow safeguarded the Eakins collection for decades, before selling it to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1985.[4]
Bregler & Eakins
Bregler was an art student at PAFA in the mid-1880s. 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, and 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] The League moved at least 3 times. Bregler was enrolled for all 7 years of the school's existence.
Bregler exhibited a portrait at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago,[10] and one at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.[11] He participated occasionally at PAFA's annual exhibitions: 1892, 1896, 1898 and 1903.[12]
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.[13] Following Mrs. Eakins's 1938 death, her executors emptied the house at 1729 Mount Vernon Street. Bregler described it 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."[14] He rescued a trove of her husband's minor works, and disobeyed her instructions to burn certain items.[15] 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,[16] and also donated sketches related to PMA's Eakins holdings.
Bregler sold a number of the Eakins works in the 1940s, many of which eventually made it into the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. He also donated Eakins photographs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[17]
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 broker a sale of them.[4] Mrs. Bregler allowed PAFA curator Kathleen Foster and art historian Elizabeth Milroy to see the works in 1983.[18] That visit led to PAFA's 1985 purchase of the collection, with grants provided by the Mable Pew Myrin Trust and other funds.[4]
Bregler's Eakins collection consisted 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 the artist's watercolor box and paintbrushes.[4]
References
- 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, 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).
- ^ Charles Bregler, Age 20, from PAFA.
- ^ Glenn B. Opitz, ed., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers (1986), p. 1081.
- ^ Photograph of Charles Bregler, Age 74, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.
- ^ a b c d Edward J. Sozanski, "Philadelphia Corners Art of Eakins," Knight-Ridder Newspapers, June 24, 1986.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Foster, Kathleen A. "Thomas Eakins – Scenes from a Modern Life: Biography 1886: Indicted by Rumor". PBS. Retrieved January 6, 2008.
- ^ Hendricks 1974, p. 173.
- ^ The Evening Bulletin, February 16, 1886, quoted in Hendricks 1974, p. 143.
- ^ McHenry, p. 102.
- ^ #200. Portrait of a Woman. Moses Purnell Handy, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893, Official Catalogue, (W. B. Conkey Company, 1893), p. 14.
- ^ #72. Portrait of My Sister. Official Catalogue of Exhibitors. Universal Exposition. St. Louis, U.S.A. 1904. (Official Catalogue Company, 1904), p. 24.
- ^ Peter Hastings Falk, The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Volume 2, (Soundview Press, 1989), p. 104.
- ^ Holland Cotter, "Eakins Artifacts Give Context to Works in Philadelphia Show," The New York Times, April 1, 1992.
- ^ Foster, 1997.
- ^ Kirkpatrick, p. 9.
- ^ Portrait of Thomas Eakins, from Philadelphia Museum of Art.
- ^ Charles Bregler, Age 20, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- ^ Kirkpatrick, p. 10.