In 1912 New Rochelle was a fast growing suburb. Already in 1899 New Rochelle had incorporated as a city. While New Rochelle was one of the earliest communities in the area, having been founded by the Huguenots in 1688, New York City residents first discovered New Rochelle in large numbers with the advent of the steam boat, especially the one that took them to the pleasure gardens at Glen Island and the Neptune House resort. Soon, planned resi- dential areas like Rochelle Park (1885) and Rochelle Heights (1905) sprang up. New Rochelle’s popula- tion doubled between 1900 and 1910 and would double again between 1910 and 1930.

The village the Huguenots had founded with large tracts of farm land was rapidly being sub-divided into residential communities. A system of trolleys, com- muter railroads, and later the parkways made New Rochelle easily accessible.

The New York area had always been friendly to artists. In the 19th century painters of the Hudson River School settled here. Many artists traveled to Europe and began to paint in the style of the im- pressionists while others were more influenced by traditional Beaux Arts training. Meanwhile, with the turn of the century, the highly influential real- ism of the Ash Can School promoted the idea that art didn’t have to portray just beautiful objects.

In 1913, a large show of contemporary art at the Armory in New York City showed a wide variety of paintings. These included paintings by the cubists and surrealists which would cause quite a stir, and would also divide the art world for the most part into realists and those who wanted to something else. New York City was also the hub of the magazine and advertising world and many commercial artists found work there while living in the suburbs. New Rochelle had a particularly large and vibrant art community starting in the late 19th century with artists as early residents of some of the planned residential parks. New York was a center of magazine publishing and many illustrators of the day also came to New York and settled in New Rochelle.

Artist Ernest Albert moved to a house in Rochelle Park that is now the Elks Club. Illustrator Orson Lowell resided across the street from him. Frederic Remington moved to New Rochelle in1891 and lived here until 1908 on an estate designed by renowned architect Alexander Jackson Davis. Edward Kemble and Rufus Zogbaum were other early artist settlers. Joseph C. Leyndecker, who sold his first cover to The Saturday Evening Post in 1899, moved here and built a large house in 1918 that is now the Mount Tom School. Cartoonist F. Burr Opper moved to the area now known as Residential Park. Clare Briggs, a very popular cartoonist with cartoons appearing in 180 daily papers, lived in a large Tudor house near the Wykagyl Country Club, which he joined in 1914. A series of golfing car- toons soon followed.

By 1914 there were so many artists in New Rochelle that the local paper referred to the “artist colony”. It has been said that that 90% of the illustrations in The Saturday Evening Post were produced by artists from the city in the early years of the 20th century. Indeed, its most famous illustrator, Norman Rockwell, moved with his family to a boarding house in New Rochelle in 1913. Rockwell, although only 17, already had illustrated a children’s book. He first rented a studio on North Avenue then quickly plugged into the New Rochelle art community, sharing Remington’s former studio with the cartoonist Victor Clyde Forsythe, who worked for The Saturday Evening Post and created the Joe Jinx comic strip. By 1916 Rockwell’s work was on the first of what were to be many covers of The Saturday Evening Post.

Rockwell spoke of his early years in New Rochelle, recalling that “he often saw Cole Phillips the celebrated pretty girl artist, or Clare Briggs, the well-known cartoonist” or Leyndecker on his way to his commute to New York City. New Rochelle was also home to the Thanhauser silent movie studio and Terrytoons the animation firm that created early cartoons such as Mighty Mouse.

In 1930, a Memorial Exhibit was held for New Rochelle’s Clare Biggs, a cartoonist whom The Standard Star said was “the most widely-read car- toonist the world has ever known.” His strip Mr. and Mrs. was carried by two hundred syndicates and he was estimated to have ten million readers.

In addition to his strips, he had book collections on some of his favorite subjects including golf cartoons, which featured friendly caricatures of his buddies from the Wykagyl and Siwanoy Clubs.

