Robert Winthrop Chanler (February 22, 1872 – October 24, 1930) was an American artist and member of the

Astor Astor or ASTOR may refer to: Companies * Astor Pictures, a New York-based motion picture releasing company * Astor Radio Corporation, an Australian consumer electronics manufacturer from 1926 onwards, which also owned the Astor Records label * ...

and

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

–Winthrop families. A designer and

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

ist, Chanler received much of his art training in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

, and there his most famous work, titled ''Giraffes'', was completed in 1905 and later purchased by the French government. Robert D. Coe, who studied with him, described Chanler as being "eccentric and almost bizarre." Chanler rose to prominence as an acclaimed American artist when his work was exhibited in the 1913

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was organized by thAssociation of American Painters and Sculptors It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of the many exhibition ...

in New York City.

Family and early life

Chanler was born on February 22, 1872, in New York City to

John Winthrop Chanler John Winthrop Chanler (September 14, 1826 – October 19, 1877) was a New York lawyer and a U.S. Representative from New York. He was a member of the Dudley–Winthrop family and married Margaret Astor Ward, a member of the Astor family. Early li ...

of the Dudley–Winthrop family and Margaret Astor Ward of the Astor family.Christopher Gray
An Aristocratic Painter's Astonishing Aesthetic
''The New York Times'', October 10, 2014 Through his father, he was a great-great-grandson of

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant ( – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial administrator who served as the Directors of New Netherland, director-general of New Netherland from 1647 to 1664, when the colony was pro ...

and a great-great-great-great-grandson of Wait Winthrop and

Joseph Dudley Joseph Dudley (September 23, 1647 – April 2, 1720) was a colonial administrator, a native of Roxbury in Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the son of one of its founders. He had a leading role in the administration of the Dominion of New England ...

. Through his mother, he was a grandnephew of

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe ( ; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as new lyrics to an existing song, and the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She w ...

John Jacob Astor III John Jacob Astor III (June 10, 1822 – February 22, 1890) was an American financier, philanthropist and a soldier during the American Civil War. He was a prominent member of the Astor family, becoming the wealthiest member in his generation. Ea ...

, and William Backhouse Astor, Jr. Robert had 10 brothers and sisters, including politicians

Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler (September 24, 1869, in Newport, Rhode Island – February 28, 1942, in New York City) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the lieutenant governor of New York from 1907 to 1908. Early life He was the ...

and William Astor Chanler. His sister

Margaret Livingston Chanler Margaret Livingston Aldrich, also known as Angel of Puerto Rico ( Chanler; October 31, 1870 – March 19, 1963), was an American philanthropist, poet, nurse, and woman's suffrage advocate and prominent member of the Astor family. She was primari ...

served as a nurse with the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

during the

Spanish–American War The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...

. Robert's eldest brother John Armstrong "Archie" Chanler married novelist Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy. His older brother Winthrop Astor Chanler

served in the

Rough Riders The Rough Riders was a nickname given to the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish–American War and the only one to see combat. The United States Army was small, understaffed, and diso ...

in Cuba Rice, Wallace, editor. ''Heroic Deeds in Our War with Spain: An Episodic History of the Fighting of 1898 on Sea and Shore'', G.M. Hill, 1898.
/ref> and was wounded at the

Battle of Tayacoba The Battle of Tayacoba, June 30, 1898, (also spelled Tayabacao) was an American special operations effort to land supplies and reinforcements to Cuban rebels fighting for their independence in the Spanish–American War. Background On June 25 ...

. His siblings and he became orphans after the death of their mother in 1875 and their father in 1877, both to pneumonia. The children were raised at their parents' Rokeby Estate in

Barrytown, New York Barrytown is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet (and census-designated place) within the town of Red Hook, New York, Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Histo ...

. John Winthrop Chanler's will provided $20,000 a year for each child for life (equivalent to $470,563 in 2018), enough to live comfortably by the standards of the time.Thomas Lately, ''A Pride of Lions: The Astor Orphans; the Chanler Chronicle'', W. Morrow, 1971. Several of Chanler's paintings still decorate the mansion at Rokeby.

Career

Like Mai Rogers Coe and

Everett Shinn Everett Shinn (November 6, 1876 – May 1, 1953) was an American painter and member of the urban realist Ashcan School. Shinn started as a newspaper illustrator in Philadelphia, demonstrating a rare facility for depicting animated movement, a ...

, Chanler was staying in Paris in the 1890s and became involved with the art community. When he returned to the U.S. in the early 1900s, he purchased a townhouse on East 19th Street, decorated it with his own works, and called it his House of Fantasy. The townhouse became a social center for New York's art community. Like Shinn, Chanler was a personality and a figure in his time. Chanler was a member of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Ass ...

