Paul St. Gaudens-Chronology

Catalog

Chronology

Biography

Works

1902 His parents moved to Cornish, NH where they reconstructed an 18th century Enfield, NH. Shaker Meeting House.

1903 His parents maintained a studio on their property in Cornish, about 1/2 mile from Augustus Saint-Gaudens' "Aspet".

1906-1913 Attended Tracy School, Cornish, NH, for half a day only. His mother remarked, "that was long enough for him to be in prison."

1911 Joined the Cornish Equal Suffrage League.

1913 March 8, His father Louis St. Gaudens, (1854-1913) dies in Cornish, NH.

September 12, performed as "Scarlet Tanager" in pantomime scene of The Bird Masque by Percy MacKaye, at the Meriden Bird Club Sanctuary, in Meriden, NH.

1914-1915 October to May, attended high school in Claremont, CA, where his mother's family had moved in 1905.

1916-1917 Attended high school in Windsor, VT. For Brief Breezes, the 1917 Windsor High School yearbook, Paul wrote two articles entitled "Ye Conqueror", and "Jean, Son of France". August, 1916- played "Dyer Spalding," a British Private Soldier, in play In Cornish Long Ago, presented by the Cornish Library Club. November 26, 27, 1917, acted in The Wishing Ring at the Town Hall as "Geraldine"(a pet mule), in Windsor, Vt. ( The John B. Rogers Co.).

1918-1921 Frank Applegate, (1873-1927) spent three summers, 1918, 1919, 1920 at "Echo Farm", property of Clara Davidge Taylor, in Plainfield, NH. He began experimenting with pottery and kilns. He met the St. Gaudens during that time and taught pottery to Paul.

Studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, School of Drawing and Painting, Boston, MA, matriculated January 6, 1919 in the Antique class. In attendance through 1920-1921 school year, but did not graduate.

Classmate Naomi Rhodes, (Mrs. John Reno), 1898-1986, painted portrait of Paul in 1921.

November 29, 1921, elected a craftsman by the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts.

Studied with Frank Applegate at the School of Industrial Art at Trenton, NJ. (through 1924).

Set up the Orchard Kiln Pottery in Cornish, NH (in operation from 1921 to 1944.)

1922 Exhibited in Sixth Annual Exhibition, Society of Independent Artists, New York City. [4 pieces: #652 Lustre Bowl, #653 Lustre Incense Burner, #654 Oo-oo Bird Tile, and #655 Vase and Cover]. Review of exhibit by Comte Chalevier in La Revue du Vrai et du Beaux.

February 22, in Rome, does sketch of Senor Frizzoni, (Cornish neighbor, painter and etcher, Stephen Parrish).

February-March, studies sculpture, art and research of classic pottery [Florence, Naples, Rome (British Academy)], Paris (Academy Julian, "La Grande Chaumiere"), and London].

Studied at Ecole (Alexander)Archipenko (1887-1964) and with other instructors at the Institute of Beaux Arts Design in NY.

1923-1924 Studied with Oscar Lewis Batchelder, (1852-1935), for two winters at Omar Khayyam Pottery, at Candler, North Carolina.

1924 March 7-30, exhibited in the Eighth Exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York City. [4 pieces: #821 Pair of Vases, #822 Plaque and #823 Plaque].

April, one-man exhibition at the Newark Museum. Paul exhibited: #261-Blue and grey vase, #303-Aztec bird plate, #260-Large dark blue jar, #263-Blue vase, #264-Plate, #309-Blue jar, #343-Dancing Dodo Plate, #322-Horse handled pitcher, #267-Duck figure plate, #268-Tall dragon fly vase, #265-Plate with black figure of woman, #270-Plate, Adam and Eve and Serpent, and he added one small bowl, and one flat bowl. [Four pieces were purchased for museum collection.]

Began using Mayan designs: early Persian and African; as well as primitive design motifs.

Exhibited at Indian Hill Studio, Foothill Blvd., Claremont, CA. Claremont was also home to the Johnson family (Harvey W. and Maria Burt Johnson, Annetta's parents, and Nora and Georgeanna, her sisters and Burt, Lewis, Maurice, and Henry, her brothers.

1926 January, article entitled "The Orchard Potteries" [Cornish, NH], (pp. 49-50) in Country Life, by Alice Van Leer Carrick.

