Grand Central School of Art
Encyclopedia
The Grand Central School of Art was an American
art school
in New York City
, founded in 1923 by the painters Edmund Greacen
, Walter Leighton Clark
and John Singer Sargent
. The school was established and run by the Grand Central Art Galleries
, an artists' cooperative founded by Sargent, Greacen, Clark, and others in 1922. The school was directed by Sargent and Daniel Chester French
and occupied 7000 square feet (650.3 m²) on the seventh floor of the east wing of the Grand Central Terminal
in New York City
. Press accounts of the school's opening reception mentioned the following instructors: Greacen, George Pearse Ennis, sculptor Chester Beach
, muralists Ezra Winter
and Dean Cornwell
, the illustrator and costume designer Helen Dryden
, Nicolai Fechin
, Julian Bowes and George Elmer Browne.
The school had more than 400 students its first year and soon grew to 900, making it one of the largest art schools in the city. Greacen engaged Arshile Gorky
as an instructor, probably the school's most prominent teacher. Another instructor was Harvey Dunn
, whose comments were captured by a student during one five-hour class session and were published in 1934 in a slim volume titled An Evening in the Classroom. For some years the school held a summer session in Eastport, Maine. After nearly 20 years of operation, the school closed in 1944.
The school has no relationship to the current Grand Central Academy of Art, despite the similarities in name and a shared humanist perspective. The academy, also in New York City, was established by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America (ICA&CA), founded as two separate nonprofit organizations in 1991 and 1968
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
art school
Art school
Art school is a general term for any educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. The term applies to institutions with elementary, secondary, post-secondary or undergraduate, or graduate or...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, founded in 1923 by the painters Edmund Greacen
Edmund Greacen
Edmund Greacen was an American Impressionist painter.He was born in New York City, New York. He graduated from New York University. After traveling around the world he entered the Art Students League of New York. He also took classes at the New York School of Art, where he studied with William...
, Walter Leighton Clark
Walter Leighton Clark
Walter Leighton Clark was an American businessman, inventor, and artist based in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and New York City. Among other achievements, in 1923 he founded with John Singer Sargent the Grand Central Art Galleries, located within New York City's Grand Central Terminal, to offer...
and John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
. The school was established and run by the Grand Central Art Galleries
Grand Central Art Galleries
The Grand Central Art Galleries were the exhibition and administrative space of the nonprofit Painters and Sculptors Gallery Association, an artists' cooperative established in 1922 by Walter Leighton Clark together with John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, and others...
, an artists' cooperative founded by Sargent, Greacen, Clark, and others in 1922. The school was directed by Sargent and Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French
Daniel Chester French was an American sculptor. His best-known work is the sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.-Life and career:...
and occupied 7000 square feet (650.3 m²) on the seventh floor of the east wing of the Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal —often incorrectly called Grand Central Station, or shortened to simply Grand Central—is a terminal station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Press accounts of the school's opening reception mentioned the following instructors: Greacen, George Pearse Ennis, sculptor Chester Beach
Chester Beach
Chester A. Beach was an American sculptor who was known for his busts and medallic art.-Early life:Beach was born in San Francisco, California. He studied initially at the California School of Mechanical Arts and worked as a jewelry designer immediately afterward, while continuing his art studies...
, muralists Ezra Winter
Ezra Winter
Ezra Augustus Winter was an American muralist.Winter was born in Traverse City, Michigan, trained at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1908, and the American Academy in Rome in 1914. Winter became extremely successful and commanded high prices for his work...
and Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell
Dean Cornwell was an American illustrator and muralist. His oil paintings were frequently featured in popular magazines and books as literary illustrations, advertisements, and posters promoting the war effort. Throughout the first half of the 20th century he was a dominant presence in American...
, the illustrator and costume designer Helen Dryden
Helen Dryden
Helen Dryden was an American artist and successful industrial designer in the 1920s and '30s. She was reportedly described by the New York Times as being the highest-paid woman artist in the United States, though she lived in comparative poverty in later years.- Education :She was born in...
, Nicolai Fechin
Nicolai Fechin
Nicolai Ivanovich Fechin was a Russian-American painter known for his portraits and works featuring Native Americans. After graduating with the highest marks from the Imperial Academy of Arts and traveling in Europe under a Prix de Rome, he returned to his native Kazan, where he taught and painted...
, Julian Bowes and George Elmer Browne.
The school had more than 400 students its first year and soon grew to 900, making it one of the largest art schools in the city. Greacen engaged Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky
Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...
as an instructor, probably the school's most prominent teacher. Another instructor was Harvey Dunn
Harvey Dunn
Harvey Thomas Dunn was an American painter. He is best known for his prairie-intimate masterpiece, The Prairie is My Garden. In this painting, a mother and her son and daughter are out gathering flowers from the quintessential prairie of the Great Plains.-Early life:Dunn was born on a homestead...
, whose comments were captured by a student during one five-hour class session and were published in 1934 in a slim volume titled An Evening in the Classroom. For some years the school held a summer session in Eastport, Maine. After nearly 20 years of operation, the school closed in 1944.
The school has no relationship to the current Grand Central Academy of Art, despite the similarities in name and a shared humanist perspective. The academy, also in New York City, was established by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America (ICA&CA), founded as two separate nonprofit organizations in 1991 and 1968
Notable students
- Charles AddamsCharles AddamsCharles "Chas" Samuel Addams was an American cartoonist known for his particularly black humor and macabre characters...
