Jeremiah Goodman (October 22, 1922 – September 7, 2017) was an illustrator who signed his work with his first name only. Goodman used his unique painting style to create the essence of a building's interior. His painting interprets the plans of both architects and interior designers. He painted original portraits of spaces for both commercial and private clients. For almost twenty years he created the covers for ''

Interior Design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...

'' magazine, and also books on interiors and for murals.

Early life

Goodman was born October 22, 1922, in

Niagara Falls, New York Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagar ...

, the youngest of five children of Anna Cohen and Louis Goodman. His parents were Jewish emigrants from Russia and Poland. While convalescing from a right-hand injury at the age of four, he was given a set of crayons and adapted by becoming left-handed, and developed an interest in art.

Education

In 1930 the family moved to Buffalo. During the Great Depression there was little work for his father, but Jeremiah was able to attend Lafayette High School, studying art with Elizabeth Weiffenbach and Ethel Davis, with the intention of becoming a set designer for Hollywood or Broadway. He graduated in 1939. In 1940, at the age of 18, he moved to New York City to attend the Franklin School of Professional Art on a full scholarship. After graduating, he studied part-time at

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

, then known as the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts, enrolling in interior decoration and commercial illustration courses.

Influences

Painters

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 15, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era, Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil ...

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

Édouard Vuillard Jean-Édouard Vuillard (; 11 November 186821 June 1940) was a French painter, decorative artist, and printmaker. From 1891 through 1900, Vuillard was a member of the avant garde artistic group Les Nabis, creating paintings that assembled areas ...

and

Walter Gay Walter Gay (January 22, 1856July 13, 1937) was an American painter noted both for his genre paintings of French peasants, paintings of opulent interior scenes and was a notable art collector. Early life Walter Gay was born on January 22, 1856, ...

. Architect John Nash Japanese ink brush painting, Zen calligraphy. Turkish-born, California-based interior designer, Kalef Alaton. Betty Carter, his Painting instructor at Parsons School of Design. David Payne, Art teacher at the Franklin School. In 1948, Jeremiah met British actor

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Britis ...

, and travelled with him to Europe for the first time in 1949. Gielgud encouraged him to paint room portraits, a pursuit which would continue throughout his life. At the same time, another painter, William Bankier Henderson, aide-de-camp to Sir

Archibald Wavell Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell, (5 May 1883 – 24 May 1950) was a senior officer of the British Army. He served in the Second Boer War, the Bazar Valley Campaign and the First World War, during which he was wounded ...

, the Viceroy of India, introduced him to a stratum of people who allowed him to paint interpretations of rooms in their residences. In 1949, Jeremiah was given entry to the hidden Parisian ''maisons'' of illustrious fashion designer

Jeanne Lanvin Jeanne-Marie Lanvin (; 1 January 1867 – 6 July 1946) was a French haute couture fashion designer. She founded the Lanvin fashion house and the beauty and perfume company Lanvin Parfums. Early life Jeanne Lanvin was born in Paris on 1 Janu ...

and her daughter, Marguerite Marie-Blanche. Their home decor department, Lanvin-Décoration, was run by Armand-Albert Rateau, who, along with Lanvin, designed the interior of the Daunou Theatre in 1921. Lanvin’s motto, "Art and fashion are one" is evident in Jeremiah's creative endeavours as well. He attributes

Frances Hodgson Burnett Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (24 November 1849 – 29 October 1924) was a British-American novelist and playwright. She is best known for the three children's novels ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' (1886), ''A Little Princess'' (1905), a ...

's novel, ''The Secret Garden'' (1910–11) as an inspiration for the layout of his East Hampton home.

Career

Beginnings

His first job in New York was for window display designers Sue Williams and Dana Cole, while attending school. During WWII, he returned to Buffalo, trained as a machinist with and worked for

Curtiss-Wright The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is an American manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation (business), consoli ...

in their experimental division.

Set Design

In 1945 he moved to Los Angeles, hired by stage and screen interiors set designer, Joseph B. Platt (designer on films ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

'', ''

Rebecca Rebecca () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical tradition, Rebecca's father was Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, also called Aram-Naharaim. Rebecca's brother was Laban (Bi ...

'', and ''

Portrait of Jennie ''Portrait of Jennie'' (also released under the title ''Tidal Wave'') is a 1948 American supernatural film directed by William Dieterle, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, and Lillian ...