Enrolled in summer course with Charles Fergus Binns, (1857-1934), Director of the State School of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY.

1926-1927 Paul and his mother Annetta assisted her brother, architect Burt Johnson (1890-1927) and Merrell Gage (1892-1981) on terra cotta architectural sculpture and façade for the Fine Arts Building in Los Angeles, California.

1927 Summer, instructor in ceramics at Ecole Archipenko in Woodstock, NY.

Articles in Rocky Mountain News and Kansas City Journal about Paul and his mother Annetta at the Chappell School of Art (now the Denver Art Museum).

1927-1928 Taught pottery at the Chappell School of Art in Denver, Colorado. His mother, Annetta was head of the sculpture department.

Produced "Plumed Serpent" (ceramic mural/wall installation), for the George P. Heinz Tile Company, (also listed as the Heinz Roofing Tile Company), Denver.

1928 March 9-April 1, exhibited in the Twelfth Society of Independent Artists at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York City. [3 pieces: #779 Mayan Chieftain, #780 Mayan Tile, #781 Mayan Tile].

Exhibition of "Works by Louis, Annetta and Paul St. Gaudens" at the Studio Club, (formerly the Arts Club Studio),104 1/2 Forsyth Street, Atlanta, Georgia: tiles, bowls and vases (in the American Southwest pattern).

1929 April 27-October, "Contemporary American Sculpture"- California Palace Legion of Honor, [#682 Composition Study for Madonna.].

1930 March 27, named Master Craftsman, Boston Society of Arts and Crafts.

Nov.1-Dec. 5, Dartmouth College, Carpenter Hall Art Gallery, Hanover, NH., exhibition of Paul St. Gaudens' hand-worked pottery, [with a few pieces also in Baker Library], (arranged by Professors Artemus Packard and Harold G. Rugg).

November 27, He wrote article, "Pottery Ancient and Modern", for The Gazette, Hanover, NH.

1931 September, photograph of Paul and his pottery in The National Geographic Magazine, "New England's Wonderland" by Clifton Adams. p.VII.

Publishes Clay Craft, a children's book, New York Camp Fire Outfitting Co; (35 pages).

December 11, presented lecture: "Techniques of Pottery", Carpenter Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

1932 Listed in the American Art Annual Biographical Directory of Craftsmen.

June 10, Begins selling pottery at League of NH Craftsmen shops. (Frank Staples, Director).

June 23, Exhibition of pottery at Dartmouth College closes.

November 20, Annetta and Paul asked to teach pottery at League of NH Craftsmen in Dover, NH.

1933 Paul is diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease by Dr. Francis C. Wood, at St. Luke's Hospital in New York, NY.

Paul and his mother spend the summer in Cornish consigning their work to the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen's store in Claremont, NH.

"Second Robineau Memorial Exhibition", Syracuse NY, exhibits mahogany gloss pitcher #232. (purchased by the Everson Museum of Art.)

Paul submitted three preparatory drawings, the obverse, reverse, and site plan, in competition for the commission for the Peace Monument located at Wheeler Memorial Park in Orange, MA. The commission went to Joseph Pollia (1893-1954) who incorporated one of Paul's designs as the basis for a bronze plaque on the obverse of the pedestal base.

1934 January, at Nassau, Bahama; producing Aztec inspired pottery.

July, returns to Cornish and exhibits in the NH League shops, especially Claremont, NH.

October, leaves for Miami, Florida to work there for the winter.

Participated in the Ceramic Nationals. (3rd Robineau Memorial Exhibition at Syracuse, NY.)

1935 June, returns to Cornish, NH from Florida with mother preparing for NH League Garden Exhibition.

August 4th , unveiling of bas-relief tablet with medallion portrait of Ernest Harold Baynes (1868-1925), by Paul and Annetta St. Gaudens at the Meriden Bird Club Sanctuary, Main Street, Meriden, N.H.

Article reviewing exhibition of pottery and sculpture in the Coral Gables Riviera newspaper. Exhibit at his Pelican Pottery on Cutler Road, three miles south of Coconut Grove, featured Paul and his mother. [The Pelican Pottery was his pottery].

