The
Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in
New York CityNew 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...
in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the nineteenth century.
Situated at 51 West 10th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues in
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, the building was commissioned by James Boorman Johnston and designed by
Richard Morris HuntRichard Morris Hunt was an American architect of the nineteenth century and a preeminent figure in the history of American architecture...
. Its innovative design soon represented a national architectural prototype, and featured a domed central gallery, from which interconnected rooms radiated. Hunt's studio within the building housed the first architectural school in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Soon after its completion the building helped to make
Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
central to the arts in New York City, drawing artists from all over the country to work, exhibit, and sell their art. In its initial years
Winslow HomerWinslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker, best known for his marine subjects. He is considered one of the foremost painters in 19th century America and a preeminent figure in American art....
took a studio there, as did
Edward Lamson HenryEdward Lamson Henry , commonly known as E.L. Henry, was an American genre painter, born in Charleston, South Carolina.-Early life :...
, and many of the artists of the
Hudson River SchoolThe Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by romanticism...
, including Frederic Church and
Albert BierstadtAlbert Bierstadt was a German-American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In obtaining the subject matter for these works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion...
.
In 1879, Johnston deeded the building to his brother
John Taylor JohnstonJohn Taylor Johnston was born on April 8, 1820, the son of John Johnston, a prominent merchant banker in New York City. Johnston was the founding president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870, as well as the President of the Central Railroad of New Jersey from 1848 to 1877...
, who later became the first president of the
Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe 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 that same year
William Merritt ChaseWilliam Merritt Chase was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons The New School for Design.- Early life and training :He was born in Williamsburg , Indiana, to the family...
moved into the main gallery, and was joined in the building by
Walter ShirlawWalter Shirlaw was a Scottish-American artist.-Biography:Shirlaw was born in Paisley, Scotland, and moved to the United States with his parents in 1840. He worked as a bank-note engraver, and his work was first exhibited at the National Academy in 1861.He was elected an academician of the Chicago...
and
Frederick DielmanFrederick Dielman was an American portrait and figure painter.-Biography:He was born in Hanover, Germany. He was taken to the United States in early childhood. He graduated from Calvert College in New Windsor, Maryland, in 1864, and from 1866 to 1872 served as a topographer and draughtsman for the...
. Chase's studio in particular represented the sophisticated taste which came to characterize the building.
In 1895, Chase departed the studio, and the building subsequently lost its prominence as an art center.
In 1920, the building was purchased by a group of artists in order to forestall commercial takeover. From that time forward, a number of New York City artists rented studio space in the building.
In 1942, the building's basement became the meeting place for the Bombshell Artists Group, an alliance of 60 modernist painters and sculptors, a number of whom had studios in the building. Henry Becket, writing in the
New York PostThe New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
newspaper on March 2, 1942, noted that "The artists meet in a cellar that they call The Bomb Shelter at 51 West 10th Street." He also stated that the Bomshell Group's "exhibition chairman" was Joseph Manfredi and the Group's first show was then on display at the Riverside Museum.
In 1956, the Tenth Street Studio Building was razed to make way for an apartment building. A penthouse apartment in the subsequently constructed apartment building, 45 West 10th Street, was recently purchased by
Julia RobertsJulia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
.
External links