Isabel Bishop papers
name: label: Creator
content: Bishop, Isabel, 1902-1988
label: Names
content: American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers
label: Names
content: New Society of Artists (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Arms, John Taylor, 1887-1953
label: Names
content: Bacon, Peggy, 1895-1987
label: Names
content: Blume, Peter, 1906-1992
label: Names
content: Brooks, Van Wyck, 1886-1963
label: Names
content: Canaday, John, 1907-1985
label: Names
content: Chappell, Warren, 1904-
label: Names
content: Ciardi, John, 1916-
label: Names
content: Cunningham, Merce
label: Names
content: Delevante, Sidney, 1894-
label: Names
content: Deutsch, Babette, 1895-1982
label: Names
content: Dickinson, Edwin Walter, 1891-1978
label: Names
content: Evergood, Philip, 1901-1973
label: Names
content: Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968
label: Names
content: Folinsbee, John Fulton, 1892-1972
label: Names
content: Force, Juliana, 1876-1948
label: Names
content: Hoffman, Malvina, 1887-1966
label: Names
content: Hopper, Jo N. (Josephine Nivison), 1883-1968
label: Names
content: Johnson, Una E.
label: Names
content: Kearns, James
label: Names
content: Kitaj, R. B.
label: Names
content: Kroll, Leon, 1884-1974
label: Names
content: Laning, Edward, 1906-1981
label: Names
content: Lattimore, Richmond Alexander, 1906-1984
label: Names
content: Leighton, Clare, 1899-
label: Names
content: Marsh, Reginald, 1898-1954
label: Names
content: Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972
label: Names
content: Mumford, Lewis, 1895-1990
label: Names
content: Neel, Alice, 1900-1984
label: Names
content: Pittman, Hobson Lafayette, 1899 or 1900-1972
label: Names
content: Porter, Fairfield
label: Names
content: Rattner, Abraham
label: Names
content: Schmidt, Katherine, 1898-1978
label: Names
content: Schnakenberg, H. E. (Henry Ernest), 1892-1970
label: Names
content: Soyer, Raphael, 1899-1987
label: Names
content: Tooker, George, 1920-2011
label: Names
content: Van Veen, Stuyvesant
label: Names
content: Vonnegut, Kurt
label: Names
content: Watkins, Franklin Chenault, 1894-1972
label: Names
content: Westcott, Glenway
label: Names
content: Zorach, William, 1887-1966
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Occupation
content: Book illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York
label: Topic
content: Women artists
label: Topic
content: Women painters
label: Topic
content: Women sculptors
label: Topic
content: Realism
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was donated in several installments by Isabel Bishop from 1959 to 1983.
creator: label: Creator
content: Bishop, Isabel, 1902-1988
setName: label: See more items in
content: Isabel Bishop papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of realist painter Isabel Bishop date from 1914 to 1983 and measure 2.6 linear feet. The collection documents Bishop's painting career, her friendship with other artists, and her participation in several arts organizations. There are scattered biographical documents, correspondence with fellow artists such as Peggy Bacon, Warren Chappell, Edward Laning, and R. B. Kitaj, and with writers, curators, museums, galleries, arts organizations, and others. Also found are arts organization files, Bishop's writings about Warren Chappell and friend Reginald Marsh, notes, exhibition catalogs, news clippings, and other printed material, photographs of Bishop and her artwork, and photographs of Reginald and Felicia Marsh. Original artwork includes 8 sketchbooks, loose sketches, prints, and watercolor figure studies.
bioghist: label: Biographical Note
content: Isabel Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to John Remsen Bishop and Anna Bartram Newbold Bishop. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Detroit, Michigan. As a child Bishop took art classes and had a growing interest in drawing. In 1918 at the age of 16 she left home and moved to New York City where she enrolled in the School of Applied Design for Women to be an illustrator. However, her real interest was in painting, not the graphic arts, and she enrolled in the Art Students League in 1920. There she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Guy Pene du Bois and met many young artists, including Reginald Marsh and Edwin Dickinson, both of whom became close friends. She took classes until 1924 and rented a studio and living space on 14th Street in a neighborhood where many artists maintained studios at the time.

Bishop began exhibiting her work and participated in artist groups, including the Whitney Studio Club and the New Society of Artists. During the 1920s and 1930s she developed a realist style of painting, primarily depicting women in their daily routine on the streets of Manhattan. Her work was greatly influenced by Peter Paul Rubens and other Dutch and Flemish painters that she had discovered during trips to Europe. In 1932 Bishop began showing her work frequently at the newly opened Midtown Galleries, where her work would be represented throughout her career. 

