George Brant Bridgman (November 5, 1864 – December 16, 1943) was a Canadian-American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, and

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

in the fields of anatomy and figure drawing. Bridgman taught anatomy for artists at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

for some 45 years.

Life and work

Bridgman was born in 1864 in the

United Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report on the ...

. In his youth, Bridgman studied the arts under painter and sculptor

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ran ...

at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

in Paris, and later with

Gustave Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (25 April 1824 – 22 September 1888) was a French figurative painter and academic artist and teacher known for his Classical and Orientalist subjects. Education and career The Néo-Grecs and the Prix de Rom ...

. For most of his life Bridgman lived in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

where he taught

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

and

figure drawing A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...

at the

(from 1898 until 1900, and then 1903 until October 1943). His successor at Art Students League was

Robert Beverly Hale Robert Beverly Hale (1901–November 14, 1985) was an artist, curator of American paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and instructor of artistic anatomy at the Art Students League of New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He ...

. Bridgman had also taught classes at the

Grand Central School of Art The Grand Central School of Art was an American art school in New York City, founded in 1923 by the painters Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark and John Singer Sargent. The school was established and run by the Grand Central Art Galleries, an art ...

and at the

American Bank Note Company ABCorp is an American corporation providing contract manufacturing and related services to the authentication, payment and secure access business sectors. Its history dates back to 1795 as a secure engraver and printer, and assisting the newl ...

. Bridgman used box forms to represent the major masses of the figure (head, thorax, and pelvis) which he would tie together with gestural lines and produce to create "wedges" or simplified interconnecting forms of the body. He had been a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

Notable students

Among his many thousands of students was

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

; in his autobiography, ''My Adventures as an Illustrator'' (1960), Rockwell spoke highly of Bridgman. Roughly 70,000 students studied with Bridgman in his many years teaching, notable artists include:

McClelland Barclay McClelland Barclay (1891 – 18 July 1943) was an American illustrator. By the age of 21, Barclay's work had been published in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', ''Ladies' Home Journal'', and ''Cosmopolitan''. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in ...

Emily Newton Barto Emily Newton Barto (1896–1968) was an American children's book illustrator, writer, craftsperson, writer, and designer. She was known for painting murals at Fordham Hospital in New York City, as a Federal Arts Project participant. Biography ...

C. C. Beall Cecil Calvert Beall (1892–1970) was an American commercial illustrator and portrait painter. He did watercolor art and drawings for magazines and comic books. Beall designed posters for the United States government for war loan drives during ...

Gifford Beal Gifford Beal (January 24, 1879 – February 5, 1956) was an American painter, watercolorist, printmaker and muralist. Early life Born in New York City, Gifford Beal was the youngest son in a family of six surviving children. His oldest brother R ...

Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake Elizabeth Cady Stanton Blake (December 31, 1894 – November 24, 1981) was an American painter. Life and career Blake was born in New York City, and enjoyed a comfortable childhood until her father's death in 1906, whereupon the family moved to ...

Rosina Cox Boardman Rosina Cox Boardman (1878–1970) was an American painter of portrait miniatures and botanical illustrations. Early life Born in New York City in 1878, Boardman was a descendant of several of the oldest families in the state, including the Livin ...

Bessie Callender Bessie Callender (ca. 1889 – June 26, 1951) was an American sculptor most well known for her sculptures of wildlife in the style of the French ''animaliers''. Biography Bessie Stough was born near Wichita, Kansas around 1889 and spent mo ...

Dane Chanase Riccardo Dane Chanase (October 21, 1894 - July 15, 1975) was an American painter and printmaker. Life Chanase was born in Palermo, Italy. He exhibited at the Salon d'Automne. He served in World War I. He married artist Sheva Ausubel (1896–1 ...

Richard V. Culter Richard V. Culter (September 10, 1883 – January 15, 1929) was an American artist who gained fame as an illustrator known primarily for his detailed drawings of people. Early life Richard Culter was born in Peoria, Illinois on September 10, ...

