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{{Short description|American painter}} |
{{Short description|American painter (1906–1984)}} |
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| name = Dorothy Eisner |
| name = Dorothy Eisner |
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| image =1937PhotoWithTrotskyAndPortrait.jpg |
| image = 1937PhotoWithTrotskyAndPortrait.jpg |
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| alt =Dorothy Eisner and Leon Trotsky |
| alt = Dorothy Eisner and Leon Trotsky |
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| caption =1937 photo of Dorothy Eisner and Leon Trotsky with her portrait of him |
| caption = 1937 photo of Dorothy Eisner and Leon Trotsky with her portrait of him |
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| birth_name = |
| birth_name = |
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|01|17}} |
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|01|17}} |
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| birth_place = New York |
| birth_place = New York |
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|04|28|1906|01|17}} |
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1984|04|28|1906|01|17}} |
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| death_place = New York |
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| nationality = U. S. citizen |
| nationality = U. S. citizen |
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| known_for = Artist |
| known_for = Artist |
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'''Dorothy Eisner''' (1906–1984) was an American artist whose painting style evolved over many years from an early, quite personal, version of 1930s [[social realism]], through a period of [[abstract expressionism]], and culminating over the last twenty years of her life in a bright painterly style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/> Throughout her long career Eisner maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.<ref name="Gleason Fine Art"/> Born and raised in [[Manhattan]], she traveled widely and is best known for the late work she made while staying in a summer home |
'''Dorothy Eisner''' (1906–1984) was an American artist whose painting style evolved over many years from an early, quite personal, version of 1930s [[social realism]], through a period of [[abstract expressionism]], and culminating over the last twenty years of her life in a bright painterly style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/> Throughout her long career Eisner maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.<ref name="Gleason Fine Art"/> Born and raised in [[Manhattan]], she traveled widely and is best known for the late work she made while staying in a summer home off the coast of Maine on [[Great Cranberry Island]]. |
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==Early life and training== |
==Early life and training== |
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==Career in art== |
==Career in art== |
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When she was not traveling, Eisner lived in [[Greenwich Village]] and rented a studio on Cornelia Street.<ref name="Harvard Review 2006"/><ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> In 1930 she contributed a still life in a group show at the Opportunity Gallery that also included works by [[Edith Hamlin]].<ref name="New York Times Jan 1930"/>{{refn|group=note|A group of collectors along with the artist Gifford Beal set up the nonprofit Opportunity Gallery in the fall of 1927.<ref name="Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life"/> Each exhibition was selected by a well-known artist with the overall goal of showing new talent in a wide range of artistic styles.<ref name="Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov 1927"/> [[Mark Rothko]], [[Milton Avery]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], and [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] all showed at the gallery during its early years.<ref name="The Opportunity Gallery"/> }} Throughout the rest of the decade her paintings appeared frequently in shows held by nonprofit organizations, including Salons of America (1931, 1932, 1933), the [[Society of Independent Artists]] (1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937), the [[College Art Association]] (traveling exhibitions in 1932 and 1933), the [[National Association of Women Artists|National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors]] (annually, 1933 to 1939), the [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]] (1934), and the [[New York Society of Women Artists]] (1935, 1936, 1938).<ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner"/><ref name="New York Times May 1933"/><ref name="New York Times Oct 1933"/><ref name="New York Times Dec 1933"/>{{refn|group=note|In 1922 [[Hamilton Easter Field]] founded Salons of America to give artists an alternative to the Society of Independent Artists whose financial and publicity methods he found objectionable. A reporter said he aimed "to give equal opportunity to every member, whether he or she be a conservative or a post-Dadaist."<ref name="New York Times Jul 1922"/>}} In these large shows Eisner's paintings were regularly singled out for praise by New York critics. Thus, for example, in 1936 the ''New York Post'' critic noted her "thorough and vigorous" canvases.<ref name="New York Post Jan 1936"/> In 1937 Edward Alden Jewell of the ''Times'' called attention to her free brushwork.<ref name="New York Times Jan 1937"/> In 1938, a ''Post'' critic called one of her paintings "the outstanding canvas of the show."<ref name="New York Post Feb 1938"/> |
When she was not traveling, Eisner lived in [[Greenwich Village]] and rented a studio on Cornelia Street.<ref name="Harvard Review 2006"/><ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> In 1930 she contributed a still life in a group show at the Opportunity Gallery that also included works by [[Edith Hamlin]].<ref name="New York Times Jan 1930"/>{{refn|group=note|A group of collectors along with the artist Gifford Beal set up the nonprofit Opportunity Gallery in the fall of 1927.<ref name="Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life"/> Each exhibition was selected by a well-known artist with the overall goal of showing new talent in a wide range of artistic styles.<ref name="Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov 1927"/> [[Mark Rothko]], [[Milton Avery]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], and [[Georgia O'Keeffe]] all showed at the gallery during its early years.<ref name="The Opportunity Gallery"/> }} Throughout the rest of the decade her paintings appeared frequently in shows held by nonprofit organizations, including Salons of America (1931, 1932, 1933), the [[Society of Independent Artists]] (1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937), the [[College Art Association]] (traveling exhibitions in 1932 and 1933), the [[National Association of Women Artists|National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors]] (annually, 1933 to 1939), the [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]] (1934), and the [[New York Society of Women Artists]] (1935, 1936, 1938).<ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner"/><ref name="New York Times May 1933"/><ref name="New York Times Oct 1933"/><ref name="New York Times Dec 1933"/>{{refn|group=note|In 1922 [[Hamilton Easter Field]] founded Salons of America to give artists an alternative to the Society of Independent Artists whose financial and publicity methods he found objectionable. A reporter said he aimed "to give equal opportunity to every member, whether he or she be a conservative or a post-Dadaist."<ref name="New York Times Jul 1922"/>}} In these large shows Eisner's paintings were regularly singled out for praise by New York critics. Thus, for example, in 1936 the ''New York Post'' critic noted her "thorough and vigorous" canvases.<ref name="New York Post Jan 1936"/> In 1937 [[Edward Alden Jewell]] of the ''Times'' called attention to her free brushwork.<ref name="New York Times Jan 1937"/> In 1938, a ''Post'' critic called one of her paintings "the outstanding canvas of the show."<ref name="New York Post Feb 1938"/> |
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In 1932 the Morton Gallery mounted her first solo exhibition. In it, she showed paintings depicting life in the mountains of the [[Carolinas]].<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934"/> Critics responded favorably to the show. A review in the ''New York Post'' said she had technical facility and showed her subjects freshly and spontaneously.<ref name="New York Post Nov 1932"/> Writing in the ''New York Sun'', a critic wrote that the paintings were social documents that revealed life in the southern mountains in a way that was "vastly entertaining."<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/> A critic for the ''New York Times'' noticed that Eisner showed more interest in the people she encountered than in the scenic environment in which they passed their lives and concluded that "she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer."<ref name="New York Times Nov 1932"/> Her depiction of a fiddler drew attention in both the ''Sun'' and the ''Times''. Late in life, a contemporary of Eisner's, [[Joseph Solman]], said of the [[Social realism|social realist]] style of the time: "We were all seeking the flat, and the exaggerated, and the expressionist in our own romantic, different ways."<ref name="Adoph Gottlieb 1995"/> |
In 1932 the Morton Gallery mounted her first solo exhibition. In it, she showed paintings depicting life in the mountains of the [[Carolinas]].<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934"/> Critics responded favorably to the show. A review in the ''New York Post'' said she had technical facility and showed her subjects freshly and spontaneously.<ref name="New York Post Nov 1932"/> Writing in the ''New York Sun'', a critic wrote that the paintings were social documents that revealed life in the southern mountains in a way that was "vastly entertaining."<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/> A critic for the ''New York Times'' noticed that Eisner showed more interest in the people she encountered than in the scenic environment in which they passed their lives and concluded that "she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer."<ref name="New York Times Nov 1932"/> Her depiction of a fiddler drew attention in both the ''Sun'' and the ''Times''. Late in life, a contemporary of Eisner's, [[Joseph Solman]], said of the [[Social realism|social realist]] style of the time: "We were all seeking the flat, and the exaggerated, and the expressionist in our own romantic, different ways."<ref name="Adoph Gottlieb 1995"/> |
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[[File:1937DeweyCommission.jpg|left|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Dewey Commission, 1937, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches]] |
[[File:1937DeweyCommission.jpg|left|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Dewey Commission, 1937, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches]] |
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In the late 1930s Eisner exhibited as a member of a [[popular front]] organization called the [[American Artists' Congress]].<ref name="New York Times Apr 1937"/> After the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]] in 1940 she and a small group of like-minded artists quit the Congress to found an avowedly non-political organization called the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/><ref name="Federation of modern painters and sculptors 2018"/>{{refn|group=note|A group of New York artists formed the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors in the spring of 1940. All had resigned from the American Artists' Congress to protest its "Stalinist line" after the congress had endorsed the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]].<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/> The federation aimed to be non-political. Its principal goal was to promote artistic independence and its members adhered to no specific style or school of painting. By means of exhibitions, publications, and lectures it set itself to promote the "general interest of contemporary art." In addition to Eisner and her sister Anne, founding members included [[Isabel Bishop]], [[Ilya Bolotowsky]], [[Anne Goldthwaite]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], [[Balcomb Greene]], and [[Mark Rothko]].<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/><ref name="New York Times May 1942"/> }} In 1937 Eisner and her husband traveled to Mexico to help the [[Dewey Commission]] investigate charges leveled against [[Leon Trotsky]] by the Soviet government in the [[Moscow Trials]] of |
