George Bridgman

Bridgman was born in 1864 in the United Province of Canada.{{Cite book|last1=Love|first1=Richard H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIn6EkBlJSUC|title=Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport|last2=Peters|first2=Carl William|date=1999|publisher=University Rochester Press|isbn=978-1-58046-024-8|pages=336|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=McMann|first=Evelyn de Rostaing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1CFofvCmeZIC|title=Biographical Index of Artists in Canada|date=2003-01-01|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-2790-0|pages=31|language=en}} In his youth, Bridgman studied the arts under painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later with Gustave Boulanger.{{Cite book|last1=Fielding|first1=Mantle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N6IwAAAAMAAJ|title=Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers|last2=Opitz|first2=Glenn B.|publisher=Apollo|year=1983|isbn=978-0-938290-02-5|location=Poughkeepsie, NY|pages=217, 783, 991|language=en}} For most of his life Bridgman lived in the United States where he taught anatomy and figure drawing at the Art Students League of New York (from 1898 until 1900, and then 1903 until October 1943).{{Cite web|title=George B. Bridgman|url=https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/george-b-bridgman|access-date=2020-09-28|website=Illustration History, Norman Rockwell Museum}}{{Cite web|date=October 24, 1943|title=Christmas Spirit|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/10/24/83948852.html?pageNumber=195|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-09-30|website=The New York Times|language=en}} His successor at Art Students League was Robert Beverly Hale. Bridgman had also taught classes at the Grand Central School of Art and at the American Bank Note Company.{{Cite web|date=December 17, 1943|title=George Bridgman Art Teacher, Dies|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/12/17/issue.html|url-access=subscription|access-date=2020-09-30|website=The New York Times|language=en}}

Bridgman used box forms to represent the major masses of the figure (head, thorax, and pelvis) which he would tie together with gestural lines and produce to create "wedges" or simplified interconnecting forms of the body.[http://www.askart.com/AskART/B/george_brandt_bridgman/george_brandt_bridgman.aspx "George Brandt Bridgman at Askart.com"]

He had been a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.{{cite web|title=Members since 1880|url=http://rca-arc.ca/who-we-are/members/members-since-1880/|access-date=11 September 2013|publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts|archive-date=4 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504000403/https://rca-arc.ca/who-we-are/members/members-since-1880/|url-status=dead}}