''), as an illustrator/sketch artist. After an offer to decorate the set of a Hollywood jungle film, he was frustrated, realizing that his talents were not being fully utilized and returned to New York City.

Display Design

In Manhattan, he did whatever he could to earn a living as an illustrator and designer, creating window displays for Sachs Quality Stores and

McCrory's McCrory Stores or J.G. McCrory's was a chain of five and dime stores in the United States based in York, Pennsylvania. The stores typically sold shoes, clothing, housewares, fabrics, penny candy, toys, cosmetics, and often included a lunch co ...

, keeping an entrepreneurial eye out for opportunities. From 1952, for over thirty years, he worked for

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...

department stores under the Art Direction of Harry Rodman, first designing windows, painting murals and eventually illustrating advertisements and catalogues.

Advertising Illustration

As the relationship with

developed, he created fashion illustrations and advertising for magazines and newspapers, most notably,

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. His unique brushwork and spatter techniques, perspectively accurate yet spontaneous, influenced architectural illustrators for decades.

Editorial Illustration

In 1949, Jeremiah began illustrating the covers of ''Interior Design'' magazine, an assignment that continued until late 1964. In the same period, he created illustrations for ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''House & Garden'' and ''Vogue'' magazines.

Book Illustration

1964 ''My Favorite Things: A Personal Guide to Decorating and Entertaining'' by Dorothy (Feiner) Rodgers, wife of

Richard Rodgers Richard Charles Rodgers (June 28, 1902 – December 30, 1979) was an American Musical composition, composer who worked primarily in musical theater. With 43 Broadway theatre, Broadway musicals and over 900 songs to his credit, Rodgers wa ...

. Macmillan 1964, 1997 ''The Illustrated Room: 20th Century Interior Design Rendering'', by Virma Barr, ed. Dani Antman, McGraw-Hill 2010 ''The Great Lady Decorators: Lessons from the Women Who Invented Interior Design'', by Adam Lewis, Rizzoli 2010,

Interior Design Commissions

* McMillen Inc.:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centennial The Metropolitan Museum of Art Centennial was a series of events and initiatives celebrating the 100th anniversary of the charter of the Museum occurring between 1969 and 1971. Background The Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated its centennial wi ...

Celebration presentation rendering * Ruby Ross Wood * Billy Baldwin: Portrait of

Diana Vreeland Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was an American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at '' Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the Costume ...

's living room *

Dorothy Draper Dorothy Draper (November 22, 1889 – March 11, 1969) was an American interior decorator. Stylistically very anti-minimalist, she used bright, exuberant colors and large prints that encompassed whole walls. She incorporated black and white tile ...

* Melanie Kahane * Eleanor LeMaire * William Pahlmann * Michael Greer

Architect Commissions

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

– Century 21, Seattle World's Fair, 1962 *

Wallace K. Harrison Wallace Kirkman Harrison (September 28, 1895 – December 2, 1981) was an American architect. Harrison started his professional career with the firm of Corbett, Harrison & MacMurray, participating in the construction of Rockefeller Center. He is ...

– Master plan for

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

, 1957 *

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill SOM, an initialism of its original name Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, is a Chicago-based architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings. In 1939, they were joined by engineer ...

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

Raymond Loewy Raymond Loewy ( , ; November 5, 1893 – July 14, 1986) was a French-born American industrial designer who achieved fame for the magnitude of his design efforts across a variety of industries. He was recognized for this by ''Time'' magazi ...

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

Murals

* Commissions for numerous private residences in the United States and Japan. * 2010 – ACNE Studios fashion and design collective, Mayfair, London. (N.B. – ACNE is an acronym for Ambition to Create Novel Expressions)

Room Portraits

Often the rooms were sketched on the spot. If time and space permitted they would be painted there as well. Otherwise, he would return to his studio to execute the final, working from photographs and from memory. Introductions to numerous people in the U.S. theatre and film worlds opened doors for Jeremiah. Many commissioned him paint portraits of their residences, notably, stage, screen and TV producer

Daniel Melnick Daniel Melnick (April 21, 1932 – October 13, 2009) was an American film producer. He began his career in Hollywood as a teenager in television and later became the producer of such films as '' All That Jazz'', ''Altered States'' and '' Straw ...

, actresses

Greta Garbo Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress and a premier star during Hollywood's Silent film, silent and early Classical Hollywood cinema, golden eras. Regarded as one of the g ...

and

Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in ''South Pacific (musica ...

, costume designers

Edith Head Edith Claire Head (née Posener, October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making he ...