1936 July 30, Marries Margaret Parry of Miami, Florida. Paul and Margaret set up Panther Hammock Pottery Studio in South Miami Florida (which continued through 1946), at 9201 SW 52nd Avenue, [1/2 mile South of North Kendal Drive, halfway between Red Road and Main Highway (called Old Cutler Rd.) just north of Matheson Hammock County Park.] They spend summers in Cornish, NH.

1938-39 Included in "An Exhibition of Contemporary American Ceramics", were two pieces #392, a vase flashed white, and #393 a moss green vase by Paul. Selected out of the Seventh National Ceramic Exhibition (also called the "7th Robineau Exhibition") for circulation by the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, Syracuse NY, was #130, a vase flashed white chosen by the jury for the venues which included the University of Minnesota, University of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati Museum, Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, American Ceramic Society of Chicago, (coinciding with its annual convention) and the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts).

1939 April -June, "Exhibition of Contemporary American Art", World's Fair, New York City. Paul exhibited a ceramic portrait relief entitled "Negro Warrior".

July-September, in the Midsummer exhibition held at the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, NH, Negro Warrior (#114).

1941 March 16, Article entitled "Ceramic Costume Jewelry" in the Miami Daily News Rotomagazine, about Margaret St. Gaudens' work in the Panther Hammock Studio.

1943 April 5, Annetta Johnson St. Gaudens dies in Pomona, California at the age of seventy-three, (buried in Claremont, CA.).

Paul's friend and neighbor Whittemore Littell purchased the Cornish house and land at tax sale, in order to break Annetta's will and requirement that the property be maintained as an art school.

1945 September 12, while in Hanover Hospital, receives letter from Dr. Francis Wood, expressing concern about Paul's illness being diagnosed as Brucellosis.

1946 January, Address: 137 Court St., Keene, NH. Tries to set up operation in Hanover, NH to teach pottery to Dartmouth students, seeks equipment, space, compensation.

March 3, Address: "Wagon Wheel Studio", Marlboro, NH. Solicits American Artists Group to publish proposed book on pottery.

August-November, Attempts unsuccessfully to establish a line of NH pottery, using New Hampshire clay.

October, Becomes client of Izette DeForest, an Adlerian psychiatrist, who resides in Marlboro, NH.

1947 January, Address, 137 Court St, Keene, NH-tries again to set up pottery in conjunction with Dartmouth College.

1948 Moved to Boston. Entered the research center at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital under experimental care to assist physicians and researchers in learning more about his Hodgkin's disease.

Befriends Georgina Johnston who acts as agent in publishing his manuscript for a book, Craft Pottery and Its Methods.

Paul and Margaret divorced amicably.

August 9, Georgina Johnston reimbursed by American Artists Group Inc. for copy-editing the manuscript, Craft Pottery and Its Methods.

December, Georgina Johnston solicits Watson Guptill Co. NYC to publish the manuscript.

1949 Continues solicitations; (Bryan Holme of Studio Publications in February; later rejected), (The Swallow Press; later rejected).

1949-1952 Published articles in Craft Horizons in Winter 1949, (Vol.9 No.4) "Planning the Pot Shop", (pp.18,19), in Spring, 1950, (Vol. 10, No. 1,) "Methods, Devices and Dodges" (pp.24,25), in Autumn, 1951, (Vol. XI, No. 3,) "The Workshop-Mechanics of a Potter's Wheel",(pp.34-38) and in May-June, 1952, (Vol. XII No. 3,) "The Workshop-Making a Power Driven Wheel" and November-December, 1952, "The Workshop-How to Make an Electric Kiln", (pp. 42-45).

1950 October 26, at Norwich Craft Shop, Main St., Norwich, Vermont. Newspaper article states that he "has been working this summer at the Wagon Wheel Studio". Exhibits pottery, "from ash trays to small sculpture figures."

1953 Co-authors How to Mend China and Bric-a-Brac with Arthur R. Jackson, published by Charles T. Branford Co., Boston, MA.

1954 February 1, death at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, MA.

Tombstone in Chase Cemetery, Cornish, NH.

1973 Georgina Johnston donates Paul St. Gaudens papers to Special Collections, (now Rauner Library) Hanover, NH.

1992 December 13, Margaret Parry St.Gaudens dies in Miami, FL.

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