Chon Day Chauncey Addison Day, better known as Chon Day, (April 6, 1907 – Jan 1, 2000) was an American cartoonist whose cartoons appeared in ''The New Yorker'' and other magazines. Born in Chatham, New Jersey, Day attended Lehigh University in 1926, whe ...

Joseph Delaney Joseph Henry Delaney (25 July 1945 – 16 August 2022) was an English author, known for his dark fantasy series ''Spook's''. He started his career as a teacher and wrote science fiction and fantasy novels for adults under the pseudonym J. K. H ...

Elsie Driggs Elsie Driggs (1898 – July 12, 1992 in New York City) was an American Painting, painter known for her contributions to Precisionism, America's one indigenous modern-art movement before Abstract Expressionism, and for her later floral and figurat ...

Eyre de Lanux Eyre de Lanux ( ; born Elizabeth Eyre; March 20, 1894 – September 8, 1996) was an American artist, writer, and designer. De Lanux is best known for designing lacquered furniture and geometric patterned rugs, in the art deco style, in Par ...

Helen Winslow Durkee Helen Winslow Durkee (1880–1954) was an American painter of portrait miniatures and still lifes. Born in Brooklyn, Durkee was an alumna of Smith College who returned to New York City after graduation and studied art at the Art Students League ...

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...

, Edward McNeil Farmer,

Elias Goldberg Elias Goldberg (March 14, 1886 – February 22, 1978) was an American painter. Biography From 1906 to 1909 Elias Goldberg studied with George Bridgman at the Art Students League of New York. In 1915 his illustration work published in The Mass ...

Marion Greenwood Marion Greenwood (April 6, 1909 – August 20, 1970) was an American social realist artist who became popular starting in the 1920s and became renowned in both the United States and Mexico. She is most well known for her murals, but she also pra ...

Lorenzo Homar Lorenzo Homar Gelabert (September 10, 1913 – February 16, 2004) was a Puerto Rican printmaker, painter, and calligrapher whose artwork stretches to three main workshops: (CPA), DIVEDCO (), and the of the (ICP). Homar was also the designer of ...

Clark Hulings Clark Hulings (November 20, 1922 – February 2, 2011) was an American realist painter. He was born in Florida and raised in New Jersey. Clark also lived in Spain, New York, Louisiana, and throughout Europe before settling in Santa Fe, New M ...

Louis Paul Jonas Louis Paul Jonas (July 17, 1894 – February 16, 1971) was an American sculptor of wildlife, taxidermist, and natural history exhibit designer. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Jonas moved to the United States at the age of 12 and went to work at ...

Jack Kamen Jack Kamen (; May 29, 1920 – August 5, 2008) was an American illustrator for books, magazines, comic books and advertising, known for his work illustrating crime, horror, humour, suspense and science fiction stories for EC Comics, for his work in ...

, Deane Keller,

Lee Krasner Lenore "Lee" Krasner (born Lena Krassner; October 27, 1908 – June 19, 1984) was an American abstract expressionist painter, with a strong speciality in collage. She was married to Jackson Pollock. Although there was much cross-pollination betw ...

, Richard Lahey,

Andrew Loomis William Andrew Loomis (June 15, 1892 – May 25, 1959) was an American illustrator, writer, and art instructor. His commercial work was featured prominently in advertising and magazines; however, Loomis is best known as the writer of a series o ...

Anita Malfatti Anita Catarina Malfatti (December 2, 1889 – November 6, 1964) is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil. Her solo exhibition in Sao Paulo, from 1917–1918, was controversial ...

Paul Manship Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...

, Frank McCarthy,

Earl Moran Earl Steffa Moran (December 8, 1893 – January 17, 1984), born in Belle Plaine, Iowa, was a 20th-century pin-up and glamour artist. Moran's first instruction in art came under the direction of John Stich, an elderly German artist who also ...

