A LONG AFFINITY FOR PRINTMAKING AT SLATER MUSEUM

by Vivian F. Zoë

The Printmakers’ Network of Southern New England’s (PNSNE) current exhibition in Converse Gallery prompts an examination of the Slater Memorial Museum’s print collection as a whole. In 2013, the PNSNE made a gift of dozens of original prints including lithographs, etchings, serigraphs, collographs and monotypes. The PNSNE is an unincorporated group of professional artists, many with ties to academic institutions and several residents of Connecticut. Their purpose is to advance the work of the members while building a public appreciation for the art form. In addition to collaborative projects, the group organizes exhibitions and workshops.

The concept of the donation to the Slater Museum was the brainchild of former Norwich Art School director, Norwich resident and NFA alumna, Melody Leary. PNSNE prints in this collection are framed and represent several series the PNSNE assigned itself. Each series is characterized by specific parameters, such as theme, size or subject matter. In addition, several unframed portfolios

Venture to Want and Wander by Kim E. Tester, 1993. From Unabridged, portfolio, collection of the Slater Museum, gift of the Print-makers Network of Southern New England.

The Muse

Winter, 2015

The quarterly newsletter of the

Slater Memorial Museum

(Continued on page 4)

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The Muse is published up to four times yearly for the members of The Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum. The museum is located at 108 Crescent Street, Norwich, CT 06360. It is part of The Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich, CT 06360. Museum main telephone number: (860) 887-2506. Visit us on the web at www.slatermuseum.org.Museum Director – Vivian F. ZoëNewsletter editor – Geoff SerraContributing authors: Vivian Zoë, Leigh Thomas

Photographers: Leigh Thomas, Vivian Zoë, Barry Wilson

The president of the Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum: Patricia Flahive

The Norwich Free Academy Board of Trustees:Diana L. Boisclair Jeremy D. Booty Allyn L. Brown, IIIGlenn T. CarberryKeith G. FontaineLee-Ann Gomes, TreasurerThomas M. Griffin, SecretaryThomas HammondDeVol JoynerTheodore N. Phillips, ChairTodd C. PostlerSarette Williams, Vice Chair

The Norwich Free Academy does not discriminate in its educational programs, services or employment on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, color, handicapping condition, age, marital status or sexual orientation. This is in accordance with Title VI, Title VII, Title IX and other civil rights or discrimination issues; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.

A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTORIt’s always such a thrill to introduce new people to the Slater Memorial Museum and this fall has provided ample opportunity to do so. From art societies to women’s groups to the highlight of the season, The Men on the Tor, a Sherlockian group that obsesses about all things Arthur Conan Doyle, the past few months have been a whirlwind of activity. The Men on the Tor provided us with a program that would have been impossible without them, and we did the same for them, including a special edition of Tricia Staley’s Gilded Age Norwich presentation and a

special tour of our so very Victorian museum. A busy season of exhibitions included Michael Borders’ Connecticut Industry history Mural and the return of the Key to Liberty, about Benedict Arnold’s exploits on Lake Champlain. As we slide gently into the holiday season, preparing for a busy 2015, I’d like to remind all Slater devotees about the museum gift shop; a great place to satisfy all of your holiday needs. Whether you’re looking for something unique and hand-made, or something as simple as a book about local history, it’s the place to shop. Be sure to mark your calendars for this winter’s programs.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS, PROGRAMS AND EVENTS

** Monday, Dec. 1 **

Tuesday, Dec. 910:00 am

Saturday, Dec. 131:00-4:00 pm

Saturday & Sunday,January 24 & 251:00 - 4:00 pm

Sunday, Feb. 81:00-3:00 pm

DO YOU REMEMBER JOHN MEYER OF NORWICH? If so, we need your help!! If you have memories about the factory and are will-ing to share them on video, please call (860) 425-5563 now to schedule a taping at the mu-seum. More details at www.slatermuseum.org.

SLATER MUSEUM VOLUNTEERINFORMATIONAL MEETING:Please join us for an informational session about becoming a volunteer interpreter or visitor services host at the Slater Museum!

PRINTMAKING DEMONSTRATIONS: To be held at the Norwich Art School in the top floor studio spaces. Free and open to all.

