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Archives of American Art
Oral history interview with S. Morton Vose
Summary
- Collection ID:
- AAA.voses86
- Creators:
-
Vose, S. Morton (Seth Morton), 1909-2007Brown, Robert F.
- Dates:
-
1986 July 24-1987 April 28
- Languages:
-
English.
- Physical Description:
-
87 PagesTranscript
- Repository:
Scope and Contents
Scope and Contents
An interview of S. Morton Vose conducted 1986 July 24-1987 April 28, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Scope and Contents
Vose speaks of the pervasive effect of his family's art gallery upon his life; studying languages at Harvard College; his affiliation with the gallery from 1927 on; the increasing emphasis on American painting during his career at the Vose Gallery, and the gradual de-emphasis on European work. He reminisces about some Vose Gallery clients, especially Maxim Karolik, and some art dealers; he discusses a traveling exhibition he was involved in; he speaks of the gallery's relations with prominent museum personnel, such as William Reinhold Valentiner and E.P. Richardson. Vose also discusses the pitfalls of appraising art collections, his father's last years, and the firm's move, and his recent work on a dictionary of American painters. He recalls William Morris Hunt, Thomas Robinson, Leopold Seyffert, Catherine Morris Wright, Maxim Karolik, Elizabeth Paxton, Paul Sample, John Whorf, Hermann Dudley Murphy, Winslow Homer, James Fitzgerald, Arthur Healey, and many others.
Biographical / Historical
Biographical / Historical
Seth Morton Vose (1909-2007) was an art dealer and art historian from Brookline, Massachusetts.
Administration
Sponsor
Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These interviews are part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Digital Content
Using the Collection
Conditions Governing Access
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
More Information
General
General
Originally recorded on 4 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 25 min.
Keywords
Archives of American Art
750 9th Street, NW
Victor Building, Suite 2200
Washington, D.C. 20001
https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions