George Bridgman Explained

George Bridgman
Birth Date:1864 11, mf=yes
Birth Place:United Province of Canada
Death Place:New York City, United States
Nationality:Canadian-American
Field:Painter, art educator, draftsman
Training:École des Beaux-Arts

George Brant Bridgman (November 5, 1864 – December 16, 1943) was a Canadian-American painter, writer, and teacher in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the Art Students League of New York for some 45 years.

Life and work

Bridgman was born in 1864 in the United Province of Canada.[1] [2] In his youth, Bridgman studied the arts under painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and later with Gustave Boulanger.[3] For most of his life Bridgman lived in the United States where he taught anatomy and figure drawing at the Art Students League of New York (from 1898 until 1900, and then 1903 until October 1943).[4] [5] His successor at Art Students League was Robert Beverly Hale. Bridgman had also taught classes at the Grand Central School of Art and at the American Bank Note Company.[6]

Bridgman used box forms to represent the major masses of the figure (head, thorax, and pelvis) which he would tie together with gestural lines and produce to create "wedges" or simplified interconnecting forms of the body.[7]

He had been a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[8]

Notable students

Among his many thousands of students was Norman Rockwell; in his autobiography, My Adventures as an Illustrator (1960), Rockwell spoke highly of Bridgman. Roughly 70,000 students studied with Bridgman in his many years teaching,[9] notable artists include: McClelland Barclay,[10] Emily Newton Barto,[11] C. C. Beall, Gifford Beal,[12] Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake,[13] Rosina Cox Boardman,[14] Bessie Callender,[15] Dane Chanase,[16] Richard V. Culter, Chon Day, Joseph Delaney,[17] Elsie Driggs,[18] Eyre de Lanux,[19] Helen Winslow Durkee, Will Eisner, Edward McNeil Farmer,[20] Elias Goldberg, Marion Greenwood,[21] Robert Beverly Hale,[22] Lorenzo Homar, Clark Hulings, Louis Paul Jonas,[23] Jack Kamen, Deane Keller, Lee Krasner,[24] Richard Lahey,[25] Andrew Loomis, Anita Malfatti, Paul Manship,[26] Frank McCarthy, Evelyn Metzger, Earl Moran, John Cullen Murphy, Kimon Nicolaïdes, Corrado Parducci,[27] Norman Raeben, Frank J. Reilly, Joseph Emile Renier,[28] Ulysses Ricci, Ernie Schroeder, Archie Boyd Teater, Allie Tennant,[29] John Vassos, Franklin Brooke Voss, Edmund Ward, Mahonri Young,[30] and William Zorach.[31]

Jackson Pollock's sketchpad features work from Bridgman's books.

Death and legacy

Bridgman died on December 16, 1943, in New Rochelle, New York, after suffering from an illness for a year. He was survived by his wife, Helene Leonora Bridgman (née Rupperstberg) and their three children.

George Bridgman has 100 drawings in the public collection at the Norman Rockwell Museum.[32]

Bibliography

Many of Bridgman's books are available as reprints by Dover Publications.

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Love. Richard H.. Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. Peters. Carl William. 1999. University Rochester Press. 978-1-58046-024-8. 336. en.
  2. Book: McMann, Evelyn de Rostaing. Biographical Index of Artists in Canada. 2003-01-01. University of Toronto Press. 978-0-8020-2790-0. 31. en.
  3. Book: Fielding. Mantle. Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers. Opitz. Glenn B.. Apollo. 1983. 978-0-938290-02-5. Poughkeepsie, NY. 217, 783, 991. en.
  4. Web site: George B. Bridgman. 2020-09-28. Illustration History, Norman Rockwell Museum.
  5. Web site: October 24, 1943. Christmas Spirit. subscription. 2020-09-30. The New York Times. en.
  6. Web site: December 17, 1943. George Bridgman Art Teacher, Dies. subscription. 2020-09-30. The New York Times. en.
  7. http://www.askart.com/AskART/B/george_brandt_bridgman/george_brandt_bridgman.aspx "George Brandt Bridgman at Askart.com"
  8. Web site: Members since 1880. 11 September 2013. Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. 4 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190504000403/https://rca-arc.ca/who-we-are/members/members-since-1880/. dead.
  9. 1942-09-14. Art: Bone & Muscle Man. en-US. Time. limited. 2020-10-01. 0040-781X. Some 70,000 artists.
  10. Web site: McClelland Barclay. 2020-09-28. Laguna Art Museum. en-US.
  11. Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985 p. 47
  12. Web site: Gifford Reynolds Beal (American, 1879 - 1956), West Wind. 2020-09-28. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. en.
  13. Book: Jules Heller. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Nancy G. Heller. 19 December 2013. Routledge. 978-1-135-63882-5. 523.
  14. McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., Who’s Who in American Art 1938-193 vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p. 61
  15. Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 190, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985 p. 116
  16. McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., ‘’Who’s Who in American Art 1938-193 vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p. 102
  17. Book: Bonner. Judith H.. The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture. Pennington. Estill Curtis. Wilson. Charles Reagan. 2013-01-14. UNC Press Books. 978-0-8078-6994-9. 287. en.
  18. Book: Kimmerle, Constance. Elsie Driggs: The Quick and the Classical. University of Pennsylvania Press. James A. Michener Art Museum. 2008. 9780812241044. 124.
  19. Book: Jules Heller. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Nancy G. Heller. 19 December 2013. Routledge. 978-1-135-63882-5.
  20. Book: Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California, 1786-1940. Hughes Publishing Company. 1986. 9780961611200.
  21. Book: Sonneborn. Liz. A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. Kort. Carol. Infobase Publishing. 2014. 9781438107912. 85–86.
  22. Book: Deupi, Victor. Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America. Routledge. 2020. 9780429557590.
  23. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 195
  24. Web site: Lynch. Mary. 2016-03-20. Alumni Profile: Lee Krasner A'29. 2020-09-28. Cooper Union Alumni Association. en-US.
  25. News: Joyce. Maureen. August 3, 1978. Richard Lahey, Painter, Ex-Corcoran Principal. The Washington Post. 2020-09-27.
  26. Rand, Harry, Paul Manship, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington 1989 p. 10
  27. Web site: Oral history interview with Corrado Parducci, 1975 Mar. 17. 2020-09-28. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. en.
  28. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 338
  29. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 479
  30. Toone, Thomas E., Mahonri Young: His Life and Art, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah,1997 p. 36-37
  31. Zorach, William, Art is My Life: The Autobiography of William Zorach, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland Ohio, 1967 p.21
  32. Web site: Bradway. Rich. 2013-06-11. George B. Bridgman drawings in NRM collections. 2020-09-28. Norman Rockwell Museum. en-US.

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