Russell Sturgis
Encyclopedia
Russell Sturgis was an American architect
and art critic
of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in 1870.
, the son of Russell and Margaret Dawes (Appleton) Sturgis. The father was a New York
shipping merchant who was living temporarily in Baltimore when Russell was born in 1836. The family were descended from Edward Sturgis, recorded in Charlestown, Massachusetts
, in 1634 and later one of the first settlers of Yarmouth, Massachusetts
.
Educated in the public schools of New York City
, Sturgis was graduated from the Free Academy in New York (now the College of the City of New York
) in 1856, and later studied architecture under Leopold Eidlitz
. For about a year and a half he also studied in Munich
. In 1862 he returned to the United States. He was associated with Peter Bonnett Wight
from 1863 to 1868 and then practiced alone until 1880.
in 1863 Sturgis together with the painter John William Hill
, art critic Clarence Cook
, and geologist and art critic Clarence King
helped to found the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art which published a journal The New Path. The articles written by Sturgis provided an early glimpse of his critical interest in art and architecture, made amply clear in his later writings.
On May 26, 1864, he married Sarah Maria Barney, daughter of Danford N. Barney
of New York City. Her father served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1853 to 1866. Russell and Sarah Sturgis were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son died in infancy.
and Lawrence, Farnham and Durfee Halls at Yale
; the Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital, New York City; the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Albany; and churches, commercial buildings, and residences in New York City, Albany, Aurora, Tarrytown and Watertown, New York; New Haven, Farmington and Litchfield, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Upon the reorganization of the American Institute of Architects
in 1868, Sturgis was elected secretary, while Richard Upjohn
was president and R.G. Hatfield treasurer. Also in 1868, Sturgis published his Manual of the Jarves Collection of Early American Pictures in the Yale School of Fine Arts. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art
was established in 1870, Sturgis was a trustee and a member of the executive committee until 1876, also serving as corresponding secretary from 1870 to 1873. He designed the First Baptist Church at Tarrytown, New York
about 1875.
During the Exposition Universelle of 1878
, Sturgis spent some months in France
, and upon his return accepted the chair of architecture and the arts of design at the College of the City of New York. He was the co-author, with Charles Eliot Norton
, of a Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Engravings, Woodcuts and Illustrated Books, Parts of the Collections of C.E. Norton and R. Sturgis (1879). On account of ill health he left his professorship and retired from business in 1880 and went to Europe. Residing chiefly in Paris
and Florence
, he remained abroad until 1884. For a short time after his return he was secretary of the New York Municipal Civil Service Board, but resigned out of dislike for the political complications involved in the position.
He trained architect Arthur Bates Jennings
.
On December 30, 1886, Sturgis and his eldest son, Appleton, represented the family at the funeral of his wife's uncle, Ashbel H. Barney
, retired president (1869–70) of Wells Fargo & Company.
and of the National Academy of Design
; an honorary fellow of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; a fellow in perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
; life member of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society; honorary member of the National Society of Mural Painters
; and a member of the Architectural League of New York
(president in 1889-93), the Grolier Club, the Municipal Art Society, Archaeological Institute of America, National Sculpture Society
, the Japan Society, the Fine Arts Federation of New York (first president, 1895–97); member of the University, Century and Players clubs of New York City
; and a member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in London
.
He lectured on art at Columbia University
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York; the Peabody Institute
of Baltimore and the Art Institute of Chicago; his Scammon Lectures of 1904-05 in Chicago
were published under the title The Interdependence of the Arts of Design (1905). Sturgis received the honorary degrees of MA from Yale in 1870 and PhD from the College of the City of New York in 1893. A disciple of John Ruskin
, Sturgis intensely disliked the trend toward neoclassic eclecticism at the end of the 19th century and hailed Louis H. Sullivan's work as the most significant that was being done in America.
A leading authority on the history of architecture and art, Sturgis was editor for decorative art and medieval archaeology of the Century Dictionary, editor of architecture and fine art for Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia (1893–95), author of European Architecture: A Historical Study (1896); compiler (for the American Library Association
) of the Annotated Bibliography of Fine Art (1897); and author of The Etchings of Piranesi (1900). In January 1897 he became editor of The Field of Art, a department of Scribner's Magazine, which he continued until his death.
He is best known as a writer on art and architecture, making many contributions to dictionaries, encyclopedias and periodicals. He was editor-in-chief of A Dictionary of Architecture and Building (3 vols, 1901–1902). Sturgis edited and revised the English version of Wilhelm Luebke's Outlines of the History of Art (2 vols, 1904), and was editor on fine arts for the Encyclopedia Americana (1904–05). He wrote How to Judge Architecture (1903), The Appreciation of Sculpture (1904), The Appreciation of Pictures (1905), A Study of the Artist's Way of Working in the Various Handicrafts and Arts of Design (2 vols, 1905), Ruskin on Architecture (1906), and History of Architecture (4 vols., 1906–1915; Vols. III and IV were completed by A.L. Frothingham, Jr.).
