In December 1913, Brooklyn Life, a weekly chronicler of Brooklyn society affairs, took stock of the borough’s modern art scene:
“Outside of the art exhibitions held through the winter at the Pratt Institute and the occasional ones which Mr. Hamilton Easter Field has at Ardsley House on Columbia Heights, the million and a half inhabitants of Brooklyn never have an opportunity of seeing exhibitions of modern art unless they go to Manhattan.”[1]
While the Pratt Institute continues to nurture students of architecture, art, and design, and Brooklyn now boasts a thriving community of artists and galleries, the history of Ardsley House and its founder Hamilton Easter Field (1873–1922) are largely overlooked. Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn focuses on what would undoubtedly have been the centerpiece of Field’s Brooklyn enterprise, offering the perfect occasion for a closer look at this Brooklyn booster’s visionary hub for modern art and to consider early twentieth-century Brooklyn as a site of robust artistic activity.
Photograph of Hamilton Easter Field in his studio at 106 Columbia Heights from The National Cyclopedia of National Biography, vol. 17 (1920)
The exhibition tells the story of the private painting commission Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) received from Field when the two met in Paris in 1909. As many as eleven paintings were to adorn the walls of a room in Field’s ancestral Brooklyn home at 106 Columbia Heights; installed, they would turn a small, parlor-floor library (approximately 10 by 23 feet) into a showcase of Cubism. Despite Picasso’s initial work, the commission was never realized, and Field’s sudden death in April 1922 at age forty-nine effectively voided it. The exhibition, the first dedicated to this little-known episode of the artist’s Cubist period, brings together six paintings identified with the project, including The Met’s Pipe Rack and Still Life on a Table (1911).
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Málaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France) Pipe Rack and Still Life on a Table, Céret, summer 1911. Oil and charcoal on canvas 19 1∕2 × 50 in. (49.5 × 127 cm), irregular 20 × 50 1∕4 in. (50.8 × 127.6 cm), mounted The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls Collection, 1997 (1997.149.6) © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Despite its location being far from well-known Manhattan venues of modern art, such as Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, Picasso’s Cubist room in Brooklyn would have undoubtedly impacted the New York art world. In fall 1911, Field received word about his commission from none other than Stieglitz. The photographer had recently visited Picasso’s studio in Paris, where he saw some of the paintings destined for 106 Columbia Heights. Field must have been pleased to learn that, in Stieglitz’s opinion, they showed promise.[2] If realized, the commission would have become the most distinct part of an art hub Field launched in spring 1912 and which, by the time of his untimely death, spread across three adjacent row houses. Situated in the residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, between Cranberry and Orange Streets, it served as a home, workplace, exhibition space, school, and gathering spot for artists, writers, and musicians.
Eugene L. Armbruster, Brooklyn: Roebling House, 110 Columbia Heights, 1922. Hamilton Easter Field’s home, 106 Columbia Heights, is at far right. New-York Historical Society, Eugene L. Armbruster Photograph Collection, 1894–1939
Field’s 1905 acquisition of the house next door allowed him to think beyond the confines of his home. Formerly a single-family dwelling, by the late nineteenth century, 104 Columbia Heights operated as a rental property offering room and board to tenants. Field maintained this arrangement until spring 1912 when he gave the building a new identity. Naming it Ardsley House, he adapted the spacious parlor rooms into a gallery; as for the rest of the building, he continued to offer room and board primarily for New York’s creative folk. According to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, by that spring, Ardsley House was already “becoming a home for artists, musicians, etc. and it is likely that it will prove a sort of colony for those artistically inclined.”[3]
Judging from the early exhibitions, Field intended to promote and advance the careers of Brooklyn’s up-and-coming talent. Despite Brooklyn Life’s report of 1913, the borough—especially the area in and around Brooklyn Heights—was hardly devoid of artists. Such locations as the Poplar Street Studios (61 Poplar Street) and Ovington Building (246 Fulton Street) catered specifically to artists. A 1912 group exhibition of Ovington Building artists took place in Manhattan and counted twenty-six participants, mostly women, among them Dorothea A. Dreier (1870–1923).[4]
The first exhibition Field presented at Ardsley House showcased the work of Athos Casarini (1883–1917). Originally from Bologna, Casarini moved to New York in the first decade of the twentieth century, settling just two blocks from Field’s house, in the Poplar Street Studios. He was a fitting choice for the inaugural exhibition. Not only did Casarini live and work in Brooklyn, but his art demonstrated that Brooklyn Heights—perched on a bluff overlooking the New York Harbor with breathtaking views of the lower Manhattan—could offer artists unmitigated access to the ultimate modern subject: an urban skyline dominated by skyscrapers. Many of Casarini’s paintings on view at Ardsley House, including the one Harper’s Weekly used for the cover of its March 23, 1912 issue, titled New York Seen from Brooklyn (1911), embodied the metropolis.