In the early years of the 1930s the effects of the crash seemed to be minimal. Each show was pro- nounced to be “the finest yet” and some pictures were priced in the thousands of dollars. One show had “Dryads” by renowned impressionist Childe Hassam, while another featured watercolors by Eliot O’Hara who wrote the first of what would be six how-to books about watercolors that year. There continued to be shows which regularly featured clever and amusing paintings by Norman Rockwell in the Illustrators section.

The painting section meanwhile was still domi- nated primarily by realist works like F. C. Frieseke’s “Practice Hour”.

Lectures often looked beyond the usual and includ- ed, for example, one by Louis Paul Jonas, sculptor and taxidermist. He was a pioneer in showing animals in their settings - often as groups of animals and his work appears in many museums of Natural History. He designed groups by using smaller mod- els which were then used by museums that could not afford the real animals. A model for “Grizzly’s Last Stand” appeared in one of the New Rochelle shows.

In 1931 the Illustrator’s Section featured a paint- ing by J. C. Leyndecker showing Santa on a ladder trying to soothe a fierce bulldog which appears to have taken a bite out of his suit.

At the same show Norman Rockwell showed a picture of an old fashioned portraitist and another painting of a Hollywood hopeful, while Orson Lowell showed some of his Life covers.

In 1932, a hugely popular show of comic art was held. The Association president said the show “was put on deliberately to combat what some pessimists have alluded to as the present period of depression.”

The comic art show included work by three New Rochellians: Ad Carter of Just Kids, F. Burr “Fred” Opper of Happy Hooligan and Russ Westover of Tillie the Toiler. There were also some political car- toons in the show. It was such a success it went on to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

In 1933 the Association put on an Old Mas- ters Exhibition, with thirty-four pictures totaling $500,000 in value. It included the earliest known portrait of George Washington, some Dutch and French artists and several English artists including portraits by Lawrence, Reynolds and Gainsborough and a Turner landscape.

The 1933 Illustrators Show included two works by Leyendecker and three by Rockwell including one about which the paper said, “Don’t say any- thing about it but we also discovered a dead man
in the exhibition. He’s lying over in one corner in an awkward position and there’s a revolver nearby. There was nothing we could do about it so we left him there. You can find him without a bit of trouble if you want to look but you’ll sleep better if you don’t.”

The shows continued to be very popular and the library estimated that they received 10,000 visitors a year. In 1933, members of the Association had a very positive outlook and spoke of getting their own quarters while also maintaining their relationship with the library.

At this time the Association had the first of its fundraisers to raise scholarship money. Each artist painted a small picture or donated an existing one, all framed and more or less the same size (though there was some sculpture too). Patrons paid a small fee ($5) to entitle them to one of the pictures, but which one, was determined by lot at a party where the names of the patrons were placed in one hat, and the names of the painting in another, and then one card was drawn from each hat. They raised enough money to cover a year’s tuition at the Phoenix Art Institute for a high school senior. Eighty-nine members participated.

However by 1934 the depression had definitely reached New Rochelle. The library budget was cut by 27%, meaning that there was no longer money for the expense of an attendant. The Association considered cutting the popular hobby show, but ultimately the American Legion offered to come up with the $25 to cover the cost of the attendant at thirty cents per hour for six hours a day.

One presumes shows continued on through the thirties, but perhaps as a result of the library cuts, few clippings are filed by the library, though there is a newspaper photograph and article about a medal that was designed for the awards at the 1939 show.

Besides the regular shows there were some interest- ing lectures in the post-war period. In 1946, Harold Von Schmidt, a Saturday Evening Post artist, and the founder of the art correspondence school the Famous Artists School (which for many years em- ployed Norman Rockwell) came and talked about how to do color lay-in work. Later that year there was a lecture on commercial art by Dean Cornwell who showed preliminary work for the Eastern Airlines murals at Rockefeller Center. Questioned about modern art he said there were three types, “mechanical skill, effected incompetence and in- competence ‘when they just don’t know what they are doing’.” He also didn’t like art critics much, say- ing he thought they should just describe the work, and not pass judgment.

