Prints and Drawings by Gerald L. Brockhurst from the Daniel & Rosalyn Jacobs Collection June 30 – September 16, 2012 Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia
Georgia Museum of Art University of Georgia 90 Carlton Street Athens, Georgia 30602-6719 tel 706.542.GMOA georgiamuseum.org
front cover: West of Ireland, 1928 Etching on paper 4 13/16 x 5 11/16 inches
back cover: Johanna Sharples, also called The Contemporary Mona Lisa, 1946 Etching and drypoint on paper 9 15/16 x 8 inches
This exhibition is sponsored by YellowBook USA, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation, the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The Council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations, and corporations provide additional support through their gifts to the University of Georgia Foundation.
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890–1978) will not be a new discovery for any of the longtime patrons of the Georgia Museum of Art. In 1993, the museum organized The Art of Gerald Brockhurst, which featured seventy-six prints, drawings, and paintings borrowed from private and public collections, including the Boston Public Library, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Since late 2001, the Georgia Museum of Art has been home to the Jacob Burns Foundation Center, which houses works of art by Brockhurst as well as the archive of his correspondence and other written records accumulated by Jacob Burns, Brockhurst’s lawyer in New York. In 2006, the museum organized The Eternal Masquerade: Prints and Paintings by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1890–1978) from the Jacob Burns Foundation, which included many of the paintings and prints on loan from the foundation supplemented with major loans like Wallis, Duchess of Windsor from the National Portrait Gallery, London, and the Portrait of J. Paul Getty from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. This current special exhibition focuses not only on the breadth and depth of the collection of Brockhurst’s works owned by Dan and Rosalyn Jacobs, but primarily on the prints and drawings in their private collection that are not part of the holdings of the Jacob Burns Foundation Center at the museum. As such, the exhibition becomes an opportunity for visitors to experience again Brockhurst’s remarkable skill at capturing detail in his prints. Brockhurst was born in Birmingham, England, and attended the Birmingham Municipal School of Art when he was young. In 1907, he entered the Schools of the Royal Academy in London, where he won numerous awards. A travel scholarship allowed him to visit Paris and Italy, where he was inspired by works of the Italian Renaissance, especially those by Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli. In 1914, Brockhurst married Anaïs Folin, who sat for many of his early figurative works. The couple lived in Ireland during World War I, where the artist met painter Augustus John, whose simplicity of color and form influenced Brockhurst’s work. He showed landscapes and portraits at the Chenil Gallery in Chelsea in 1916 in his first solo exhibition. During the 1920s, he emerged in Britain as an important and masterful etcher, focusing primarily on female portraits and using his wife as his model. By 1930, Brockhurst had returned to painting with a new teenage model, Dorette Woodard, whom he later married. His beautiful and mysterious images of Dorette, in both paintings and etchings, garnered popularity for his work as a portrait artist. His sitters, besides the Duchess of Windsor, included the actresses Merle Oberon and Marlene Dietrich, as well as members of British high society like Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, and Lady Dovedale. He also became a favorite of such wealthy collectors as Lord Leverhulme in England and Charles Feinberg, Albert H. Wiggin, and Lessing J. Rosenwald in the United States. In 1937, Brockhurst was elected as an Academician of the Royal Academy. He moved to the United States in 1939 and continued to receive important commissions for portraits, including those of J. Paul Getty and Mrs. Paul Mellon. He died in 1978 at his home in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. —Paul Manoguerra Chief curator and curator of American art Georgia Museum of Art
left to right: John McConnell, n.d. Graphite on paper 18 x 14 7/8 inches Chiquita, 1923–24 Etching on paper 6 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches The Old Corsican, 1921 Etching on paper 6 5/16 x 4 9/16 inches
left to right: The Three Sisters, 1920 Etching on paper 3 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches Connemara Peasant, 1921 A Etching on paper 6 1/2 x 4 7/16 inches Henry Rushbury No. 1, 1920 Etching on paper 4 1/2 x 3 7/16 inches Violet, Lady Leconfield, also called Violet Leconfield, 1921 Etching on paper 6 7/8 x 5 3/8 inches
A Statement from the Collectors In the early 1960s, my wife, Rosalyn, and I visited Jake Zeitlin at Zeitlin and Ver Brugges’s Rare Books and Fine Arts, on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California, where we came across a print of a young woman, Una (1929), by Gerald L. Brockhurst. At this time, we knew nothing about the artist, but with Zeitlin’s encouragement and the emotion we felt for this print, we began our journey. It has taken us to auction houses, print dealers, and private collectors throughout the United States and Great Britain and included rare phone conversations with Brockhurst and William Dolan Fletcher. With their help and our patience, we completed our collection of Brockhurst’s work by the late 1990s. The collection presently includes some 240 works along with original correspondence from Dorette Brockhurst, Fletcher, Frank Feinberg, and many dealers, collectors, and museums. As noted by Dr. Malcolm Warner, the present director of the Laguna Art Museum, our collection is the only truly comprehensive one of Brockhurst’s