In the late 1930s Eisner exhibited as a member of a [[popular front]] organization called the [[American Artists' Congress]].<ref name="New York Times Apr 1937"/> After the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]] in 1940 she and a small group of like-minded artists quit the Congress to found an avowedly non-political organization called the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/><ref name="Federation of modern painters and sculptors 2018"/>{{refn|group=note|A group of New York artists formed the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors in the spring of 1940. All had resigned from the American Artists' Congress to protest its "Stalinist line" after the congress had endorsed the [[Winter War|Soviet invasion of Finland]].<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/> The federation aimed to be non-political. Its principal goal was to promote artistic independence and its members adhered to no specific style or school of painting. By means of exhibitions, publications, and lectures it set itself to promote the "general interest of contemporary art." In addition to Eisner and her sister Anne, founding members included [[Isabel Bishop]], [[Ilya Bolotowsky]], [[Anne Goldthwaite]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]], [[Balcomb Greene]], and [[Mark Rothko]].<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940"/><ref name="New York Times May 1942"/> }} In 1937 Eisner and her husband traveled to Mexico to help the [[Dewey Commission]] investigate charges leveled against [[Leon Trotsky]] by the Soviet government in the [[Moscow Trials]] of 1936–1937. Eisner made a painting of commission members interviewing Trotsky in a house on the outskirts of Mexico City owned by Rivera and [[Frida Kahlo]]. The painting (shown at left) contains a view of [[Diego Rivera]] who is making a sketch of the scene.<ref name="Trotsky Commission Painting"/> She also made two portraits of Trotsky. The two of them joked about a time when she scraped off pigment in painting his face. He made an affectionate, albeit macabre joke that she was beheading him.<ref name="Harvard Review 2006"/> This painting is shown in the photo of Trotsky and Eisner at top right. |
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After World War II Eisner traveled widely with her husband. His work as a journalist for [[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]] magazine and his passion for fishing helped to determine the locations they visited. In 1947 they spent time on [[Cape Breton Island]] and, beginning in 1949 they started to make periodic visits to [[Livingston, Montana]].<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Returning from Montana in the early 1950s, Eisner began a short period of study with [[Jack Tworkov]] in New York.<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/>{{refn|group=note|Tworkov taught art throughout much of his career. In the early 1930s he taught briefly at the [[Ethical Culture Fieldston School|Ethical Culture High School]] in Manhattan. Between 1948 and 1958 he was a part-time instructor at [[Queens College, City University of New York|Queens College]] and [[Pratt Institute]]. He was also at one time an instructor at [[Black Mountain College]] and in the 1960s taught at the [[Yale School of Art]], becoming chair of the art department in 1963.<ref name="Tworkov Papers AAA"/> }} In 1960 she and her husband began spending summer months on [[Great Cranberry Island]].<ref name="Art of Acadia 2016"/> |
After World War II Eisner traveled widely with her husband. His work as a journalist for [[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]] magazine and his passion for fishing helped to determine the locations they visited. In 1947 they spent time on [[Cape Breton Island]] and, beginning in 1949 they started to make periodic visits to [[Livingston, Montana]].<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Returning from Montana in the early 1950s, Eisner began a short period of study with [[Jack Tworkov]] in New York.<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/>{{refn|group=note|Tworkov taught art throughout much of his career. In the early 1930s he taught briefly at the [[Ethical Culture Fieldston School|Ethical Culture High School]] in Manhattan. Between 1948 and 1958 he was a part-time instructor at [[Queens College, City University of New York|Queens College]] and [[Pratt Institute]]. He was also at one time an instructor at [[Black Mountain College]] and in the 1960s taught at the [[Yale School of Art]], becoming chair of the art department in 1963.<ref name="Tworkov Papers AAA"/> }} In 1960 she and her husband began spending summer months on [[Great Cranberry Island]].<ref name="Art of Acadia 2016"/> |
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During these years and continuing into the 1970s she continued exhibiting with the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/><ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner"/> During this period she also continued to be given solo exhibitions in New York commercial galleries. In 1961 she was given a solo exhibition at the James Gallery and in 1966 and in 1969 at the Cisneros Gallery.<ref name="New York Times Feb 1961"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 1966"/><ref name="New York Times Apr 1969"/> |
During these years and continuing into the 1970s she continued exhibiting with the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/><ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner"/> During this period she also continued to be given solo exhibitions in New York commercial galleries. In 1961 she was given a solo exhibition at the James Gallery and in 1966 and in 1969 at the Cisneros Gallery.<ref name="New York Times Feb 1961"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 1966"/><ref name="New York Times Apr 1969"/> This exhibition was photographed by her good friend, Walker Evans,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner|publisher=ACC Publishing Groupe|year=2008|isbn=978-1851495856|editor-last=McDonald|editor-first=Christie|location=Suffolk|pages=30}}</ref> and can be found in the Dorothy Eisner papers collection at Beinecke Library, Yale University.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers" /> Painting almost every day, towards the end of her life she also held solo exhibitions in New York City at the Ashby Gallery on Cornelia Street in 1980 and 1983.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner|publisher=ACC Publishing Group|year=2008|isbn=978-1851495856|editor-last=McDonald|editor-first=Christie|location=Suffolk|pages=31}}</ref> |
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After her death in 1984 she was given a succession of retrospective exhibitions. These included the [[Farnsworth Art Museum]] (1992, "Dorothy Eisner: Paintings and Collages"), Acme Fine Art (Boston, 2005, "Late Expressionist Paintings," and 2009, "Dorothy Eisner on Cranberry Island"), [[Ogunquit Museum of American Art|Ogunquit Museum]] (2008, Cranberry Island paintings), and Gleason Fine Art (Boothbay Harbor Maine, 2017).<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="ACME Fine Art Mar 2005"/><ref name="Boothbay Register May 2017"/> In 2009 her work also appeared in an exhibition called "The Art of the Cranberry Isles" in the [[Portland Museum of Art]].<ref name="Bangor Daily News Mar 2009"/> |
After her death in 1984 she was given a succession of retrospective exhibitions. These included the [[Farnsworth Art Museum]] (1992, "Dorothy Eisner: Paintings and Collages"), Acme Fine Art (Boston, 2005, "Late Expressionist Paintings," and 2009, "Dorothy Eisner on Cranberry Island"), [[Ogunquit Museum of American Art|Ogunquit Museum]] (2008, Cranberry Island paintings), and Gleason Fine Art (Boothbay Harbor Maine, 2017).<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="ACME Fine Art Mar 2005"/><ref name="Boothbay Register May 2017"/> In 2009 her work also appeared in an exhibition called "The Art of the Cranberry Isles" in the [[Portland Museum of Art]].<ref name="Bangor Daily News Mar 2009"/> |
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===Positions in art organizations=== |
===Positions in art organizations=== |
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Eisner immersed herself in the art world while still young. In 1930, aged twenty-four, she joined the board of the Society of Independent Artists. Not long afterward she became a member of the American Artists' Congress, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and the New York Society of Women Artists. |
Eisner immersed herself in the art world while still young. In 1930, aged twenty-four, she joined the board of the Society of Independent Artists. Not long afterward she became a member of the American Artists' Congress, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and the New York Society of Women Artists. She also helped found the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors when, in 1940, it split from the American Artists' Congress because of the latter's endorsement of the Russian invasion of Finland and implicit defense of Hitler's position.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner|publisher=ACC Publishing Group|year=2008|isbn=978-1851495856|editor-last=McDonald|editor-first=Christie|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk|pages=20|chapter=}}</ref><ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> It seems likely that her marriage, the war, and the birth of a daughter (1942) dampened the impulse to participate in other organizations. |
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===Artistic style=== |
===Artistic style=== |
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[[File:1958YellowstoneRiver.jpg|right|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Yellowstone River, about 1958, oil on canvas, 44 x 36 inches]] |
[[File:1958YellowstoneRiver.jpg|right|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Yellowstone River, about 1958, oil on canvas, 44 x 36 inches]] |
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In reviewing shows of the paintings she made in the 1930s, critics noticed that when choosing subjects Eisner favored people over scenery.<ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> Two of them saw these paintings as lively and entertaining social documents having an authentic quality.<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> Others pointed out a muted palette and a tendency to drabness along with strong composition, ability to develop a subject freshly and spontaneously, and overall vigor and thoroughness.<ref name="New York Times Dec 1933"/><ref name="New York Post Jan 1936"/><ref name="New York Post Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 1932"/> For example, a critic for the ''New York Sun'' said Eisner painted her subjects "roughly, but with a curious instinct for balance that makes the panels, as a whole, attractive."<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934"/> Writing in the ''New York Times'' Howard Devree noted Eisner's skill in delineating subjects convincingly and praised her growing strength and sureness.<ref name="New York Times Apr 1934"/> The painting, "Fiddlers' Convention" was mentioned as typical of her better 1930s work.<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> In 1934 it was reproduced in an article in the ''Philadelphia Record'' reviewing the Pennsylvania Academy's 129th annual exhibition.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> |
In reviewing shows of the paintings she made in the 1930s, critics noticed that when choosing subjects Eisner favored people over scenery.<ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> Two of them saw these paintings as lively and entertaining social documents having an authentic quality.<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> Others pointed out a muted palette and a tendency to drabness along with strong composition, ability to develop a subject freshly and spontaneously, and overall vigor and thoroughness.<ref name="New York Times Dec 1933"/><ref name="New York Post Jan 1936"/><ref name="New York Post Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 1932"/> For example, a critic for the ''New York Sun'' said Eisner painted her subjects "roughly, but with a curious instinct for balance that makes the panels, as a whole, attractive."<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934"/> Writing in the ''New York Times'' Howard Devree noted Eisner's skill in delineating subjects convincingly and praised her growing strength and sureness.<ref name="New York Times Apr 1934"/> The painting, "Fiddlers' Convention" (shown at left) was mentioned as typical of her better 1930s work.<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932"/><ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932"/> In 1934 it was reproduced in an article in the ''Philadelphia Record'' reviewing the Pennsylvania Academy's 129th annual exhibition.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> |
