ILLINOIS HISTORICAL ART PROJECT
Anisfeld, Boris Israelevich
BORN: October 2, 1879 Bieltsy, Bessarabia, Russia
DIED: December 4, 1973 Waterford, CT
MARRIED: 1904 to Freida Glaeserman, deceased through suicide 1933
TRAINING
1895-1901 Odessa School of Art, Kostandi and Ladijinsky
1901-1909 St. Petersburg Royal Academy with Kardovsky and Kovalevsky; graduated 1908
ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT
1905 Illustrated satirical journals including Bugaboo cover
c.1906- c.1908 Stage and costume designs, Maryinsky Theater
1908 Ballet stage and costume designs, Diaghilev Saisons Russes production of Boris Godunov
1910 Designs for the book of Joram
1911 Ballet stage and costume designs, Diaghilev, Saisons Russes production of Sadko
1912-1916 Stage and costume designs for Russian various companies
1914-1917 Villa Wourgaft decorations in St. Petersburg
1919-1924 New York Metropolitan Opera designsii
1921-1926 Chicago Opera Companyiii
TEACHING
1928-1956 Art Institute of Chicago, Head of Painting:
1929-1934; 1956-1957 Painting and Drawing; 1934-1946 Life Drawing and Figure Painting; 1946-1950 Painting; 1946-1956 Still Life Painting
1933-1965 Anisfeld Summer School, Central City, Colorado
RESIDENCES
1879-1895 Bieltsy, Russia
1895-1901 Odessa, Russia
1901-1917 St. Petersburg, Russia
1918-1928 New York Cityiv
1928-1972 Chicago
1972-1973 New London, Connecticut (nursing home)
TRAVEL
1906-1913 Paris
1910 Concarneau, Brittany (summer)
1911 Capri, Italy (summer)v
1912 Gries am Brenner, Tyrol (summer)
1913 Berlin and Stockholm with ballet director, Fokine
1913 Hendaye, France and Spain (summer)
1914 Venice (summer)
1916 Bilbao, Spain
1918 Japan
1931 Motor tour of New York, Maine and Canada (summer)vi
1932 Croton, New Yorkvii
1933viii-1965 Central City, CO (summers)
MEMBERSHIPS/OFFICES
Cor Ardens; Salon d’Automne
HONORS
1906 Sociétaire Salon d’Automne
1926 Gold Medal, Sesqui-Centenial Exposition, Philadelphia
1930 Honorary Master of Fine Arts Art Institute of Chicago
1937 Martin B. Cahn Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual
1941 Trustees’ Honorable Mention, Art Institute of Chicago, American Annual
JURIES SERVED
Art Institute, Chicago and Vicinity 1930
Chicago Regional Jury, Pepsi-Cola Paintings of the Year, National Academy of Design 1946
Swedish-American Artists annual, Chicago 1951ix
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Great Lakes Exhibition 1938
American Federation of Arts, contemporary Chicago painters, circulating exhibition, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago 1931, 1932x
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress 1933, 1934
Art Institute of Chicago, A Half Century of American Art 1939
Art Institute of Chicago, International Exhibition of Contemporary Prints 1934
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings By Contemporary Chicago Artists 1936
Art Institute of Chicago, Work by Teachers in the School of the Art Institute 1929xi
Carnegie Institute International annual 1924, 1925, 1946-1949
Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. Gallery, Six Chicago Artists 1933 (6/17)
Diaghelev Exhibition, Petrograd 1905
Exposition Baltique in Sweden, Amsterdam, London 1914
International Exposition in Milan 1914
International Exhibitions Foundation, Russian Stage and Costume Designs 1967
Moscow 1909
National Academy of Design, Pepsi-Cola Paintings of the Year 1947
Nebraska Art Association annual 1927, 1929, 1930
Salon d’Automne, Russian paintings 1906
St. Petersburg Academy of Art 1908, 1909
Syracuse University
Union of Russian Artists, Moscow and St. Petersburg 1909, 1911
Venice Biennial 1906
Vienna Secession 1908
World of Art (Mir Iskusstva), Moscow and St. Petersburg 1905, 1909-1011, 1913, 1914, 1916, 1917
ONE, TWO OR THREE MAN EXHIBITIONS
1918 Brooklyn Museum [traveled to Buffalo; St. Louis; Milwaukee; Cleveland; Minneapolis; San Francisco and many others]xii
1919 Art Institute of Chicagoxiii
1919 The Kingore Galleries, New Yorkxiv
1921 Arts Club of Chicagoxv
1922 Art Institute of Chicago, drawings
1924 Worcester Art Museum
1924 Henry Reinhardt Gallery, New York
1924 Boston Art Club
1925 Arts Club of Chicagoxvi
1927 Art Centre, New York Cityxvii
1927 Art Institute of Chicagoxviii
1928 Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Albright Gallery
1932 Art Institute of Chicago, watercolors
1958 Art Institute of Chicago
1968 Vincent Astor Gallery, Library and Museum of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, New York
1971 National Collection of Fine Art, Smithsonian
1979 William Benton Museum of Art, The University of Connecticut, Storrs
1979 A. M. Adler Fine Arts, New York
1981 Gilman Galleries, Chicagoxix
1984 Shepherd Gallery, New York
1997 Boris Anisfeld and the Theatre, Ohio State University at Lima; Columbus College of Arts and Design; Spencer Museum
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Art Institute of Chicago;xx Brooklyn Museum; Isabella Garnder Museum, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art
INTERESTING NOTES
In 1951 he was represented by Grand Central Gallery in New York.xxi
iFor full details on his life see: Christian Brinton, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1918); Janet A. Flint, Boris Anisfeldt: Twenty Years of Designs for the Theater, (Washington, D. C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, 1971); Thomas P. Bruhn, Boris Anisfeld: The Early Works and Theatre Sketches, (Storrs, CT: William Benton Museum of Art, 1979); Boris Anisfeldt: 1879-1973 Retrospective Exhibition, (Chicago: Gilman Galleries, 1981) and Elisabeth Kashey, Boris Anisfeld in St. Petersburg 1901-1917, (New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1984). See also, Marguerite B. Williams, “About a Painter Without Theories,” Chicago Daily News-Journal, 1/8/1930, AIC Scrapbooks, Vol. 57.
iiFor two very thorough accounts of his work see: “‘The Blue Bird’ in Music and Picture,” Arts and Decoration, Vol. 12, January 1920, pp.187, 206-207 and “The Blue Bird Set to Music at The Metropolitan Opera House: And Staged by Boris Anisfeld,” The Touchstone, Vol. 6, No. 3, December 1919, pp.90-96.
iiiHis original sets for “The Love of Three Oranges” appeared in Vogue Magazine, 11/15/1921. Ben Hecht wrote about the sets and opening in the Chicago Daily News, a compendium of the works to be published by Snickersnee Press in Art & Architecture on 1001 Afternoons.
ivHis 1924 and 1925 residence was listed in the Carnegie Institute’s International exhibition brochure as c/o Henry Reinhardt & Sons, New York
vLouis Weinberg, “The Art Of Boris Anisfeld,” The International Studio, Vol. 66, No. 261, November 1918, p.9.
vi“Heed Call to Vacations at Art Institute,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/30/1931, Art Section, p.6.
vii“Art Institute Faculty Scatters for Vacation,” Chicago Evening Post, 6/28/1932, Art Section, p.8.
viiiEleanor Jewett, “Many Chicago Artists on Summer Trips,” Chicago Tribune, 7/16/1933, part 8, p.5.
ix27th Swedish-American Art Exhibition, (Chicago: The Swedish Club, 11/18/1951).
xEleanor Jewett, “News of Art and Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 7/17/1932, part 8, p.2.
xiEleanor Jewett, “Interesting Exhibits for Art Lovers,” Chicago Tribune, 1/5/1930, p.F4, and “Teachers of Art at Institute Show Their Own Paintings,” 1/2/1930, p.I7.. His self portrait was illustrated in The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 1/14/1930, p.6.
xiiFor an extensive review see: “A Russian Painter and New York Water Colorists,” Nation, Vol. 107, 11/16/1918, pp.595-596.
xiiiThe show is reviewed in Eleanor Jewett, “Art: New Paintings at Institute Form Notable Exhibit,” Chicago Tribune, 4/6/1919, p.D7. His work Gray Day on the Neva was illustrated three weeks later, 4/27/1919, part 8, p.5.
xivOp. cit., Arts and Decoration, January 1920, p.187.
xv“The Art Dealers,” “News of the Art World,” supplement, Chicago Evening Post, 12/13/1921. His sketches for Prokofiev’s The Love for the Three Oranges, were exhibited, see also: The Arts, Vol. 2, December 1921, p.160.
xviEleanor Jewett, “New Art Revealed in Exhibit Here of Survage Paintings,” Chicago Tribune, 2/10/1925, p.21. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists,” Chicago Tribune, 2/15/1925, p.E4.
xviiNew York Times, Sec. 7, Col. 7, 1/23/1927, p.10.
xviiiCharles Victor Knox, “Eight Shows Open Next Tuesday at Art Institute,” The Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World, 12/20/1927, pp.1, 12 and R. A. Lennon, “Russian Art Shown at Institute in Anisfeld Paintings,” 1/3/1928, pp.1, 3. Eleanor Jewett, “Art And Artists: Mystical Pictures,” Chicago Tribune, 1/1/1928, p.E3.
xixAlan G. Artner, “An in-depth survey of a deliberate and influential painter,” Chicago Tribune, 12/4/1981, p.E10.
xxIn 1922 he gave a series of stage design drawings to the museum. Eleanor Jewett, “Art and Artists: Anisfeld Drawings of Opera Settings Given to Institute,” Chicago Tribune, 1/15/1922, part 9, p.5.
xxi“Who’s Where,” Art Digest, Vol. 26, 11/1/1951, p.69.