JANUARY 28 - 31 PART 2: ROCKWELL KENT 1928-35 - VICTORIA HUTSON, LEON DABO & WALTER PACH

Rockwell Kent Wilderness Centennial Journal

100 Years Later

by Doug Capra © 2020)

Part 2 – Rockwell Kent 1928-35

Victoria Ebbels Hutson,

Leon Debo & Walter Pach

January 28- 31, 2020

ABOVE – Victoria Hunley 1963. Photo inscribed to her daughter, Hazel. Huntly papers online at the Archives of American Art.

BELOW – An article about Rockwell Kent from the April 26, 1925 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The artist has recently returned from Tierra del Fuego. Even before his third book, N by E is published as a Literary Guild selection, Kent’s fame has become legendary. This article begins: As all the world knows, that is, the reading and art loving world, Rockwell Kent has made a trip to the ends of the earth…

The Besetting Sin of America

The besetting sin of America is lack of faith in our artists and thinkers. We have furnished some of the greatest artists, such as Whistler, Sargent and Mary Cassatt, yet we could not keep them here because we did not appreciate their genius

    Leon Dabo (1864-1960), American painter. Quoted in the Dec. 10, 1932 Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Pennsylvania).

The artist has often been beset by poverty, but even that fact does not permit him to tamper with his idea for the sake of gain – either of goods or of fame. He does not need to be told the parable in those chapter of the Acts in order to avoid the penalty that waits like Fate itself for those who lie “not to men, but to God.”

         Walter Pach in Ananias or the False Artist (1928)

From the 1927 correspondence between Rockwell Kent and Victoria Ebbels Hutson, it appears they meet about 1920-21 while she is studying at the Art Student League. This is before she goes to Texas as a teacher. She refers to an inspiring and encouraging letter Kent wrote to her in response to one she sent him. It is clear she admires him, and has been influenced by his first book, Wilderness. Among Victoria’s papers at the Archives of American Art, are some undated newspaper clippings. One headline, “Artists Portrayed by Themselves and Friends,” tells of an exhibit organized by Leon Dabo at the Roerich Museum. One of the portraits listed is the strong drawing of Rockwell Kent by Victoria E. Hutson. The article must be dated during 1925 or later since she is listed as Victoria Hutson.

BELOW – Leon Dabo in his New York studio, ca. 1910. Photo Source.

BELOW – Feature story about the Leon Dabo in the Oct. 7, 1905 Topeka State Journal.

BELOW – Leon Dabo was known not only for his art but also for his lectures. Here are two articles about him from 1928 and 1929.

BELOW – Leon Dabo’s obituary in the Nov. 17, 1960 Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, MA)

Victoria Hutson’s next letter to Kent is from Feb. 19, 1929. She asks him to present her name so her work can be shown at an upcoming Pittsburgh exhibit. Carl Zigrosser told her he would speak to Rockwell about this, but Victoria knows both men are quite busy -- so she decides write directly to Kent. Here we see how much influence Kent’s first book, Wilderness, has had upon her. Some day when you are at the Gallery will you autograph my copy of “Wilderness”? I’ve always wanted to ask you to do this! I don’t believe the book could have meant more to anyone than it did to me.  Apparently, the two were unable to meet in person, so on March 5, 1929 Victoria writes: “Wilderness” is being mailed to Carl (Zigrosser) and awaits your arrival at the Gallery on your next trip to the city. # Thank you for sending my name to Pittsburgh. I so hope the jury is not too stern.

BELOW – The letter Victoria sent to Rockwell Kent dated Feb. 19, 1929 that mentions Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska (1920). Archives of American Art.

By Oct. 1 Victoria is returning some of the biographical materials Kent has sent her.  Apparently, the lecture series she planned didn’t work out. By now she addresses him as My dear Mr. Kent. Though she could have used the money generated from that lecture series, she is happy now with more time to paint. One of her canvases has passed the jury at the Carnegie. She has been reading the newspaper accounts of the Greenland shipwreck Kent will eventually tell in N by E (1930). She tells him of her upcoming exhibition at the Weyhe Gallery in February 1930 and hopes that Rockwell will be able to attend. Carl Zigressor is running the Weyhe Gallery during this time, and they represent Rockwell Kent exclusively through the 1930’s.) Kent responds to Victoria on Jan. 5, 1930. He has spoken with Elmer Adler at Pynson Printers, and to Donald S. Klopfer and Bennett Cerf at Random House about her work. Send them a portfolio, Kent tells her and adds, One can never tell when they will be interested in a publishing project that will be just right for you. Kent thanks Victoria for her comments about Wilderness and for her confidence in him as a friend. I will do all that I can to help you make some money, he assures her. That is about all that a friend can do for so real an artist as you are. I am glad that you have not taken a teaching job. The threat of it may, however, have served in some obscure psychic way to have stimulated an interest in your prints. Perhaps one can imagine how important words like these are to a struggling artist like Victoria Hutson – especially from such a famous artist as Rockwell Kent. His moods and whims swung from one extreme to another. He helped many artists and could be most generous.