prints. It comprises at least one impression of every print, with the exception of John (Fletcher L-5), of which it includes the original drawing, and in many cases a range of variant proofs and states and several print-related drawings. It includes, for instance, both of the only known impressions of the delicate early drypoint Simone (Anais) (1914), the exquisite pencil drawing on which The Lace Hat (Anais) (1920) was based, the only impression of The Amberley Boy No. 1 (1920) that the artist considered satisfactory, and a range of impressions of five of the progressive states of Una, or The Young Creole (1920). My wife and I continue to enjoy the collection for the same reasons we began to collect Brockhurst’s works: the emotion we felt regarding the human condition and the artist’s great skill in expressing those feelings through his drawings and graphic works. It is with great appreciation to all who have helped us assemble the collection that we say thank you. I send special thanks to Nancy Emerson for her cataloguing expertise; to Dr. Warner for his kind permission to quote from and reproduce his writings on “The Artist, the Printmaker and the Jacobs Collection”; to Rosalyn, who kept encouraging me to continue our pursuit to complete the collection; and, last but not least, to Dr. William U. Eiland and Dr. Paul Manoguerra for their invitation to exhibit a portion of the collection at the Georgia Museum of Art. —Daniel and Rosalyn Jacobs
left: The Amberley Boy (detail), 1920 Pen and ink on paper 8 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches (image) right: The Amberley Boy No. 1, 1920 Etching on paper 5 1/16 x 3 3/4 inches
Simone (Anais), 1914 Drypoint on paper 10 3/8 x 8 11/16 inches
top, left to right: Jenny, 1925 Sepia/pastel? on paper 15 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches Marguerite, 1916 Pen and ink on paper 11 7/16 x 9 1/4 inches left: The Lace Hat (Anais) (detail), 1920 Etching on paper 4 15/16 x 3 15/16 inches
right: Mrs. Albert H Wiggin (of New York) (detail), 1932 Etching on paper 9 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches bottom, left to right: Casper, also called Casper, Son of “Chenil”, 1933 Etching on paper 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches Charles Claude Carpenter Esq., C.B.E., D.Sc., 1931–32 Etching on paper 11 5/8 x 9 3/16 inches
Prints and Drawings by Gerald L. Brockhurst from the Daniel & Rosalyn Jacobs Collection 1. John McConnell, n.d. Graphite on paper 18 x 14 7/8 inches
15. The Artist’s Mother, 1920 Etching on paper 3 7/16 x 3 7/16 inches
29. A Mountain Man, 1926–27 Woodcut on paper 5 x 4 inches
2. Untitled portrait of a woman, n.d. Pen and ink on paper 10 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches
16.
30. The Old and The Young, 1927 Etching on paper 6 3/8 x 5 inches
3.
Study for a tempera painting, also called Two Friends, 1914 Etching on paper 6 3/4 x 9 1/2 inches
By The Bidassoa (Anais), also called Pres De La Bidassoa, 1920 Etching on paper 7 11/16 x 5 7/16 inches
17. Henry Rushbury No. 1, 1920 Etching on paper 4 1/2 x 3 7/16 inches
4. Simone (Anais), 1914 Drypoint on paper 10 3/8 x 8 11/16 inches
18. Le Basquaise (Anais), 1920 Etching on paper 4 7/16 x 3 7/16 inches
5. Marguerite, 1916 Pen and ink on paper 11 7/16 x 9 1/4 inches
19. The Amberley Boy No. 1, 1920 Etching on paper 5 1/16 x 3 3/4 inches
6.
20. A Connemara Peasant, 1921 Etching on paper 6 1/2 x 4 7/16 inches
Study for a mural (A Mountain Man), 1916 Graphite on paper 14 7/8 x 11 inches (paper) 9 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches (image)
7. Young Girl (Nude), 1917 Drawing on paper 15 1/6 x 11 inches 8. Portrait of Anais, 1917 Graphite on paper 10 3/4 x 7 11/16 inches 9. Head of Melisande, 1919 Etching on paper 3 15/16 x 3 3/8 inches 10. The Amberley Boy, 1920 Pen and ink on paper 8 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches (image) 11. Young Boy with Beret, 1920 Etching on paper 6 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches 12. The Lace Hat (Anais), 1920 Etching on paper 4 15/16 x 3 15/16 inches 13.
A Galway Peasant, also called An Irish Peasant, 1920 Etching on paper 3 15/16 x 4 1/4 inches
14. The Three Sisters, 1920 Etching on paper 3 7/8 x 4 7/8 inches
31. Cypriano (a Basque), 1928 Etching on paper 6 3/8 x 4 15/16 inches 32. West of Ireland, 1928 Etching on paper 4 13/16 x 5 11/16 inches 33. Anais No. 2, 1930 Etching on paper 8 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches 34. Henry Bell Esq., 1930 Etching on paper 9 x 6 15/16 inches
21. The Old Corsican, 1921 Etching on paper 6 5/16 x 4 9/16 inches
35.
Charles Claude Carpenter Esq., C.B.E., D.Sc., 1931–32 Etching on paper 11 5/8 x 9 3/16 inches
22.
36.
Albert H Wiggin Esq. (of New York), 1932 Etching on paper 9 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches
37.
Mrs. Albert H Wiggin (of New York), 1932 Etching on paper 9 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches
38.
Casper, also called Casper, Son of “Chenil”, 1933 Etching on paper 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches
39.
Dr. Charles Lee Resse (1862–1939), 1939 Etching and drypoint on paper 8 x 6 1/2 inches
40.
Johanna Sharples, also called The Contemporary Mona Lisa, 1946 Etching and drypoint on paper 9 15/16 x 8 inches
Violet, Lady Leconfield, also called Violet Leconfield, 1921 Etching on paper 6 7/8 x 5 3/8 inches
23. Genevieve (Anais), 1922 Etching on paper 7 7/8 x 5 15/16 inches 24. By the Window (Anais), 1922 Etching on paper 5 3/8 x 3 15/16 inches 25. The China Group, 1921–23 Etching on paper 7 7/16 x 6 inches 26.
The Right Honourable The Earl of Crawford and Balcarrers, K.T., P.C., F.S.A., 1923 Etching on paper 8 x 5 15/16 inches
27. Chiquita, 1923–24 Etching on paper 6 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches 28. Jenny, 1925 Sepia/pastel? on paper 15 1/8 x 11 3/8 inches
Anais No. 2, 1930 Etching on paper 8 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches