well, he was known for his portrait busts, and had modeled one of Calvin Coolidge and other notables for the Senate Gallery in the United States Capitol. 38 Krasner might have been encouraged by Dykaarâs success, since he had progressed from an impoverished young Jew in Vilnius (Lithuania, in the Russian empire) to studying art in Vilnius and in Paris at the Académie Julian. Nevertheless, she found him âbitter.â 39
Dykaar encouraged Krasner to enroll at the Arts Students League on West Fifty-seventh Street, which he considered lessstructured than Cooper Union and more serious. In July she began study with Canadian-born George Brant Bridgman for a life drawing course. She studied five days a week in the mornings. Bridgman, like Hinton at Cooper Union, had studied in Paris with Gérôme and Bouguereau. In his teaching, Bridgman promoted a system of âwedgingâ to convey the twisting and turning of the human figure. Known to be âprim and meticulous,â Bridgman was said to glower âat any student who wastes drawing paper or sits a few inches out of line from the other students. Occasionally he stops to drop a sardonic remark or to redraw, in heavy accurate lines, an improperly pitched shoulder or a badly proportioned leg.â 40 Nor did he permit nude models in classes that mixed men and women. As might be expected, Krasnerâs determination to maintain her own emerging style conflicted with this French-Academic-trained teacher, as it had with Hinton, who was similarly trained. The Art Students League was not to Krasnerâs taste, and she decided to move on to the National Academy of Design.
Then suddenly Leeâs older sister Rose died of appendicitis on July 9, 1928, leaving behind her husband, William Stein, and two small daughters, Muriel Pearl and Bernice. 41 According to Old World Jewish tradition, the next in lineâLeeâthe eldest of the two remaining unmarried sisters, was supposed to marry her brother-in-law and raise the children. But Lee refused. Though she doted on her nieces, she believed she had another destiny and would not even consider such a marriage. The responsibility fell to Leeâs younger sister, Ruth, who, it seems, never forgave her sister.
F OUR
National Academy and First Love, 1928â32
Igor Pantuhoff and his portrait of a nude model, c. 1930. At the National Academy, Igor, a tall, handsome, charming White Russian who boasted of an aristocratic lineage, was easy to notice. Younger than Krasner by three years, he often won prizes for his work.
L ATE IN THE SUMMER OF 1928, L EE STARTED AN AMBITIOUS SELF-PORTRAIT to qualify her for the life class at the National Academy of Design. She set herself up outdoors at her parentsâ new home in Greenlawn (Huntington Township) on Long Islandâs north shore. They had purchased a modest rural house with a separate garage (that might have been an old barn) in May 1926, 1 when Joseph was fifty-five and Anna was nearly forty-six. (The 1930 census says that Leeâs parents still lived in the Brooklynhouse they rented for $50 a month; Lee and Irving were also still living there.) 2 After nearly two decades of physical drudgery and economic uncertainty as fishmongers, Joseph and Anna longed for a country life like the one theyâd had in Shpikov. The house, next to a small lake, was simple with no indoor plumbing, but they could grow vegetables, raise chickens, and sell eggs. It was also just up the hill from Centreport Harbor, which offered swimming and fishing. 3 They sold some of what they grew.
Getting there was easy via the Long Island Railroad. Krasner had been painting from life even before she left Cooper Union. Now she was working with confidence, producing an oil painting that was thirty by twenty-five inches. âI nailed a mirror to a tree, and spent the summer painting myself with trees showing in the background,â she remembered. âIt was difficultâthe light
Dykaar encouraged Krasner to enroll at the Arts Students League on West Fifty-seventh Street, which he considered lessstructured than Cooper Union and more serious. In July she began study with Canadian-born George Brant Bridgman for a life drawing course. She studied five days a week in the mornings. Bridgman, like Hinton at Cooper Union, had studied in Paris with Gérôme and Bouguereau. In his teaching, Bridgman promoted a system of âwedgingâ to convey the twisting and turning of the human figure. Known to be âprim and meticulous,â Bridgman was said to glower âat any student who wastes drawing paper or sits a few inches out of line from the other students. Occasionally he stops to drop a sardonic remark or to redraw, in heavy accurate lines, an improperly pitched shoulder or a badly proportioned leg.â 40 Nor did he permit nude models in classes that mixed men and women. As might be expected, Krasnerâs determination to maintain her own emerging style conflicted with this French-Academic-trained teacher, as it had with Hinton, who was similarly trained. The Art Students League was not to Krasnerâs taste, and she decided to move on to the National Academy of Design.
Then suddenly Leeâs older sister Rose died of appendicitis on July 9, 1928, leaving behind her husband, William Stein, and two small daughters, Muriel Pearl and Bernice. 41 According to Old World Jewish tradition, the next in lineâLeeâthe eldest of the two remaining unmarried sisters, was supposed to marry her brother-in-law and raise the children. But Lee refused. Though she doted on her nieces, she believed she had another destiny and would not even consider such a marriage. The responsibility fell to Leeâs younger sister, Ruth, who, it seems, never forgave her sister.
F OUR
National Academy and First Love, 1928â32
Igor Pantuhoff and his portrait of a nude model, c. 1930. At the National Academy, Igor, a tall, handsome, charming White Russian who boasted of an aristocratic lineage, was easy to notice. Younger than Krasner by three years, he often won prizes for his work.
L ATE IN THE SUMMER OF 1928, L EE STARTED AN AMBITIOUS SELF-PORTRAIT to qualify her for the life class at the National Academy of Design. She set herself up outdoors at her parentsâ new home in Greenlawn (Huntington Township) on Long Islandâs north shore. They had purchased a modest rural house with a separate garage (that might have been an old barn) in May 1926, 1 when Joseph was fifty-five and Anna was nearly forty-six. (The 1930 census says that Leeâs parents still lived in the Brooklynhouse they rented for $50 a month; Lee and Irving were also still living there.) 2 After nearly two decades of physical drudgery and economic uncertainty as fishmongers, Joseph and Anna longed for a country life like the one theyâd had in Shpikov. The house, next to a small lake, was simple with no indoor plumbing, but they could grow vegetables, raise chickens, and sell eggs. It was also just up the hill from Centreport Harbor, which offered swimming and fishing. 3 They sold some of what they grew.
Getting there was easy via the Long Island Railroad. Krasner had been painting from life even before she left Cooper Union. Now she was working with confidence, producing an oil painting that was thirty by twenty-five inches. âI nailed a mirror to a tree, and spent the summer painting myself with trees showing in the background,â she remembered. âIt was difficultâthe light
Similar Books