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Eisner's style changed little during the 1930s and war years. During the post-war period, while most of her work remained realist, she began to study under [[Jack Tworkov]]. Although much [[abstract expressionism|abstract expressionist]] painting was then anti-figurative, Tworkov, like his friend [[Willem de Kooning]], believed that even so-called pure abstraction made, as he said, "analogy to the figure." His obituary in the ''New York Times'' quoted him as saying "Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings."<ref name="New York Times Sep 1982"/> Eisner responded sympathetically to this approach. Later she was quoted as saying, "Abstract Expressionism made me think differently. I learned from it a language of shapes and color that I was not conscious of when I was young."<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/> During this period she produced much work |
Eisner's style changed little during the 1930s and war years. During the post-war period, while most of her work remained realist, she began to study under [[Jack Tworkov]]. Although much [[abstract expressionism|abstract expressionist]] painting was then anti-figurative, Tworkov, like his friend [[Willem de Kooning]], believed that even so-called pure abstraction made, as he said, "analogy to the figure." His obituary in the ''New York Times'' quoted him as saying "Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings."<ref name="New York Times Sep 1982"/> Eisner responded sympathetically to this approach. Later she was quoted as saying, "Abstract Expressionism made me think differently. I learned from it a language of shapes and color that I was not conscious of when I was young."<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/> During this period she produced much work in regular visits to the American [[mountain states]], particularly Livingston, Montana, and nearby [[Yellowstone National Park]]. Her painting "Yellowstone River" (seen at right) shows the influence of Tworkov's instruction. While it might be taken as a pure abstraction, the title shows it to be an abstract representation of a real place. |
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[[File:1965PortraitInLight.jpg|left|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Portrait in Light, 1965, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches]] |
[[File:1965PortraitInLight.jpg|left|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Portrait in Light, 1965, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches]] |
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[[File:1981InteriorStillLife.jpg|right|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Interior Still Life, 1981, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches]] |
[[File:1981InteriorStillLife.jpg|right|thumb|Dorothy Eisner, Interior Still Life, 1981, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches]] |
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In 1960, when Eisner and her husband began spending summers on Great Cranberry Island, her work showed a new [[figurative art|figurative]] style. She often showed people relaxing and engaging in vacation-time pursuits: playing cards or croquet. Just as often her subjects would be inanimate: desks, chairs, windows, a towel rack. Writing in 2008 concerning a retrospective exhibition that showed these paintings a critic said, "her subject matter is so seemingly mundane that the viewer is startled by her choice."<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/> Although abstract, her style was firmly grounded in specific places at specific times, and its realist subjects were clearly evident. She made expressionistic use of bold colors, as she had in her 1950s abstractions, but in a style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/> A critic said the paintings she made on Cranberry Island were orderly, distinct, and painted with great spirit.<ref name="Portland Press Herald Oct 2008"/> |
In 1960, when Eisner and her husband began spending summers on Great Cranberry Island, her work showed a new [[figurative art|figurative]] style. She often showed people relaxing and engaging in vacation-time pursuits: playing cards or croquet. Just as often her subjects would be inanimate: desks, chairs, windows, a towel rack. Writing in 2008 concerning a retrospective exhibition that showed these paintings, a critic said, "her subject matter is so seemingly mundane that the viewer is startled by her choice."<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/> Although abstract, her style was firmly grounded in specific places at specific times, and its realist subjects were clearly evident. She made expressionistic use of bold colors, as she had in her 1950s abstractions, but in a style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008"/><ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/> A critic said the paintings she made on Cranberry Island were orderly, distinct, and painted with great spirit.<ref name="Portland Press Herald Oct 2008"/> |
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An early painting from this period, "Portrait in Light" (shown at left), has a greater degree of abstraction than a painting, "Interior Still Life" (shown at right) made only three years before her death. The latter work seems to show an influence of Matisse that critics saw in her work from the time she spent studying at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the late 1920s.<ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/><ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/> From its inception in the 1930s through to its culmination in the late paintings, Eisner's output maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.<ref name="Gleason Fine Art"/> |
An early painting from this period, "Portrait in Light" (shown at left), has a greater degree of abstraction than a painting, "Interior Still Life" (shown at right) made only three years before her death. The latter work seems to show an influence of Matisse that critics saw in her work from the time she spent studying at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the late 1920s.<ref name="New England Today Jan 2009"/><ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016"/> From its inception in the 1930s through to its culmination in the late paintings, Eisner's output maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.<ref name="Gleason Fine Art"/> |
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==Personal life and family== |
==Personal life and family== |
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Eisner was born in New York on January 17, 1906.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Her father was William J. Eisner. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1880 and died in New York in 1975.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Orphaned while still young, he left school at 13 and later became one of the first makers of wax paper in the United States. Having moved to New York he was for many years president of a business called the Newark Paraffin and Parchment Paper Co.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> Eisner's mother was Florine Eisner (1883-1974). |
Eisner was born in New York on January 17, 1906.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Her father was William J. Eisner. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1880 and died in New York in 1975.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Orphaned while still young, he left school at 13 and later became one of the first makers of wax paper in the United States. Having moved to New York he was for many years president of a business called the Newark Paraffin and Parchment Paper Co.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> Eisner's mother was Florine Eisner (1883-1974). Florine's father's name was Moritz Eisner. Born in Austria, he studied to be a chemist and after emigrating to the United States founded a business called Eisner-Mendelson Company that sold a malt extract and other health products.<ref name="New York Times Jun 1938"/> After her marriage in 1905, Florine Eisner's maiden and married surnames were the same. |
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Eisner had a sister, [[Anne Eisner Putnam]] (1911-1967), who followed in her sister's footsteps. She studied at the Art Students League and served on its board of directors. She showed professionally during the 1940s with the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and the National Association of Women Artists. After her marriage to Patrick Putnam she lived in the [[Ituri Rainforest]] within the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Belgian Congo]] in a campsite adjacent to pygmies of the [[Mbuti people]]. Patrick Putnam, who had an unpaid position as agent sanitaire, ran an informal dispensary and anthropological laboratory. For eight years Anne Eisner Putnam operated a small collection of guest houses from which she rented out rooms to visitors so as to support her husband's work.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Jun 1956"/> Following Patrick's death in 1953 she returned to New York where she published a book, ''Madami: My Eight Years of Adventure with the Congo Pygmies'', describing her experiences and celebrating the Mbuti culture which she deeply respected.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Dec 1954"/> |
Eisner had a sister, [[Anne Eisner Putnam]] (1911-1967), who followed in her sister's footsteps. She studied at the Art Students League and served on its board of directors. She showed professionally during the 1940s with the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and the National Association of Women Artists. After her marriage to Patrick Putnam she lived in the [[Ituri Rainforest]] within the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Belgian Congo]] in a campsite adjacent to pygmies of the [[Mbuti people]]. Patrick Putnam, who had an unpaid position as ''agent sanitaire'', ran an informal dispensary and anthropological laboratory. For eight years Anne Eisner Putnam operated a small collection of guest houses from which she rented out rooms to visitors so as to support her husband's work.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Jun 1956"/> Following Patrick's death in 1953 she returned to New York where she published a book, ''Madami: My Eight Years of Adventure with the Congo Pygmies'', describing her experiences and celebrating the Mbuti culture which she deeply respected.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Dec 1954"/> |
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In the 1930s Florine Eisner (1883-1974) followed the example set by both daughters by studying at the Art Students League. Using Florine Rensie as her name, she joined the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and became a professional artist (Rensie is Eisner spelled backward).<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> After he retired from business in the early 1950s, William J. Eisner joined the rest of the family in studying art and becoming a professional artist.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> |
In the 1930s Florine Eisner (1883-1974) followed the example set by both daughters by studying at the Art Students League. Using Florine Rensie as her name, she joined the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and became a professional artist (Rensie is Eisner spelled backward).<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> After he retired from business in the early 1950s, William J. Eisner joined the rest of the family in studying art and becoming a professional artist.<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> |
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William and Florine raised their family in Manhattan. During the warm months of the year they frequently traveled to their country home in Woodstock, New York and, after the children had grown they followed the example they had set and both became serious artists. William exhibited under his own name in galleries in nearby Kingston, New York, while Florine adopted Florine Rensie as her professional name to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on her daughters' artistic successes .<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> |
William and Florine raised their family in Manhattan. During the warm months of the year they frequently traveled to their country home in Woodstock, New York, and, after the children had grown they followed the example they had set and both became serious artists. William exhibited under his own name in galleries in nearby Kingston, New York, while Florine adopted Florine Rensie as her professional name to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on her daughters' artistic successes .<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961"/> |
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Early in the 1930s Eisner worked in New York for the [[Resettlement Administration]]. In 1935 she met her future husband, [[John McDonald (journalist)|John Dennis McDonald]] (1906-1998), who was then working for the [[Federal Writers' Project]] and in 1936 they married.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a |
