Retratos del mundo: Dinamarca

Before the late nineteenth century, the everyday experiences of ordinary men and women played little part in Danish art and literature. Then, with the advent of the so-called Modern Breakthrough in Denmark around 1870, the country’s artists and writers began rejecting the long-established tradition of idealizing and romanticizing subject matter. Seized with a new passion for realism, they aimed to create authentic depictions of contemporary life. Previously unexplored themes, such as the psychology of human relationships and the plight of working-class people, absorbed the attention of artists and writers.

Dissatisfied with urban living, several Modern Breakthrough artists sought to form closer connections with nature by relocating to the remote fishing village of Skagen. There, at the northernmost point of Denmark, they found compelling subject matter in the dangerous toil and hardships endured by local people. They developed a tightly knit artists’ colony marked by lasting friendships as well as perennial tensions and rivalries. Friction proved as important as affection in stimulating the development of their art. The Skagen artists reinforced their sense of collective identity through portraits of their peers. Among the most ambitious depictions of the Skagen community in action is Michael Ancher’s Kunstdommere (Art Judges).

Kunstdommere (Art Judges)
Left to right:
Laurits Tuxen 1853–1927
Peder Severin Krøyer 1851–1909
Holger Drachmann 1846–1908
Jens Willumsen 1863–1958

Like other artists involved in Denmark’s Modern Breakthrough, Michael Ancher painted realistic scenes of contemporary life, often representing people at work. Kunstdommere (Art Judges) depicts an everyday scene in the artists’ colony at Skagen, showing several colleagues on a visit to Peder Severin Krøyer’s studio. Krøyer, in the white suit, gestures toward his unseen portrait of the poet and dramatist Holger Drachmann, who listens intently, hands resting on his cane.

In a playful display of one-upmanship, Ancher’s group portrait not only includes his own depiction of Drachmann, but also represents Krøyer himself, along with two other preeminent Danish painters, Laurits Tuxen (left) and Jens Willumsen (right). The presence of Willumsen adds a further layer of artistic competition. The younger artist had begun to explore imaginative, often symbolic imagery that nudged Danish art toward greater abstraction—a radical turn from the realism promoted by Krøyer,Drachmann, and Tuxen.

Michael Ancher (1849–1927)
Oil on canvas, 1906
The Danish Museum of National History,
Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, Denmark

Agnes Ernst Meyer 1887–1970

An interview with the art impresario Alfred Stieglitz piqued Agnes Ernst Meyer’s interest in European modernism and prompted her to leave her job at the New York Sun, where she had served as the newspaper’s first female reporter. She traveled to Paris in 1908 to study the latest art trends, and upon her return to New York City sixteen months later, she became a member of Stieglitz’s modernist circle, which also included the artist Marius de Zayas.

Meyer worked with de Zayas to establish the Modern Gallery and the avant-garde arts journal 291, named after Stieglitz’s renowned gallery. She also encouraged de Zayas to experiment with abstract portraiture, which was inspired by the Cubist breakwith optical reality. In this depiction, oval forms suggest Meyer’s facial features, while curving lines allude to her body. De Zayas often portrayed Stieglitz and members of his circle, including painter John Marin and photographer Paul Haviland.

Marius de Zayas (1880–1961)
Charcoal and graphite on paper, c.1912–13
Gift of Anne Meyer

Frenzied Effort

Peggy Bacon’s keenly observed, witty images capture the camaraderie of artists’ communities in New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. In this print, she represents the “frenzied effort” of art students packed into a claustrophobic sketching class at the Whitney Studio Club on West Fourth Street. Established in 1918 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the Club provided artists with exhibition space, a library, and the opportunity to sketch from live models.

Whereas traditional art schools and academies segregated women and men, at the Whitney they worked side by side as equals. Among the identifiable caricatures are Mabel Dwight (1876–1955) in a large hat (seated, left) and the balding, rotund Reginald Marsh (1898–1954; top left center). Bacon’s diminutive figure is tucked discretely behind Marsh. As a communal gathering place where artists could share their work and exchange ideas, the Whitney Studio Club helped accelerate modern art trends.

Peggy Bacon (1895–1987)
Drypoint, 1925
The Ruth Bowman and Harry Kahn TwentiethCentury American Self-Portrait Collection

The Picnic

Mexican-born artist Marius de Zayas was closely associated with the avant-garde circle surrounding Alfred Stieglitz, the photographer and founder of 291, one of New York City’s most important galleries. In this 1912 drawing, de Zayas shows his companions careening precariously downhill on a hay wagon. He probably made the watercolor at Seven Springs, a farm near Mount Kisco, New York, owned by patrons Agnes Ernst Meyer and Eugene Meyer.

In addition to the artist Katharine Rhoades in the driver’s seat, Agnes directly behind, and Eugene in the rear, the figures include Stieglitz, his wife Emmeline, painter John Marin, photographer Paul Haviland, and de Zayas himself (in a cap). The vivid colors and lively tangle of geometric forms convey the group’s high-spirited, playful side. But unsettling aspects of the scene hint at tensions within the group. Judging from a few nervous gestures and expressions, not everyone is enjoying this out-ofcontrol ride.