In 1946 for the first time separate prizes were given to professional versus amateur artists. This separation was never mentioned again, suggesting that the experiment was abandoned.

In 1947 Eugene Savage gave a lecture titled “The Expanding Metaphysics in Art”. It is unclear if the reporter understood what the talk was about, but it appear that he was explaining or defending surreal- ism and the symbolic meaning of basic geometric shapes which he said were an outgrowth of emphas- izing the spiritual in art, and a rejection of the “per- fect specimen of beauty”.

In 1948 and 1949 the Association along with the Music Teachers Council sponsored two big Arts and Crafts fairs. The fairs included many demonstrations and were hugely popular. The second fair, which was held at the Woman’s Club, featured sixty paint- ings, the presentation of the Adolph Grant award for best painting, and the Julliard String Quartet, (which had been founded just a few years earlier), among its highlights. The event also included a game of musical easels where seven artists painted what was suggested by a piece of music. Results ranged from traditional to very abstract.

In 1950, well-known water colorist Dong King- man gave a talk and also showed his film “Art in Action”. Later that year Harry Sternberg discussed silk screen painting, a new medium which the WPA had brought into prominence. An announcement was made that arrangements with Artists Equity Association would allow even more nationally known artists to lecture and demonstrate at the Association meetings for next season.

In 1951 the Art Association made a big splash when they staged the 39th Winter Exhibit at First National Bank on the corner of Main St and Lawton Street. The show included artists who had

previous association with New Rochelle, not just current NRAA members. The New York Times headline read “Philistines Open Arms to Artists as Bank Becomes Gallery for Day”. The New
Rochelle Garden Club provided flowers. Apparently the bank president had heard they felt they

weren’t getting enough visibility at the library lo- cated “on the edge of town” and offered his space as well as $500 in prize money and the opportunity to touch a $5000 bill. Fell Sharp, president of the Association was quoted as saying “It came as a great surprise, artists are more accustomed to being thrown out of banks on their ears than being invited inside this way.” Mr. Roth, an Association mem- ber, said “We are trying to kill the glass-eye and marble-wall atmosphere in banking. This Bohemian Art show will help.” The show included paintings by Reginald Marsh and the late J. C. Leyendecker. Over a thousand people attended the reception. The affair seems to have been somewhat complicated since it only spent the weekend at the bank and then had to be moved to its regular quarters in the library.

At about this time the Association added a new activity to its evening roster of demonstrations and lectures. This was the panel discussion where they invited a panel of artists or critics to discuss a topic. The first of these panels discussed “What makes a picture a masterpiece?”

Modern art as we know it finally seemed to be getting accepted in 1954 as president Lumen Mar- tin Winters gave a talk about the relationship of Ital- ian renaissance art and Picasso, Matisse and other modernists. Some interesting art events were or- ganized, such as one where silhouette artist Ugo Mochi was presented with a medallion to celebrate his new book and article in the magazine Natural History, and dances inspired by Mochi’s gazelles were performed by Broadway dancer Virginia (Tiny) Shimp.

In 1956 Miss Molly Guion did a portrait demonstration. She was a well-known artist who had spent several years in England painting portraits of high society including many in the Royal Family. She was also a direct descendant of one of the origi- nal Huguenot families that settled New Rochelle.

In the meantime the big Painting and Sculpture show, which had become a juried show, became so big that they had to go back to the bank and have them host the sculptures portion of the show. The show may have been particularly popular that year as they were able to arrange to refund the fees for anyone who was rejected from the show. Another attraction may have been the award money offered - $2000 total. Six hundred visitors were at the open- ing reception and ultimately at least seven thousand saw the show. Membership rose to 325 that year including the fifty new sculptors who joined the association.