(Dutchess Co., 2nd D.) in

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

, but did not run for re-election. In 1907, he was elected

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...

Dutchess County, New York Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later o ...

, and remained in that office for three years. Chanler specialized in painted screens and was a member of the

National Society of Mural Painters The National Society of Mural Painters (NSMP) is an American artists' organization originally known as The Mural Painters. The charter of the society is to advance the techniques and standards for the design and execution of mural art for the e ...

. A ceiling mural of buffaloes painted by Chanler is in the Coe House in

Brookville, New York Brookville is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 2,939 at the time of the 2020 census. History The geographic Village of Broo ...

. He was also a member of the

Architectural League of New York The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construct ...

. He painted a ceiling inside the

Colony Club The Colony Club is a women-only private social club in New York City. Founded in 1903 by Florence Jaffray Harriman, wife of J. Borden Harriman, as the first social club established in New York City by and for women, it was modeled on simila ...

, a private member's club located at Park Avenue and 62nd Street in New York City. In 1905, Chanler exhibited a work entitled ''Au Pays des Girafes (or et argent)'' at the Salon d'Automne in Paris (no. 328 of the catalogue). This was the exhibition that prompted critic

Louis Vauxcelles Louis Vauxcelles (; born Louis Meyer; 1 January 187021 July 1943) was a French art critic. He is credited with coining the terms ''Fauvism'' (1905) and ''Cubism'' (1908). He used several pseudonyms in various publications: Pinturrichio, Vasari, ...

to label a group of painters "''fauves''" (wild beasts), thus marking the birth of

Fauvism Fauvism ( ) is a style of painting and an art movement that emerged in France at the beginning of the 20th century. It was the style of (, ''the wild beasts''), a group of modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong col ...

The Armory Show

Chanler's work was featured in the 1913 Armory Show in New York, and he was one of the most acclaimed American artists in the exhibition. The elaborately painted screens he submitted were placed near the entrance of the show (Gallery A), where they captured the attention of the public and critics. Chanler's screen titled ''Hopi Indian Snake Dance'' was reproduced in the ''New York Herald'', 15 February 1913.Laurette E. McCarthy, ''Robert Winthrop Chanler’s Armory Show Screens: more than ever realized'', Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
/ref> A work titled ''Porcupines'' was reproduced on postcard made for the Armory Show. Another screen by Chanler depicting porcupines is currently in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York. According to the catalogues for the Armory Show, Chanler was represented by nine screens at the New York venue and eight screens at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, but photographs and written sources, including

Walter Pach Walter Pach (July 1, 1883 – November 27, 1958) was an artist, critic, lecturer, art adviser, and art historian who wrote extensively about modern art and championed its cause. Through his numerous books, articles, and translations of European ar ...

's annotated New York catalogue and the Supplement to the New York catalogue located in the Armory Show records and the Walter Pach papers, indicate that around 25 screens were displayed during the three weeks in Manhattan, and at least nine at the Chicago exhibition.

Patrons and friends

Chanler's portrait, painted by his friend

Guy Pène du Bois Guy Pène du Bois (January 4, 1884 – July 18, 1958) was a 20th-century American painter, art critic, and educator. Born in the U.S. to a French family, his work depicted the culture and society around him: cafes, theatres, and in the twenties, f ...

in 1915, came to epitomize the world of money, fashion, and status with which he was well acquainted. Like many women of her class, Mai Rogers Coe was a patron of artists and had a taste for the elaborate, decorative works of Robert Winthrop Chanler. He painted decorative murals in Mai Coe's bedroom (1921) and in the family's breakfast room, the Buffalo Room (1920). In 1918,

Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (January 9, 1875 – April 18, 1942) was an American sculptor, art patron and collector, and founder in 1931 of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. She was a prominent social figure and hostess, ...

commissioned Chanler to create a set of seven

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

windows for her sculpture studio on MacDougal Alley in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

. She asked Chanler to decorate the entire space and over a period of five years, he created an immense chimney-piece of three-dimensional flames, floor to ceiling, in plaster with additional inserts of bronze blazes. He covered the entire ceiling with plaster constellations and then created the windows. Chanler also designed murals for Gertrude's studio in

Greenvale, New York Greenvale (historically known as Bull's Head, Cedar Swamp, and North Roslyn) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United ...