Early in the 1930s Eisner worked in New York for the [[Resettlement Administration]]. In 1935 she met her future husband, [[John McDonald (journalist)|John Dennis McDonald]] (1906-1998), who was then working for the [[Federal Writers' Project]] and in 1936 they married.<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers"/> Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in literature and subsequently immersed himself in the socialist politics of the 1930s, particularly the [[anti-Stalinist left]]. In 1937 he joined the [[Dewey Commission]] as a technical assistant. He and Eisner traveled to Mexico with the commission staff. Chaired by the philosopher [[John Dewey]], the commission aimed to provide [[Leon Trotsky]] with a fair hearing of the charges made against him in the [[Moscow trials|Soviet show trials]] of 1936. While they opposed Stalinism, he and Eisner, like most members of the commission, were not themselves [[Trotskyism|Trotskyists]].<ref name="Harvard Review 2006"/> During the latter part of the 1930s, McDonald worked for the [[Federal Writers' Project]] in Washington, D.C. During World War II he worked in New York for a nonprofit motion picture production company called the American Film Center.{{refn|group=note|Founded by Donald Slesinger, a psychologist and law school dean, and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Film Center supported producers of educational and documentary films and produced films for the [[Office of Civilian Defense]]. Slesinger's inept management brought the center to bankruptcy in 1946.<ref name="Learning With Lights Off 2012"/> }} In 1945 he began work as a staff writer at [[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]] magazine. In 1949 he joined its editorial board and remained in that position until he retired in 1971. His writings showed the wide breadth of his interest, including economic theory and game theory as well as fishing and horse racing.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/> The author of scholarly texts as well as journal articles, he was best known for a book that listed him as editor although he was in fact its author: ''My Years with General Motors, by Alfred P. Sloan Jr.'' (1964).<ref name="Boston Globe Nov 2002"/> |
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McDonald had a daughter, Joan (born 1929), by a prior, relatively brief, marriage with Lorraine Oven.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/> Eisner and McDonald had one child, a daughter, Christie Anne (born 1942), who |
McDonald had a daughter, Joan (born 1929), by a prior, relatively brief, marriage with Lorraine Oven.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/> Eisner and McDonald had one child, a daughter, [[Christie McDonald|Christie Anne]] (born 1942), who is the Smith Professor of French Language and Literature and Chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/><ref name="Christie McDonald Harvard"/> |
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Eisner died in New York on April 28, 1984.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/> |
Eisner died in New York on April 28, 1984.<ref name="John McDonald SNAC"/> |
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<ref name="Harvard Review 2006">{{cite journal |author=Christie McDonald |date=2006 |
<ref name="Harvard Review 2006">{{cite journal |author=Christie McDonald |date=2006 |issue=30 |pages=142–149 | title=Brushes with History |jstor=27569177 |journal=Harvard Review }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Art of Acadia 2016">{{cite book |author1=David Little |author2=Carl Little |title=Art of Acadia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIg1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 |date=1 August 2016 |publisher=Down East Books |isbn=978-1-60893-475-1 |page=181}}</ref> |
<ref name="Art of Acadia 2016">{{cite book |author1=David Little |author2=Carl Little |title=Art of Acadia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GIg1DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 |date=1 August 2016 |publisher=Down East Books |isbn=978-1-60893-475-1 |page=181}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Adoph Gottlieb 1995">{{cite book |author1=Lawrence Alloway |author2=Mary D. MacNaughton |title=Adolph Gottlieb: A Retrospective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_XppsXbW5AC&pg=PA16 |year=1995 |publisher=Hudson Hills |isbn=978-1-55595-125-2 |page=16}}</ref> |
<ref name="Adoph Gottlieb 1995">{{cite book |author1=Lawrence Alloway |author2=Mary D. MacNaughton |title=Adolph Gottlieb: A Retrospective |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y_XppsXbW5AC&pg=PA16 |year=1995 |publisher=Hudson Hills |isbn=978-1-55595-125-2 |page=16}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Trotsky Commission Painting">{{cite web |url=https://deweycenter.siu.edu/about-dewey/dorothy-painting.php |title=Dorothy Eisner Trotsky Commission Painting |
<ref name="Trotsky Commission Painting">{{cite web |url=https://deweycenter.siu.edu/about-dewey/dorothy-painting.php |title=Dorothy Eisner Trotsky Commission Painting |work=Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University |access-date=2020-04-15}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers">{{cite web |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/835 |title=Collection: Dorothy Eisner papers [finding aid] |
<ref name="Dorothy Eisner papers">{{cite web |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/835 |title=Collection: Dorothy Eisner papers [finding aid] |work=Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Archives at Yale |access-date=2020-04-13}}</ref> |
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<ref name="John McDonald SNAC">{{cite web |url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w61262qb |title=McDonald, John, 1906-1998 |
<ref name="John McDonald SNAC">{{cite web |url=https://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w61262qb |title=McDonald, John, 1906-1998 |work=Social Networks and Archival Context |access-date=2020-04-14}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Christie McDonald Harvard">{{cite web |url=https://rll-faculty.fas.harvard.edu/christiemcdonald/home |title=Christie McDonald |
<ref name="Christie McDonald Harvard">{{cite web |url=https://rll-faculty.fas.harvard.edu/christiemcdonald/home |title=Christie McDonald |work=Faculty, Harvard College, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures |access-date=2020-04-15 |archive-date=2022-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415052534/https://rll-faculty.fas.harvard.edu/christiemcdonald/home |url-status=dead }}</ref> |
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<ref name="ACME Fine Art Mar 2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.acmefineart.com/modern/show-eisner-press/ |title=Dorothy Eisner, Late Expressionist Paintings |date=2005-03-18 |
<ref name="ACME Fine Art Mar 2005">{{cite web |url=http://www.acmefineart.com/modern/show-eisner-press/ |title=Dorothy Eisner, Late Expressionist Paintings |date=2005-03-18 |work=ACME Fine Art |access-date=2020-04-16 |archive-date=2022-07-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220731210416/http://www.acmefineart.com/modern/show-eisner-press/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008">{{cite web |url=https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20080925/ENTERTAIN/809250343 |title=Ogunquit Museum of American Art hangs Late Summer Exhibition |
<ref name="Ogunquit Museum 2008">{{cite web |url=https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20080925/ENTERTAIN/809250343 |title=Ogunquit Museum of American Art hangs Late Summer Exhibition |work=seacoastonline |date=2008-09-25 |access-date=2020-04-16 |quote=Eisner’s paintings are inspired by her travels and reflect her reaction to the locales, people and activities that surrounded her. In many cases, her subject matter is so seemingly mundane that the viewer is startled by her choice. Desks, chairs, windows, a towel rack, fish and fishing gear, people playing cards or croquet, children with a garden hose — all become aesthetically worthy subjects as seen through her eyes. With her masterful compositional skills, her fluid application of paint, and her expressionistic use of bold colors, Eisner creates compelling art from these everyday scenes and items. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New England Today Jan 2009">{{cite web |url=https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-environment/eisner/ |title=Dorothy Eisner, Modern Art, Modern Painting |
<ref name="New England Today Jan 2009">{{cite web |url=https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-environment/eisner/ |title=Dorothy Eisner, Modern Art, Modern Painting |work=New England Today; Living |author=Edgar Allen Beem |date=2009-01-23 |access-date=2020-04-15 |quote=What you see in Painting My World is Eisner’s evolution from a social realist who studied under Boardman Robinson, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in the 1920s through the Abstract Expressionist influence of Jack Tworkov, with whom she studied after World War II, to her blossoming as a painterly realist in the 1970s and 1980s. It was quite a journey and one well worth retaking. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016">{{cite web |url=http://www.acmefineart.com/modern/show-eisner-harrison-orlowsky-press/ |title=EIsner / Harrison / Orlowsky |
<ref name="ACME Fine Art 2016">{{cite web |url=http://www.acmefineart.com/modern/show-eisner-harrison-orlowsky-press/ |title=EIsner / Harrison / Orlowsky |work=ACME Fine Art |date=2016-01-20 |access-date=2020-04-16}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Gleason Fine Art">{{cite web |url=http://www.gleasonfineart.com/gallery/category/dorothy-eisner-1906-1984 |title=Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984) |
<ref name="Gleason Fine Art">{{cite web |url=http://www.gleasonfineart.com/gallery/category/dorothy-eisner-1906-1984 |title=Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984) |work=Gleason Fine Art |access-date=2020-04-17}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Federation of modern painters and sculptors 2018">{{cite web |url=https://artterms.artopium.com/f/Federationofmodernpaintersandsculptors.htm |title=Federation of modern painters and sculptors |
<ref name="Federation of modern painters and sculptors 2018">{{cite web |url=https://artterms.artopium.com/f/Federationofmodernpaintersandsculptors.htm |title=Federation of modern painters and sculptors |work=Artopium's Art Dictionary |access-date=2020-04-18}}</ref> |
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<ref name="The Opportunity Gallery">{{cite web |url=https://warholstars.org/abstract-expressionism/artists/rothko/mark_rothko.html |title=The Opportunity Gallery |
<ref name="The Opportunity Gallery">{{cite web |url=https://warholstars.org/abstract-expressionism/artists/rothko/mark_rothko.html |title=The Opportunity Gallery |work=WarholStars |access-date=2020-04-19}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Delphic Studio">{{cite web |url=https://libraryguides.lib.iup.edu/c.php?g=419334&p=2864182 |title=Artists Biographies A-C - WPA Meets IUP : A Glimpse Into America's Artistic Past |
<ref name="Delphic Studio">{{cite web |url=https://libraryguides.lib.iup.edu/c.php?g=419334&p=2864182 |title=Artists Biographies A-C - WPA Meets IUP : A Glimpse Into America's Artistic Past |work=LibGuides at Indiana University of PA |access-date=2020-04-19}}</ref> |
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<ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner">{{cite web |url=https://www.askart.com/artist/Dorothy_McDonald_Eisner/101224/Dorothy_McDonald_Eisner.aspx?sthp=dorothy%20eisner |title=Dorothy Eisner |
<ref name="AskArt Dorothy Eisner">{{cite web |url=https://www.askart.com/artist/Dorothy_McDonald_Eisner/101224/Dorothy_McDonald_Eisner.aspx?sthp=dorothy%20eisner |title=Dorothy Eisner |work=AskArt |access-date=2020-04-20}}</ref> |
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<ref name="Tworkov Papers AAA">{{cite web |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jack-tworkov-papers-13402/biographical-note |title=Biographical Note | A Finding Aid to the Jack Tworkov papers, circa 1926-1993 | Digitized Collection | |
<ref name="Tworkov Papers AAA">{{cite web |url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/jack-tworkov-papers-13402/biographical-note |title=Biographical Note | A Finding Aid to the Jack Tworkov papers, circa 1926-1993 | Digitized Collection | |work=Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution |access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Jul 1922">{{cite news |title=Salons of America a New Art Society |
<ref name="New York Times Jul 1922">{{cite news |title=Salons of America a New Art Society |work=The New York Times |date=1922-07-03 |page=12 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov 1927">{{cite news |title=Opportunity Gallery Has Second Exhibition |