Starting in the 1960s and throughout most of the 1970s there was a regular series of shows with October for oils, November for Watercolors, Pastels and Crafts, December as a Priced to Sell Show, January either for new members or an open show, February for Drawing, Prints and Sculptures, March for Figures and Portraits, April for a Juried Show, and May for an “Anything Goes” show that encouraged experimentation. One interesting event, held in conjunction with most of the shows, was a dinner with the judge or judges which anyone in the Association could attend.

The panel discussions which were begun in the previous decade continued on such topics as “Pros and Cons of Modern Art” (The Association newslet- ter said of that particular event, “This should prove to be an evening requiring referees.”)

Sketch nights became a regular occurrence, usually led by artist and later president A. Shore Packer. During the 1960s there were some new activities including a studio home tour for the benefit for the Association. The tour visited Helen Beling, sculptor, Herman Roth, silversmith, Esther Perry, potter,
Lee Perry (architect), Molly Guion Smythe (painter), C. Paul Jennewein (sculptor), Lily, Irene and Alice Gross (two painters and one sculptor), and Herman Roth (silversmither and jeweler).
Another new activity was a program to rotate art through the mayor’s office on a monthly basis.

Two very successful fundraisers were held at Temple Emanu-El in Mount Vernon. At the 1965 event one hundred and twenty-five pieces of art were sold netting $5600 for Association members and a $4000 commission for the temple.

In 1963 all the first place winners from a year’s worth of shows displayed their work together at the Ruth White gallery on 57th Street in New York City to generally favorable reviews.

In 1964 there was a small group show by four invited artists “all of whom paint in the modern manner.” The artists were Frances Harkavy, Pearl Mandell, Margo Krouwer, and Edward Stoloff.

In 1964 the Association celebrated its 50th anniversary with a big juried exhibition open to all Westchester artists. The current president Robert Sabato was quoted in The Standard Star: “This show represents a new phase in the activities of the New Rochelle Art Association, which has been part of the New Rochelle cultural scene for the past forty years” The show was held at the Huguenot YMCA on Division Street which had more space than the library. There was a $3 entry fee for members and $4 for non-members. There were $100 prizes in four categories – Oil Painting, Watercolor, Graphics, and Sculpture, with several judges for each category.

Sculpture continued to be a very popular medium and a 1964 sculpture show at the Huguenot YMCA had forty-nine pieces. There was an even bigger open juried show in 1966 just for sculpture and large ceramics held at 1st Westchester National Bank and again in 1967 with a top prize of $400. Truly modern art appeared to have finally been accepted when the association held a 1965 show
for abstract or non-objective work. However there was still room for tradition, with Helen Van Wyk demonstrating portrait painting in a traditional style, albeit using polymer colors instead of oils. The following year watercolor painter and teacher Edgar Whitney gave a demonstration.

That said, tension between modernists and tradi- tionalists came to the fore when in 1965 there was a bit of a kerfuffle regarding an outdoor show (6th Annual Westchester Outdoor Art Festival) organized by local gallery owner Woodi Ishmael of the Greene Gallery. “Famed illustrator and artist” C. C. Beall, a New Rochelle Art Association member, complained in The Standard Star that the work shown belonged to “the tin cup school of art”. Letters flew back and forth in the paper as artists who were in the show disagreed and praised the New Rochelle citizens who attended and seemed to enjoy the show. Robert Ceston, an Association artist who was in the show, was “appalled” by Mr. Beall’s attack, saying “Mr. Beall is obviously a member of a bitter clique of commercial rather than fine artists who have never adjusted to the tidal wave of great progressive American art, the demand for which was created by their own stale techniques.”

He continued, “As a five-year member of the New Rochelle Art Association of which Mr. Beall thinks so highly, I can assure you that the shows run by the New Rochelle Art Association are hardly stimulating, the atmosphere being more suited to Aunt Martha’s coffee Klatsch rather than an art exhibit – and ditto for their paintings – save for a few good artists like Buchman, Mandell, or the Sabatos.” He also said that Mr. Beall’s comment that “abstraction is the work of children was ‘the joke of the century.’” The official word from the New Rochelle Art Association? There was “no feud” between the organization and the outdoor art exhibition promoted by Theodore H. Greene according to President Martha Gangel who added, “We are a dignified, 51-year-old non-profit group and I’d like to let it go at that.”