ARTIST DROP-OFF The Slater’s Annual CT Artists Juried Show is back! Find the prospec-tus on our website, www.slatermuseum.org

OPENING RECEPTION: 71st Annual Con-necticut Artists Juried Exhibition. On view February 8 through March 20, 2014.

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RECENT ACQUISITIONS

LILAC TIME BY FOSTER CADDELL

The Slater Museum recently purchased a painting by the late Foster Caddell. The location is Erwin Goldstein’s house near the end of Bethel Road before it intersects with Rt. 138.

Foster Caddell was born in Pawtucket, RI on August 2, 1921, and spent his entire life pursuing his passion for painting. Caddell eventually settled in Voluntown, CT, and was asked to teach by aspiring local artists familiar with his work. Soon, he was the owner and CEO of the largest private art school in southern New England. Caddel was also an author,writing Keys to Successful Landscape Painting, followed by Keys to Successful Color and Keys to Painting Better Portraits. In addition to these accomplishments, Caddell gained great renown as a portrait artist, portraying many famous people from around northeast Connecticut, including Senator Thomas J. Dodd and his son Christopher J. Dodd, senior Senator from Connecticut.Despite his success, Foster always submitted to the Slater’s juried exhibition (and always got in!). Caddell passed away June 2, 2013.

FRANK GARDNER HALE JEWELRY

Another recent purchase by the museum was of three brooches by Frank Garnder Hale (shown at left) and a pair of delicate lapis and gold earrings (not pictured.)

Hale (1876-1945) was one of the earliest and most important met-alcrafters in the Arts & Crafts movement. Hale was a member of one of the earliest classes of the Norwich Art School of NFA, and also graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He first worked as a designer of book and music covers and book plates for Oliver Diston, Co., then devoted himself to crafts. Hale estab-lished a shop in Boston in 1907 and became a member of the Society of Arts and Crafts, largely a group of amateurs. He brought recogni-tion, artistic integrity and professionalism to the ten-year-old guild. By 1923, with other jewellers he formed the Jewellers’ Guild, becom-ing its first dean. Good craftsmanship and striving toward technical perfection marked his jewelry designs and often reflected earlier work as a graphic designer. Hale employed similar shapes - leaves, flowers

and curving stems with both pen and ink and precious metals. Hale was considered particularly successful in rendering new designs appropriate for ancient stones.

“Lilac Time” by Foster Caddell, oil on canvas. Collection of the Slater Memorial Museum.

(Clockwise from top): Silver bead; Silver quatrefoil pendant with jade and a central blister pearl; Silver brooch with carved jade tablets by Frank Gardner Hale, collection of the SMM.

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by the group were donated. These are housed in custom-designed textile-covered boxes and require a gloved-hand approach to fully appreciate them. They can, however be displayed in protective cases.

The Slater Museum and NFA have a long history relative to printmaking. Third Norwich Art School director (1897-1900), Ozias Dodge (1868-1925) was a printmaker who made lithographs and went on to invent the first two-color etching process over a century ago here in Norwich. His wife Hannah was director of the museum for nearly forty years and upon Ozias’ death,

she gave his opus to the museum. Several of the successive Norwich Art School directors and faculty have been printmakers or textile designers who used screenprinting as their principal medium. So it is appropriate that the museum’s permanent collection is rich in pieces of varied techniques that make up the overall medium of printmaking.

Another group of prints more recently donated to the museum came from master printmaker and collector James Reed of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Jim Reed’s Milestone Graphics is a professional studio begun in San Francisco in 1976. He bases it on the atelier model where a master artist is available to regional artists, experienced and emerging. All printmaking techniques have been available and explored at Milestone graphics in Bridgeport since 1979, supporting its claim to be the oldest extant professional art print shop in Connecticut. The pieces Jim donated to the Slater Museum represent contemporary artists working today as well as artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Reed’s own lithograph series of images of crows, included in the donation to the Slater Museum, have a loose, painterly quality

Apple Blossoms by Ozias Dodge, etching, c. 1900, collection of the SMM

Three Crows by Jim Reed, lithograph, collection of the SMM

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that makes them appear like fresh ink brush gesture drawings. They exhibit an economy of mark-making, yet each tells a complete story.