- Hans BurkhardtHans BurkhardtHans Gustav Burkhardt was a Swiss American abstract expressionist.-Life and work:In 1924 he emigrated from Basel, Switzerland to New York. He shared Arshile Gorky's studio from 1929 to 1936...
- Gerald Curtis DelanoGerald Curtis DelanoGerard Curtis Delano was a painter of the American west.Delano was born in Marion, Massachusetts. He served in the US Navy in the First World War, then worked on a ranch in Colorado, before moving to New York to study art...
- John Philip FalterJohn Philip FalterJohn Philip Falter , more commonly known as John Falter, was an American artist best known for his many cover paintings for The Saturday Evening Post....
- Arnold FribergArnold FribergArnold Friberg was an American illustrator and painter noted for his religious and patriotic works. He is perhaps best known for his 1975 painting The Prayer at Valley Forge, a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge. He is also well known for his 15 "pre-visualization" paintings...
- Mary Goldsmith
- Arthur Roy MitchellArthur Roy MitchellArthur Roy Mitchell was an American artist and historian who was born on his father's homestead west of Trinidad in Las Animas County in southern Colorado....
- Walter Tandy MurchWalter Tandy MurchWalter Tandy Murch was a painter whose still life paintings of machine parts, brick fragments, clocks, broken dolls, hovering light bulbs and glowing lemons are an unusual combination of realism and abstraction...
- Stow WengenrothStow WengenrothStow Wengenroth was an American artist and lithographer, born in 1906 in Brooklyn, New York. Wengenroth was once called "America's greatest living artist working in black and white" by the American realist painter Andrew Wyeth, and he is generally considered to be one of the finest American...
- Arthur SarnoffArthur SarnoffArthur Sarnoff was an American artist. Prior to working as an illustrator, Sarnoff studied at the Industrial School and the Grand Central School of Art in New York City. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators and exhibited widely including the National Academy of Design.Sarnoff was a...
- Norman RockwellNorman RockwellNorman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
- Harold Von SchmidtHarold von SchmidtHarold von Schmidt was an American illustrator who specialized inmagazine interior illustrations. Born in Alameda, California in 1893, he was orphaned at the age of five. After a year in an orphanage, he went to live with his grandfather, who had been a forty-niner. As a youth von Schmidt worked...
- John ClymerJohn ClymerJohn Ford Clymer was an American painter and illustrator known for his work that captured nature and the American West....
- Jack CogginsJack CogginsJack Banham Coggins was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins...
- F. Luis MoraF. Luis MoraF. Luis Mora, also known as Francis Luis Mora , was an Hispanic American figural painter. Mora worked in watercolor, oils and tempera. He produced drawings in pen and ink, and graphite; and etchings and monotypes...
- Alex RaymondAlex RaymondAlexander Gillespie "Alex" Raymond was an American cartoonist, best known for creating Flash Gordon for King Features in 1934...
- Frank J. ReillyFrank J. ReillyFrank J. Reilly A.N.A. was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and teacher. He taught drawing and painting at the Grand Central School of Art, and illustration at Pratt Institute and Moore College of Art. However, he is best known for his twenty-eight years of instructing at the Art...
- Frank DuMondFrank DuMondFrank Vincent DuMond was an American Impressionist painter born in Rochester, New York. He taught at the Art Students League of New York for more than 50 years, until his death in 1951. His students included Charles Hawthorne, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Marin, Andrew Loomis, Norman Rockwell, Frank J....
- Edmund GreacenEdmund GreacenEdmund Greacen was an American Impressionist painter.He was born in New York City, New York. He graduated from New York University. After traveling around the world he entered the Art Students League of New York. He also took classes at the New York School of Art, where he studied with William...
- Pruett Carter
- Ken RileyKen RileyKenneth Jerome Riley is a former professional American Football defensive back who played his entire career for the Cincinnati Bengals, in the American Football League in 1969 and in the NFL from 1970 through 1983...
- Saul Tepper
- Lyman Anderson
- James E. Allen
- Mario Cooper
- Eric Pape
- Henry Martin Gasser
- Norman SaundersNorman SaundersNorman Blaine Saunders was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's adventure magazines, comic books and trading cards...
- Gottlob Briem
- Arthur Roy MitchellArthur Roy MitchellArthur Roy Mitchell was an American artist and historian who was born on his father's homestead west of Trinidad in Las Animas County in southern Colorado....
- Knute O. Munson
- Roderick Fletcher Mead
- Bob KaneBob KaneBob Kane was an American comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the DC Comics superhero Batman...
- Gus Bundy
- Eugene Healan Thomason
- Clare BiceClare BiceClare Bice, CM was a Canadian artist, curator, and children's book author/illustrator.Born in Durham, Ontario and raised in London, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and English from the University of Western Ontario in 1928...
- Stuart DavisStuart Davis (painter)Stuart Davis , was an early American modernist painter. He was well known for his jazz influenced, proto pop art paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, bold, brash, and colorful as well as his ashcan pictures in the early years of the 20th century.-Biography:He was born in Philadelphia to Edward Wyatt...
- Ethel SchwabacherEthel SchwabacherEthel Kremer Schwabacher was a protege of Arshile Gorky, his first biographer, and herself a well-known abstract expressionist painter. Her daughter is the American writer and translator, Brenda Webster....
- Willem de KooningWillem de KooningWillem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
- Elsa Bley
- Ben Ganz
- Elliot Orr
- Marie Stobbe
- Samuel Hershey