Meanwhile the New Rochelle Art Association, perhaps showing their conservative leanings, announced that romantic realist artist, Samuel Edmund Oppenheim, would demonstrate a portrait at the YMCA on the closing date of the festival. Oppenheim was a respected artist who had exhibit- ed at the White House, the Chrysler Museum of Art and many galleries and was definitely no modernist.

The eclectic nature of the Association is hinted at in the winners of the 1965 juried show where “Young Mermaid” by Monique Winston, a sculp- ture, won Best in Show, but intriguingly a painting entitled “Shame of Selma” by Lilli Gross won best painting.

October 1966 John Groth gave a talk. He is known best as an artist-correspondent who recorded “the drama and beauty of the world as well as the miseries and gore of its battlefields”. He covered the fall of Berlin, the Korean conflict, and the Jack Ruby trial. He illustrated War and Peace, Heming way’s Men Without Women, and Exodus among other books. He also did Esquire cartoons. His pictures of doctors and nurses at work during the Korean War were a far cry from the relatively cheery portrait that would later be provided by the TV show MASH.

With the new century the art association made some major changes. In 2000 a vote was taken to eliminate the category of Associate member which was no longer for non-artists who were interested in supporting art and instead had become a class of membership for artists who were not considered good enough to be full members and it only allowed them to participate in one show a year. At the same time the Association voted to add two new classes of membership: Photography and Digital Art.

It was hoped that the changes would both help the Association to expand its membership and also to allow for some more interesting and contemporary work that had been an uncomfortable fit in the “Mixed Media” category. At the same time, under the leadership of president Charlotte Klein, the Association took a long overdue look at its by-laws which had remained unchanged since 1929 and brought them into the new century to reflect the way the Association currently operated.

Activities included a demonstration by pastel painter Diana DeSantis, a critique conducted by artist David Beynon Pena, and a talk entitled “The art market: strategies for artists” by Beth Gersh-Nesic.

In 2000 the Art Association entered the digital age when artists Lenni Hirsh and Theresa Beyer gave a seminar on how to use the internet, from places to talk about art online to places to sell it, as well as the basics of how to make a website. Members were invited to bring in a piece of work which was then photographed and put on the first New Rochelle Art Association website that Lenni Hirsh created later that year. The website included a brief history of the Association, art samples of current artists with links to personal sites if they had them, and a calendar of events. It was later completely revamped by John Channel and Jesse Sanchez. It now includes video, a changing exhibit of member spotlights, and links to the newsletters as well.

In 2001 and 2002 the newly formed downtown Business Improvement District (BID) invited artists of the Association to participate in an outdoor art show on Library Green.

In 2007 the Art Association produced a calendar with images of New Rochelle as a way to promote the city and raise money. The original works of art were displayed at City Hall and a reception was held there. As a community building activity and promo- tion of the city was successful, but fundraising was limited.

In 2008 the Association collaborated with the Garden Club and Chamber of Commerce who had organized a daffodil festival, planting thousands of daffodils all over town. The Association did its bit to “Paint the town yellow”, organizing a yellow themed show that ran in conjunction with the festival.

In addition to its regular shows, the Association organized several shows at locations outside the library. In 2009, 2010, and 2011 small group shows were held at New Century Artists, Inc. in the Chel-sea district of New York City. In 2012 a group put together a show at the Jewish Community Center in New Rochelle.

In 2011 the New Rochelle Juried Show coin-cided with a City Wide Art Fest and its reception, with a local jazz band playing becoming part of the festivities.

The New Rochelle Art Association has enjoyed one hundred years of promoting art in New Rochelle and will continue to look for ways as we head into the next century to add to the community and further the appreciation of art.