A long standing member of the Milestone artists is Ann Chernow, born in New York City. At Syracuse University she received a Bachelor of Science degree and at New York University, a Master of Arts degree. Chernow was an instructor of studio work at the

Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1966 to 1970. She is an emerita professor at the University of Connecticut where she taught Art History from 1968 to 1980. Working in oil painting and graphics, she has had numerous exhibitions in the New York area. Chernow is represented in the collection donated by James Reed mostly by etchings like Waiting in the Car, and lithographs, like La Petite. Her work harks to an earlier era but never appears dated or recycled.

Alanna Fagan is an elected member of the Silvermine Guild of Artists and New Haven Paint & Clay Club, a member of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking and the Westport Arts Center, all in Connecticut. Ms. Fagan lives and maintains a studio on the Housatonic River in Milford, Connecticut. She has studied with painters, sculptors and printmakers, and has taught painting at the Silvermine Guild School of Art in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her two-inch by two-and-one-third- inch self portrait has a direct and intimate feel with the power of a much larger piece.

Fagan’s paintings have been widely exhibited in national and international shows and have won awards in several media. She has received Top: La Petite, lithograph; Bottom: Waiting in the

Car, etching. Both prints by Ann Chernow, collec-tion of the SMM

Self Portrait by Alanna Fagan, etching, collection of the SMM

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commissions for portraits for the Center for Creative Leadership, Wilmington North Carolina; Cohen & Wolf P.C., Bridgeport CT; The Harvard Club of New York City; Instituto Geografico de Agostini, Novara, Italy; and The New England School of Law, Boston, Massachusetts.

Two works by Philip Kappel (1901-1981) are included in the gift from James Reed. Kappel, painter, illustrator, printer, writer and lecturer, was born in Hartford. He is best remembered for his landscapes, portraits, figures and marine paintings. He worked in lithography and etching and taught in Boothbay, Maine in 1923 and 1924. By 1929 Kappel was living in New York City and, for the summer that year, in Salem, Massachusetts. By 1935, he had moved to Sarasota, Florida.

Kappel studied at Pratt Institute Art School in Brooklyn, New York and held memberships with many artist associations including the Chicago Society of Etchers; the MacDowell Club in New York City; the Society of American Etchers in Brooklyn, New York; the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Hartford; the Salmagundi Club in New York City; the Philadelphia Society of Etchers; the Cleveland Printmakers; and the Author’s Club of New York City.

Kappel illustrated The Last Cruise of the Shanghai (1925); The Story of Man’s Work; Lord Timothy Dexter (1925); Yankee Ballards

Image above: Un Coin du Salon de 1880 by Édouard Joseph Dantan (1848-1897). Private collection; Below: Hamlet et le Roi by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, 1896. Collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France.

Tropical Morning by Philip Kappel, etching, collection of the SMM. Below: Sailboat with Buoy by Philip Kappel, etching, collection of the SMM

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(1930); and American Etchers Series, vol. 4 (1929). He was represented in numerous exhibitions and received awards including a first prize at the Marblehead (Massachusetts) Art Association in 1925; the Bijur Prize at the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, Brooklyn Museum in 1926; a prize at the Palm Beach Art Association in 1935; the National Academy of Design from 1928 to 1946; and the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.

Kappel’s work is held by several institutions including the Cleveland Museum of Art; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; the Montclair Art Museum in Montclair, New Jersey; the Brooklyn Museum; the Essex Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Corcoran

Gallery of Art and the National Museum Connecticut; the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio; and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Kappel’s Tropical Morning – Venezuela, and Sailboat with Buoy, each with only one color on paper, express volumes about life at the mercy of sea and sky. In the former, the artist depicts a full-rigged, three-masted square rigger on becalmed waters under a blazing sun. A small craft is rowed nearby. In the latter, the sails of a small sail craft cast long shadows from a low sun, recounting long, late summer evenings.

John Edward Costigan (1888–1972) was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Known for his strong brush work and an interest in the

Boy with Cows by John Edward Costigan, etching / drypoint, collection of the SMM

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common person as a subject, Costigan was mainly self-taught. As is reflected in his Boy with Cows, he portrays his people as deeply rooted in the soil they work, humble yet dignified and contented. He is most known for oil and watercolor painting, etchings and lithographs. He was affected by the Great Depression, losing his “day job” when his employer closed. This led to his purchase of a farm Orangeburg, New York, where he seized the opportunity to paint, using his wife and child as models. In 1928, he was made a member of the National Academy of Design.

