November 4, 1939
Two exhibitions opened to the public today at the Brooklyn Museums; first, the “Ennis-Gill Memorial Exhibition” of water colors; and a showing of color drawings by Israel Litwak, a resident of Brooklyn. The water color exhibition will extend through November 26th and the Litwak exhibition through December 17th.
The memorial exhibition is for George Pearse Ennis and Paul Ludwig Gill who are both well known in their field. The Museum is holding it as part of their policy of placing special emphasis on water colors. The work shown will be somewhat retrospective as it will include work from both men’s mature periods as well as the work they did before their death. Ennis died in 1936 and Gill in 1938. About 50 works by each artist will be shown.
The Curator of the Department of Prints and Drawings is following up his acceptance for the Museum’s collection of four color drawings by Israel Litwak with an exhibition of this 72 years old artist’s work. Litwak who is a native of Odessa, Russia, where he was a cabinet maker and conducted a thriving furniture business, is the first artist to be classed as a “primitive” or “popular painter” from Brooklyn to receive, a museum showing of this kind. He has never taken a painting or drawing lesson and is an enthusiastic artist. Two of his firm policies are not to sell his pictures nor to explain the technique by which he produces them. The Litwak exhibition will be shown in the Print Gallery which opens off the Balcony Gallery on the second floor where part of the Ennis-Gill Exhibition is hung. The balance of it is in the Entrance Gallery on the first floor.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 11-12/1939, 276. View Original
November 4, 1939
Gill, nationally known watercolorist and teacher, died suddenly May 30th at his summer home in Harvey Cedars, N. J., the victim of heart attack. The artist was 44. He is survived by his widow, Sue Mao Gill, a well-known portrait painter, a stop-daughter, Mrs. Theodore C. Loder, Jr., and a brother, Harry Gill. Gill had just completed a mural for the Cairo, Georgia, Post Office, and was to leave with his wife on a trip to Mexico, stopping on route to install the Cairo mural.
“A native of Auburn, N. Y., Paul Gill graduated from Syracuse University, and later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There he won two Cresson scholarships allowing extensive European travel. Since 1924 he had been an instructor at the Moore Institute of Arts and, during the summers, an instructor at Syracuse University. He was a member of a number of art organizations, both local and national, and the recipient of many awards. Those include the Sesquicentennial Exposition silver model, the Baltimore Water Color Club and Chicago Art Institute prizes in 1926; the Philadelphia Water Color Club and the Now York Water Color Club prizes in 1927.
NOTE TO REVIEWERS: We arc enclosing a copy of the November 1, 1939, Museum Bulletin which begins with an article on the Ennis-Gill Memorial Exhibition by John I. H. Baur, Curator of Painting and Sculpture.
The Ennis and Gill Memorial Exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum opened formally on Friday afternoon, November 3rd, with a private view to Museum Members and their guests. Tea was served from 4 to 6. The exhibition opened to the public on November 4th and will continue to November 26th.
George Pearse Ennis and Paul Ludwig Gill, who died in 1936 and 1938 respectively, were both well known in their fields and the Museum is giving the exhibition as part of their policy of being especially interested in water colors. Thu work shown will be somewhat retrospective as it will be from both men’s most mature periods and the work boy did just before their deaths. A great many of the papers have never been exhibited before us the exhibition will be made up in great part from work that was found in the studios. It is hoped that this will give a more intimate insight into the work than the public has had before. Although the subject matter of both men was somewhat similar, their techniques were quite different. About fifty works by each artist will be shown.
Mr. Ennis was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 21, 1884 and became famous throughout the country as a landscape, marine, portrait painter, mural decorator and designer of stained glass windows.
This country gave him his entire art training, and for that reason, he was often called an all American artist. Ho first began his art education at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. He continued his studies at the St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; the Holmes Art School, Chicago, Illinois; the Chase School, New York City, under William M. Chase.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 11-12/1939, 278-9. View Original
September 16, 1939
Ten exhibitions are already on the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition schedule for the 1939-1940 season. As an opener, in order to be current with the style news, an exhibition of a more or less preliminary character opened on Saturday, September 9th, called Style Foundations--Corsets and Fashions of Yesterday and Today, to run through October 1st.
The first exhibition of the season opens on Friday, September 22nd, and will be called “Long Island in the 70’s". It will be a showing of some 160 prints of Brooklyn and Long Island scenes taken from a collection of over 2000 negatives of scenes in Long Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and the Hudson Valley, taken by George B. Brainard and acquired by the Museum twenty years ago. Only recently these negatives were brought to light by the Photographic Department. It will exhibit a cross section of the Long Island subjects and will demonstrate the character of the hundreds of records that Brainard made during his busy photographing days. Closing date is October 8th.
In memory of William A. Putnam, who made possible the Museum’s Print Room, an exhibition will be arranged to be called “The Putnam Memorial Print Exhibition” to run from October 7th through the 29th. It will consist of prints by Rembrandt, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, and other graphic material from the Brooklyn Museum collection.
The year’s accessions will be put on view from Saturday, October 14th, through Sunday, the 29th.1 This will be followed by the first large comprehensive show of the season which will be as complete a collection as possible of masks, drawing for the most part from the Museum’s own possessions. The masks are to be shown in groups according to use. The exhibition will run from Tuesday, October 24th, to Monday, January 1st.
Following will be a watercolor exhibition which will form a memorial to both George Pearse Ennis and Paul L. Gill. This will be shown from Saturday, November 4th, through Sunday, November 26th. This is the last opening scheduled for the calendar year. After the first of the year on Wednesday, January 17th, there will be an extensive showing of the work of Eastman Johnson to run through Sunday, February 25th. Work has been under way for several months to collect examples of this painter that have not been shown before.