Painting by Athos Casarini, New York Seen from Brooklyn (1911) on the cover of Harper’s Weekly from March 23, 1912. Hathi Trust Digital Library, digitized by University of Michigan
This, and other paintings like it, drew the attention of the press:
“One gives a sweeping view of the great buildings at dusk with myriads of lights in offices. It is like a panorama; another effect is given as painted from near the Manhattan shore, where the tall parallelograms of structures on end, vari-colored, have for their summit the Liberty building, the hole enhancing the height of the skyscrapers. The skill of the painter in giving a towering effect is seen in his putting into the foreground a steamer, the smoke from which soars skyward.”[5]
Field considered Ardsley House’s gallery an organic extension of his family home, an established destination for Brooklyn society men and women interested in music and art. Lydia Seaman Haviland Field (1838–1918), Hamilton’s widowed mother with whom he shared the house, began to host benefit concerts for the Brooklyn Women’s Club in 1903. These well-attended evenings, held in the commodious parlor-floor reception rooms that also included the small library Field offered to Picasso a few years later, concluded with art demonstrations and guided tours given by Field of his art collection installed throughout the house. It encompassed extensive holdings of Japanese prints; examples of old master paintings, drawings, and prints; and ancient Roman sculpture. Field had acquired these objects over years spent in Europe as an art student and on subsequent trips. Several tokens from his collection can be found in The Met’s holdings.
Left: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (Italian, 1727–1804). The Baptism of Christ, 1727–1804. Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, 10 1/8 × 7 13/16in. (25.7 × 19.8cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1918 (18.144). Center: Chōbunsai Eishi (Japanese, 1756–1829). Ladies at a Picnic, ca. 1790. Woodblock print; ink and color on paper, H. 14 5/8 in. (37.1 cm); W. 9 13/16 in. (24.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1922 (JP1442) Left: Marble head of Athena: The so-called Athena Medici, ca. 138–92 CE. Mid-Imperial, Antonine period. Marble, H.: 7 7/8 in. (20 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 2007 (2007.293)
The final stop on these post-concert tours was Field’s own studio located on the third floor, a testament to his boundless art interests, passion for collecting, and flair for interior decoration. The spacious studio was set in the back of the house, with windows that opened out to views like those captured in Casarini’s paintings. Field’s own guests at 106 Columbia Heights, whose visits inevitably ended in the studio, included many from the world of art, among them two Met curators: Roger Fry (1866–1934) and his assistant and successor, Bryson Burroughs (1869–1934). The two journeyed after work to Field’s house on November 11, 1906, where they sat on the floor of the studio and examined some of Field’s Japanese prints.[6]
Photograph of Hamilton Easter Field’s studio at 106 Columbia Heights from the October 1916 issue of The International Studio. Courtesy Heidelberg University Library
Reading the period press that followed Field’s activities on Columbia Heights since Ardsley House was established, it is easy to imagine how Picasso’s Cubist room would have complemented the visitor’s experience. Field continued to hold concerts at his residence in conjunction with Ardsley House exhibitions, and the library would have been accessible to any attendee of these performances.
