Grundmann Studios (1893–1917) in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, was a building on Clarendon Street in the

Back Bay Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and t ...

. It contained artist's workspaces and multipurpose function rooms Copley Hall and Allston Hall. Prior to 1893, it functioned as a skating rink; after the Boston Art Students' Association leased the building it was renamed in honor of local art educator

Emil Otto Grundmann Professor Emil Otto Grundmann (1844 in Meissen – 27 August 1890 in Dresden), was a German painter who studied in Antwerp under Baron Hendrik Leys, and in Düsseldorf before moving to America where he became a noted painter. He was the fir ...

. The

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, whose campus was adjacent, owned the property. Tenants included the Copley Society (formerly Boston Art Students' Association); artists Henry R. Blaney, Herman Dudley Murphy, Frank Richmond, Mary Bradish Titcomb; sculptor John A. Wilson, architect

Josephine Wright Chapman Josephine Wright Chapman (1867–1943) was a pioneering woman architect, one of fewer than 100 practicing nationally in the first half of the 20th century. She was also the first woman architect "in the history of American architecture to start an ...

; and the College Club. Grundmann Studios 1894 Bachman

Ralph Adams Cram, architect and member of BASA, was charged with remodeling the interior. The first floor included club roomslibrary, parlor, smoking room and life class roomand two large halls, each lit with "an immense skylight or glass roof". The larger room, Copley Hall, could seat up to eight hundred people and was used for lectures, concerts, dancing parties and art exhibitions. The smaller Allston Hall was designed for use as a picture gallery or supper room. It was connected by dumbwaiter to the basement kitchen. The second floor contained thirty-four suites of one, two, or three rooms, described as "so delightfully picturesque, with little, overhanging galleries, which are reached by the tiniest flight of stairs, it seems like climbing into a doll's house.". The building was demolished in 1917 to allow for the extension of Stuart St., part of the "broad highway" civic improvement project.

Events in Copley Hall

1890s

* Artists Festival, 1894 * Art exhibition to benefit Boston Art Students' Association * American Arts and Crafts Exhibition * Daughters of the Revolution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts exhibit * Artists' Festival, 1898 *

John Singer Sargent John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...

exhibit

1900s

* Artists Festival, 1900 * Boston Orchestral Club concert * Museum of Fine Arts, School of Drawing and Painting, 25th annual exhibit *

James Abbott McNeill Whistler James Abbott McNeill Whistler (; July 10, 1834July 17, 1903) was an American painter active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He eschewed sentimentality and moral allusion in painting and was a leading pr ...

exhibit *

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...

exhibition * Artists' Festival, 1907 *

Bela Pratt Bela Lyon Pratt (December 11, 1867 – May 18, 1917) was an American sculptor from Connecticut. Life Pratt was born in Norwich, Connecticut, to Sarah (Whittlesey) and George Pratt, a Yale-educated lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Oramel Whittle ...

exhibit * Yamanaka & Company Exhibition and auction of Japanese and Chinese fine art, November 6-8, 1902.

1910s

* Spanish art exhibit * International Exhibition of Modern Art * Portrait exhibit * Bertha A. Grover exhibit * "Farewell" exhibition (1917)

Images

Image:1895 CopleyHall BostonEveningTranscript Feb4.png, Advertisement, Mme. Lineff Russian Choir, Copley Hall, 1895 Image:1898 costume ArtistsFestival Boston.png, Artists' Festival attendee in costume, Copley Hall, 1898 Image:1898 costume2 ArtistsFestival Boston.png, Artists' Festival attendee in costume, Copley Hall, 1898 Image:1904 Whistler CopleyHall Boston LC.jpg, Exhibit of J.M. Whistler, Copley Hall, 1904 Image:1911 GrundmannStudios Boston map bySampsonMurdockCo BPL 12558 detail.png, Detail of map of Boston in 1911, showing Grundmann Studios near

Copley Square Copley Square , named for painter John Singleton Copley, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to it ...

Image:1913 ModernArt CopleyHall Boston.png, Catalog, Modern Art exhibit, 1913

Notes

References

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