On February 9th an exhibition of etchings by Rodolphe Bresdin will be put on view through Sunday, March 31st.
The second large exhibition of the year will be a complete costume show, drawn, as the mask exhibition will be, principally from the Museum’s own collection. This exhibition will open on Tuesday, March 12th, and continue through Sunday, May 5th.
The last exhibition to open this season according to the present schedule will be that of Brooklyn Artists, which will be on view from Friday, April 5th, to Sunday, the 28th. From time to time there will be small special exhibitions that will take form during the season.
LIST BELOW, ABOVE INFORMATION IN TABULAR FORM
Style Foundations---Corsets and Fashions of Yesterday and Today. September 9th through October 1st.
Photographs by George B. Brainard. “Long Island in the 70s.” September 22nd through October 8th.
Putnam Memorial Print Exhibition. October 7th through October 29th.
Recent Accessions. October 14th through October 29th.
Masks, October 24th through January 1st.
George Pearse Ennis and Paul L. Gill Watercolor Exhibition. November 4th through November 26th.
Eastman Johnson Exhibition. January 17th through February 25th.
Rodolphe Bresdin Exhibition. February 9th through March 31st.
Costume Show. March 12th through May 5th.
Brooklyn Artists. April 5th through April 28th.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 07-09/1939, 204-5. View Original
November 4, 1939
An exhibition will be held at the Brooklyn Museum of water-colors by George Pearse Ennis and Paul L. Gill from November 4th through the 6th, It will be in the nature of a memorial to these two artists who died in 1936 and 1938 respectively.
They were both well known in their fields and the Museum is given the exhibition as part of their policy of being especially interested in water-colors. The work shown will be somewhat retrospective as it will be from both men’s most mature periods and the work they did just before their deaths. A great many of the papers have never been exhibited before as the exhibition will be made up in great part from work that was found in the studios. It is hoped that this will give a more intimate insight into the work than the public has had before. Although the subject matter of both men was somewhat similar, their techniques were quite different. About fifty works by each artist will be shown.
Mr. Ennis was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 21, 1884 and became famous throughout the country as a landscape, marine, portrait painter, mural decorator and designer of stained glass windows.
This country gave him his entire art training, and for that reason he was often called an all American artist. He first began his art education at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. He continued his studies at the St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri; the Holmes Art School, Chicago, Illinois; the Chase School, New York City, under William M. Chase.
His subjects for marine and landscape painting were chosen on the Northeast coast of America, Newfoundland, Canada, Florida, Scotland and Austria.
In the vigor and sweep of his paintings, especially in the free or his water color technique, Mr. Ennis expressed the breath of the sea and the boisterous activity of the fisherman’s life. Color was Mr. Ennis concern and feat. He used a wet wash technique and left much white paper slowing. His handling of a subject was dramatic and his colors are vivid and varied.
He was authorized by the United States Ordinance Department in 1918 to make 31 penci1 drawings and oil paintings for the manufacture of big guns. He also made sketches for the United States Air Service. Mr. Ennis was author of “Making A Water Color”, still outstanding as one of the best books on the subject. This work was published by London Studios of 331 4th Avenue, New York City. He also contributed the article on water color painting for the New Encyclopedia Brittanica, his article being entitled “Water Color Painting”.
Ennis belonged to a myriad of art and artists organizations and is represented in twenty-two private collections three of which are English. Between 1922 and 1933 he won fourteen prizes and awards. He is represented in eighteen museums and other public collections, among which are the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum and the Chicago Art Institute.
We draw on the Art Digest of the 1st of July 1938 for the following material on the co-exhibitor:
“Paul Ludwig Gill, nationally known watercolorist and teacher, died suddenly May 30 at his summer home in Harvey Cedars, N. J., the victim of heart attack. The artist was 44. He is survived by his widow, Sue Mae Gill, a well-known portrait painter, a step-daughter, Mrs. Theodore C. Loder, Jr., and a brother, Harry Gill. Gill had just completed a mural for the Cairo, Georgia, Post Office, and was to leave with his wife on a trip to Mexico, stopping enroute to install the Cairo mural.
“A native of Auburn, N. Y., Paul Gill graduated from Syracuse University, and later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There he won two Cresson scholarships allowing extensive European travel. Since 1924 he had been an instructor at the Moore Institute of Arts and, during the summers, an instructor at Syracuse University. He was a member of a number of art organizations, both local and national, and the recipient of many awards. These include the Sesquicentennial Exposition Silver medal, the Baltimore Water Color Club and Chicago Art Institute prizes in 1926; the Philadelphia Water Color Club and the New York Water Color Club prizes in 1927.
“In tribute to Gill, one of his Philadelphia friends, wrote to The Art Digest: ‘Gill was as dramatic an interpreter of land and sea as any of the leaders in water color dominant in American art.
“Whether on the Maine Coast, or the Gaspe peninsula, or in Mexico, or in the somewhat exotic aspects of beach life in Atlantic City, he seized the picturesque essentials of the scene and presented them brilliantly in color masses vivid in their prismatic effects and impeccably insistent in outline as real drawing in watercolors. He gave each particular movement its most intense meaning. As a teacher he inspired his students to get at the very heart of any illustrative episode. An imaginative painter and a master of his method and his medium as became a true craftsman.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1939 - 1941. 09-10/1939, 227-9. View Original