An invitation to an evening concert was not necessary to gain access to 106 Columbia Heights. In fall 1913, Field exhibited his own paintings at Ardsley House gallery, sharing the bill with the sculptor Robert Laurent (1890–1970), his French-born protégé; it was, notably, Laurent’s first exhibition. The journalists reporting on the display instructed readers not to end their visit in the gallery but to continue next door, where they could view additional works by both artists within the private setting of Field’s residence.
Photograph of Hamilton Easter Field (left) and Robert Laurent (right), Europe, ca. 1910. Barn Gallery Associates selected records, 1966–1987, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
While Field’s unfinished paintings were on view in his studio, the real draw, according to critics, were Laurent’s recently completed wood reliefs.[7] The sculptor fitted one of the bedrooms with carved wood reliefs adhered to the walls and fireplace and incorporated into furniture, including a chest of walnut drawers from this ensemble in The Met’s collection. In a portion of a panel that formed the fireplace decoration, currently on view in the exhibition, Laurent depicted the floor plans of 106 Columbia Heights. These plans pinpoint the parlor-floor location of the room Field allocated to Picasso; it is identified as “Bibliothecula,” or small library.
Robert Laurent (American, born France, 1890–1970). Balloons (detail), 1913. Walnut, 9 × 65 3∕4 × 7∕8 in. (22.8 × 167 × 2.2 cm). Private collection
Field’s dedication to the growth of the Brooklyn art scene propelled him to increase his activities further, as well as his footprint. In 1915, he established the Ardsley School of Modern Art, which he initially operated with Laurent from 106 Columbia Heights. The school offered live model classes, sketching sessions, and instruction in painting, drawing, and carving. The following spring, Field purchased the house on the other side of his residence and shifted the school’s activities there.
110 Columbia Heights was the former home of the bridge engineer Washington Roebling (1837–1926) and his wife Emily (1843–1903). Naming it Ardsley Studios, Field carried out a similar adaptation of the building as he had for 104 three years earlier. An advertisement Field placed in the October 1916 issue of The International Studio invited artists and art students to Brooklyn Heights to live and work in historic surroundings with breathtaking views, in an area well connected by public transport, yet free of the hustle and bustle of “other sections of New York.”
Advertisement from the October 1916 issue of International Studio. Courtesy Heidelberg University
Ardsley Studios would also become the new home of the gallery already in operation as of fall 1916; the year ended with a powerful group exhibition of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Cubist art, including works by American modernists like Charles Demuth (1883–1935), Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), John Marin (1870–1953), Man Ray (1890–1976), and Abraham Walkowitz (1878–1965).[8] As of 1917, Field regularly turned the gallery over to the artists associated with the Society of Independent Artists, a recently formed organization. The society’s motto of “No jury. No prizes.” reflected Field’s own attitudes toward the art world and ambitions for his Brooklyn enterprise. As he put it, “In Manhattan at the exhibitions of the Society of Independent Artists and here in Brooklyn at Ardsley Studios the doors have been opened to all who feel the need of direct appeal to the public.”[9]
One Ardsley Studios exhibition was especially meaningful in the context of Picasso’s Cubist library. In March 1919, Field exhibited sixteen works by Albert Gleizes (1881–1953), a French Cubist painter and co-author of the first treaties on Cubism, Du Cubisme (1912). One of several European artists who relocated to New York at the start of World War I, Gleizes participated in the city’s art scene, including lending a hand in forming the Society of Independent Artists. With tongue in cheek, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the exhibition’s opening night as an “invasion” of Brooklyn Heights by “a host of foreign painters and sculptors.” According to the newspaper, “The French tongue was heard on all sides and wayfarers were stopped and asked, ‘Vere is Coloombia Heights?’ or ‘Pardonnez moi mais ou sont les Ardsley Stoodios?’” (Excuse me but where are Ardsley Studios?).[10] The evening concluded with a chamber music concert held in Field’s residence.
