Archives of American Art

A Finding Aid to the Stendahl Art Galleries Records, 1907-1971, in the Archives of American Art

Summary

Collection ID:
AAA.stenartg
Creators:
Stendahl Art Galleries
Dates:
1907-1971
Languages:
The collection is in English
Physical Description:
7.5 Linear feet
Repository:
The records of the Los Angeles Stendahl Art Galleries measure 7.5 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1971. The collection is comprised of administrative and financial files, correspondence, exhibition files, and subject files on numerous artists, organizations, and other art-related topics. There is one scrapbook of clippings on the artist Edgar Payne.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
The records of the Los Angeles Stendahl Art Galleries measure 7.5 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1971. The collection is comprised of administrative and financial files, correspondence, exhibition files, and subject files on numerous artists, organizations, and other art-related topics. There is one scrapbook of clippings on the artist Edgar Payne.
Administrative and financial files concern advertising, publicity, consignments, inventory, purchases, sales, leases, and biographical information on Earl Stendahl.
The bulk of the correspondence is pre-World War II and is fairly extensive. It is with artists, organizations, collectors, art historians,and galleries. Signicant correspondents include Alexander Archipenko, Federico Beltran-Masses, Alexander Calder, Federico Cantú, Jean Charlot, Couvoisier Galleries, José de Creeft, Demotte Inc., Jerome Eddy, Lillian Genthe, Arthur Hill Gilbert, George B. Guthrie, Rockwell Kent, Louis Kronberg, Gisella Loeffler, Carlos Mérida, Isamu Noguchi, Walter Pach, Diego Rivera, Waler Elmer Schofield, David Alfaro Siquieros, Ladislas Szecsi, Wildenstein & Company, and many others.
Files are found for about ten exhibitions, including Etching and Engravings by the Old Masters (1921), Airview Paintings (1930), American Landscape Art (1930), Arts of New Guinea (1964), and for exhibitions of Emil Gelhaar, Wassily Kandinsky, Sydney Laurence, and Roberto Montenegro.
Subject files are found for numerous artists, art topics, galleries, and foundations. Most of the files consist of printed materials, but there is correspondence and additional primary source material found in files for Nicolai Ivanovich Feshin, the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, Armin Hansen, Joseph Kleitsch, Aston Knight, José Clemente Orozco, Edgar Payne, Ralph M. Pearson, Pablo Picasso, William Ritschel, Diego Rivera, Ethel B. Rose, Guy Rose, Walter Elmer Schofield, David Alfaro Siquieros, Ladislas Szecsi, William Wendt, and Ignacio Zuloaga.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged as 4 series.
  • Missing Title
  • Series 1: Administrative and Financial Files, 1923-1957 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)
  • Series 2: Correspondence, 1923-1968 (2.0 linear feet; Box 1-3)
  • Series 3: Exhibition Files, circa 1921-1967 (0.4 linear feet; Box 3)
  • Series 4: Subject Files, 1907-1971 (4.6 linear feet; Box 3-8, OV 9)

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Earl Stendahl established Stendahl Art Galleries in 1911 in Los Angeles, California.
Earl Stendahl (1887-1966) came to Southern California from a small town in Wisconsin. He began showing young Los Angeles artists at his downtown restaurant, The Black Cat Café. He opened his gallery in The Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard and organized shows focusing primarily on California Impressionists of the early twentieth century, including Edgar Payne, Guy Rose, William Wendt, Nicolai Fechin, and Joseph Kleitsch.
Stendahl Art Galleries also began to sell European and Latin American modern art. In 1939, Stendahl hosted one of only two non-museum exhibitions of Pablo Picasso's masterwork, Guernica, to benefit Spanish War orphans.
As early as 1935 Stendahl began promoting ancient artifacts from Mexico and Central America. Stendahl's first client for pre-Columbian art and artifacts was noted collector Walter Arensberg. Stendahl and the Arensburgs became friends and Stendahl helped the Arensburgs build one of the most significant collections in the U.S.
The galleries are currently owned by Ronald W. Dammann, Stendahl's grandson.

Administration

Author
Sarah Mundy
Sponsor
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Collections Care and Preservation Fund
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Stendahl Art Galleries records were donated by Alfred Stendahl in 1976. An album of clippings was donated by Stendahl in 1995 via Nancy Moure.
Processing Information
The collection was processed and a finding aid prepared by Sarah Mundy in 2016 with funding from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care Pool Fund, using accelerated processing strategies implemented by the Archives to increase information about and access to more of our collections. For this collection, accelerated processing included arrangement to the series, subseries and folder levels, adhering to the creator's original arrangement as much as possible. Generally, folder contents were simply verified with the original folder titles, but items within folders were not arranged further. All materials were rehoused in archival folders and boxes for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Existence and Location of Copies
Portions of the collection are available on 35 mm microfilm reels 2716-2725 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
This collection is temporarily closed to researchers due to archival processing and digitization. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Terms of Use
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Preferred Citation
Stendahl Art Galleries Records, 1907-1971. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Art -- New Guinea Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Latino and Latin American artists Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Landscape painting Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Prints Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gallery records Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scrapbooks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art, American Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art, Modern -- 20th century -- California -- Los Angeles Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Art galleries, Commercial -- California Function Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Siqueiros, David Alfaro, 1896-1974 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gilbert, Arthur Hill, 1894-1970 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rose, Ethel Boardman, 1871-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rivera, Diego, 1886-1957 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pearson, Ralph M., 1883-1958 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rose, Guy, 1867-1925 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Demotte, inc. (New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Couvoisier Galleries Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Montenegro, Roberto, 1887-1968 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Pach, Walter, 1883-1958 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wildenstein and Company (New York, N.Y.) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
De Creeft, José, 1884-1982 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Noguchi, Isamu, 1904-1988 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Loeffler, Gisella, 1900- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stendahl, Earl L. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Laurence, Sydney, 1868-1940 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kandinsky, Wassily, 1866-1944 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Calder, Alexander, 1898-1976 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cantú, Federico, 1908-1989 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Guthrie, George B. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Archipenko, Alexander, 1887-1964 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Beltrán-Masses, Federico, 1885-1949 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Genth, Lillian Mathilde, 1876-1953 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wendt, William, 1865-1946 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ritschel, William, 1864-1949 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hansen, Armin C. (Armin-Carl), 1886-1957 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Payne, Edgar A. (Edgar Alwin), 1882-1947 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Knight, Aston, 1873-1948 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kronberg, Louis, 1872-1965 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Gelhaar, Emil Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Feshin, Nikolaĭ Ivanovich, 1881-1955 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Szecsi, Ladislas Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Schofield, Walter Elmer, 1867-1944 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Charlot, Jean, 1898-1979 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Kleitsch, Joseph, 1885-1931 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Zuloaga, Ignacio, 1870-1945 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Orozco, José Clemente, 1883-1949 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mérida, Carlos, 1891-1984 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Eddy, Jerome Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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