December 11, 1936
The exhibitions of RAYON AND SYNTHETIC YARNS IN TEXTILES, Department of Industrial Arts; SPINNING AND WEAVING - A HOME INDUSTRY, Division of American Rooms; PHOTOGRAPHS OF CONTEMPORARY DANCERS BY THOMAS BOUCHARD, Dance Center; A SELECTION OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS BY ANDRE DUNOYER DE SEGONZAC FROM THE COLLECTION OF FRANK CROWNINSHIELD, Print Department; which will open Friday, December 11, will be ready for preview by art critics and representatives of the press On Tuesday, December 8.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 151. View Original
December 12, 1936
The Department of Prints and Drawings of the Brooklyn Museum opened yesterday (Friday, December 11) an exhibition of fifteen pen and brush drawings, two water colors, twenty-three etchings, and three illustrated books by Andre Dunoyer De Segonzac. All are from the collection of Mr. Frank Crowninshield. This is the first comprehensive exhibition of drawings and etchings by Segonzac to be shown in New York, and the first time most of the items in this collection have been publicly exhibIted. They include many early states and trial proofs of etchings as well as preliminary drawings for other works.
Among the more highly finished works in the collection are “Paysage”, a large and decorative pen and wash drawing of trees, “Basket of Fruit” a large water color study, “Landscape” a large water color distinguished by rich and warm neutral hues and a vibrant effect of light produced by the massing of white areas and passages in which the dark tones are emphasized and fused, “La Porte de St. Tropez: L’Arbre et les Tartanes”, a scene typical of the French quais etched in 1926 and published in 1929, “Versaille: Entree do l’Orangerie” (large plate) a dark massing of foliage about a gate 1925, “Le Golfe de St. Tropez” a topical farmyard scene in a romantic mood (1923), “Paysage a la Riviere,” a delicate landscape etched in 1924 for “Paysages du Morin”, “L'Eglise Dans Les Arbres” etched for the same series, and “Souvenir de Savoie” a snow scene that produces more than the usual effect of winter without the usual tricks, With these more studied works should be grouped a number of etchings in freer and more rapid and lyric style such as “Le Gros Chene a Chaville,” “La Route su Bord de la Riviere,” “L'Etang des Ecrivisses,” and “Les Bois de Chaville." In all these a charming and complete impression of landscape is achieved without that brooding over the subject and clouding of shadows which gives the more highly elaborated scenes a character of more serious feeling some what at the expense of that freshness of pleasure felt in those scenes which preserve the delighted impression of the first glance.
In very different vein are most of the other drawings and etchings. Of these perhaps “Les Deux Amies,” a drypoint, may serve to illustrate both manner and effect. It is a study of two reclining fIgures, a favorite subject, two girls taking a sun bath. The pose is informal, unconventional, and perhaps intentionally “difficult” giving the impression of something of a tour de force in drawing. The composition is designed in a maze of rapid, freely drawn and rather light lines, a preliminary and extremely sketchy drawing being refined progressively by elaboration in the same manner of line without any apparent restraint of freedom but with progressive definition. The brilliance of light and emphasis of significance of form achieved by this pattern is further emphasized by a spotting of emphatic shadows.
The collection illustrates this method applied to a wide diversity of subjects and in every degree, from the first light haze of lines seen in "Femme Nue Couchee sur une Plage,” to the precision of such a portrait as “Fernando, Les Mains Croisees.” In many of the rapid sketches the emphasis upon significant shadows is such as to give a curious pattern of “smudges,” and this effect is often deliberately used to emphasize a decorative pattern or a quality of light, as in the shimmering "La Plage do St. Tropez.”
Of the three illustrated books shown, the most handsome is La Treille Muscati by Colette, a well-known friend of the artist. Eight pages of this book are exhibited, including the portrait of Colette, a title page, a scene on the quais, a typical French country villa in a garden, a girl writing and several drawings of flowers and leaves, all in the delicate tracery of lines and heavy spotting of shadows which is characteristic of Segonzac’s manner. L’Appel du Clown, a one act comedy by Regis Gignoux, contains many intimate impressions of the theatre, of which an actress making up and a clown making up are the two selected for exhibit. From "Bubu de Montparnasse" by Charles-Louis Philippe, the exhibition includes a title page with vignette of an accordian player and a scene of a girl in a hospital bed writing.
A complete list of items follows:
DRAWINGS AND WATER COLORS
Reclining Figure
Pen and Brush drawing
Study for “Bubu Be Montparnasse” c. 1929
Pen and Brush Drawing
Study for L’Education Sentimentalo, circa 1923
Pen and Brush drawing
Reclining Figure
Pen drawing
Nurmi - Coureur de 1600 M
Pen and Brush drawing
Study for “Le Tableaux De La Boxe” c. 1922
Pen and Wash drawing
Study of a Nude
Pen and Wash drawing
Paysage
Pen and Wash drawing
Study for “Les Canotiers” c. 1924
Pen and Wash drawing
Basket of Fruit
Water Color
Study for "Les Baigneurs" c. 1922
Pen and Wash drawing
Landscape
Water Color
Study for an Etching to be published in
LES GEORGIQUES by Virgil. c. 1928
Pen and Wash drawing
Nue
Pen drawing
Seated Figure
Pen and Wash drawing
Baigneuse A L’Ombrelle. c, 1927
Pen and Wash drawing
110 m Haie
Pen and Wash drawing
ETCHINGS
Le Porte De St. Tropez
L’Arbre et Les Tartanes.
Etched 1926, Published 1929
Versailles, Entree De L’Orangerie
(Large Plate) 1925
Le Golfe De St. Tropez
Published 1928
Le Gros Chene a Chaville. c. 1926
Fernande, Les Mains Croisees. 1926
La Mule. 1928
La Route Au Bord De La Riviere. 1925
Paysages Du Morin
Etude De Fille
Etched for but not published in “Bubu de Montparnasse.”
Le Depart Des 100 Metres. c. 1930
Etched for “Sports” by Giraudoux - not yet published
Trial proof
Le Clown Musical. 1931
Etched for “L’Appel du Clown”
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 160-3. View Original
December 12, 1936
The Brooklyn Museum will open four exhibitions simultaneously on Saturday, December 12th, and there will be a reception and preview for members and guests of the Museum on the evening of Friday, December 11th. The Department of Industrial Art, Christine Krehbiel, Acting Curator, will occupy the special exhibition galleries on the first floor with a large exhibition of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns in Textiles, showing processes of manufacture as well as finished products. The Division of American Rooms, Elizabeth Haynes, Assistant Curator, will occupy the neighboring sub-balcony gallery with an exhibition of spinning and Weaving as a Home Industry. At the opening, students from Pratt Institute will give practical demonstrations in this gallery. The Dance Center, Grant Code, Acting Director, will present an exhibition of Photographs of Contemporary Dancers by Thomas Bouchard in the Balcony Gallery, Second Floor. In the adjacent Print Gallery, the Department of Prints and Drawings, Carl 0. Schniewind, Curator, will show Drawings and Prints by Andre’ Dunoyer de Segonzac from the collection of Frank Crowninshield. During the reception on Friday the 11th, Mr. Crowninshield will give an informal talk on the collection in the Print Study Room.
Exhibitors in the Rayon Show are American Bemberg Corporation, American Enka Corporation, Delaware Rayon Corporation, Rayon Department of E. I. DuPont de Nemours Company, Inc., Industrial Rayon Corporation, North American Rayon Corporation, Skernandoa Rayon Corporation, Tubise Chatillon Corporation and The Viscose Company.
In connection with this exhibition the Museum is publishing a Handbook of Rayon and Synthetic Yarns to which the following articles have been contributed by experts in the field: Introduction by M. D. C. Crawford, The Scope of Rayon by Stephen S. Marks, Texture of Rayon Fabrics by Alexis Sommaripa, The Fashion Significance of Rayon by Anne Mullany, Rayon Yarns in Knit Fabrics by E. D. Fowle, Decorative Rayon Fabrics by Virginia Pegram, Science Looks at Rayon’s Serviceability, by Charles L. Simon, Spun Rayon by Alexis Sommaripa, Statistics by Stanley B. Hunt, The History of Rayon by S. A. Salvage, and technical explanations of the various processes by which rayon is fabricated, Viscose, Acetate and Cuprammoniun, by H. W. Rose, H. De Witt Smith and Theodore Wood respectively.
The exhibitions will be available for press preview Tuesday December 8th.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1931 - 1936. 10-12_1936, 146. View Original
March 11, 1937
At a meeting of, the, Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences yesterday afternoon, March 10th, Director Philip N. Youtz announced the purchase by the Brooklyn Museum of an unusually fine example of Goya’s "Los Caprichos” (Los Caprichos, 1868, Delteir 38-117), by Francisco Jose Goya y Lucientes, Spanish School, 1746-1828. This was an advance proof copy once in the possession of Goya himself and given by him to a friend in whose family the book has remained until recently. It contains a number of proofs not included in the final edition. The book is in excellent state and is said to be the finest in this country. For preservation and exhibition purposes the plates will be removed from the binding and mounted separately. The Museum has also purchased a very fine book illustrated with forty-six etchings by Andre Dunoyer de Segonzac. This is La Treille Muscate de Colette. The book is in loose-leaf form so that separate pages can be easily shown. A copy was included in a recent exhibition at the Museum, and the purchased copy is now on exhibition.
The Curator of the Department of American Indian Art and Primitive Cultures, Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, left for Mexico for the purpose of translating some Mexican codices at the National Museum of Mexico of which he is an Honorary Professor. While in Mexico Dr. Spinden has given lectures and conducted several trips into the field for The Committee on Cultural Relations with Latin America which conducted a seminar in February.
Several objects in the Museum collection which have long been in storage were prepared for exhibition and placed in the Medieval Hall. Three small Florentine paintings of the XIVth Century were transferred to new panels and cleaned. They were hung with three other paintings of the same series — the life of St. Lawrence — already in the Medieval Hall. These six small scones were probably originally part of a predella, and are interesting examples of early Italian tempera technique.
Five polo arms were cleaned and oiled as a prevention against further rust. Several were provided with new handles. As the old records proved inadequate, these weapons were recatalogued. They are now installed in the Medieval Hall.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-03_1937, 039. View Original