Among his many thousands of students was Norman Rockwell; in his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator (1960), Rockwell spoke highly of Bridgman. Roughly 70,000 students studied with Bridgman in his many years teaching,{{Cite magazine|date=1942-09-14|title=Art: Bone & Muscle Man|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802458,00.html|url-access=limited|access-date=2020-10-01|issn=0040-781X|quote=Some 70,000 artists}} notable artists include: McClelland Barclay,{{Cite web|title=McClelland Barclay|url=https://lagunaartmuseum.org/artist/mcclelland-barclay/|access-date=2020-09-28|website=Laguna Art Museum|language=en-US}} Emily Newton Barto,Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985 p. 47 C. C. Beall, Gifford Beal,{{Cite web|title=Gifford Reynolds Beal (American, 1879 - 1956), West Wind|url=https://art.nelson-atkins.org/objects/16197/west-wind;jsessionid=FD5C31D87CE0F4FD3B1E0262342511C5|access-date=2020-09-28|website=The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art|language=en}} Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake,{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|author2=Nancy G. Heller|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5|pages=523}} Rosina Cox Boardman,McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., Who’s Who in American Art 1938-193 vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p. 61 Bessie Callender,Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 190, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985 p. 116 Dane Chanase,McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., ‘’Who’s Who in American Art 1938-193 vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p. 102 Richard V. Culter, Chon Day, Joseph Delaney,{{Cite book|last1=Bonner|first1=Judith H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uj4vqIjD-_AC|title=The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture|last2=Pennington|first2=Estill Curtis|last3=Wilson|first3=Charles Reagan|date=2013-01-14|publisher=UNC Press Books|isbn=978-0-8078-6994-9|pages=287|language=en}} Elsie Driggs,{{Cite book|last=Kimmerle|first=Constance|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApchAMAOtiEC|title=Elsie Driggs: The Quick and the Classical|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|others=James A. Michener Art Museum|year=2008|isbn=9780812241044|pages=124}} Eyre de Lanux,{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ReZkAgAAQBAJ|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|author2=Nancy G. Heller|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}} Helen Winslow Durkee,{{sfn|Fielding|Opitz|1983|p=245}} Will Eisner, Edward McNeil Farmer,{{Cite book|last=Hughes|first=Edan Milton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YYRIAQAAIAAJ|title=Artists in California, 1786-1940|publisher=Hughes Publishing Company|year=1986|isbn=9780961611200}} Elias Goldberg, Marion Greenwood,{{Cite book|last1=Sonneborn|first1=Liz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCcpVOQRtN0C|title=A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts|last2=Kort|first2=Carol|publisher=Infobase Publishing|year=2014|isbn=9781438107912|pages=85–86}} Robert Beverly Hale,{{Cite book|last=Deupi|first=Victor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6iztDwAAQBAJ&q=george+b.+bridgman+museum&pg=PR12|title=Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America|publisher=Routledge|year=2020|isbn=9780429557590}} Lorenzo Homar, Clark Hulings, Louis Paul Jonas,Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 195 Jack Kamen, Deane Keller, Lee Krasner,{{Cite web|last=Lynch|first=Mary|date=2016-03-20|title=Alumni Profile: Lee Krasner A'29|url=https://cooperalumni.org/alumni-profile-lee-krasner-a29/|access-date=2020-09-28|website=Cooper Union Alumni Association|language=en-US}} Richard Lahey,{{Cite news|last=Joyce|first=Maureen|date=August 3, 1978|title=Richard Lahey, Painter, Ex-Corcoran Principal|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/08/03/richard-lahey-painter-ex-corcoran-principal/170c6761-67ac-4517-862c-eb517fb93a1e/|access-date=2020-09-27}} Andrew Loomis, Anita Malfatti, Paul Manship,Rand, Harry, Paul Manship, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington 1989 p. 10 Frank McCarthy, Evelyn Metzger, Earl Moran, John Cullen Murphy, Kimon Nicolaïdes, Corrado Parducci,{{Cite web|title=Oral history interview with Corrado Parducci, 1975 Mar. 17|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-corrado-parducci-12608|access-date=2020-09-28|website=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution|language=en}} Norman Raeben, Frank J. Reilly, Joseph Emile Renier,Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 338 Ulysses Ricci, Ernie Schroeder, Archie Boyd Teater, Allie Tennant,Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 479 John Vassos, Franklin Brooke Voss, Edmund Ward, Mahonri Young,Toone, Thomas E., Mahonri Young: His Life and Art, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah,1997 p. 36-37 and William Zorach.Zorach, William, Art is My Life: The Autobiography of William Zorach, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland Ohio, 1967 p.21

Jackson Pollock's sketchpad features work from Bridgman's books.

Bridgman died on December 16, 1943, in New Rochelle, New York, after suffering from an illness for a year. He was survived by his wife, Helene Leonora Bridgman (née Rupperstberg) and their three children.

George Bridgman has 100 drawings in the public collection at the Norman Rockwell Museum.{{Cite web|last=Bradway|first=Rich|date=2013-06-11|title=George B. Bridgman drawings in NRM collections|url=https://www.nrm.org/2013/06/george-b-bridgman-drawings-in-nrm-collections/|access-date=2020-09-28|website=Norman Rockwell Museum|language=en-US}}

File:Rescue of a Youth Fallen Overboard from a Fishing Boat.jpg

• {{Cite book|last1=Bridgman|first1=George B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jt3k13GnHWMC|title=Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life|last2=Simon|first2=Howard|publisher=Weathervane|year=1952|location=New York City, New York|isbn=9781402766787}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Zu8AQAAQBAJ|title=Drawing the Draped Figure|publisher=Bridgman Publishers|year=1942|location=Pelham, New York|isbn=9780486138121}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|title=The Human Machine|year=1939}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|title=Heads, Features and Faces|year=1936}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|title=Bridgmans Handbook of Drawing|year=1929}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|title=Bridgman's Life Drawing|year=1924}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6o47OYfkZOEC|title=Constructive Anatomy|publisher=Bridgman Publishers|year=1920|location=Pelham, New York}}
• {{Cite book|last=Bridgman|first=George B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Caj-Zb77R78C|title=The Book of a Hundred Hands|publisher=Sterling Publishing Company|year=1920|location=New York City, New York|isbn=9780486132600}}

Many of Bridgman's books are available as reprints by Dover Publications.

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|George Brant Bridgman}}

• [http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2010/08/george-bridgemans-art-class.html Drawings from George Bridgman's 1911 Art Class]
• [http://www.theartstudentsleague.org Art Students League of New York]

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Category:19th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American autobiographers

Category:American instructional writers

Category:American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts

Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Category:1864 births

Category:1943 deaths

Category:American art educators

Category:Art Students League of New York faculty

Category:19th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American male artists

Category:Canadian emigrants to the United States