This collection is located on-site.
Certain materials as marked in the finding aid are restricted based on fragilty.
This collection includes correspondence, original artwork, journals and scrapbooks of Stettheimer's work, photographs of her paintings, apartments, family and friends, catalogues, books and articles pertaining to Stettheimer's paintings and exhibits and puppets for Four Saints in Three Acts and the (unfinished) ballet Pocahontas.
Some photographs have multiple copies and might be found in more than one location. The count indicated is often for all of the items in both locations.
Some notices, catalogues and articles have multiple copies and might be found in more than one location
This collection is arranged into 8 series.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
Certain materials as marked in the finding aid are restricted based on fragilty.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Florine Stettheimer papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Source of acquisition--Solomon, Joseph. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1967. Accession number--M-67.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 09/--/89.
Originally processed by Jane Sabersky. Reprocessed by Ellen Wurtzel, 3/2001.
In 2024 journals were removed from flat boxes 208-212 and 269 and are now treated as individual numbered items.
In 2024 box numbers were assigned for series III.3.
Columbia University Art Properties department holds a number of Stettheimer paintings and drawings, many of which are cataloged individually.
2010-03-25 Legacy finding aid created from Pro Cite.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
American artist, theatrical set designer. Stettheimer is perhaps best known for the lavish sets and costumes she designed for the first American production, in 1934, of Gertrude Stein's opera FOUR SAINTS IN THREE ACTS, with music by Virgil Thomson.
Florine Stettheimer (August 29 1871-May 11 1944) was an artist, designer and poet. Although during her lifetime she was little known outside the circle of New York modernists of which she and her sisters were a part Stettheimer's achievements in painting and costume set and furniture design have since been recognized as important contributions to American art in the first half of the twentieth century. She was born in Rochester New York the second youngest of five children in a well-to-do German-Jewish family. After studying art in both New York and Europe Stettheimer settled permanently in New York City with her mother and two of her sisters Ettie and Carrie in 1914. Together they hosted salons and intellectual gatherings for over twenty years that included such figures as Gaston Lachaise Marcel Duchamp Carl Van Vechten Avery Hopwood Georgia O'Keefe and Alfred Stieglitz many of whom became the subjects of Stettheimer's portraits. Her first and only solo exhibition during her lifetime took place in 1916, subsequently Stettheimer showed her work only in group exhibitions. In her vividly-colored portraits of family and friends, Stettheimer both experimented with modernist styles and expressed her often witty social commentary on contemporary culture. She also designed picture frames furniture and other decorative elements for her studio and apartment in New York. Lastly Stettheimer created sets and costumes for two never-produced ballets and the well-known 1934 Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson opera Four Saints in Three Acts.
In addition to her inclusion in numerous group exhibitions since her death, there have been two retrospectives of Stettheimer's work in 1946 at the Museum of Modern Art and in 1995 at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her paintings have been donated to museums around the country, and her extant diaries and correspondence are housed in the Beinicke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University while her journals, early paintings and drawings and scrapbooks are at the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New York.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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