John Cullen Murphy John Cullen Murphy (May 3, 1919 – July 2, 2004) was an American illustrator best known for his three decades of work on the ''Prince Valiant'' comic strip. Early life and education Born in New York City, Murphy spent his childhood in Chicago a ...

Kimon Nicolaïdes Kimon Nicolaїdes (1891–1938) was an American art teacher, author and artist. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army in France as a camouflage artist. He was of Greek descent. __NOTOC__ Early life Nicolaïdes was born in Washington, D ...

Corrado Parducci Corrado Giuseppe Parducci (March 10, 1900 – November 22, 1981) was an Italian-American architectural sculptor who was a celebrated artist for his numerous early-20th century works. Early life and education Parducci was born in Buti, Italy, a ...

Norman Raeben Norman Raeben (1901 – 12 December 1978) was an American painter. Life He was born in the Russian Empire, the youngest of the six children, four girls and two boys, of Yiddish author Sholom Aleichem. Aleichem's most famous character, Tevye the M ...

Frank J. Reilly Frank Joseph Reilly A.N.A. (1906–1967) was an American painter, illustrator, muralist, and teacher. He taught drawing and painting at the Grand Central School of Art, and illustration at Pratt Institute and Moore College of Art. However, he is be ...

Joseph Emile Renier Joseph Emile Renier (1887–1966) was an American traditionalist artist and professor, best known as a sculptor and medalist. He created architectural sculptures, reliefs, and medals and was active in the New York City and New Jersey area. Biog ...

Ulysses Ricci Ulysses Anthony Ricci (1888–1960) was an American sculptor known primarily for his architectural sculpture. Born in New York City, Ricci was an apprentice at the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Works in New Jersey from 1902 to 1906. He studied at ...

Ernie Schroeder Ernest C. Schroeder (January 9, 1916 – September 20, 2006)Ernest C. Schroeder
...

, Archie Boyd Teater,

Allie Tennant Allie Victoria Tennant (1892 or 1898—1971) was an American sculptor born in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Thomas Richard and Allie Virginia Brown Tennant. She worked primarily out of Dallas, Texas, where her most famous work ''Tejas W ...

John Vassos John Vassos (born John Plato Vassacopoulos; 23 October 1898 – 6 December 1985) whose career as an American industrial designer and artist helped define the shape of radio, television, broadcasting equipment, and computers for the Radio Corpora ...

Franklin Brooke Voss Franklin Brooke Voss (1880–1953) was an American painter. Biography Franklin Brooke Voss was born in New York City in 1880. He attended the Art Students League of New York, where George Bridgman was his teacher. He was commissioned paintings ...

, Edmund Ward,

Mahonri Young Mahonri Mackintosh Young (August 9, 1877 – November 2, 1957) was an American social-realist sculptor and artist. During his lengthy career, he created more than 320 sculptures, 590 oil paintings, 5,500 watercolors, 2,600 prints, and thousand ...

, and

William Zorach William Zorach (February 28, 1889 – November 15, 1966) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and writer. He won the Logan Medal of the arts. He is notable for being at the forefront of American artists embracing cubism, as well as for ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

's sketchpad features work from Bridgman's books.

Death and legacy

Bridgman died on December 16, 1943, in

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, after suffering from an illness for a year. He was survived by his wife, Helene Leonora Bridgman (née Rupperstberg) and their three children. George Bridgman has 100 drawings in the public collection at the

Norman Rockwell Museum The Norman Rockwell Museum is an art museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to the art of Norman Rockwell. It is home to the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art. The museum also hosts traveling exhibitions pertaining to A ...

Rescue of a Youth Fallen Overboard from a Fishing Boat

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * Many of Bridgman's books are available as reprints by

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

References

External links

Drawings from George Bridgman's 1911 Art ClassArt Students League of New York
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bridgman, George 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters American autobiographers American instructional writers American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts 1865 births 1943 deaths American art educators Art Students League of New York faculty 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists