Kendall, William

William Kendall was born in 1869 in Sputen Dayvil , New York. At the age of fourteen he began studying art at the New York Brooklyn Art Guild . Was there a student of Thomas Eakins . When Ykins moved to the Academy of Fine Arts in Pennsylvania in 1884, Kendall continued his studies there. “Ykins came today and appreciated my work. He said my work is “not bad,” which, as you know, is the highest praise for him! ”He wrote to parents from Philadelphia in 1885. For some time he also studied at the Art Students League of New York ^[1] .

At nineteen he left for Paris . He first studied with Luc-Olivier Merson , then at the Julian Academy , and then was accepted into the National High School of Fine Arts . Two years later, his picture was accepted to participate in the Paris Salon , Kendall was awarded an honorary mention. Since the approval at the Salon was at that time a guarantor of recognition, a group of American collectors sent the artist a congratulatory letter and invitation to become a teacher at the Copper Union private art school in New York. The artist rejected the proposal and stayed for another year in France ^[2] .

In the summer of 1891, Kendall went to Madrid to see and copy the works of Diego Velasquez , whom he considered the first great contemporary artist. He spent most of this summer in Brittany . He especially liked the young bretones, who were inexpensive and authentic models for his paintings, the peasant woman Teresa Le Gu ( fr. Therese Le Goue ) ^[1] became his constant model.

Returning to the United States in 1892, Kendall set up his studio in Washington Square . From 1892 to 1895, the artist led a painting class in the Copper Union women’s groups (a private educational institution, college ) located in Cooper Square, East Village , Manhattan , New York ) ^[2] .

Among the many customers of the artist - President William Howard Taft . However, posing for Kendall was not an easy task and an expensive pleasure. His usual full-length portrait fee was $ 4,000; only face - 1,500; bust image - 2,000; portrait in half human height - 3 000 ^[2] .

His portrait of his daughter Alison was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1910, the portrait was awarded the gold medal of Potter Palmer and $ 1,000. The picture was acquired by the Academy of Fine Arts in Buffalo (now the Albright-Knox Art Gallery ) ^[3] . In the 1940s, the painting was auctioned and sold for a significantly lower amount. Today the location of the painting is unknown. Kendall received numerous prizes, including a medal from the Carnegie Institute in 1900, a medal from the Paris World Exhibition of 1900, the Shaw Prize of the Society of American Artists in 1901, the Shaw Fund Purchase Prize in 1903. In 1905 he is an academician of the National Academy of Design ^[2] .

In 1913, the artist became the head of the art department at Yale University , moving with his family to New Haven . Perhaps it is because of his extensive teaching duties that the portraits of Kendall from this time (among them the portraits of deans of the university) lose their high artistic merit, they show a lack of inspiration ^[2] .

Increasingly dissatisfied with the growing influence of contemporary art in New York, the artist moved to an isolated, mountainous area near Hot Springs overlooking the Alleghenies Mountains in West Virginia . There he built a big house and stables for Arabian horses. Kendall began to turn to the ancient scenes . The artist continued active exhibition activities. His paintings were exhibited at exhibitions at the National Academy of Design and at the Century Club . He died in Hot Springs in 1938. ^[2]

Kendall, besides painting, was also engaged in sculpture throughout his career. His paintings and sculptural works are currently in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Academy of Fine Arts of Pennsylvania , the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston , the Baltimore Museum of Art ^[2] .

On the artist's work had a significant influence Merson and Ykins, he highly appreciated the paintings of Jules Bastien-Lepage . Kendall did not belong to the connoisseurs of Impressionist paintings and did not feel the influence of their work ^[1] .

The objects of the artist's paintings were often children, and many of his best paintings depicted his own daughters. The plots of Kendall's paintings can be divided into four main groups: mother and child, girl and mirror, daughters, landscapes ^[2] . The most fruitful for Kendall was the summer of 1918, 1919 and 1920, when he and his family rested in Bratlboro , Vermont . He lived next to a small stream in the estate; portraits of children created by the artist there are considered the best in his work ^[1] .

The painting Interlude (1907) is an image of the artist’s wife, Margaret, and their middle daughter, Beatrice, often reproduced in engravings and book illustrations. An open book in the picture suggests reading a fairy tale, but the researchers assume that the artist has put one more meaning into this image. Margaret Kendall turns her face away from her husband, drawing her, to focus on the love of her daughter, who looks at the viewer with wide eyes. The name suggests a certain moment before something happens, and it is quite possible that this image foreshadowed for the artist the disintegration of the Kendall family. When the picture was painted, the artist had already fallen in love with another girl, with whom he would later marry ^[4] .

Especially popular was the film Psyche , which depicts Kendall's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, but Elizabeth herself never mentioned her ^[5] . In the picture, Psyche is a girl with barely noticeable small wings behind her back. Currently, the picture is in the exposition of the Metropolitan Museum ^[6] . Psyche in ancient Greek mythology is the personification of the soul; presented in the form of a butterfly or a girl with butterfly wings (as in the Kendall picture). In myths, her pursuer and lover are simultaneously Eros (among the Romans - Cupid). He got married to Psyche, but she violated the prohibition to never see her spouse’s face. At night, she lights the lamp and admires the beauty of her spouse god. Hot drop of oil falls on the skin of Cupid, it disappears. Psyche overcomes many trials and regains the love of Cupid. The legend is set forth in the “Metamorphoses” of the Roman writer Apuleius ^[7] .

Anne Enslow is the great-granddaughter of the artist, she owns a series of articles about his work, she found and published a number of his unknown works. In 1983, American art historian Robert Austin, after a long period of oblivion, the artist published an essay about his work, it attracted attention and an exhibition of his works was held in Owen Gallery (New York) in June 1998. Gallery released a catalog of works by Kendall, timed to the exhibition. It includes a preface written by Michael Owen, an essay by Robert Austin about the artist’s work, an article entitled “A Sculpture by William Sergeant Kendall” by Laurette Dimmic, as well as reference data ^[8] . A great public response in the United States was caused by the successful restoration of the artist’s painting “The Portrait of the Artist’s Wife and His Daughters” ( Springville Art Museum ) in 2013 ^[9] .

One of the student’s students at the Copper Union was Margaret Weston Stickney ( Margaret Weston Stickney ), whom he married in early 1896, a year after they met. The first child - daughter Elizabeth, was born on the island of Gerrish near the coast of Maine , where the family spent the summer. Beatrice was born in 1902, and Alison was born in 1907, so for about 25 years the artist had an object for sketching a child ^[2] .

In 1904, the artist met the thirteen-year-old niece of his friend Albert Gerter - Kristina, who started giving private lessons. They shared a love of painting and music (both played the violin ), the apprenticeship grew into a close friendship, and then into love. When Kendall moved to Newport , she rented a studio nearby. They maintained constant correspondence among themselves when Christine left for Paris to continue her studies. When she returned, soon after World War I began , she entered Yale University as a student of the visual arts department, but continued to work at Kendall's studio, sometimes posing for him. In 1916, Kendall painted her portrait in the garden behind his house. In the end, Kendall divorced his wife and, at the age of 53, married 32-year-old Christine ^[1] . Christina Kendall survived a spouse, organized classical music concerts, organized a scout camp, and bequeathed her fortune to Garth Newel Music Center . She died in 1981, she did not have children ^[10] .

• Austin, Robert. William Sergeant Kendall: American Master (Neopr.) . Traditional Fine Arts Organization.
• Kendall, William Sergeant, (1869–1938) (Neopr.) (Inaccessible link) . The Springville Museum of Art (January 22, 2017). The date of circulation is January 22, 2017. Archived on February 2, 2017.
• Enslow, Anne Underwood. Kendall, William Sergeant, (1869–1938). Timeline (Neopr.) . William Sergeant Kendall.
• Enslow, Anne Underwood. Kendall, William Sergeant, (1869–1938). Museum Pieces (Neopr.) . William Sergeant Kendall.