On Nov. 16, 1930 Victoria apologizes for consistently using Kent’s name as a reference – hoping he doesn’t feel she is taking advantage of him, and noting that he may receive a request for a letter of recommendation for a teaching job at the Buxton Country Day School at Short Hills, NJ.  He replies on Nov. 25 saying he received the request, wrote the letter, and sends her a copy. In that reference letter Kent notes that he has known Victoria for many years and that she has the personality that will make her a “splendid” teacher. As to her work, he adds, I can only say that it is so fine that I am rather surprised that she should be looking for employment as a teacher. She is not only a gifted artist but her work is always characterized by the quality of reflection and thought. On Nov. 28, Victoria writes a revealing four-page letter to Kent.

BELOW – The first page of Victoria’s Nov. 28, 1930 four-page letter to Rockwell Kent. Archives of American Art.

She is most likely responding to his comment in the letter of recommendation that she is so talented as an artist that he can’t understand why she’s looking for a teaching job. She thanks him for his generosity and thoughtfulness, and wishes there were some way could reciprocate with some symbol of my warm thanks. She feels she owes him an explanation as to why she needs to teach. Her husband has limited means and she can barely pay her expenses to support her art. Her lithography stones are especially costly. She’s mostly unknown, has few real connections in the art world, and doesn’t live in the city. If she only had a patron, she wishes. Victoria admits she enjoys teaching and has a talent for it – and it’s a way to earn some money. She thanks him for promoting her work with his publishing friends in New York, and hopes someday to illustrate Thoreau’s essay “Winter” or Hawthorne’s The House of Seven Gables. The teaching position at Buxton will only take two days a week, giving her plenty of time to work on her art. Last fall Carnegie accepted one of her paintings, but this year both Carnegie and Chicago turned down her work. If it wasn’t for Carl Zigrosser’s support, as well as Rockwell’s, she would be at a loss. She ends: You have been so kind – you have quite warmed my heart. I hope we may meet in the Gallery sometime soon. Won’t you please, please select one of my lithographs when you are in and know that I will inscribe it in gratitude to you. Please – too – won’t you drop the Mrs. and call me – Victoria.

In a Jan. 2, 1931 letter to Kent we learn Victoria doesn’t take the teaching job at Buxton because they can’t pay her enough. The Depression is worsening and private schools are especially hard hit. She has gotten back her copy of the signed Wilderness and is gratified that Kent inscribes it as a friend. In an April 13 letter we learn that she is being considered as illustrator for a book with Elmer Adler. She wants to propose a series of flower lithographs and asks Kent’s advice about that as well as about a fair fee. She writes: You already know, but I can’t help saying again, how deeply I appreciate your generous effort to further my work. It is very fine of you & and like you. It is so rare for any successful artist to consider anyone one but himself. So of course I am very much encouraged and stimulated to produce the best I can. I know I can turn out a beautiful job! My fingers itch to have it go through and to get to work in earnest.

Victoria spent years at the Art Student’s League studying with some of the best artists and teachers. Kent can be most generous. He does have a soft spot, real empathy for the other artists and writers – the sincere ones -- because of the struggle he experienced. We must remember that Kent is at the peak of his career and his work is in much demand. The Depression is getting worse and artists are especially affected. At this time he’s planning another trip to Greenland and needs the money. He’s producing much non-commercial work – but where’s the money? He’s extremely busy, not only producing, but also with the business end of being an artist. On Oct. 21, 1930 Kent writes to Zigrosser at the Weyhe Gallery: Something must be done about giving me a full accounting of where we stand financially... I have gotten to think that Weyhe has no longer to be depended upon as source of revenue. I am consequently being forced to depend upon commercial work to keep the pot boiling. #  It is all very well to produce a wood block to which I may attach a definite value. The fact that that wood block brings me absolutely no immediate returns results eventually in my discarding that kind of art as a means of support. The same applies to lithographs. Occasionally I need money in a hurry. If there were some connection between the making of a lithograph and getting money for it, I would naturally make lithographs, but there isn’t, and consequently I look around and get an advertising job. And Kent goes after any commercial work he can get.

About this time Walter Pach (1883-1958) publishes an extremely controversial book – Ananias, or the False Artist (1928) – which raised a storm of comment, notes Pach’s obituary in the Nov. 28, 1958 New York Times. He dares to criticized what he calls Subway Art, which does more than sell face powder and cigarets (sic.) to the crowd. Worse than that, it sells the art conception of its makers to the vast majority of people, and in every rank of society.