<ref name="Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov 1927">{{cite news |title=Opportunity Gallery Has Second Exhibition |work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle |location=Brooklyn, New York |date=1927-11-20 |page=GE |quote=The Opportunity Gallery at the Art Center, whose raison d'être is to give the talented unknown an opportunity for free display, is holding its second exhibition of the season... The policy on which the gallery operates is that each exhibition must be the selection of a one-man jury. In order to give all types of artistic expression an equal chance, there are modern and conservative jurors as well as ones who pursue the golden mean. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Jan 1930">{{cite news |title=A Round of Galleries |author=Ruth Green Harris |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1930-01-26|page=117 |
<ref name="New York Times Jan 1930">{{cite news |title=A Round of Galleries |author=Ruth Green Harris |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1930-01-26|page=117 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=The Week In New York: A Roster of New Exhibitions |
<ref name="New York Times Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=The Week In New York: A Roster of New Exhibitions |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1932-11-20 |page=X9 |quote=In her first one-many show, Dorothy Eisner is exhibiting paintings largely of Southern mountain life. Her color lacks warmth and sometimes inclines to drabness, but she has caught in her paintings something of the life and bearing of the mountaineer. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Post Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=Marin Paintings and Water Colors |
<ref name="New York Post Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=Marin Paintings and Water Colors |work=New York Post |location=New York, New York |date=1932-11-09 |page=3 |quote=At the Morton Galleries Dorothy Eisner is holding an exhibition of paintings. She is a young artist who has apparently a considerable command of technical facility and the ability to develop a subject freshly and spontaneously, as her painting, "The Hammock," attests. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=Art Displays in Varied Mood |
<ref name="New York Sun Nov 1932">{{cite news |title=Art Displays in Varied Mood |work=New York Sun |location=New York, New York |date=1932-11-17 |quote=As social documents, revelations of the life somewhere in the southern mountains, several of the canvases that Dorothy Eisner is showing at the Morton Galleries are vastly entertaining. "Bird in Buzzard Out" and the "Fiddlers' Convention," for example. As paintings, "Curley," "The Hammock" and the "Cider Press" seem to present the young artist at her not too accomplished best. When it comes to that "Self-Portrait" one is left in some doubt whether modesty or humor prompted it. Something could be said for either point of view. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932">{{cite news |title=Art: Two Important Shows |author=T.C.L. |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1932-11-21 |page=26 |quote=In the canvases at her first one-man show at the Morton Galleries, Dorothy Eisner is portraying some aspects of life in the Southern mountain region of this country. Writers have been far in advance of artists in discovering the possibilities of subject-matter in this section. It is not the beauties of mountain landscape that have attracted Miss Eisner, but rather the individuality of people and the interest of their pastimes. A "Fiddlers' Convention" and a dance called "Bird in Buzzard Out" Miss Eisner evidently watched closely, for she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer. Individuals, too, she has portrayed in portrait studies. Although there is some authentic quality of the South in these paintings, they incline toward drabness of color, and the figures have not enough animation to make them live in paint. Most successfully realized are several still-lifes. }}</ref> |
<ref name="New York Times Nov 21 1932">{{cite news |title=Art: Two Important Shows |author=T.C.L. |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1932-11-21 |page=26 |quote=In the canvases at her first one-man show at the Morton Galleries, Dorothy Eisner is portraying some aspects of life in the Southern mountain region of this country. Writers have been far in advance of artists in discovering the possibilities of subject-matter in this section. It is not the beauties of mountain landscape that have attracted Miss Eisner, but rather the individuality of people and the interest of their pastimes. A "Fiddlers' Convention" and a dance called "Bird in Buzzard Out" Miss Eisner evidently watched closely, for she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer. Individuals, too, she has portrayed in portrait studies. Although there is some authentic quality of the South in these paintings, they incline toward drabness of color, and the figures have not enough animation to make them live in paint. Most successfully realized are several still-lifes. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times May 1933">{{cite news |title=The Etchings of Georges Rouault |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-05-07 |page=X8 |
<ref name="New York Times May 1933">{{cite news |title=The Etchings of Georges Rouault |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-05-07 |page=X8 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Oct 1933">{{cite news |title=Henry V. Poor's Paintings |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-10-24 |page=19 |
<ref name="New York Times Oct 1933">{{cite news |title=Henry V. Poor's Paintings |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-10-24 |page=19 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Dec 1933">{{cite news |title=The Dance in Art Theme of Exhibit: College Association Offers for View 100 Examples in Various Mediums |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-12-13 |page=21 |
<ref name="New York Times Dec 1933">{{cite news |title=The Dance in Art Theme of Exhibit: College Association Offers for View 100 Examples in Various Mediums |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1933-12-13 |page=21 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934">{{cite news |title=Attractions in Other Galleries |
<ref name="New York Sun Mar 1934">{{cite news |title=Attractions in Other Galleries |work=New York Sun |location=New York, New York |date=1934-03-31 |page=13 |quote=Miss Eisner... paints citizens who have a good deal of the soil upon their clothes. She paints them rather roughly, but with a curious instinct for balance that makes the panels, as a whole, attractive. Her most successful improvisation is called 'Franklin's View.' It shows a man, carelessly attired, fishing in a romantic spot, but whether were a portrait of the man or of the place, could not be ascertained. Such things are unimportant anyway when you like the picture. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Apr 1934">{{cite news |title=Seen in the Galleries: Comment on Some of the Exhibitions That Have Opened Recently in This City |author=Howard Devree |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1934-04-01 |page=X9 |quote=Two One-Woman Shows Oils by Grace Bliss Stewart and Dorothy Eisner are on exhibition at the Delphic Studios... Dorothy Eisner is gaining strength and sureness, as her Carolina canvases attest. These seem more original and suggest that the artist was more interested in them than in her New York pictures. Her mountain people are convincingly delineated. She makes excellent use of warm reds, in a palette generally low. }}</ref> |
<ref name="New York Times Apr 1934">{{cite news |title=Seen in the Galleries: Comment on Some of the Exhibitions That Have Opened Recently in This City |author=Howard Devree |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1934-04-01 |page=X9 |quote=Two One-Woman Shows Oils by Grace Bliss Stewart and Dorothy Eisner are on exhibition at the Delphic Studios... Dorothy Eisner is gaining strength and sureness, as her Carolina canvases attest. These seem more original and suggest that the artist was more interested in them than in her New York pictures. Her mountain people are convincingly delineated. She makes excellent use of warm reds, in a palette generally low. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Post Jan 1936">{{cite news |title=O'Keeffe Works Highly Spirited |
<ref name="New York Post Jan 1936">{{cite news |title=O'Keeffe Works Highly Spirited |work=New York Post |location=New York, New York |date=1936-01-11 |page=2 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Jan 1937">{{cite news |title=Giotto 600 Years After |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1937-01-17 |page=161 |
<ref name="New York Times Jan 1937">{{cite news |title=Giotto 600 Years After |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1937-01-17 |page=161 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Apr 1937">{{cite news |title=American Artists Congress |
<ref name="New York Times Apr 1937">{{cite news |title=American Artists Congress |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1937-04-25 |page=171 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Post Feb 1938">{{cite news |title=Women Artists in Annual Show at Grant Studio |
<ref name="New York Post Feb 1938">{{cite news |title=Women Artists in Annual Show at Grant Studio |work=New York Post |location=New York, New York |date=1938-02-05 |page=30 |quote=Dorothy Eisner has made quite a thing of a 'North Carolina Dough Board.' Its strength of design and color in large scale execution, make it the outstanding canvas of the show. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Jun 1938">{{cite news |title=Moritz Eisner, 84, a Retired Chemist |
<ref name="New York Times Jun 1938">{{cite news |title=Moritz Eisner, 84, a Retired Chemist |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1938-06-20 |page=15 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940">{{cite news |title=News and Notes of Art |
<ref name="New York Times Jun 1940">{{cite news |title=News and Notes of Art |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1940-06-19 |page=21 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times May 1942">{{cite news |title=Exhibition is Held by Art Federation; Modern Painters and Sculptors Have Large Display at Their Second Annual Show |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1942-05-22 |page=24 |
<ref name="New York Times May 1942">{{cite news |title=Exhibition is Held by Art Federation; Modern Painters and Sculptors Have Large Display at Their Second Annual Show |author=Edward Alden Jewell |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1942-05-22 |page=24 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Dec 1954">{{cite news |title=Woodstock |
<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Dec 1954">{{cite news |title=Woodstock |work=Kingston Daily Freeman |location=Kingston, New York |date=1954-12-15 |page=5 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Jun 1956">{{cite news |title=The Putnam Story |author=Max Lerner |work=New York Post |location=New York, New York |date=1956-06-24 |page=8 |
<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Jun 1956">{{cite news |title=The Putnam Story |author=Max Lerner |work=New York Post |location=New York, New York |date=1956-06-24 |page=8 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Feb 1961">{{cite news |title=Art Openings in the Galleries |
<ref name="New York Times Feb 1961">{{cite news |title=Art Openings in the Galleries |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1960-02-12 |page=X20 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961">{{cite news |title=Do You Remember |author=Sophie Miller |work=Kingston Daily Freeman |location=Kingston, New York |date=1961-08-30 |page=12 |
<ref name="Kingston Daily Freeman Aug 1961">{{cite news |title=Do You Remember |author=Sophie Miller |work=Kingston Daily Freeman |location=Kingston, New York |date=1961-08-30 |page=12 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Nov 1966">{{cite news |title=What's New in Art: In the Museums Lectures |
<ref name="New York Times Nov 1966">{{cite news |title=What's New in Art: In the Museums Lectures |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1961-11-27 |page=D18 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Apr 1969">{{cite news |title=Display ad: Cisneros Gallery |
<ref name="New York Times Apr 1969">{{cite news |title=Display ad: Cisneros Gallery |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1969-04-06 |page=D26 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="New York Times Sep 1982">{{cite news |title=Jack Tworkov, Painter And Art Teacher, Dead |author=Michael Brenson |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1982-09-06 |page=32 |quote=Like others of his generation, however, Mr. Tworkov never accepted the idea of pure abstraction. 'I'm trying to make an analogy to the figure,' he said. Mr. Tworkov believed what the next generation of abstract painters would fight against tooth and nail: 'Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings.' }}</ref> |
