Important, one-of-a-kind archive of thirty-two letters, each from an eminent American artist to Charles M. Skinner, various sizes and formats, 1890s. Skinner (1852–1907), longtime art editor at the Brooklyn Eagle, the newspaper where Walt Whitman began his career in the 1840s, is probably best known as the author of several volumes of myth and folklore, including Myths and Legends of Our Own Land (1896) and American Myths and Legends (1903). During his tenure at the Eagle, Skinner was in regular contact with some of the most prominent American artists of the day, and the letters in the present group attest to a position of some influence in the art community. The correspondents, who include some of the most noted figures in turn-of-the-century American art, send greetings and articles, share news of interest (evidently hoping to score a mention in the Eagle), and ask for favors. Together, the letters constitute a colorful and compelling record of the American art scene in the last years before the winds of modernism—most forcefully represented by the epochal Armory Show of 1913—shook American art to its foundations. Nearly all of the items include art-related content, and all are ALSs except as noted. The artists represented are: Alfred Brennan; Charles Walter Stetson (two, in one noting, “I take it for granted that you have not quite forgotten my pictures and me”); J. Carroll Beckwith (TLS); George Bogert; Frederick Richardson (“My interests, property, and family are not to be cast aside for a few more dollars”); James Gale Tyler (two, in one noting, “William had discovered [a painting] had been cut and doctored, and I can assure you I was greatly surprised”); William Holbrook Beard; Louis Rhead (suggesting news copy: “Mr. Rhead has brought with him the complete set of 150 illustrations done by his two brothers and himself for Pilgrim’s Progress of Bunyan”); Nicholas Alden Brooks (“On Wednesday afternoon … I will give a private view of my latest and most important picture: “Waiting for the Guests”); Henry Ranger; David Johnson; Charles Henry Miller (on the death of George Inness: “An artist whose departure impresses one with loveliness in the art field—where scientific mechanism is plentiful but genius rare”); Julius Ruger; J. Staples Rowe; Warren Sheppard (describing in detail several of his paintings to be sold at auction); Wedworth Wadsworth (“The autumn has been so filled with beauties of storm & cloud & flooded marshland”); Eugene Frank (mentioning a portrait of actor Joseph Jefferson); Henry Pember Smith; James Nicoll; William Shelton; Charles Naegele (“Our little boy has been very sick with cholera infantum, and we are doing all we can to save him”); Hamilton Gibson; Frank Fowler; James Beckwith; John Bunyan Bristol; Alfred Cornelius Howland (two); Walter Wilcox Burridge (“I am interested personally in a project—a large oil painting of the great volcano of the Sandwich Islands”); Carleton Wiggins (“I have been greatly annoyed lately by receiving an advertisement and card from Mr. James Rice in which he is in a most unwarranted manner making use of my name”); and James Nicoll (ANS on the reverse of his calling card). A unique opportunity to acquire a collection that would be virtually impossible to assemble by any other means! In very good to mostly fine condition, with a few of the items lightly affixed to pages or with removal traces, usual mailing folds, scattered toning and mild soiling, and two letters with edge chips affecting a few words. R&R COA.