 In 1934 she married Harold Wolff, a neurologist, and moved with him to Riverdale, New York. Bishop kept her studio in Manhattan, moving from 14th Street to Union Square. She remained in her Union Square studio for fifty years (1934-1984). From 1936 to 1937 she taught at the Art Students League and in 1940 her son Remsen was born. In 1941 she was named a member of the National Academy of Design and from 1944 to 1946 she was the Vice President of the National Institute of Arts & Letters, the first woman to hold an executive position with that organization. She wrote articles and joined other artists in speaking out in support of realist painting and against the abstract style that was dominating the New York art scene.

 During her long career which lasted into the 1980s, Bishop exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions, traveled throughout the U. S. as an exhibition juror, and won many awards for her work, including the award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts presented by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2.6 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1914-1983
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.bishisab
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Watercolors
label: Type
content: Sketches
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Prints
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
label: Type
content: Illustrated letters
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into 7 series:

Series 1: Biographical Material, 1943-1975 (Box 1; 4 folders)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1939-1983 (Box 1; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 3: Organization Files, 1924-1937, 1951-1952 (Box 1; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 4: Writings & Notes, 1937-1960s (Box 1; 4 folders)

Series 5: Printed Material, 1930-1979 (Box 2; 0.6 linear feet)

Series 6: Photographs, 1914, circa 1920s-1975 (Box 2, OV 5; 0.2 linear feet)

Series 7: Artwork, circa 1940s-1970s (Box 2-4, OV 5; 0.4 linear feet)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Portions of this collection received a preliminary level of processing at some point after donation. The collection was typically microfilmed in the order in which it was received on reels NY59-4, NY59-5, D283, D359, 2, 64, 100, and 4938. The entire collection was fully processed, arranged, and described by Erin Corley in 2007 and scanned in 2008 with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Alternative Forms Available
content: The papers of Isabel Bishop in the Archives of American Art were digitized in 2008 , and total 2150 images.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Watercolors
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Prints
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrated letters
scopecontent: label: Scope and Content Note
content: The papers of realist painter Isabel Bishop date from 1914 to 1983 and measure 2.6 linear feet. The collection documents Bishop's painting career, her friendship with other artists, and her participation in several arts organizations. Scattered biographical documents include awards and a file on her participation in art juries.

Bishop was friends with many artists and cultural figures and her correspondence includes letters to and from artists such as John Taylor Arms, Peggy Bacon, Peter Blume, Warren Chappell (many letters from Chappell are illustrated), Sidney Delevante, Edwin Dickinson, Philip Evergood, John Folinsbee, Malvina Hoffman, Jo Hopper, James Kearns, Leon Kroll, Clare Leighton, Jack Levine, Alice Neel, Hobson Pittman, Fairfield Porter, Abraham Rattner, Katherine Schmidt, Henry Schnakenberg, Raphael Soyer, George Tooker, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Franklin Watkins, Mahonri Young, and William Zorach. Bishop not only corresponded with artists but also many poets, authors, historians, and dancers, such as Van Wyck Brooks, John Canaday, John Ciardi, Merce Cunningham, Babette Deutsch, Edna Ferber, Richmond Lattimore, Marianne Moore, Lewis Mumford, Kurt Vonnegut, and Glenway Westcott. Also found are letters from many galleries, museums, and schools which exhibited or purchased her work, including curators Juliana Force and Una Johnson. 

Bishop kept files from her affiliations with the American Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Gravers and the New Society of Artists, containing mostly membership and financial records, and a file on a UNESCO conference. Unfortunately, files documenting her membership and vice presidency of the National Institute of Arts & Letters are not found here. 

A small amount of Bishop's writings and notes include essays about friends and artists Reginald Marsh and Warren Chappell. Printed material consists of exhibition catalogs and announcements, news clippings, magazines, and a design by G. Alan Chidsey for a book about Bishop. Photographs depict Bishop with her husband and in her studio, her artwork, and also include three photographs of her friend, Reginald Marsh. 

Original artwork includes eight small sketchbooks, loose pen and ink sketches, intaglio prints, watercolor figure studies, and a drawing of Bishop by Aaron Bohrod.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Material
content: Also found at the Archives of American Art are three oral history interviews with Isabel Bishop, April 15, 1959, May 29, 1959, and November 12-December 11, 1987. 

The Whitney Museum of American Art and Midtown Galleries loaned additional Bishop papers to the Archives for microfilming on reels NY59-4 and NY59-5. These items were returned to the lenders after microfilming and are not described in the container listing of this finding aid.