During his last years he was nearly blind. He died on February 11, 1909, at his long-time home, 307 East 17th Street, in New York City. Sarah Sturgis died there on May 1, 1910.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in 1870.
Early life and marriage
Sturgis was born in Baltimore County, MarylandBaltimore County, Maryland
Baltimore County is a county located in the northern part of the US state of Maryland. In 2010, its population was 805,029. It is part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Its county seat is Towson. The name of the county was derived from the barony of the Proprietor of the Maryland...
, the son of Russell and Margaret Dawes (Appleton) Sturgis. The father was a New York
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...
shipping merchant who was living temporarily in Baltimore when Russell was born in 1836. The family were descended from Edward Sturgis, recorded in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and is located on a peninsula north of downtown Boston. Charlestown was originally a separate town and the first capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; it became a city in 1847 and was annexed by Boston on January 5, 1874...
, in 1634 and later one of the first settlers of Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Yarmouth is a New England town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 24,807 at the 2000 census....
.
Educated in the public schools of 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...
, Sturgis was graduated from the Free Academy in New York (now the College of the City of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
) in 1856, and later studied architecture under Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz
Leopold Eidlitz was a prominent New York architect best known for his work on the New York State Capitol , as well as "Iranistan" , P. T. Barnum's house in Bridgeport, Connecticut; St. Peter's Church, on Westchester Avenue at St...
. For about a year and a half he also studied in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. In 1862 he returned to the United States. He was associated with Peter Bonnett Wight
Peter Bonnett Wight
Peter B. Wight was a 19th century architect from New York City who worked there and in Chicago.-Biography:Wight's career "flourished in the 1860s and 1870s in New York, where he developed a decorative, historicist style that showed affinities to the work of European designers John Ruskin and...
from 1863 to 1868 and then practiced alone until 1880.
in 1863 Sturgis together with the painter John William Hill
John William Hill
John William Hill or often J.W. Hill was a British born American artist working in watercolor, gouache, lithography, and engraving. Hill's work focussed primarily upon natural subjects including landscapes, still lifes, and ornithological and zoological subjects...
, art critic Clarence Cook
Clarence Cook
Clarence Chatham Cook was a 19th-century American author and art critic.Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Cook graduated from Harvard in 1849 and worked as a teacher. Between 1863 and 1869, Cook wrote a series of articles about American art for The New York Tribune...
, and geologist and art critic Clarence King
Clarence King
Clarence R. King was an American geologist, mountaineer, and art critic. First director of the United States Geological Survey, from 1879 to 1881, King was noted for his exploration of the Sierra Nevada. He was born in Newport, Rhode Island.-Career:...
helped to found the Society for the Advancement of Truth in Art which published a journal The New Path. The articles written by Sturgis provided an early glimpse of his critical interest in art and architecture, made amply clear in his later writings.
On May 26, 1864, he married Sarah Maria Barney, daughter of Danford N. Barney
Danford N. Barney
Danford Newton Barney was an American expressman who served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1853 to 1866....
of New York City. Her father served as president of Wells Fargo & Company from 1853 to 1866. Russell and Sarah Sturgis were the parents of four sons and three daughters, of whom one son died in infancy.
Career as architect
Between 1865 and 1880 he designed Battell ChapelBattell Chapel
Battell Chapel at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was built in 1874-76 as a Civil War memorial, with funds donated by Joseph Battell and others of his family. The chapel was designed by Russell Sturgis, Jr. in High Victorian Gothic style of rough brown sandstone. It was the third of...
and Lawrence, Farnham and Durfee Halls at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
; the Homeopathic Medical College and Flower Hospital, New York City; the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Albany; and churches, commercial buildings, and residences in New York City, Albany, Aurora, Tarrytown and Watertown, New York; New Haven, Farmington and Litchfield, Connecticut; Louisville, Kentucky; and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Upon the reorganization of the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
in 1868, Sturgis was elected secretary, while Richard Upjohn
Richard Upjohn
Richard Upjohn was an English-born architect who emigrated to the United States and became most famous for his Gothic Revival churches. He was partially responsible for launching the movement to such popularity in the United States. Upjohn also did extensive work in and helped to popularize the...
was president and R.G. Hatfield treasurer. Also in 1868, Sturgis published his Manual of the Jarves Collection of Early American Pictures in the Yale School of Fine Arts. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
was established in 1870, Sturgis was a trustee and a member of the executive committee until 1876, also serving as corresponding secretary from 1870 to 1873. He designed the First Baptist Church at Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown, New York
Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about north of midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North Hudson Line...
about 1875.