Marius de Zayas (1880–1961)
Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper, 1912
Bequest of Katharine Graham

1. Katharine Nash Rhoades 1885–1965
2. Agnes Ernst Meyer 1887–1970
3. Emmeline Stieglitz 1873–1953
4. John B. Kerfoot 1865–1927
5. Alfred Stieglitz 1864–1946
6. Marius de Zayas 1880–1961
7. Paul Burty Haviland 1880–1950
8. John Marin 1870–1953
9. Eugene Meyer 1875–1959

Artists’ colonies often form in relatively isolated, rural locations, but cities have also been home to thriving creative communities. Since the nineteenth century, American artists have gravitated toward New York City, where they have lived and worked in close proximity with one another. In the twentieth century, the progress of American art from realism to abstraction was accelerated by the productive combination of collaboration and competition among artists whose friendships were tinged with rivalry.

Bonded by their shared commitment to realism, artists Robert Henri and John Sloan made everyday urban life central to the instruction they offered at the Art Students’ League, in Midtown Manhattan, during the 1910s and 1920s. The League was one of several arts organizations that invited women to work alongside men, fostering their integration into the city’s male-dominated professional networks.

Another closely interconnected circle orbited the gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue. Opened by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1908, it promoted cutting-edge art that verged on abstraction. The progressive Stieglitz Circle paved the way for yet another vanguard, the so-called New York School, which emerged during the 1940s. Once again, camaraderie and competition galvanized artistic experimentation, ushering in the breakthrough to Abstract Expressionism.

Ici, c’est ici Stieglitz / foi et amour
Alfred Stieglitz 1864–1946

“Here, this is Stieglitz here / faith and love,” reads the translated French title of this satiric depiction of photographer Alfred Stieglitz. Published in 1915, as the cover of the avant-garde American journal 291, the original collage was one of a series of witty “mecanomorphs,” or machine portraits, by French artist Francis Picabia, soon to become a leading figure in the developing Dada art movement in New York City. The journal’s title derived from Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue, a social and creative hub for modernists—many of whom Picabia documented in his Mecanomorph series.

In this symbolic portrait of Stieglitz, Picabia used the imagery of machine parts and technical manuals to deflate his subject’s pretentions. He depicts Stieglitz as a limp and broken camera striving toward, but not reaching, the “Ideal.” The portrait also includes an automobile gearshift lodged in neutral and an engaged hand brake, suggesting that Stieglitz was going nowhere.

Francis Picabia (1879–1953)
Relief print, 1915
Gift of Katharine Graham

Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Tony Smith

This photograph represents three pioneers in the field of abstract art, who were also close friends and collaborators. The painters Barnett Newman (1905–1970; left) and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956; center) and the architect (later sculptor) Tony Smith (1912–1980; right) met in the late 1940s and bonded through their efforts to expand the parameters of contemporary art. Pollock debuted his classic drippour paintings in 1947; Newman created his signature “zip” (a band of vertical color) in 1948; and Smith drew on his architectural experience to install their work at the gallery of Betty Parsons—one of the few dealers willing to represent such unconventional artists at the time.

Hans Namuth photographed the three friends in 1951, sitting on a bench outside Newman’s second solo exhibition at Parsons’s Midtown gallery. The complexity of their relationship is suggested by Newman’s remark that everything he did “had meaning only in relation to Pollock’s work and against it.”

Hans Namuth (1915–1990)
Gelatin silver print, 1951
Gift of the Estate of Hans Namuth

Elaine de Kooning 1918–1989
Willem de Kooning 1904–1997

The development of Abstract Expressionism owed much to the freewheeling atmosphere of the Eighth Street Club, established in New York City in 1949 as a place for artists to socialize and discuss art. The painters Elaine and Willem de Kooning were both members and contributed to the Club’s groundbreaking 1951 exhibition, which brought attention to this new generation of avant-garde artists, known as the New York School.

Elaine de Kooning was among the few women included in this male-dominated milieu. Although she was overshadowed by her more famous husband throughout her career, her admiration for his work—and his harsh criticism of hers—fueled her determination to succeed.

This photograph depicts the couple in Willem’s studio, posing before one of his controversial Woman paintings. Hans Namuth made the photograph at Elaine de Kooning’s request “to establish once and for all that I did not pose for those ferocious women.”

Hans Namuth (1915–1990)
Gelatin silver print, 1953
Gift of the Estate of Hans Namuth

Hans Hofmann 1880–1966

Hans Hofmann was one of the twentieth century’s most influential art teachers and a key figure in the development of abstraction in American art. Early in his career, Hofmann associated with avant-garde artists in Paris and later operated a modernist art school in Munich. After relocating to New York City, he taught briefly at the Art Students’ League and in 1934 established the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Midtown Manhattan.

Through his detailed critiques of individual works, Hofmann pushed students to strive for greater technical rigor, but he allowed them free rein to pursue individual expression and experimentation. “There were so many different approaches to painting and drawing going on side by side and you had the feeling anything was possible,” Abstract Expressionist Michael Goldberg later recalled. This photograph shows Hofmann conducting a group critique at the summer art school he opened in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1935.

