George Bridgman

George Brant Bridgman RCA (November 5, 1864 – December 16, 1943)[1] 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.

For the architect and civil engineer, see George Soudon Bridgman. For other people, see George Bridgeman (disambiguation).
George Bridgman
Born(1864-11-05)November 5, 1864
United Province of Canada
DiedDecember 16, 1943(1943-12-16) (aged 79)
New York City, United States
NationalityCanadian-American
EducationÉcole des Beaux-Arts
Known forPainter, art educator, draftsman

Life and work

Bridgman was born in 1864 in the United Province of Canada.[2][3] 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.[1] 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;[1][4] 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,[4][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,[1][17] Elsie Driggs,[18] Eyre de Lanux,[19] Helen Winslow Durkee,[20] Will Eisner, Edward McNeil Farmer,[21] Elias Goldberg, Marion Greenwood,[13][22] Robert Beverly Hale,[23] Lorenzo Homar, Clark Hulings, Louis Paul Jonas,[24] Jack Kamen, Deane Keller, Lee Krasner,[25] Richard Lahey,[26] Andrew Loomis, Anita Malfatti, Paul Manship,[27] Frank McCarthy, Earl Moran, John Cullen Murphy, Kimon Nicolaïdes, Corrado Parducci,[28] Norman Raeben, Frank J. Reilly, Joseph Emile Renier,[29] Ulysses Ricci, Ernie Schroeder, Archie Boyd Teater, Allie Tennant,[30] John Vassos, Franklin Brooke Voss, Edmund Ward,[1] Mahonri Young,[31] and William Zorach.[32]

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.[6] He was survived by his wife, Helene Leonora Bridgman (née Rupperstberg) and their three children.[6]

George Bridgman has 100 drawings in the public collection at the Norman Rockwell Museum.[33]

Rescue of a Youth Fallen Overboard from a Fishing Boat, 1888, (Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York)

Bibliography
  • Bridgman, George B.; Simon, Howard (1952). Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing from Life. New York City, New York: Weathervane. ISBN 9781402766787.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1942). Drawing the Draped Figure. Pelham, New York: Bridgman Publishers. ISBN 9780486138121.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1939). The Human Machine.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1936). Heads, Features and Faces.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1929). Bridgmans Handbook of Drawing.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1924). Bridgman's Life Drawing.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1920). Constructive Anatomy. Pelham, New York: Bridgman Publishers.
  • Bridgman, George B. (1920). The Book of a Hundred Hands. New York City, New York: Sterling Publishing Company. ISBN 9780486132600.

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

References
  1. Fielding, Mantle; Opitz, Glenn B. (1983). Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo. pp. 217, 783, 991. ISBN 978-0-938290-02-5.
  2. Love, Richard H.; Peters, Carl William (1999). Carl W. Peters: American Scene Painter from Rochester to Rockport. University Rochester Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-1-58046-024-8.
  3. McMann, Evelyn de Rostaing (2003-01-01). Biographical Index of Artists in Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8020-2790-0.
  4. "George B. Bridgman". Illustration History, Norman Rockwell Museum. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  5. "Christmas Spirit". The New York Times. October 24, 1943. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  6. "George Bridgman Art Teacher, Dies". The New York Times. December 17, 1943. Retrieved 2020-09-30.
  7. "George Brandt Bridgman at Askart.com"
  8. "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 4 May 2019. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  9. "Art: Bone & Muscle Man". Time. 1942-09-14. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2020-10-01. Some 70,000 artists
  10. "McClelland Barclay". Laguna Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  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. "Gifford Reynolds Beal (American, 1879 - 1956), West Wind". The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  13. Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. p. 523. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  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. Bonner, Judith H.; Pennington, Estill Curtis; Wilson, Charles Reagan (2013-01-14). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 21: Art and Architecture. UNC Press Books. p. 287. ISBN 978-0-8078-6994-9.
  18. Kimmerle, Constance (2008). Elsie Driggs: The Quick and the Classical. James A. Michener Art Museum. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 124. ISBN 9780812241044.
  19. Jules Heller; Nancy G. Heller (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5.
  20. Fielding & Opitz 1983, p. 245.
  21. Hughes, Edan Milton (1986). Artists in California, 1786-1940. Hughes Publishing Company. ISBN 9780961611200.
  22. Sonneborn, Liz; Kort, Carol (2014). A to Z of American Women in the Visual Arts. Infobase Publishing. pp. 85–86. ISBN 9781438107912.
  23. Deupi, Victor (2020). Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America. Routledge. ISBN 9780429557590.
  24. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 195
  25. Lynch, Mary (2016-03-20). "Alumni Profile: Lee Krasner A'29". Cooper Union Alumni Association. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  26. Joyce, Maureen (August 3, 1978). "Richard Lahey, Painter, Ex-Corcoran Principal". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-09-27.
  27. Rand, Harry, Paul Manship, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington 1989 p. 10
  28. "Oral history interview with Corrado Parducci, 1975 Mar. 17". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
  29. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 338
  30. Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, 1968 p. 479
  31. Toone, Thomas E., Mahonri Young: His Life and Art, Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah,1997 p. 36-37
  32. Zorach, William, Art is My Life: The Autobiography of William Zorach, The World Publishing Company, Cleveland Ohio, 1967 p.21
  33. Bradway, Rich (2013-06-11). "George B. Bridgman drawings in NRM collections". Norman Rockwell Museum. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
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