<ref name="New York Times Sep 1982">{{cite news |title=Jack Tworkov, Painter And Art Teacher, Dead |author=Michael Brenson |work=New York Times |location=New York, New York |date=1982-09-06 |page=32 |quote=Like others of his generation, however, Mr. Tworkov never accepted the idea of pure abstraction. 'I'm trying to make an analogy to the figure,' he said. Mr. Tworkov believed what the next generation of abstract painters would fight against tooth and nail: 'Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings.' }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Boston Globe Nov 2002">{{cite news |title=Author Tells How He Took on Goliath GM and Won |author=Rich Barlow |work=Boston Globe |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=2002-11-17 |page=H2 |
<ref name="Boston Globe Nov 2002">{{cite news |title=Author Tells How He Took on Goliath GM and Won |author=Rich Barlow |work=Boston Globe |location=Boston, Massachusetts |date=2002-11-17 |page=H2 }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Portland Press Herald Oct 2008">{{cite news |title=Shows at Saco Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art |author=Bob Keyes |work=Portland Press Herald |location=Portland, Maine |date=2008-10-19 |page=C6 |quote= Her canvases are fluid, orderly and distinct. She painted whatever came before her, be it a horse, a stack of fishing gear, a desk and chair, or even something as mundane as a game of croquet. But she painted with great spirit, and the work on display in Ogunquit seems to express her personality: bold colors, quick strokes and a certain sense of place. }}</ref> |
<ref name="Portland Press Herald Oct 2008">{{cite news |title=Shows at Saco Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art |author=Bob Keyes |work=Portland Press Herald |location=Portland, Maine |date=2008-10-19 |page=C6 |quote= Her canvases are fluid, orderly and distinct. She painted whatever came before her, be it a horse, a stack of fishing gear, a desk and chair, or even something as mundane as a game of croquet. But she painted with great spirit, and the work on display in Ogunquit seems to express her personality: bold colors, quick strokes and a certain sense of place. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Bangor Daily News Mar 2009">{{cite news |title=Inspiring Isles; Portland Museum of Art highlights the Diversity of a Creative Crew from Maine's Cranberry Isles |author=Jessica Bloch |work=Bangor Daily News |location=Bangor, Maine |date=2009-03-20 |page=7 |quote=In 'Desk II,' Eisner painted an orange desk with a boat schedule, an August calendar, a list of names including Heliker, LaHotan and Kienbusch, and a big black phone prominently displayed — as if she’s about to invite friends or plan her next party. We get a clue about what that party might have been like in 'Croquet and Hats,' with a line of croquet mallets, balls and a straw hat, awaiting the next round of lawn games. }}</ref> |
<ref name="Bangor Daily News Mar 2009">{{cite news |title=Inspiring Isles; Portland Museum of Art highlights the Diversity of a Creative Crew from Maine's Cranberry Isles |author=Jessica Bloch |work=Bangor Daily News |location=Bangor, Maine |date=2009-03-20 |page=7 |quote=In 'Desk II,' Eisner painted an orange desk with a boat schedule, an August calendar, a list of names including Heliker, LaHotan and Kienbusch, and a big black phone prominently displayed — as if she’s about to invite friends or plan her next party. We get a clue about what that party might have been like in 'Croquet and Hats,' with a line of croquet mallets, balls and a straw hat, awaiting the next round of lawn games. }}</ref> |
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<ref name="Boothbay Register May 2017">{{cite news |title=Dorothy Eisner show at Gleason Fine Art |author=Marty Gleason |work=Boothbay Register |location=Boothbay Harbor, Maine |date=2017-05-24 |
<ref name="Boothbay Register May 2017">{{cite news |title=Dorothy Eisner show at Gleason Fine Art |author=Marty Gleason |work=Boothbay Register |location=Boothbay Harbor, Maine |date=2017-05-24 |url=https://www.boothbayregister.com/article/dorothy-eisner-show-gleason-fine-art/86670 |access-date=2020-04-15 |quote=Dorothy Eisner's artistic career spanned seven decades. From her Greenwich Village studio, she traveled widely, including to the American West, Mexico, and Europe. However, it was her discovery in 1960 of Cranberry Island, an enchanting small island off Mount Desert and its vibrant community of artists, that was the beginning of Eisner's passion for Maine – a passion that lasted for 24 summers, until the very end of her life. Eisner relished involving herself in the local art scene. In New York, she exhibited broadly and worked tirelessly to further the careers of her fellow artists. Eisner's time on Cranberry was no different. She befriended and worked with many artists, including William Kienbusch, Carl Nelson, and John Heliker, all of whom summered on Cranberry Island. }}</ref> |
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== External links == |
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* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.eisner|Dorothy Eisner Papers]]. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. |
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[[Category:1906 births]] |
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[[Category:1984 deaths]] |
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[[Category:20th-century American painters]] |
[[Category:20th-century American painters]] |
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Latest revision as of 13:52, 10 February 2024
Dorothy Eisner | |
|---|---|
 1937 photo of Dorothy Eisner and Leon Trotsky with her portrait of him | |
| Born | January 17, 1906 New York |
| Died | April 28, 1984 (aged 78) New York |
| Nationality | U. S. citizen |
Dorothy Eisner (1906–1984) was an American artist whose painting style evolved over many years from an early, quite personal, version of 1930s social realism, through a period of abstract expressionism, and culminating over the last twenty years of her life in a bright painterly style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.[1][2] Throughout her long career Eisner maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.[3] Born and raised in Manhattan, she traveled widely and is best known for the late work she made while staying in a summer home off the coast of Maine on Great Cranberry Island.
Early life and training
[edit]Eisner was born and educated in New York City. As a child, she won local children's drawing contests and in her teens attended a school, Ethical Culture High School, known for its arts instruction.[4] Between 1924 and 1929 she studied at the Art Students League where she worked under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Boardman Robinson, and Thomas Hart Benton.[5] During the summer months she traveled to Europe and during one of these trips studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris.[4] She had one additional period of training in the late 1940s when she learned techniques of abstraction and expressionism from Jack Tworkov.[6]
Career in art
[edit]When she was not traveling, Eisner lived in Greenwich Village and rented a studio on Cornelia Street.[5][6] In 1930 she contributed a still life in a group show at the Opportunity Gallery that also included works by Edith Hamlin.[7][note 1] Throughout the rest of the decade her paintings appeared frequently in shows held by nonprofit organizations, including Salons of America (1931, 1932, 1933), the Society of Independent Artists (1932, 1933, 1935, 1936, 1937), the College Art Association (traveling exhibitions in 1932 and 1933), the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors (annually, 1933 to 1939), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1934), and the New York Society of Women Artists (1935, 1936, 1938).[11][12][13][14][note 2] In these large shows Eisner's paintings were regularly singled out for praise by New York critics. Thus, for example, in 1936 the New York Post critic noted her "thorough and vigorous" canvases.[16] In 1937 Edward Alden Jewell of the Times called attention to her free brushwork.[17] In 1938, a Post critic called one of her paintings "the outstanding canvas of the show."[18]
In 1932 the Morton Gallery mounted her first solo exhibition. In it, she showed paintings depicting life in the mountains of the Carolinas.[19] Critics responded favorably to the show. A review in the New York Post said she had technical facility and showed her subjects freshly and spontaneously.[20] Writing in the New York Sun, a critic wrote that the paintings were social documents that revealed life in the southern mountains in a way that was "vastly entertaining."[21] A critic for the New York Times noticed that Eisner showed more interest in the people she encountered than in the scenic environment in which they passed their lives and concluded that "she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer."[22] Her depiction of a fiddler drew attention in both the Sun and the Times. Late in life, a contemporary of Eisner's, Joseph Solman, said of the social realist style of the time: "We were all seeking the flat, and the exaggerated, and the expressionist in our own romantic, different ways."[23]
Two years later the Delphic Studio gave Eisner and Grace Bliss Stewart a duo exhibition. On this occasion the New York Sun featured a photo of another Carolina mountains painting, "Franklin's View."[19][note 3] The Sun's critic, who found her work to be on the whole "attractive," used the label "communist" as shorthand for Eisner's social realist style in her mountain paintings. The critic said, "[she] paints citizens who have a good deal of the soil upon their clothes."[19] Howard Devree of the New York Times said the paintings showed increased strength and sureness and praised her use of warm reds in a generally low palette.[25]
In the late 1930s Eisner exhibited as a member of a popular front organization called the American Artists' Congress.[26] After the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1940 she and a small group of like-minded artists quit the Congress to found an avowedly non-political organization called the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.[27][28][note 4] In 1937 Eisner and her husband traveled to Mexico to help the Dewey Commission investigate charges leveled against Leon Trotsky by the Soviet government in the Moscow Trials of 1936–1937. Eisner made a painting of commission members interviewing Trotsky in a house on the outskirts of Mexico City owned by Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The painting (shown at left) contains a view of Diego Rivera who is making a sketch of the scene.[30] She also made two portraits of Trotsky. The two of them joked about a time when she scraped off pigment in painting his face. He made an affectionate, albeit macabre joke that she was beheading him.[5] This painting is shown in the photo of Trotsky and Eisner at top right.
After World War II Eisner traveled widely with her husband. His work as a journalist for Fortune magazine and his passion for fishing helped to determine the locations they visited. In 1947 they spent time on Cape Breton Island and, beginning in 1949 they started to make periodic visits to Livingston, Montana.[6] Returning from Montana in the early 1950s, Eisner began a short period of study with Jack Tworkov in New York.[31][note 5] In 1960 she and her husband began spending summer months on Great Cranberry Island.[33]
During these years and continuing into the 1970s she continued exhibiting with the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.[31][11] During this period she also continued to be given solo exhibitions in New York commercial galleries. In 1961 she was given a solo exhibition at the James Gallery and in 1966 and in 1969 at the Cisneros Gallery.[34][35][36] This exhibition was photographed by her good friend, Walker Evans,[37] and can be found in the Dorothy Eisner papers collection at Beinecke Library, Yale University.[6] Painting almost every day, towards the end of her life she also held solo exhibitions in New York City at the Ashby Gallery on Cornelia Street in 1980 and 1983.[38]
After her death in 1984 she was given a succession of retrospective exhibitions. These included the Farnsworth Art Museum (1992, "Dorothy Eisner: Paintings and Collages"), Acme Fine Art (Boston, 2005, "Late Expressionist Paintings," and 2009, "Dorothy Eisner on Cranberry Island"), Ogunquit Museum (2008, Cranberry Island paintings), and Gleason Fine Art (Boothbay Harbor Maine, 2017).[1][4][39] In 2009 her work also appeared in an exhibition called "The Art of the Cranberry Isles" in the Portland Museum of Art.[40]
Positions in art organizations
[edit]Eisner immersed herself in the art world while still young. In 1930, aged twenty-four, she joined the board of the Society of Independent Artists. Not long afterward she became a member of the American Artists' Congress, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and the New York Society of Women Artists. She also helped found the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors when, in 1940, it split from the American Artists' Congress because of the latter's endorsement of the Russian invasion of Finland and implicit defense of Hitler's position.[41][6] It seems likely that her marriage, the war, and the birth of a daughter (1942) dampened the impulse to participate in other organizations.