Bill Witt (1921–2013)
Gelatin silver print, 1948
Gift of the artist

Memory

“Paint what you feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.” With that directive, the charismatic painter Robert Henri (1865–1929) persuaded a generation of American artists to dispense with time-honored European traditions and find fresh inspiration in the daily life of New York City. Together with John Sloan, whom he met in 1892, Henri led a rebellious group of painters who became known as the Ashcan School for their depictions of the gritty realities of urban life.

Sloan and Henri’s shared dedication to realism strengthened their close friendship. The intimacy and productivity of their partnership is captured in this group portrait of the artists and their wives. While Sloan (right) and Henri (left) concentrate on drawing, Dolly Sloan (1876–1943) reads aloud and Linda Henri (1875–1905) gazes at the viewer. Linda’s death the previous year accounts for the print’s wistfully nostalgic title, Memory.

John Sloan (1871–1951)
Etching, 1906

Class Work in the Art Students’ League Etching Class

This scene of diligent art-making depicts the etching class at the Art Students’ League. According to the handwritten inscription, it was drawn, etched, and printed in that class by Marion D. Freeman. The Art Students’ League was the only art school in New York City to offer formal etching instruction, and it became an incubator for innovative printmaking. Women—marginalized at other art schools—came into their own as printmakers at the League.

Freeman and caricaturist Peggy Bacon (1895–1987) were among those who depicted contemporary subjects in a lively, simplified style that tended toward satire. Individuality and experimentation were encouraged by their dynamic teacher, Robert Henri (1865–1929), who appears here, cranking the wheel of the printing press, and by Henri’s close collaborator, John Sloan (1871–1951), shown sketching on a pad opposite Freeman and her colleague Wanda Gag (1893–1946).

Marion D. Freeman (1891–1953)
Etching, c.1917–23

De Kooning Breaks Through
Willem de Kooning 1904–1997

Red Grooms’s witty portrait of Willem de Kooning celebrates the achievements of this Abstract Expressionist, whose paintings of the 1950s were a formative influence on Grooms. Replete with visual puns, the work shows de Kooning literally “breaking through” the surface of the print, suggesting the transformative nature of de Kooning’s artistic contribution. Grooms’s composition specifically references de Kooning’s Woman and Bicycle (1952–53), one of a series of Woman paintings that integrated imagery from popular culture, such as pinup girls and advertisements, into a fine art context, bridging the divide between abstraction and figuration.

Similar dynamics animate Grooms’s lithograph. The sense of playfulness, frenetic movement, and violent tearing of paper suggest the humor and energy of an animated cartoon. By combining the brushwork of action painting with the unexpected three-dimensional folding of paper, Grooms created a likeness as layered with cultural references as de Kooning’s paintings.

Red Grooms (born 1937)
Lithograph and paper, 1987
This acquisition was made possible by a generous
contribution from the James Smithson Society

Greetings from the House of Weyhe

Weyhe Gallery on Lexington Avenue was one of the first exhibition venues in New York City to showcase the unconventional work of up-and-coming modern artists. Established by Erhard Weyhe (1882–1972) in 1919, it was also one of the few to consistently feature art by women. Although the gallery’s exhibitions included drawings and sculptures, the Weyhe made its mark as a center for printmaking, publishing, and exhibiting contemporary lithographs and other print media.

Each year, the Weyhe commissioned a holiday greeting card from one of its artists. In this example, made in 1928, Mabel Dwight depicts the eclectic array of art and books typically displayed on the gallery’s second floor. Along with two of her printmaking colleagues—Peggy Bacon (1895–1987; seated, left) and Wanda Gag (1893–1946; standing, right)—Dwight wittily represents the gallery’s director, Carl Zigrosser (1891–1975), leaning against a low bookcase, his bowed head echoing the sculpted bust behind him.

Mabel Dwight (1876–1955)
Lithograph, 1928
Gift of Gertrude W. Dennis

Zum Brauhaus

Speakeasies, or illegal bars, sprang up in New York City during the Prohibition era (1920–1933), becoming favorite hangouts for many artists. The painter George Biddle peppered his diaries with accounts of late-night sessions at various underground establishments, where he and his artistfriends met to drink, smoke, and argue about art.

In 1933, as Prohibition neared its end, Biddle painted a series of speakeasy scenes, often including witty portraits of colleagues. Here, he depicts an evening at Zum Brauhaus. Biddle’s wife, sculptor Hélène Sardeau (1899–1969), sits beside the pipesmoking painter Yasuo Kuniyoshi (1889–1953). The caricaturist Peggy Bacon (1895–1987) smokes a cigarette at far right, while her husband, artist Alexander Brook (1898–1980), stands at the bar behind her.

While working on this series, Biddle lobbied government officials to adopt his plan for employing painters during the Depression—an idea that ultimately became the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

George Biddle (1885–1973)
Oil on canvas, 1933