Gilbert Adrian Adrian Adolph Greenburg (March 3, 1903 – September 13, 1959), widely known mononymously as Adrian, was an American costume designer whose most famous costumes were for ''The Wizard of Oz'' and hundreds of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films between ...

and

Tony Duquette Anthony Duquette (June 11, 1914 – September 9, 1999) was an American artist who specialized in designs for stage and film. Early life and education Duquette was born in Los Angeles, California. He was the oldest of four children. He grew u ...

. Aside from Gielgud's, over the decades Jeremiah painted European interior spaces of photographer/set designer

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as costume designer and set designer for stage and screen. His accolades ...

, designer

David Nightingale Hicks David Nightingale Hicks (25 March 1929 – 29 March 1998) was an English interior decorator and designer, noted for using bold colours, mixing antique and modern furnishings, and contemporary art for his famous clientele. Early life and educat ...

Wallis, Duchess of Windsor Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Spencer and then Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986) was an American socialite and the wife of Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII). Their intentio ...

(U.K.); artist

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

, Baron Philippe de Rothschild,

Carlos de Beistegui Carlos de Beistegui e Yturbe (31 January 1895 – 17 January 1970),''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966, 1973–1995'' also known as Charlie de Beistegui, was an eccentric French-born Me ...

(France); jewelry designer Elsa Perretti (Spain); fashion designer

Elsa Schiaparelli Elsa Schiaparelli ( , , ; 10 September 1890 – 13 November 1973) was an Italian fashion designer from an Italian nobility, aristocratic background. She created the Schiaparelli (fashion house), house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she ...

(Italy). He also painted interpretations of the Nymphenburg Palace, Bavaria. Stateside, he made drawings or paintings of the residences of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

; socialite

Betsy Bloomingdale Betty Lee Bloomingdale ( Newling; August 2, 1922 – July 19, 2016) was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was considered a fashion icon, first appearing on the International Best Dressed List in 1962, and in 1970 was named in the lis ...

; fashion designers

Carolina Herrera Carolina Herrera (born María Carolina Josefina Pacanins y Niño, 8 January 1939) is a Venezuelan Americans, Venezuelan American fashion designer. Known for her personal style, she founded her namesake brand in 1980. Herrera has designed for va ...

Bill Blass William Ralph Blass (June 22, 1922 – June 12, 2002) was an American fashion designer. He was the recipient of many fashion awards, including seven Coty Awards and the Fashion Institute of Technology's Lifetime Achievement Award (1999). Ear ...

and

James Galanos James Galanos (; September 20, 1924 – October 30, 2016) was an American fashion designer and couturier. Galanos is known for designing clothing for America's social elite, including Nancy Reagan, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and others. ...

; ''Vogue'' Editor

, fashion executive

Reed Krakoff Reed Krakoff (born February 20, 1964) is an American fashion designer and former creative director of Coach and his own eponymous brand. Early life and education Krakoff was raised in Weston, Connecticut, one of three children, to Robert L. K ...

of Coach Inc.; photographer Bruce Weber and his wife, producer Nan Bush.

Interior Design

East Hampton, NY

In 1957 Jeremiah purchased a carriage house on Long Island, NY, at 14 Meadows Way, East Hampton, built by architect Joseph Greenleaf Thorp for the J. Harper Poor family, circa 1917. Constructed around a courtyard, where Goodman installed an in-ground swimming pool; banks of French doors and windows overlook gardens planned by Alden Hopkins, a landscape architect for Colonial Williamsburg. The cast-iron circular staircase, stucco fireplace and slate flooring, though designated by Goodman, feel like a part of the original building. Art, collectibles, antiques and contemporary furniture were arranged to offer intimate spaces. A studio on the second floor gave him privacy to work if there were guests. Playwright

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

, sculptor

Louise Nevelson Louise Nevelson (September 23, 1899 – April 17, 1988) was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in the Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Kyiv Oblast, ...

, actresses

and

Hermione Gingold Hermione Ferdinanda Gingold (; 9 December 189724 May 1987) was an English actress known for her sharp-tongued, eccentric character. Her signature drawling, deep voice was a result of nodules on her vocal cords she developed in the 1920s and ea ...

were visitors, as well as designer friends Marjorie Shushan, Mark Epstein, Geoffrey Ross, John Dranfield and Harry Heissmann.

Manhattan, NY

His New York City apartment and studio overlooked the East River and Queensborough bridge. Occupying a corner unit on a lofty floor of a 1970s vintage skyscraper, with two walls of windows. It was featured in Architectural Digest twice.

