Boston Artists' Association
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
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."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.
There were "44 members in 1842, and 66 in 1845."Leah Lipton. "The Boston Artists' Association, 1841-1851." American Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Autumn, 1983) They held "regularly scheduled bi-weekly social meetings" in Chester Harding's space on School Street. In the association's "studio ... both living models and casts were provided for members."Norman A. Geske. A Pioneer Minnesota Artist [George Fuller]. Minnesota History, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1950); p.101. The association "had casts donated to them by member Henry Sargent, and negotiated to borrow some of those at the Athenaeum." 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.
Images
Image:DinnerParty ca1821 byHenrySargent MFABoston.jpeg|Henry Sargent's The Dinner Party ca.1821; exhibited in the 1st exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1842
Image:AbottLawrence ca1842 byChesterHarding MFABoston.jpeg|Chester Harding's portrait of Abbott Lawrence, ca.1842; exhibited in the 1st exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1842
Image:1842 BostonArtistsAssoc DailyAtlas April4.png|Ad for 1842 exhibit of the Boston Artists Association
Image:Thomas Cole - The Voyage of Life Old Age, 1842 (National Gallery of Art).jpg|Thomas Cole's Old Age from Voyage of Life, 1842; exhibited in the 2nd exhibit of the Boston Artists Association, 1843
Image:BostonAthenaeum PearlSt 1830.png|Athenaeum, Pearl Street, where Boston Artists Association exhibits were held, 1845-1847
=Members=
{{div col|colwidth=28em}}
- Francis AlexanderBoston Artists Association. Boston Daily Atlas, April 4, 1842.
- Washington Allston
- Joseph Alexander Ames (i.e. Joseph Eames)
- Joseph AndrewsCatalogue of paintings of the second exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association, 1843
- Thomas G. Appleton
- Thomas BallWilliam Howe Downes. Boston Painters and Paintings. Atlantic Monthly, Sept. 1888
- Hammatt BillingsJames F. O'Gorman. Accomplished in all departments of art--Hammatt Billings of Boston, 1818-1874. Univ of Massachusetts Press, 1998; p.11.
- Joseph Edward Billings
- Edward Augustus BrackettBoston Athenaeum Exhibition. Boston Daily Atlas, May 26, 1848.
- Joseph Carew
- Henry Dexter
- George Fuller
- Samuel Gerry
- Edward D. Greene
- Henry Greenough
- Richard Saltonstall Greenough
- Chester Harding
- Joshua H. Hayward
- A.G. Hoit
- George Hollingsworth
- Charles Hubbard
- D.C. Johnston
- Charles Lane
- Fitz Hugh LaneJames A. Craig. Fitz H. Lane: an artist's voyage through nineteenth-century America. 2006; p.73.
- P. Mallory
- N.B. Onthank
- John Pope
- Henry Cheever Pratt
- Thomas Buchanan Read
- J. Rogers
- Eastman Sanburn
- Henry Sargent
- William Sharp
- George G. Smith
- William E. Smith
- W. Southworth
- Charles J. Sprague
- Richard M. Staigg
- W.W. Story
- Asa Coolidge Warren
- M.J. WhippleUnrivaled 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
- Ammi B. Young
{{div col end}}
=Exhibitions=
- 1842 - 1st Boston Artists' Association exhibit, at Harding's Gallery. Included: Henry Sargent; Fitz Henry Lane; Tintoretto; Anthony van Dyck; Caroline Negus;Massachusetts Historical Society. [http://www.masshist.org/online/gallery/doc-viewer.php?pid=16&item_id=1637 Catherine Sargent] and others.
- 1843 - 2nd Boston Artists' Association exhibit, at Harding's Gallery. Included: Thomas Cole; Philip Harry; Asher Brown Durand; Thomas Sully; and others.The Rover, v.2, no.10, 1843 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.Catalogue of paintings, of the third exhibition of the Boston Artists' Association, 1844. Boston: Clapp and Son's Press, 1844.
- 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.
See also
{{commons category|Boston Artists Association}}