Daniel Putnam Brinley: the Impressionist Years

DANIEL PUTNAM BRINLEY: THE IMPRESSIONIST YEARS DANIEL PUTNAM BRINLEY: THE IMPRESSIONIST YEARS BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART 1978 Copyright 1978 The President and Trustees of Bowdoin College Daniel Putnam Brinley: The Impressionist Years April 14 -June 18, 1978 Bowdoin College Museum of Art Brunswick, Maine With the support of the Maine State Commission on the Arts and Humanities Front cover: Garden Gate (cat. no. 28) Back cover: View near Feathered Alley, St. George (cat. no. 49) Photography: John McKee Design: Edward Born Composition: The Anthoensen Press, Portland, Maine Printing: The Leether Press, Yarmouth, Maine FOREWORD TWO years ago, the work of the American impressionist The exhibition would not have been possible without the Daniel Putnam Brinley (1879- 1963) was brought to the generous assistance and patient guidance of Elizabeth and Al- attention of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art by the art- bert Loder. The Museum wishes to thank lenders to the ex- ist's niece, Elizabeth M. Loder. Mrs. Loder had recently moved hibition, especially Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hemingway of Hem- to Maine and had brought with her several of her uncle's ingway Galleries in Jamestown, New York, and the Maine works and many of his personal papers. A survey of Brinley State Commission on the Arts and Humanities for its financial paintings and drawings in New England convinced R. Peter assistance. Mooz, then director of the Bowdoin Museum, that the unique Scholars are currently reconsidering many American art- talent of this artist deserved greater exposure. ists who were active during the first quarter of this century but Shordy after the commitment to the Brinley exhibition was were not in the forefront in the development of the modern made, Margaret Burke Clunie, an American art historian, movement. The research of these scholars is expanding knowl- joined the staff as curator and accepted the assignment of de- edge and is creating a public awareness of previously unrecog- veloping the show. Her essay in this catalogue reveals an in- nized contributors to this period. The Bowdoin College sight and informative perspective that enable the reader to Museum of Art is pleased to offer this exhibition, the first gain an understanding of the artist's role and influence within major review of the accomplishments of Daniel Putnam the modern American movement. Brinley. Russell J. Moore Acting Director/Curator 1. Assist INTRODUCTION WERE Daniel Putnam Brinley alive today, he would fully read before making a decision about their disposition. be celebrating his ninety-ninth birthday on March 8. The more I delved into the papers, the more convinced I A very tall, distinguished-looking man with sparkling blue became that the Brinley story should be written, an intention eyes and beautiful long-fingered hands, he was kind, gener- shared but never fulfilled by Aunt Kathrine. I began research ous, and full of fun—a great entertainer and humorist. His toward that end; progress was slow. The papers provided in- friendly way attracted people to him wherever he went. A formation about periods of their lives of which I had no pre- deeply religious man, his spirituality was reflected in his work vious knowledge as well as details of periods I remember and in his relationships with people. Many of his English an- well. cestors were among our earliest settlers: the Brinley s in New- There is still much work to be done, and in order to aid port and Boston, the Putnams in Salem, and the Porters in scholars in their research of this period in American art, the Newburyport. He inherited his artistic talent from his papers have been promised to the Smithsonian Institution's mother, Rebecca Maitland (nee Porter) Bradford Brinley. Archives of American Art. Daniel and his wife, Kathrine, had no children. As I was I owe a debt of gratitude to many people, too numerous to their niece and closest relative geographically, I had the re- mention here, for their continued interest and assistance. I sponsibility of dismantling their apartment and studio follow- am especially grateful to my husband and family for their pa- ing Kathrine's death in 1966. My husband and I moved tience and understanding of the time this project has required their papers to our home and, over a period of time, arranged during the past ten years. Very special thanks and apprecia- them chronologically, preserving them in document cases. Be- tion go to the Bowdoin College Museum of Art for presenting cause of the unusual and interesting life that Daniel and this exhibition and to Margaret Burke Clunie, in particular, Kathrine had led, I felt that the papers should be care- for the time, effort, and interest she has put into assembling it. Elizabeth M. Loder January 1978 13- Boulevard Montparnasse D.P. B THE career of Daniel Putnam Brinley is an art historical in