Boston Artists' Association

The Boston Artists' Association (1841–1851) was established in Boston, Massachusetts by Washington Allston, Henry Sargent, and other painters, sculptors, and architects, in order to organize exhibitions, a school, a workspace for members, and to promote art "for the art's sake."

History

According to the group's constitution: "The artists of Boston, deeply impressed with the importance of their profession, and with the necessity of a systematic course of study for its successful culmination; also with the advantages to be derived from mutual co-operation and support, resolve to form themselves into an association for the furtherance of these objects. In so doing, they pledge to each other their honor as gentlemen, to lay aside all ungenerous, envious, or selfish feelings, and to seek the advancement of the arts alone, for the art's sake."[1]

There were "44 members in 1842, and 66 in 1845."[2] They held "regularly scheduled bi-weekly social meetings" in Chester Harding's space on School Street.[2] In the association's "studio ... both living models and casts were provided for members."[3] The association "had casts donated to them by member Henry Sargent, and negotiated to borrow some of those at the Athenaeum."[2] A school was organized in 1842, overseen by John Pope. Instructors included Samuel P. Long and B.F. Nutting. The school was located at first in Harding's Gallery on School Street, and from 1846 in rented rooms on Tremont Row.[2]

Images
  • Henry Sargent's The Dinner Party ca.1821; exhibited in the 1st exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1842
  • Chester Harding's portrait of Abbott Lawrence, ca.1842; exhibited in the 1st exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1842
  • Ad for 1842 exhibit of the Boston Artists Association
  • Thomas Cole's Old Age from Voyage of Life, 1842; exhibited in the 2nd exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1843
  • Athenaeum, Pearl Street, where Boston Artists Association exhibits were held, 1845-1847

Members

Exhibitions
  • 1842 - 1st Boston Artists' Association exhibit, at Harding's Gallery. Included: Henry Sargent; Fitz Henry Lane; Tintoretto; Anthony van Dyck; Caroline Negus;[11] and others.
  • 1843 - 2nd Boston Artists' Association exhibit, at Harding's Gallery. Included: Thomas Cole; Philip Harry; Asher Brown Durand; Thomas Sully; and others.[12] Lenders to the exhibit: E. Haskett Derby; David Sears; George Howe; T. Whittemore; Boston Museum; C. Kimball; and others.
  • 1844 - 3rd Boston Artists' Association exhibit, at Harding's Gallery. Lenders to the exhibit: Professor Ticknor; Mrs. Allston; Col. H. Sargent; T.H. Perkins; Daniel Webster; J.B. Joy; H.C. Stebbins; Mrs. Wheelock.[13]
  • 1845 - Joint exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association and the Boston Athenaeum.
  • 1846 - Joint exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association and the Boston Athenaeum.
  • 1847 - Joint exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association and the Boston Athenaeum.
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See also

References
  1. The constitution of the Boston Artists' Association, with a catalogue of the first public exhibition of paintings at Harding's Gallery, no. 22 School Street. Boston: John H. Eastburn, printer, 1842.
  2. Leah Lipton. "The Boston Artists' Association, 1841-1851." American Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1983)
  3. Norman A. Geske. A Pioneer Minnesota Artist [George Fuller]. Minnesota History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1950); p.101.
  4. Boston Artists Association. Boston Daily Atlas, April 4, 1842.
  5. Catalogue of paintings of the second exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association, 1843
  6. William Howe Downes. Boston Painters and Paintings. Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1888
  7. James F. O'Gorman. Accomplished in all departments of art--Hammatt Billings of Boston, 1818-1874. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1998; p.11.
  8. Boston Athenaeum Exhibition. Boston Daily Atlas, May 26, 1848.
  9. James A. Craig. Fitz H. Lane: an artist's voyage through nineteenth-century America. 2006; p.73.
  10. Unrivaled exhibition at City Hall: Champney's immense moving picture of the River Rhine! showing both banks of this most celebrated river of Europe. 1849. American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series 1, no. 7447
  11. Massachusetts Historical Society. Catherine Sargent
  12. The Rover, v.2, no.10, 1843
  13. Catalogue of paintings, of the third exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association, 1844. Boston: Clapp and Son's Press, 1844.
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