08. Artists' Sketchbooks and Diaries

Scope and Content Note

Small sketchbook (7.5 in. x 4.5 in) containing approximately 40 sketches, mainly executed in charcoal, of landscapes, figures, and animals. Handwritten letter attached to the inside cover from A. Preyer, dated April 9, 1921, addressed to Helen Clay Frick, regarding his gift of the sketchbook to her.

Scope and Content Note

Two small sketchbooks, approximately 7 in. x 4 in.

Volume one is a small sketchbook containing approximately 30 pencil drawings of lake and mountain landscapes and structures in the Swiss Alps, many with captions, along with some drawings of Parisian figures at the end.

Volume two is a small sketchbook containing approximately 35 pencil sketches of landscapes, figures, and botanical objects, and one page of musical notation.

Scope and Content Note

Small sketchbook (approximately 9 in. x 6 in.) containing approximately 25 pencil drawings of mainly houses, sailboats, and lighthouses in Indiana or Massachusetts. The drawings were executed by William E. Clarke, a well-known organist in Massachusetts, and his brother, Lynn Winthrop Clarke (1877-1932), a judge, when they were young.

Scope and Content Note Manuscript autobiography written in Thomas Sully's hand in a notebook with lined paper, titled “Incidents in the life of Thomas Sully; chiefly of painting.” Sully wrote the account when he was 88 years old, describing his technique, imparting formulas, relating his experiences, and referring to British and American artists of the period such as Gilbert Stuart, Rembrandt Peale, John Singleton Copley, and Benjamin West.Pages are numbered 1-109, 200-207. Mounted on the front...

Abstract Walter Gay (1856-1937) was an American painter known for his paintings of interiors. For the better part of his life, Gay lived in France, where he met and married heiress and fellow expatriate Matilda E. Travers (1855-1943). The bulk of this collection is formed by the diaries of Matilda Gay which provide detailed insight into the Gays' daily life as well as American expatriate life in France before, during, and after World War I. The collection also contains correspondence, photographs...