Call Number:

GAL

Repository:

Philadelphia Museum of Art Archives

Extent:

1 linear foot

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Item identification and date], [Series info.], A. E. (Albert Eugene) Gallatin Papers, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Archives.

Date:

1927-1943 (inclusive)

Creator:

Gallatin, A. E. (Albert Eugene )

Abstract:

These three scrapbooks document the first museum gallery in America devoted to modern art and founded by the collector and art historian Albert Eugene Gallatin. The scrapbooks contain newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases and announcements of exhibitions, acquisitions and new publications. Coverage starts with the 1927 announcement of the opening of the Gallery of Living Art, which was housed and operated by New York University on its main Washington Square campus, and concludes in 1943 when the University closed the facility, which by then operated as the Museum of Living Art, and Gallatin's collection was transferred to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Albert Eugene Gallatin was born in 1881 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. After a brief study of law, Gallatin, on his twenty-first birthday, inherited the family fortune, which was made through banking and investment, and turned his attention to art. After an initial interest in collecting classical vases, Gallatin focused on modern art. He began buying in Paris after World War I, and by 1921 he was working with some of the city's major art dealers. Gallatin also became an avid collector of works by American artists identified as the Ash Can School. After donating some works to the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1922, Gallatin decided to open his own gallery that would be devoted to modern art. Using his connection as a trustee for New York University, Gallatin became co-chairmen of the University's Committee of Art Exhibition and opened the Gallery of Living Art, which was located on the main campus at Washington Square. The gallery first exhibited works, on permanent loan from Gallatin, by Picasso, Braque, Gris and Leger. Later shows included works shown publicly for the first time in the U.S. by artists such as Joan Miro, Andre Masson, and Jean Arp. American artists included John Marin, Charles Sheeler and Charles Demuth. One of his most acclaimed purchases, which was also exhibited at the gallery, was Picasso's Three Musicians. The 1936 purchase also coincided with the renaming of the gallery to the Museum of Living Art. Gallatin wrote exhibition catalogs for his museum as well as critical studies of artists such as Whistler, George Braque, John Sloan and Aubrey Beardsley. With the closing of his museum in 1943, Gallatin bequeathed his collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He died in 1952.

Works Consulted
1. 3 Nov. 2006. Dictionary of art historians, s.v. Gallatin, A. E.

Compiled by A. E. Gallatin, these three scrapbooks chronicle his most ambitious venture--establishing the first museum gallery in America devoted to modern art. The scrapbooks consist of newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases and announcements of exhibitions, acquisitions and new publications. The earliest volume begins in 1927 when New York University announced its opening of the Gallery of Living Art. Gallatin, who served as co-chair to the founding committee, contributed on permanent loan paintings, drawings and watercolors by artists such as Braque, Picasso, Matisse and American artists such as Demuth, Marin and Sheeler. A good deal of publicity included in the second volume focues on Gallatin's acquisition of the 1921 version of Picasso's painting "The Three Musicians," which Gallatin described as one of the most important paintings of modern times and a better realization of the subject than the artist's earlier version. It was also during this time that the gallery was renamed the Museum of Living Art. According to a 1937 article in the NYU student publication, the Album, the name change was to make it clear that the pictures on display were not for sale. The third scrapbook contains clippings, press releases and ephemera from 1942 to the summer of 1943. Although less than half its pages are filled, the scrapbook chronicles two significant events. In December of 1942, the University announced that it would close the museum, citing economic reasons and describing the closure as "one of the casualties of war." In February 1943 came the announcement that Gallatin's collection of approximately 170 works of art would go to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a loan during his lifetime, with ownership coming to the museum thereafter. Media coverage of the exhibition opening is included from both the Philadephia and New York press