, including a seaworld fantasy in the bathroom. The studio is extant and privately owned. Gertrude Vanderbilt and Mai Rogers Coe were perhaps Chanler's greatest patrons, but he received commissions from other wealthy families for decorative murals and screens. By 1920, when he completed the murals in the Buffalo Room, Chanler's work was well known. He later received favorable commentary in ''The Upholsterer and Interior Decorator'' magazine for his murals in Mai Coe's bedroom (1921) and in ''International Studio'' magazine for his painted screens (1922). Around this time, Chicago industrialist

James Deering James Deering (November 12, 1859 – September 21, 1925) was an American executive in the management of his family's Deering Harvester Company and later International Harvester, as well as a socialite and an antiquities collector. He built h ...

commissioned him to paint an "undersea fantasy"

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

on the ceiling of the indoor/outdoor swimming pool at

Villa Vizcaya The Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, previously known as Villa Vizcaya, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick- International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present-day Coconut Grove neighb ...

(1916–1925), Deering's winter home in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Clarissa Buch, "Vizcaya Restores Iconic Swimming Pool Grotto and Rare Mural by Robert Winthrop Chanler," ''Miami New Times,'' Monday, June 13, 2016
/ref> Chanler was close friends with

Hervey White Hervey White (1866–1944) was an American novelist, poet, and community-builder. He was one of the original founders of the Byrdcliffe Colony in Woodstock, New York, then went on to create a more radical artists' colony, the Maverick. Both Byrd ...

and a member of White's Woodstock artist colony in the early 1920s. White wrote of Chanler, "He could correlate his subjects in any period, the politics, sociology, and art. He could illustrate with the customs of the populace, he could give incidents for illustration of his points, then break off with a personal explanation of his conduct. He was a man of great emotion and great mind." Towards the end of his life, Chanler owned a house in

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

, where he exhibited his work in local exhibitions.

Personal life

Cecil Howard - Robert Winthrop Chanler 1925-28

On April 12, 1893, he married Julia Remington Chamberlain, a daughter of William Chamberlain and Mary Bradhurst Remington. Julia's elder sister Alice was the first wife of Robert's elder brother

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

. They had two daughters: Dorothy Chanler on November 24, 1898, and Julia Chanler on March 25, 1905. The couple divorced on August 7, 1907. After his divorce from Julia, Chanler had a whirlwind romance with opera singer Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri. They married on June 18, 1910, but separated by the end of their honeymoon, and their divorce became final in June 1912. After the divorce, Lina returned to Europe, where she became a much-loved star in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia, and in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Chanler died on October 24, 1930, at an

art colony Art colonies are organic congregations of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, who are often drawn to areas of natural beauty, the prior existence of other artists, art schools there, or a lower cost of living. They are typically mission ...

in Woodstock, New York, after being in a coma for 12 hours.

Legacy

Chanler's work has been compared to the fantastical works of some renaissance painters. His works involve the use of sculpted gesso, transparent glazes, and gilded finishes to produce ornate and decorative designs. His work still exists in his family's estate, Rokeby near Barrytown, New York, the

Luxembourg Museum Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembourg ...

, and in private collections across the country. In 2010, Chanler's decorative plaster ceiling at the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Studio was the focus of Lauren Drapala's Masters Thesis at the University of Pennsylvania. The ceiling, which had been painted over numerous times, was found to contain vivid colors amidst metallic overlays and glazes.Art of Robert Winthrop Chanler.
/ref> At Villa Vizcaya, Chanler chose to use materials such as plaster of Paris and water-soluble paint, despite the humid climate of Florida, and the work's location above a swimming pool. His murals and ceiling at Villa Vizcaya began to deteriorate soon after they were installed in 1917. The mural has even survived a hurricane in which the storm surge flooded the grotto, with debris scratching the ceiling. Extensive restoration of Chanler's murals and the painted plaster ceiling at Villa Vizcaya was begun in 2016. As of August 28, 2024, Vizcaya was awarded a $750,000 grant for conservation of the mural, as part of the Save America’s Treasures program of the National Park Service.

References

External links

The Robert Winthrop Chanler exhibition (electronic resource). Catalog of an exhibition held 21 March – 21 April 1922

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/07/20/garden/20100722-hudson-slideshow.html Slideshow showing two of Robert Chanler's paintings at the Rokeby Estate in 2010.
Tad Richards, "Robert Chanler: Over the top wasn’t enough," ''Hudson Valley One,'' June 2, 2016

Cara Despain, "Robert Winthrop Chanler," ''The Miami Rail''

"Cooper Hewitt Short Stories: The Fantastic Beasts of Robert Winthrop Chanler"

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian 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 facil ...

Wendy Moonan, "Robert W. Chanler's (Stained) Glass Menagerie," ''Introspective Magazine''

Slideshow featuring Chanler's decorative works at Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Greenwich Village studio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chanler, Robert Winthrop 1872 births 1930 deaths Astor Orphans 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American muralists Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly People from Barrytown, New York American expatriates in France Chanler family Winthrop family Sheriffs of Dutchess County, New York 20th-century members of the New York State Legislature