landscape painting his absorption was in light and color ." ^ paradox. Sympathetic to modernist trends, the artist op- and perhaps almost unconsciously in pattern. It is prob- posed the power and self-interest of most official art institu- able that in 1902 he attended the Art Students' League sum- tions and actively participated in the search for alternatives to mer school at Cos Cob, which specialized in landscape the highly regulated academic exhibition. During his years in painting. Paris, he was involved with the New Society of American Following his marriage to Kathrine Gordon Sanger and at Artists. In New York he exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's Little the urging of friends, Brinley traveled abroad to widen his Galleries of the Photo-Secession, was associated with Robert artistic horizons. The pair made the compulsory visits to major Henri at the MacDowell Club, and aided in the organization art museums in London and Paris, and exhibited a predictable of the Armory Show. conservatism when confronted with modernist paintings at Brinley 's style, however, does not reflect an allegiance to the 1904 Autumn Salon.^ Their ultimate destination was avant-garde movements in Paris or New York. He painted in Florence, where they passed the winter actively participating an impressionist manner, a style which had been introduced in American artistic circles in between trips to Rome, Assisi, to America by such artists as Childe Hassam and John Venice, and Milan. Brinley attended informal drawing classes Twachtman in the i88os. By the early twentieth century, im- in Florence and composed numerous crayon and pencil pressionism was being taught at the Art Students' League sketches, as well as a few paintings, of the Italian landscape. and, although it had not yet been reduced to an academic Though tentative in handling, many of these early works are formula, the style was by no means avant-garde. moderately accomplished and reveal the artist's sentimental Many of the contradictions between his artistic style and taste for picturesque composition (cat. nos. 9 and 10). his attitudes were the result of the conditions of the time. The In July of 1905, Brinley returned to Paris.^ He knew several artist's significance, in fact, lies neither in the individuality of artists from the Art Students' League who were studying at his artistic production nor in the changes he effected in the the Academie Julian, the mecca for serious American students. traditional art establishment; rather, he is fascinating artisti- In August he joined the American Art Association, a rela- cally and historically because he was a man completely of his tively conservative organization of American artists in Paris, age, whose experiences, thoughts, and actions offer insight which exhibited a number of his works, including several into a remarkable period of American artistic production. Venetian sketches (cat. no. 7), the following March.* ***** Eager for recognition, Brinley attempted to exhibit his works at the official, highly competitive French salons. He Brinley 's lifelong interest in landscape painting developed submitted four paintings, executed in Florence, to the Autumn at the Art Students' League in New York, where he studied, Salon of 1905, and two of the works were accepted for exhibi- between October 1900 and December 1902 with such artists tion.^ Unfortunately for the artist, the jury approved more as Bryson Burroughs and Kenyon Cox. As noted by an early works than could possibly be exhibited at the Salon; thus two ". biographer, . even when a student at the League [Brinley] small Italian sketches were substituted for the larger paint- was interested in landscape and never in figure painting. But ings (cat. no. 3). All the artist's entries were rejected at the ^ Spring Salon of 1906.* Brinley finally had three paintings ac- been formed."' The event, in fact, received excellent coverage cepted in the Autumn Salon of that year, which he describes from several newspapers, including the New Yory^ Times, in a letter to his father-in-law: which compared the organization to other secessionist movements in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna.^** 1 just received word yesterday that I have had three of my pictures accepted at the Fall Salon! So I wanted to write you at once The importance of the Society to Brinley's career is pri- and tell you the good news. They are pictures which I think marily symbolic. While the group had litde apparent impact would please you, one is a moonlight on the Seine, another is the on the organization of exhibitions in Paris, it marked the arrival of a cargo steamer just coming into the dock, the sketch I artist's first active participation in an organization devoted to got for this when we were in Venice, and the last is a street scene the promotion and patronage of modern art. For the next in Paris on a wet morning.

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