Artistic style
[edit]
In reviewing shows of the paintings she made in the 1930s, critics noticed that when choosing subjects Eisner favored people over scenery.[42] Two of them saw these paintings as lively and entertaining social documents having an authentic quality.[21][42] Others pointed out a muted palette and a tendency to drabness along with strong composition, ability to develop a subject freshly and spontaneously, and overall vigor and thoroughness.[14][16][20][22] For example, a critic for the New York Sun said Eisner painted her subjects "roughly, but with a curious instinct for balance that makes the panels, as a whole, attractive."[19] Writing in the New York Times Howard Devree noted Eisner's skill in delineating subjects convincingly and praised her growing strength and sureness.[25] The painting, "Fiddlers' Convention" (shown at left) was mentioned as typical of her better 1930s work.[21][42] In 1934 it was reproduced in an article in the Philadelphia Record reviewing the Pennsylvania Academy's 129th annual exhibition.[6]
Eisner's style changed little during the 1930s and war years. During the post-war period, while most of her work remained realist, she began to study under Jack Tworkov. Although much abstract expressionist painting was then anti-figurative, Tworkov, like his friend Willem de Kooning, believed that even so-called pure abstraction made, as he said, "analogy to the figure." His obituary in the New York Times quoted him as saying "Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings."[43] Eisner responded sympathetically to this approach. Later she was quoted as saying, "Abstract Expressionism made me think differently. I learned from it a language of shapes and color that I was not conscious of when I was young."[31] During this period she produced much work in regular visits to the American mountain states, particularly Livingston, Montana, and nearby Yellowstone National Park. Her painting "Yellowstone River" (seen at right) shows the influence of Tworkov's instruction. While it might be taken as a pure abstraction, the title shows it to be an abstract representation of a real place.
In 1960, when Eisner and her husband began spending summers on Great Cranberry Island, her work showed a new figurative style. She often showed people relaxing and engaging in vacation-time pursuits: playing cards or croquet. Just as often her subjects would be inanimate: desks, chairs, windows, a towel rack. Writing in 2008 concerning a retrospective exhibition that showed these paintings, a critic said, "her subject matter is so seemingly mundane that the viewer is startled by her choice."[1] Although abstract, her style was firmly grounded in specific places at specific times, and its realist subjects were clearly evident. She made expressionistic use of bold colors, as she had in her 1950s abstractions, but in a style that critics saw as fluid, masterfully composed, and expressionistic.[1][2] A critic said the paintings she made on Cranberry Island were orderly, distinct, and painted with great spirit.[44]
An early painting from this period, "Portrait in Light" (shown at left), has a greater degree of abstraction than a painting, "Interior Still Life" (shown at right) made only three years before her death. The latter work seems to show an influence of Matisse that critics saw in her work from the time she spent studying at Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the late 1920s.[2][31] From its inception in the 1930s through to its culmination in the late paintings, Eisner's output maintained a consistency that a gallerist summarized as derived from European modernism but also grounded in American painting of her own generation and the generation before her.[3]
Personal life and family
[edit]Eisner was born in New York on January 17, 1906.[6] Her father was William J. Eisner. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1880 and died in New York in 1975.[6] Orphaned while still young, he left school at 13 and later became one of the first makers of wax paper in the United States. Having moved to New York he was for many years president of a business called the Newark Paraffin and Parchment Paper Co.[45] Eisner's mother was Florine Eisner (1883-1974). Florine's father's name was Moritz Eisner. Born in Austria, he studied to be a chemist and after emigrating to the United States founded a business called Eisner-Mendelson Company that sold a malt extract and other health products.[46] After her marriage in 1905, Florine Eisner's maiden and married surnames were the same.
Eisner had a sister, Anne Eisner Putnam (1911-1967), who followed in her sister's footsteps. She studied at the Art Students League and served on its board of directors. She showed professionally during the 1940s with the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and the National Association of Women Artists. After her marriage to Patrick Putnam she lived in the Ituri Rainforest within the Belgian Congo in a campsite adjacent to pygmies of the Mbuti people. Patrick Putnam, who had an unpaid position as agent sanitaire, ran an informal dispensary and anthropological laboratory. For eight years Anne Eisner Putnam operated a small collection of guest houses from which she rented out rooms to visitors so as to support her husband's work.[47] Following Patrick's death in 1953 she returned to New York where she published a book, Madami: My Eight Years of Adventure with the Congo Pygmies, describing her experiences and celebrating the Mbuti culture which she deeply respected.[48]
In the 1930s Florine Eisner (1883-1974) followed the example set by both daughters by studying at the Art Students League. Using Florine Rensie as her name, she joined the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors and became a professional artist (Rensie is Eisner spelled backward).[6] After he retired from business in the early 1950s, William J. Eisner joined the rest of the family in studying art and becoming a professional artist.[45]
William and Florine raised their family in Manhattan. During the warm months of the year they frequently traveled to their country home in Woodstock, New York, and, after the children had grown they followed the example they had set and both became serious artists. William exhibited under his own name in galleries in nearby Kingston, New York, while Florine adopted Florine Rensie as her professional name to avoid the appearance of capitalizing on her daughters' artistic successes .[45]
Early in the 1930s Eisner worked in New York for the Resettlement Administration. In 1935 she met her future husband, John Dennis McDonald (1906-1998), who was then working for the Federal Writers' Project and in 1936 they married.[6] Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in literature and subsequently immersed himself in the socialist politics of the 1930s, particularly the anti-Stalinist left. In 1937 he joined the Dewey Commission as a technical assistant. He and Eisner traveled to Mexico with the commission staff. Chaired by the philosopher John Dewey, the commission aimed to provide Leon Trotsky with a fair hearing of the charges made against him in the Soviet show trials of 1936. While they opposed Stalinism, he and Eisner, like most members of the commission, were not themselves Trotskyists.[5] During the latter part of the 1930s, McDonald worked for the Federal Writers' Project in Washington, D.C. During World War II he worked in New York for a nonprofit motion picture production company called the American Film Center.[note 6] In 1945 he began work as a staff writer at Fortune magazine. In 1949 he joined its editorial board and remained in that position until he retired in 1971. His writings showed the wide breadth of his interest, including economic theory and game theory as well as fishing and horse racing.[50] The author of scholarly texts as well as journal articles, he was best known for a book that listed him as editor although he was in fact its author: My Years with General Motors, by Alfred P. Sloan Jr. (1964).[51]
McDonald had a daughter, Joan (born 1929), by a prior, relatively brief, marriage with Lorraine Oven.[50] Eisner and McDonald had one child, a daughter, Christie Anne (born 1942), who is the Smith Professor of French Language and Literature and Chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard.[50][52]
Eisner died in New York on April 28, 1984.[50]
Notes
[edit]- ^ A group of collectors along with the artist Gifford Beal set up the nonprofit Opportunity Gallery in the fall of 1927.[8] Each exhibition was selected by a well-known artist with the overall goal of showing new talent in a wide range of artistic styles.[9] Mark Rothko, Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Georgia O'Keeffe all showed at the gallery during its early years.[10]
- ^ In 1922 Hamilton Easter Field founded Salons of America to give artists an alternative to the Society of Independent Artists whose financial and publicity methods he found objectionable. A reporter said he aimed "to give equal opportunity to every member, whether he or she be a conservative or a post-Dadaist."[15]
- ^ Journalist and art patron Alma Reed founded Delphic Studios in 1929. Mainly known for its emphasis on Mexican art, the gallery also showed photographers, such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams as well as Eisner and other contemporary American artists.[24]
- ^ A group of New York artists formed the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors in the spring of 1940. All had resigned from the American Artists' Congress to protest its "Stalinist line" after the congress had endorsed the Soviet invasion of Finland.[27] The federation aimed to be non-political. Its principal goal was to promote artistic independence and its members adhered to no specific style or school of painting. By means of exhibitions, publications, and lectures it set itself to promote the "general interest of contemporary art." In addition to Eisner and her sister Anne, founding members included Isabel Bishop, Ilya Bolotowsky, Anne Goldthwaite, Adolph Gottlieb, Balcomb Greene, and Mark Rothko.[27][29]
- ^ Tworkov taught art throughout much of his career. In the early 1930s he taught briefly at the Ethical Culture High School in Manhattan. Between 1948 and 1958 he was a part-time instructor at Queens College and Pratt Institute. He was also at one time an instructor at Black Mountain College and in the 1960s taught at the Yale School of Art, becoming chair of the art department in 1963.[32]
- ^ Founded by Donald Slesinger, a psychologist and law school dean, and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the American Film Center supported producers of educational and documentary films and produced films for the Office of Civilian Defense. Slesinger's inept management brought the center to bankruptcy in 1946.[49]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Ogunquit Museum of American Art hangs Late Summer Exhibition". seacoastonline. 2008-09-25. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
Eisner's paintings are inspired by her travels and reflect her reaction to the locales, people and activities that surrounded her. In many cases, her subject matter is so seemingly mundane that the viewer is startled by her choice. Desks, chairs, windows, a towel rack, fish and fishing gear, people playing cards or croquet, children with a garden hose — all become aesthetically worthy subjects as seen through her eyes. With her masterful compositional skills, her fluid application of paint, and her expressionistic use of bold colors, Eisner creates compelling art from these everyday scenes and items.
- ^ a b c Edgar Allen Beem (2009-01-23). "Dorothy Eisner, Modern Art, Modern Painting". New England Today; Living. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
What you see in Painting My World is Eisner's evolution from a social realist who studied under Boardman Robinson, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in the 1920s through the Abstract Expressionist influence of Jack Tworkov, with whom she studied after World War II, to her blossoming as a painterly realist in the 1970s and 1980s. It was quite a journey and one well worth retaking.
- ^ a b "Dorothy Eisner (1906-1984)". Gleason Fine Art. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
- ^ a b c "Dorothy Eisner, Late Expressionist Paintings". ACME Fine Art. 2005-03-18. Archived from the original on 2022-07-31. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
- ^ a b c d Christie McDonald (2006). "Brushes with History". Harvard Review (30): 142–149. JSTOR 27569177.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Collection: Dorothy Eisner papers [finding aid]". Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Archives at Yale. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
- ^ Ruth Green Harris (1930-01-26). "A Round of Galleries". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 117.