[Field] not only supported new and radical art but, more fundamentally, fought against expectations that art of this kind can only be found in Manhattan.
Such published period accounts bring to light Field’s efforts to put the Brooklyn art scene on the map. He not only supported new and radical art but, more fundamentally, fought against expectations that art of this kind can only be found in Manhattan. It is thanks to such initiatives as his multifaceted Ardsley enterprise that in 1921 Brooklyn Heights was on the cusp of becoming Brooklyn’s Latin Quarter or better yet, New York’s next Greenwich Village.[11]
Field’s unexpected death in April 1922 came as a shock but would not stifle Brooklyn’s burgeoning modern art community nor spell the end of Field’s Brooklyn Heights art hub. While all buildings owned by Field were demolished in the mid 1940s to make way for the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE), immediately following Field’s passing, the building at 110 Columbia Heights, while no longer known as Ardsley Studios, continued to serve as a home to artists and writers. Among those who availed themselves of the rear window view of lower Manhattan and such landmarks as the Brooklyn Bridge was the poet Hart Crane (1899–1932), the author of The Bridge (1930). Crane’s opportunity speaks to the lasting impact of Field’s pioneering efforts to stimulate artistic activity in Brooklyn during the early twentieth century and invites us to explore further the history of art in New York outside Manhattan.
Notes
[1] “The Art Exhibition at Brooklyn Heights Seminary.” Brooklyn Life, December 6, 1913, 19.
[2] For reproduction of Stieglitz’s letter to Field dated October 21, 1911, see Anna Jozefacka and Lauren Rosati, “Chronology of the Commission, 1909-22,” in Anna Jozefacka with Lauren Rosati, Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023), 88–95, 102–03, esp. 94.
[3] “A Clever Young Artist.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 24, 1912, 6.
[4] “Brooklyn Artists Travel From Ovington Building Studios to Show Pictures in Manhattan.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 5, 1912, 12.
[5] “A Clever Young Artist,” 6.
[6] Letter from Roger Fry to Helen Fry, dated November 11, 1906. See Letters of Roger Fry, edited, with introduction by Denys Sutton, vol. 1 (New York: Random House, 1972), letter no. 203, 272–273.
[7] “Field and Laurent in Joint Exhibition.” The Standard Union, November 18, 1913, 8
[8] “Exhibition of Modern Art at Ardsley Studios.” Brooklyn Life, December 9, 1916, 15
[9] Ardsley Studios, [Invitation] Exhibition of Japanese Prints and Paintings and Other Works by a Number of Artists, closing January 31, 1919.
[10] “Gleizes Art on View.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 5, 1919. 4.
[11] Marjorie Dorman, “Greenwich Village Moves Over to Brooklyn Heights,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, April 10, 1921. 69.
Further Reading
Jozefacka, Anna. “Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn.” In Anna Jozefacka with Lauren Rosati, Picasso: A Cubist Commission in Brooklyn. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023), 11–55, 96–102.
Jeffers, Wendy. “Hamilton Easter Field. The Benefactor from Brooklyn.” Archives of American Art Journal 50, no. 1/2 (Spring 2011), 26–37.
Bolger, Doreen. “Hamilton Easter Field and His Contribution to American Modernism.” American Art Journal (Kennedy Galleries) 20, no. 2 (1988), 78–101.
Green, William. “Hamilton Easter Field (1873–1922).” Impressions 8 (summer 1983)
Colombari, Lucia, and Kirsten Pai Buick. “Athos Casarini (1883–1917).” In The Unforgettables: Expanding the History of American Art, edited by Charles C. Eldredge, 1st ed. (University of California Press, 2022), 309–15. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv32fs57r.51.
