Marcella Comès Papers
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Winslow, Marcella Comès
setName: label: See more items in
content: Marcella Comès (Winslow) papers
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1.1 Linear Feet (Box 1, FC02)
label: Extent
content: 2 Microfilm reels
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1915-1982
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.winsmarc, Series 1
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Microfilm reels
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Scattered biographical material includes a resume and copies of Comès's Who's Who entries. Correspondence contains scattered letters to and from friends including Elena Macy; as well as letters regarding exhibitions featuring Comès's around Washington, D.C.. An amateur 16mm color film is of a circa 1974 unidentified event at a large mansion with landscaped gardens featuring sculpture and paintings in a conservatory. It was likely taken in or around Washington, D.C.. 

A guestbook was begun by Comès's parents John T. and Honora Comès. It contains photographs of Comès as a child and with her family: her father John T. Comès, mother Honora Weber, and sisters Mary Eleanor and Alice; photographs of their home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and of parties and events in the 1910s-1920s. Early signatures are from family members and friends. By the 1930s, the guestbook was used primarily by Marcella and in addition to signatures, inscriptions, and sketches, she included enclosures of clippings, letters, photographs, and exhibition announcements that give further context to her friendships with notable artists and writers. Those who signed the book include Howard Baer, Yuen Yuey Chinn, Louis Dupree, Carolyn Edmundson, E. Henry Edwards, Robert Frost, David Gasgoyne, Ralph Hodgson, Malvina Hoffman, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Robert Lowell, Robert McCall,  Amedeo Modigliani, Alejandro Obregón, Mildred Young Olmes, Ezra Pound, Katherine Anne Porter, Saint-John Pierce (Alexis Leger), John Crowe Ransom, Sir John Rothenstein, Karl Shapiro, George Sotter, Allen Tate, Mark Van Doren, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, Cornelius Weygandt and Anne Goodwin Winslow, among many others. Of note are sketches by Modigliani, Robert McCall, Howard Baer; and a photograph of George Sotter with Comès as a child.

Photographs are of Marcella Comès painting, her artwork, and of an unidentified art event featuring balloons, likely at the Art Barn. Printed materials include clippings and exhibition announcements and catalogs concerning the exhibition of Comès's artworks. Also found are clippings of art reviews for shows in which she did not show her work. 

Largely, subject files concern Comès's involvement in the Washington, D.C. arts scene as the president of the local chapter and vice president of the national group of the Artist Equity Association. Those files include correspondence, membership lists, addresses, press releases and other printed material. Material on other artists and general galleries and dealers in the Washington D.C.-area include clippings and exhibition announcements. Of note are photographs of works of art and a portrait of Caroline Van Hook Bean and photographs of works of art by Prentiss Taylor. Also found are files on the Art Barn, the Arts in Embassies Program, and the Washington chapter of the National Society for Arts and Letters.

A mixed-media scrapbook concerns Comès's portraits of literary figures including writers and poets, many of which were completed under her role as official portrait painter of the United States Poet Laureate. Found are letters from the writers which may discuss the painting and their acquaintance with Comès; photographs of the completed portrait and of the writer; and clippings. Writers found include Sir Kenneth Clark, Father Martin D'Arcy, Walter de la Mare, Richard Eberhart, Robert Frost, Caroline Gordon Tate, Ralph Hodgson, Juan Ramon Jiminez, Robert Lowell, Saint-John Pierce (Alexis Leger), Katherine Ann Porter, Ezra Pound, Karl Shapiro, Robert Penn Warren, and Allen Tate. The beginning of the scrapbook contains additional biographical material on Comès: a list of writers she painted, lists of works of art, a pricelist, clippings, and portraits of Comès painting.