- ^ Roxana Robinson (1989). Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life. Upne. p. 302. ISBN 9780874519068. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
- ^ "Opportunity Gallery Has Second Exhibition". Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. 1927-11-20. p. GE.
The Opportunity Gallery at the Art Center, whose raison d'être is to give the talented unknown an opportunity for free display, is holding its second exhibition of the season... The policy on which the gallery operates is that each exhibition must be the selection of a one-man jury. In order to give all types of artistic expression an equal chance, there are modern and conservative jurors as well as ones who pursue the golden mean.
- ^ "The Opportunity Gallery". WarholStars. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ a b "Dorothy Eisner". AskArt. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
- ^ Edward Alden Jewell (1933-05-07). "The Etchings of Georges Rouault". New York Times. New York, New York. p. X8.
- ^ Edward Alden Jewell (1933-10-24). "Henry V. Poor's Paintings". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 19.
- ^ a b Edward Alden Jewell (1933-12-13). "The Dance in Art Theme of Exhibit: College Association Offers for View 100 Examples in Various Mediums". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 21.
- ^ "Salons of America a New Art Society". The New York Times. 1922-07-03. p. 12.
- ^ a b "O'Keeffe Works Highly Spirited". New York Post. New York, New York. 1936-01-11. p. 2.
- ^ Edward Alden Jewell (1937-01-17). "Giotto 600 Years After". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 161.
- ^ "Women Artists in Annual Show at Grant Studio". New York Post. New York, New York. 1938-02-05. p. 30.
Dorothy Eisner has made quite a thing of a 'North Carolina Dough Board.' Its strength of design and color in large scale execution, make it the outstanding canvas of the show.
- ^ a b c d "Attractions in Other Galleries". New York Sun. New York, New York. 1934-03-31. p. 13.
Miss Eisner... paints citizens who have a good deal of the soil upon their clothes. She paints them rather roughly, but with a curious instinct for balance that makes the panels, as a whole, attractive. Her most successful improvisation is called 'Franklin's View.' It shows a man, carelessly attired, fishing in a romantic spot, but whether were a portrait of the man or of the place, could not be ascertained. Such things are unimportant anyway when you like the picture.
- ^ a b "Marin Paintings and Water Colors". New York Post. New York, New York. 1932-11-09. p. 3.
At the Morton Galleries Dorothy Eisner is holding an exhibition of paintings. She is a young artist who has apparently a considerable command of technical facility and the ability to develop a subject freshly and spontaneously, as her painting, "The Hammock," attests.
- ^ a b c "Art Displays in Varied Mood". New York Sun. New York, New York. 1932-11-17.
As social documents, revelations of the life somewhere in the southern mountains, several of the canvases that Dorothy Eisner is showing at the Morton Galleries are vastly entertaining. "Bird in Buzzard Out" and the "Fiddlers' Convention," for example. As paintings, "Curley," "The Hammock" and the "Cider Press" seem to present the young artist at her not too accomplished best. When it comes to that "Self-Portrait" one is left in some doubt whether modesty or humor prompted it. Something could be said for either point of view.
- ^ a b "The Week In New York: A Roster of New Exhibitions". New York Times. New York, New York. 1932-11-20. p. X9.
In her first one-many show, Dorothy Eisner is exhibiting paintings largely of Southern mountain life. Her color lacks warmth and sometimes inclines to drabness, but she has caught in her paintings something of the life and bearing of the mountaineer.
- ^ Lawrence Alloway; Mary D. MacNaughton (1995). Adolph Gottlieb: A Retrospective. Hudson Hills. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-55595-125-2.
- ^ "Artists Biographies A-C - WPA Meets IUP : A Glimpse Into America's Artistic Past". LibGuides at Indiana University of PA. Retrieved 2020-04-19.
- ^ a b Howard Devree (1934-04-01). "Seen in the Galleries: Comment on Some of the Exhibitions That Have Opened Recently in This City". New York Times. New York, New York. p. X9.
Two One-Woman Shows Oils by Grace Bliss Stewart and Dorothy Eisner are on exhibition at the Delphic Studios... Dorothy Eisner is gaining strength and sureness, as her Carolina canvases attest. These seem more original and suggest that the artist was more interested in them than in her New York pictures. Her mountain people are convincingly delineated. She makes excellent use of warm reds, in a palette generally low.
- ^ "American Artists Congress". New York Times. New York, New York. 1937-04-25. p. 171.
- ^ a b c "News and Notes of Art". New York Times. New York, New York. 1940-06-19. p. 21.
- ^ "Federation of modern painters and sculptors". Artopium's Art Dictionary. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
- ^ Edward Alden Jewell (1942-05-22). "Exhibition is Held by Art Federation; Modern Painters and Sculptors Have Large Display at Their Second Annual Show". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 24.
- ^ "Dorothy Eisner Trotsky Commission Painting". Center for Dewey Studies, Southern Illinois University. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
- ^ a b c d "EIsner / Harrison / Orlowsky". ACME Fine Art. 2016-01-20. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
- ^ "Biographical Note | A Finding Aid to the Jack Tworkov papers, circa 1926-1993 | Digitized Collection |". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
- ^ David Little; Carl Little (1 August 2016). Art of Acadia. Down East Books. p. 181. ISBN 978-1-60893-475-1.
- ^ "Art Openings in the Galleries". New York Times. New York, New York. 1960-02-12. p. X20.
- ^ "What's New in Art: In the Museums Lectures". New York Times. New York, New York. 1961-11-27. p. D18.
- ^ "Display ad: Cisneros Gallery". New York Times. New York, New York. 1969-04-06. p. D26.
- ^ McDonald, Christie, ed. (2008). Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner. Suffolk: ACC Publishing Groupe. p. 30. ISBN 978-1851495856.
- ^ McDonald, Christie, ed. (2008). Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner. Suffolk: ACC Publishing Group. p. 31. ISBN 978-1851495856.
- ^ Marty Gleason (2017-05-24). "Dorothy Eisner show at Gleason Fine Art". Boothbay Register. Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
Dorothy Eisner's artistic career spanned seven decades. From her Greenwich Village studio, she traveled widely, including to the American West, Mexico, and Europe. However, it was her discovery in 1960 of Cranberry Island, an enchanting small island off Mount Desert and its vibrant community of artists, that was the beginning of Eisner's passion for Maine – a passion that lasted for 24 summers, until the very end of her life. Eisner relished involving herself in the local art scene. In New York, she exhibited broadly and worked tirelessly to further the careers of her fellow artists. Eisner's time on Cranberry was no different. She befriended and worked with many artists, including William Kienbusch, Carl Nelson, and John Heliker, all of whom summered on Cranberry Island.
- ^ Jessica Bloch (2009-03-20). "Inspiring Isles; Portland Museum of Art highlights the Diversity of a Creative Crew from Maine's Cranberry Isles". Bangor Daily News. Bangor, Maine. p. 7.
In 'Desk II,' Eisner painted an orange desk with a boat schedule, an August calendar, a list of names including Heliker, LaHotan and Kienbusch, and a big black phone prominently displayed — as if she's about to invite friends or plan her next party. We get a clue about what that party might have been like in 'Croquet and Hats,' with a line of croquet mallets, balls and a straw hat, awaiting the next round of lawn games.
- ^ McDonald, Christie, ed. (2008). Painting My World: The Art of Dorothy Eisner. Woodbridge, Suffolk: ACC Publishing Group. p. 20. ISBN 978-1851495856.
- ^ a b c T.C.L. (1932-11-21). "Art: Two Important Shows". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 26.
In the canvases at her first one-man show at the Morton Galleries, Dorothy Eisner is portraying some aspects of life in the Southern mountain region of this country. Writers have been far in advance of artists in discovering the possibilities of subject-matter in this section. It is not the beauties of mountain landscape that have attracted Miss Eisner, but rather the individuality of people and the interest of their pastimes. A "Fiddlers' Convention" and a dance called "Bird in Buzzard Out" Miss Eisner evidently watched closely, for she caught something of the characteristic bearing of the Southern mountaineer. Individuals, too, she has portrayed in portrait studies. Although there is some authentic quality of the South in these paintings, they incline toward drabness of color, and the figures have not enough animation to make them live in paint. Most successfully realized are several still-lifes.
- ^ Michael Brenson (1982-09-06). "Jack Tworkov, Painter And Art Teacher, Dead". New York Times. New York, New York. p. 32.
Like others of his generation, however, Mr. Tworkov never accepted the idea of pure abstraction. 'I'm trying to make an analogy to the figure,' he said. Mr. Tworkov believed what the next generation of abstract painters would fight against tooth and nail: 'Every painter has a subject whether or not there are objects in his paintings.'
- ^ Bob Keyes (2008-10-19). "Shows at Saco Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art". Portland Press Herald. Portland, Maine. p. C6.
Her canvases are fluid, orderly and distinct. She painted whatever came before her, be it a horse, a stack of fishing gear, a desk and chair, or even something as mundane as a game of croquet. But she painted with great spirit, and the work on display in Ogunquit seems to express her personality: bold colors, quick strokes and a certain sense of place.
- ^ a b c Sophie Miller (1961-08-30). "Do You Remember". Kingston Daily Freeman. Kingston, New York. p. 12.
- ^ "Moritz Eisner, 84, a Retired Chemist". New York Times. New York, New York. 1938-06-20. p. 15.
- ^ Max Lerner (1956-06-24). "The Putnam Story". New York Post. New York, New York. p. 8.
- ^ "Woodstock". Kingston Daily Freeman. Kingston, New York. 1954-12-15. p. 5.
- ^ Devin Orgeron; Marsha Orgeron; Dan Streible (6 January 2012). Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 243–245. ISBN 978-0-19-045251-3.
- ^ a b c d "McDonald, John, 1906-1998". Social Networks and Archival Context. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
- ^ Rich Barlow (2002-11-17). "Author Tells How He Took on Goliath GM and Won". Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. H2.
- ^ "Christie McDonald". Faculty, Harvard College, Department of Romance Languages & Literatures. Archived from the original on 2022-04-15. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
External links
[edit]- Dorothy Eisner Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
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