Costigan was a cousin of the noted American showman, George M. Cohan. When he and his four sisters became orphaned, Cohan’s parents brought the young Costigan to New York City helping to launch his artistic career. He married the sculptor Ida Blessin and they had five children.

A nineteenth century American painter, etcher and illustrator, Alfred Laurens Brennan first

studied art at the University of Cincinnati School of Design. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Brennan’s mother came from Pennsylvania Quaker stock. After the war, the family relocated to Cincinnati. Brennan was educated at Saint Dustan’s College, Prince Edward Island (1861-1865) and later by private tutors.

Brennan moved to Philadelphia where he worked with Frank Duveneck, then settled in New York. By 1879 he began a very successful career as an illustrator for such national publications as The Century, which began publication in 1881, as a successor to Scribner’s Monthly Magazine; Life which ran weekly from 1883 to 1972 and St. Nicholas, a popular American children’s magazine, founded by Scribner’s 1873. He also illustrated a number of children’s books.

Brennan painted in watercolor and oils and was considered a master of pen-and-ink drawing. His dedication to perfecting his

Left: Queen Victoria by Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant. Right: André and Emmanuel, Sons of the Artist by Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant.

Harlequin and a Lady by Alfred Laurens Brennan, private collection

Divination in the Tea Leaves by Alfred Laurens Brennan, etching, collection of the SMM

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work in the medium led to an oeuvre of over 7,000 drawings. Many of his illustrations, including whimsical drawings, became book and magazine covers. Brennan had a picturesque personality and a keen wit, was fastidious, an eccentric dresser and an expert pistol shot.

Albert Hirschfeld was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but moved with his family to New York City, where he received his art training at the Art Students League. In 1924, Hirschfeld studied painting in Paris and London. In 1943, he married Dolly Haas (1910-1994) and had one child, a daughter, Nina (b. 1945). After Ms. Haas’ death, Hirschfeld married theatre historian Louise Kerz.

Noted Broadway press agent, Richard Maney is credited with making Hirschfeld known throughout the American theatre community when the artist’s drawing Drumming Up Business on Broadway (1946) was brought by Maney to the New York Herald Tribune and new York Times. Few people interested in theatre or familiar with New York could

fail to recognize a Hirschfeld drawing. His unique style has influenced countless artists, illustrators and cartoonists. His lean caricatures of bold black line and shape on stark white were easily reproduced before the ubiquitous introduction of color into print media.

He worked with that most ancient of instruments: a genuine crow’s quill.

Despite the common assumption that his work was always in black on white, many magazines commissioned Hirschfeld to create color illustrations, often as the cover. He also illustrated many books in color, most notably among them Harlem As Seen By Hirschfeld, with text by William Saroyan.

Hirschfeld started in the film industry before theatre, as an art director at Selznick Pictures. He also drew politicians, TV stars, and celebrities. From the 1920’s to the 1990’s he characterized famous people in art, theatre, music, literature and politics. Hirschfeld is known for hiding his daughter Nina’s

name in most of the drawings he produced after her birth. The name would appear in the folds of a garment, the strands of hair, or in the background. He added the number of “Ninas” in the drawing after his signature. Many people can recall endlessly searching the weekly Hirschfeld drawing in the Sunday New York Times to find that last “Nina.”

The James Reed collection of prints reflects only a fraction of American printmakers from the 19th century to the present. But its breadth adds mightily to the Slater Museum’s pre-existing collection.

Family Group by Albert Hirschfeld, lithograph, collection of the SMM

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

71st ANNUAL CONNECTICUTARTISTS EXHIBITION

FEBRUARY 8 - MARCH 20, 2015

CALL TO ARTISTS - The prospectus for the 71st Annual CT Artists Exhibition is now available online.

Full details at www.slatermuseum.org

Cynthia Roznoy, curator at the Mattatuck Museum will be the juror for the 71st

Annual CT Artists Exhibition.

Opening reception and awards ceremony Sunday, February 8, 2015

from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.Awards ceremony at 2:00.

Free and open to the public - all are welcome!

At right:Egyptian Water Jar by Clement Watson, Best in Show Award Winner, 70th Annual CT Artists Exhibition, SMM, 2014.