During the Exposition Universelle of 1878
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870 Franco-Prussian War.-Construction:...
, Sturgis spent some months in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and upon his return accepted the chair of architecture and the arts of design at the College of the City of New York. He was the co-author, with Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton, was a leading American author, social critic, and professor of art. He was a militant idealist, a progressive social reformer, and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries considered the most cultivated man in the United States.-Biography:Norton was born at...
, of a Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Engravings, Woodcuts and Illustrated Books, Parts of the Collections of C.E. Norton and R. Sturgis (1879). On account of ill health he left his professorship and retired from business in 1880 and went to Europe. Residing chiefly in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, he remained abroad until 1884. For a short time after his return he was secretary of the New York Municipal Civil Service Board, but resigned out of dislike for the political complications involved in the position.
He trained architect Arthur Bates Jennings
Arthur Bates Jennings
Arthur Bates Jennings was an American architect, working primarily out of New York, New York. He married Caroline Jerusha Allen of West Meriden, Connecticut and had three children, Edward Allen Jennings, Arthur B. Jennings, Jr., and Helen Bates Jennings.He earned an A.B. from College of the City...
.
On December 30, 1886, Sturgis and his eldest son, Appleton, represented the family at the funeral of his wife's uncle, Ashbel H. Barney
Ashbel H. Barney
Ashbel Holmes Barney was an American banker and expressman who served as president of Wells Fargo & Company in 1869-1870.-Early life:...
, retired president (1869–70) of Wells Fargo & Company.
Author and critic
Sturgis was a fellow of the American Institute of ArchitectsAmerican Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
and of the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
; an honorary fellow of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; a fellow in perpetuity of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
; life member of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society; honorary member of the National Society of Mural Painters
National Society of Mural Painters
The National Society of Mural Painters is an American artists' organization founded in 1895, originally known as The Mural Painters. The charter of the society is to advance the techniques and standards for the design and execution of mural art for the enrichment of architecture in the United...
; and a member of the Architectural League of New York
Architectural League of New York
The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture, urbanism, and related disciplines"....
(president in 1889-93), the Grolier Club, the Municipal Art Society, Archaeological Institute of America, National Sculpture Society
National Sculpture Society
Founded in 1893, the National Sculpture Society was the first organization of professional sculptors formed in the United States. The purpose of the organization was to promote the welfare of American sculptors, although its founding members included several renowned architects. The founding...
, the Japan Society, the Fine Arts Federation of New York (first president, 1895–97); member of the University, Century and Players clubs of 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...
; and a member of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
He lectured on art at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York; the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...
of Baltimore and the Art Institute of Chicago; his Scammon Lectures of 1904-05 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
were published under the title The Interdependence of the Arts of Design (1905). Sturgis received the honorary degrees of MA from Yale in 1870 and PhD from the College of the City of New York in 1893. A disciple of John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...
, Sturgis intensely disliked the trend toward neoclassic eclecticism at the end of the 19th century and hailed Louis H. Sullivan's work as the most significant that was being done in America.
A leading authority on the history of architecture and art, Sturgis was editor for decorative art and medieval archaeology of the Century Dictionary, editor of architecture and fine art for Johnson's Universal Cyclopaedia (1893–95), author of European Architecture: A Historical Study (1896); compiler (for the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
) of the Annotated Bibliography of Fine Art (1897); and author of The Etchings of Piranesi (1900). In January 1897 he became editor of The Field of Art, a department of Scribner's Magazine, which he continued until his death.
He is best known as a writer on art and architecture, making many contributions to dictionaries, encyclopedias and periodicals. He was editor-in-chief of A Dictionary of Architecture and Building (3 vols, 1901–1902). Sturgis edited and revised the English version of Wilhelm Luebke's Outlines of the History of Art (2 vols, 1904), and was editor on fine arts for the Encyclopedia Americana (1904–05). He wrote How to Judge Architecture (1903), The Appreciation of Sculpture (1904), The Appreciation of Pictures (1905), A Study of the Artist's Way of Working in the Various Handicrafts and Arts of Design (2 vols, 1905), Ruskin on Architecture (1906), and History of Architecture (4 vols., 1906–1915; Vols. III and IV were completed by A.L. Frothingham, Jr.).
During his last years he was nearly blind. He died on February 11, 1909, at his long-time home, 307 East 17th Street, in New York City. Sarah Sturgis died there on May 1, 1910.