ABOVE – A self portrait of Walter Pach from the Special Collections, Firestone Library, Princeton University. SOURCE

BELOW – Apparently, the working title for Pach's book changed at publication. This cover of Ananias or The Bad Artist (1928) by Walter Pach is from what looks like a proof in the Walter Pach papers at the online Archives of American Art.

Too much of this Subway Art is on display in museums, including the Metropolitan. Like Ananias and his wife Sapphira in the Acts of the Apostles, some artists want it both ways. In the early Church, when Christians shared all their wealth and property in common, Ananias lies to Peter. He holds back, keeps some money from the sale of his property. He has sinned against the Holy Spirit, Peter tells him, and the punishment is severe. Later, Sapphira also lies to Peter and suffers the consequences.

BELOW – The death of Ananias (1515) by Raphael. SOURCE

The story of Ananias is Pach’s analogy for the False Artist – a motif that runs throughout the book. It refers to those artists who hold back, those who produce the Subway Art, those who sell out to popular demand. Some of them are not even aware of their work’s poverty. They are ignorant. Much of this is due to poor training, Pach claims. He writes: There has probably never been a real artist who was dishonest in his work – who did things he believed to be false. The artist knows that the whole of his honor resides in the faith with which he holds to his conception of his work…But the really false artists are not merely negative – they are an active source of injury to the community; the more so since their organization into societies, their titles, their public recognition, and acceptance in museums give them a spurious authority before which the critics and, too often, the genuine artists, are silent. And who suffers from this state of affairs? The genuine artists? Not to any grievous extent…And that brings us to the real sufferer from the present state of affairs. It is the public. The book got quite a bit of press and caused a rigorous debate. The Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY) on Nov. 30, 1928 called it a book having the same result as might follow a hand-grenade dropped into a smug dug-out poker game. The author of this book takes a broadside fling at the art hung in Museums (he mentions chiefly the Metropolitan) which is “false,” “half-way gestures,” and marks the artists as ninnies “on both sides” at once.

This controversy was nothing new -- but few had the intellectual credibility and social status to openly challenge the entrenched power structures of the museums, the popular critics, and the wealthy who encouraged and purchased this false art. Walter Pach did have the authority to go after them. Four years later, on Oct. 23, 1932, the New York Times confirmed this when it wrote: When Walter Pach, prophet extraordinary, speaks it is well to drop whatever we may be doing and listen. We may not agree; he may possibly even fill us with fury; but his thought invariably contrives a stimulating effect and he has in all, said some of the wisest things about art that have been spoken in our generation. In that same article – now with the Depression getting worse and The Works Progress Administration (WPA) providing grants to artists for murals, Pach notes: The enormous effect of subway art is to be found everywhere. While the politicians who award the contracts for decorating public buildings or defacing Stone Mountain in Georgia prefer subway art, they could not stand out against the people if the latter really wanted better imagery. Though respected by many, Pach’s stimulating and enlighting lectures and writings could and did enrage some.

Many came to listen on the evening of March 14, 1926, when Walter Pach had a public debate with Rockwell Kent on the subject of “Is the American Museum to Be a Tomb or a Tenement?” It was part of the Independent Society’s “Evenings With the Other Arts” held during one of their exhibitions. In his biography of Kent, David Traxel writes that emotions dominated the debate to such an extent that when the floor was open to questions, Alfred Stieglitz and the sculptor Gaston Lachaise launched a sharp personal attack on Pach. John Sloan, who was presiding, had to call them to order. Kent had warned the audience that When the excavators dig in the ruins of this nation, they will find a lot of old art and statuary and Grecian mummies. They will not know what are art has been.” Those at fault, Kent claimed, included dealers focused on European art, the National Academy of Design, and museums like the Metropolitan.

ABOVE – This article from the March 28, 1926 Brooklyn Daily Eagle refers to the Pach-Kent debate earlier that month, and then goes on to discuss the issue.

BELOW – The obituary of Walter Pach in the Nov. 28, 1958 New York Times.

During these years Rockwell Kent is rising in fame while his work is in great demand. He’s working on his paintings, drawings and lithographs, but he needs more money than those works bring him, so he turns to book illustrations and plates, cards, advertising art, and any work in the Gold Camp that will provide him funds for his next adventure. Then the stock market crash and the Depression. Artists are hit hard along with everyone else. With all this, Rockwell Kent still has time to occasionally help struggling artists like Victoria Hutson.

BELOW -- Victoria Hutson Huntley inking a lithography stone. Archives of American Art

NEXT ENTRY

Part 3: Rockwell Kent 1928-35

Victoria Ebbels Hutson Huntley