The
National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in
New York City as the
National Academy of Design—known simply as the "National Academy"—is an honorary association of
American artists, with a
museum and a
school of
fine arts.
It was founded in 1825 by
Samuel F. B. Morse,
Asher B. Durand,
Thomas Cole, and others "to promote the fine arts in America through instruction and exhibition."
The academy houses a public collection of over five thousand works of nineteenth and twentieth century
American art.
It has had several homes over the years. Notable among them was a building built during 1863-1865, of
Gothic Revival style, which was modeled on the
Doge's Palace in
Venice. One locale was at West 104th Street and
Amsterdam Avenue in
Manhattan, where
comic-book artist
George Tuska studied in the mid-1930s.
[Cassell, Dewey, with Aaron Sultan and Mike Gartland. The Art of George Tuska (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2005), ISBN-10 1893905403; ISBN-13 978-1893905405, p. 10] Since 1942 the academy has occupied a mansion that was the former home of sculptor
Anna Hyatt Huntington and
Archer Milton Huntington at
Fifth Avenue and Eighty-ninth Street.
The school offers studio instruction, master classes, intensive critiques, various workshops, and lunchtime lectures. Scholarships are available.
History
The original founders of the National Academy of Design were students of the American Academy of Fine Arts. However, by 1825 the students of the Academy felt a lack of support for teaching from the Academy, its board composed of merchants, lawyers, and physicians, and from its unsympathetic president, the famous American Revolutionary War artist Colonel
John Trumbull.
Samuel F. B. Morse and other students set about forming "the drawing association" to meet several times each week for the study the art of design. Still, the association was viewed as a dependent organization of the Academy, from which they felt neglected. An attempt was made to reconcile the difference and maintain a single academy by appointing six of the artists from the association as directors of the Academy, however, when four of the nominees were not elected, the frustrated artists resolved to form a new academy and the National Academy of Design was born.
Famous Instructors
Among the teaching staff were numerous artists, including
Will Hicok Low who taught from 1889-1892. The famous American poet
William Cullen Bryant also gave lectures. Architect
Alexander Jackson Davis (A.J. Davis) taught at the Academy. Painter Lemuel Wilmarth was the first full-time instructor.
Gulian C. Verplanck, a Congressman and a man of letters, gave an address at the school in 1824.
Instructors
Source:
[Verplanck, Gulian C. (Charles Wiley : New York, 1824) "Officers and Directors for 1824". List of academicians, p. 59]Members of the National Academy of Design
Members of the National Academy are denoted by "N. A.", and one cannot apply for membership. Some of the better-known members of the Academy have included:
Annual Reception at the National Academy of Design, New York, 1868, a
wood engraving from a sketch by W. S. L. Jewett
See also
