The
The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and
Printed Ephemera
OVERVIEW OF
THE COLLECTION
Creator: John Davis Hatch
Title: Collection
Dates: 1801-ca.1950
Call No.:
Acc. No.: 75x82, 64x110
Quantity: 1 box, 1 folder, and 2
volumes
Location: 30 E 1
BIOGRAPHICAL
STATEMENT
John Davis Hatch was an art
historian, collector, and art consultant, originally from
SCOPE AND
CONTENT
The collection consists of letters, sketches, research
notes, and miscellaneous documents both by and about American artists. The items serve to trace the development of
American painting. Some of the materials
include instructions for how to do certain kinds of paintings and recipes for
making paints and crayons.
At one time the manuscript items were merged with
the letters in the Carson Autograph Collection (
ORGANIZATION
The collection is organized into several series:
letters, illustrations, research notes, financial documents, and miscellaneous. Items within each series are arranged by
artist’s last name. A folder of
oversized materials and 2 volumes come at the end of the collection.
PROVENANCE
Gift of Louise du Pont Crowninshield.
Edward
Greene Malbone account book gift of John Davis Hatch.
ACCESS POINTS
(Note: attached to the Downs
Collection copy of this inventory is an index to names in the collection and a
name index to the Malbone account book, which is in
Folder 15)
People:
Darley, Felix Octavius
Carr, 1822-1888
Tice,
Clara.
Nast, Thomas, 1840-1902.
Sartain, John, 1808-1897.
Johnson,
Samuel, 1709-1784.
Mount,
William Sidney, 1807-1868 - Biography.
Sawyer, Charles - Biography.
Topics:
Artists - History - 19th
century.
Art - Collectors and collecting.
Painting - Technique.
Women in art.
Men in art.
Art, American.
Letters.
Notes.
Sketches.
Receipts.
Artists.
Painters.
Art historians.
Art collectors.
DETAILED
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION
Location: 30 E
1
(Note: all accession numbers
begin with 75x082, unless otherwise noted)
Folder 1: Letters
.1 A.L.
Bancroft &
.2 Alan
S. Cole to Mr. Grasberger,
.3 F.O.C.
Darley to Mrs. Cushman,
Jan. 1855, Claymont, De. Declining an
invitation.
.5 Francis Gourand to Sir,
.14 Mr. Grasberger from Emil Orlik,
.15 C.H.
from Robert Reid, n.d. About a photograph of him
and his studio.
.16 Peter
.21 J.C.
from Walter A. Taylor,
.22a-b George
from Clara Tice,
.22c Colonel
from Clara Tice, n.d. Regarding a book he sent to her. On stationary with a pencil
sketch of nude women in various poses.
.23 Grasberger
from Walter Title,
.25 From Charles
Amedee Phillippe Van Loo (painter)
.26 L.E.
Jones from J.Q.A. Ward (artist)
.27 From
Otto Weber (artist)
.28 Carter
Hale from Harrison Weir (artist),
.29 Dr.
E.F. Strickland from Robert Walter Weir (landscape, portrait, and genre
painter),
.30 Mrs.
Mann from James Abbott McNeill Whistler (portrait, figure, and landscape
painter), Paris, n.d. Thanking her for advice.
.32 To
Edward J. Kuntze,
.7 Letters (12) written by
Daniel Huntington to various individuals.
The content of the
letters varies, but included are an expression of
.13 Letters
(38) from W.E. Norton (marine painter) to Frank T. Robinson, 1875‑1880.
Consists
of 38 letters written from Norton to Robbie (Frank T. Robinson) from 1875 to
1880. Taken together, they
chronicle Norton's life in
.12a-c Sketches
(3) by Thomas Nast, ca. 1879. Two are self-portraits and one is a
brownie-like figure.
Folder 9: Illustrations
.10 Sketch by Anna Lea
Merritt (artist) after George Richmond of a gentleman, perhaps Gilbert Scott,
1879.
.17 Engraving
of John Sartain by M.A. Root.
.18 Sketch of a boy by Edward
Simmons.
.31 Sketches of four
individuals (on one sheet of paper) by an unidentified artist. Captions under each sketch suggest an English
origin.
.11 Typescript,
notes, and correspondence regarding William S. Mount. Includes biographical
information, transcriptions of some of his letters, a list of his portraits,
and his comments on Rembrandt.
Folders 13: Research notes
.18 Typescript of the final
draft of an article about Charles Sawyer entitled "Naturalism in
.4 John Evers Notebook,
1848-1853:
This volume was used by Evers to
record instructions, recipes, and other artistic techniques along with costs
for painting murals and other scenes. Included are instructions for painting on
glass, notes on "prepared colors" and "transparent colors,"
the ingredients of cement for picture ornaments, and descriptions for making flexible paint
for canvas, crayons to draw on glass, landscape paintings, cloud tints, and
trees. Entries documenting works created
by Evers indicate that he charged customers by the hour and contain the name of
the customer and the title of the work.
For example, he painted a "Diorama of Creation" for W.H.
Harrington.
Folder 15: Financial documents: Edward Green Malbone
account book and register of portraits, 1794-1807
.9 Malbone,
Edward Greene. Account book and register
of portraits, 1794‑1807:
Records Malbone's expenditures and money received from 1794 to 1807
along with lists of pictures painted in 1794 and 1795, with the names of the
sitters as well as the amounts paid for the portraits. Purchases of such items as pictures, glasses,
frames, carpet, furniture, shoes, hats, wine, and wood are noted. Also included are receipts for lodging and a
listing of expenses associated with a trip from
.6a-b Invitation from Robert
Ball Hughes (sculptor and wax-portraitist) to Col. Trumbull to see a monument
in memory of Bishop Hobart, New York, N.Y.
Also a bill from Hughes to Trumble
regarding a marble bust, 1833.
.24 Receipt to John Trumbull
from Rufus for bringing boxes from
Folder 17: Miscellaneous
(oversize)
.8 Inventory of the estate
of Samuel Johnson, painter,
.33 Manuscript
notes in Dutch regarding Sara Bayard and others.
Volumes 1 and 2
(note:
these are accession number 64x110)
Alfred Stebbins
autograph collection, 1834‑1872.
Consists of letters,
autographs, reproductions of pictures, and photographs of artists solicited by Stebbins and pasted in his copy of Henry T. Tuckerman's Book of the Artists: American Artists Life …
(2 v.