Quotes

"In the realm of interior paintings, the work of Jeremiah Goodman stands out as among the most beautiful and influential. ---one of the greatest masters of interior illustration of our time.” – Scott M. Ageloff, IDEC, ASID, AIA (from the catalogue, ''Inspired Impressions: Interior Paintings by Jeremiah Goodman'' NYSID 2010) “He conjures up space by combining a deceptively casual perspective (his choice of viewpoint is impeccable, his drawing always accurate) with plays of light and shadow that delineate form while creating atmosphere." "His black-and-white illustration style shows, … evidence of Japanese brush painting… most striking in the orchestrations of black, white and gray. The perspective in each image is always credible, though the looseness of the brush strokes and spatters of ink or paint imply a sense of spontaneity in their making." – Christopher Finch, ''Architectural Digest'', February, 2002 "Three-dimensional rendering allows architects and interior designers to advise their clients with a visual of how a room would look before construction and decoration begins. Renderers require training in design, perspective, art, familiarity with building materials and textiles, knowledge of light and shadow, combined with imagination in order to prescribe the yet-to-be-created interior a personality. They must work quickly to meet deadlines. Various techniques and media have been utilized over the centuries by renderers: pen and ink, pencil, chalk, water-colour and guache paints and most recently, computer assisted drawing (CAD). A “room painting” differs from a rendering in that it is a portrait made after the job has been completed. In a sense, it is superior in preserving the essential mood of an interior once it has been dismantled or revamped, even if there is a photographic record." – ''The Illustrated Room: 20th Century Interior Design Rendering'', by Virma Barr, ed. Dani Antman, McGraw-Hill 1997,

Awards

Hall of Fame Special Citation Recipient – ''Interior Design'' magazine, December, 1987,

Collections

Illustrations by Jeremiah Goodman may be found in the permanent collections of: *

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum at the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 Smithsonian Institution museums and one of three Smithsonian facili ...

, New York, NY, *

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

, New York, NY, * The New Britain Museum of American Art and private collections.

Exhibitions

In 2017, the

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Design Fournir Gallery held a 70 year restropective of Goodman's work that was curated by Dean Rhys Morgan. Over 50 of his original paintings were displayed and orders were taken at the gallery opening for personally signed copies of his book ''Jeremiah: Romantic Interiors'' on May 10, 2017.

References

* ''Inspired Impressions: Interior Paintings by Jeremiah Goodman'', October 19 – December 20, 2010, New York School of Interior Design, 170 East 70th St., New York, NY 10021. 48 paintings. Co-curated by Scott M. Ageloff and Judith Gura. Exhibition catalogue. * Julie V. Iovine, "Brushes With Fame: Besides illustrating this magazine’s covers for 15 years, Jeremiah Goodman has painted just about every celebrity interior worth knowing", ''Interior Design'', Sandow Media, March 2007 * Holly Brubach, "Six Degrees of Decoration: Artist Jeremiah Goodman’s Personal Expression in Manhattan", ''Architectural Digest'', Condé Nast, October, 2003 * Christopher Finch, "Personal Portraits: Jeremiah's Renderings of Great Rooms", ''Architectural Digest,'' Condé Nast, February 2002 * Adam Lewis, “ Funiture on Five”, ''House & Garden'', Condé Nast, October 2001 * M. L. Aronson, "Billy Baldwin: A Fresh Approach to Color and Form Reshapes the American Aesthetic", ''Architectural Digest'', Condé Nast, January 2000 * Charles Bricker, “In a Collective Spirit: Dynamic Arrangements Fill an East Hampton Carriage House”, ''Architectural Digest'', Condé Nast, December 1988 * Stanley Abercrombie, "Things Already Seen", ''Interior Design'', Sandow Media, December 1987

External links

* New York School of Interior Design – https://web.archive.org/web/20101031070648/http://www.nysid.edu/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=583 * Christopher Petkanas, "Ruby It’s You", ''New York Times'', March 31, 2010 – http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/ruby-its-you/
The official website of Jeremiah GoodmanThe official website of Dean Rhys-Morgan, independent curator of works by Jeremiah Goodman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Jeremiah 1922 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters People from Niagara Falls, New York Parsons School of Design alumni Painters from New York (state) American people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Polish-Jewish descent Lafayette High School (Buffalo, New York) alumni 20th-century American male artists