Robert Philipp (February 2, 1895 – November 22, 1981) was an American
painter influenced by
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
Post-Impressionism
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction a ...
, and known for his
nudes,
still lifes, and
portraits
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...
of attractive women and
Hollywood stars. Noted art critic
Henry McBride called Philipp one of America's top six painters of his generation. He was an instructor of painting at the
Art Students League of New York for 33 years, the American artist
Itshak Holtz was a student of Philipp. Philipp was Secretary of the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the f ...
, and National Academician, Benjamin Franklin Fellow,
Royal Society of Arts in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. He was married to model and fellow artist Rochelle ("Shelly") Post, who frequently posed for him until her death in 1971. His compositions and painting style have been compared to the art of
Edgar Degas and
Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Philipp won prizes in most of the important exhibitions of his time, and his paintings are in numerous museums and important private collections.
Hollywood commissions
In 1940, Philipp was invited to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
by Hollywood mogul
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
to paint portraits of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...
movie stars. The same year,
Walter Wanger
Walter Wanger (born Walter Feuchtwanger; July 11, 1894 – November 18, 1968) was an American film producer active from the 1910s, his career concluding with the turbulent production of '' Cleopatra,'' his last film, in 1963. He began at Para ...
, producer of
The Long Voyage Home
''The Long Voyage Home'' is a 1940 American drama film directed by John Ford. It stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter. It features Barry Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson, John Qualen, Mildred Natwick, and Ward Bond, among others.
The f ...
, directed by
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
and based on plays by
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...
, contracted with Reeves Lewenthal, head of the
Associated American Artists gallery in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
, to bring nine well-known artists to the set and paint scenes from the movie and portraits of the actors in character. The artists included Robert Philipp,
Thomas Hart Benton,
Grant Wood,
Ernest Fiene, George Schreiber, Luis Quintanilla,
George Biddle
George Biddle (January 24, 1885 – November 6, 1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer, best known for his social realism and combat art. A childhood friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he played a major role in establi ...
,
Raphael Soyer
Raphael Zalman Soyer (December 25, 1899 – November 4, 1987) was a Russian-born American painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Soyer was referred to as an American scene painter. He is identified as a Social Realist because of his interest in men ...
, and
James Chapin
James Paul Chapin (July 9, 1889 – April 5, 1964) was an American ornithologist and curator of the American Museum of Natural History.
Biography
Chapin is one of the highest-regarded ornithologists of the twentieth century. He was joint leader ...
. Life magazine featured the 12 canvases produced, which were exhibited in New York and in 23 museums around the country. While on the
West Coast, Philipp painted portraits of celebrities associated with the
Golden Age of Hollywood
Golden means made of, or relating to gold.
Golden may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
*Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall
*Golden Cap, Dorset
*Golden Square, Soho, London
*Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestershir ...
, including
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...
,
Shirley Temple,
Margaret Sullavan,
Ian Hunter,
Thomas Mitchell, and Mayer's daughter, Edith Mayer Goetz, wife of
William Goetz
William B. Goetz (March 24, 1903 – August 15, 1969) was an American film producer and studio executive. Goetz was one of the founders of Twentieth Century Pictures, and later served as vice president of 20th Century Fox after the merger with ...
, who was a co-owner of
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
.
Awards and distinctions
Robert Philipp won prizes in most of the important exhibitions of his time
["Robert Philip," ''Art Students League: 1978-1979'', New York, 1978.] including the National Academy of Design, New York, Second
Hallgarten Prize
The Julius Hallgarten Prizes (defunct) were a trio of prestigious art prizes awarded by the National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samue ...
(1922); the
Chicago Art Institute
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, First Prize and Logan Gold Medal (1936);
Carnegie International, First Honorable Mention (1937); the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., Corcoran Silver Medal and Clarke Prize (1939);
International Business Machine Corporation, Honorary Award and Medal for Distinction and Contribution to American Art (1939); Academician, National Academy of Design (1945); the National Academy of Design, Thomas B. Clark Prize (1947); the National Academy of Design, Ranger Food Purchase Award (1950); the National Academy of Design, First Altman Prize (1951);
Laguna Beach Art Association Festival, First Prize (1951); the
Art Directors Club
The Art Directors Club of New York is an organization for art directors in New York City. It was founded in 1920, and has grown as an industry group, promoting art directors' work through exhibitions and awards, including the annual DESI award for ...
Medal of Merit (1954); the
National Arts Club, New York, Gold Medal (1955); Allied Artists of America, Bronze Medal (1958); Audubon Artists, Emily Lowe Award (1959); Allied Artists of America Prize (1960); the National Academy of Design, Henry Ward Ranger Purchase Award, Benjamin Altman Prize (1962); the
Salmagundi Club
The Salmagundi Club, sometimes referred to as the Salmagundi Art Club, is a fine arts center founded in 1871 in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, New York City. Since 1917, it has been located at 47 Fifth Avenue. , its membership roster ...
, New York, Prize (1960); the National Academy of Design, Benjamin Altman Prize, Gloria Layton Memorial Prize (1966); and the
American Watercolor Society
The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States.
Qualifications
AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...
, William Church Osborne Award (1967).
Public collections
Paintings by Robert Philipp can be found in numerous public collections around the United States including those of the
Akron Art Institute, Ohio;
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
, Tucson;
Brooklyn Museum, New York;
Columbus Museum of Art
The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formed in 1878 as the Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts (its name until 1978), it was the first art museum to register its charter with the state of Ohio. The museum collect ...
, Georgia;
Corcoran Gallery
The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University.
Overview
The Corcoran School of the Arts & Desi ...
, Washington, D.C.;
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the A ...
, Texas;
Davenport Municipal Art Gallery, Iowa;
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio;
Encyclopædia Britannica
The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
, Chicago;
IBM Corporation;
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).
LACMA was founded in 19 ...
, Los Angeles;
University of Illinois
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...
, Urbana;
Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
Seton Hall University, the Walsh Galleryand
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Philipp, Robert
1895 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American painters
American male painters
American Impressionist painters
Painters from New York (state)
American portrait painters
American still life painters
20th-century American male artists