Ernest Lawson papers
name: label: Creator
content: Lawson, Ernest, 1873-1939
label: Names
content: Salmagundi Club
label: Names
content: Anderson, Victor C. (Victor Coleman), 1882-1937
label: Names
content: Bensco, Margaret Lawson, 1895
label: Names
content: Brown, George E.
label: Names
content: Grant, Gordon, 1875-1962
label: Names
content: Higgens, Eugene
label: Names
content: Lawson, Ella
label: Names
content: Olinsky, Ivan G. (Ivan Gregorewitch), 1878-1962
label: Names
content: Speicher, Eugene Edward, 1883-1962
label: Names
content: Wiggens, Guy
label: Names
content: Williams, Keith Shaw, 1905-1951
topic: label: Occupation
content: Painters
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Margaret Lawson Bensco donated her father's papers in 1976.  In 1985, Lawson's granddaughter Alice Simon donated the 1937 photograph of artists at the Salmagundi Club and the photograph of a work of art by Lawson  signed by numerous artists.
creator: label: Creator
content: Lawson, Ernest, 1873-1939
setName: label: See more items in
content: Ernest Lawson papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The scattered papers of painter Ernest Lawson measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1967.  The papers consist of family correspondence with daughter Margaret, and between Margaret and her mother Ella Lawson; a dismantled scrapbook containing exhibition announcements, catalogs, and clippings; and a 1937 photograph of a group of artists at a dinner at the Salmagundi Club honoring Lawson along with a photograph of a work of art by Lawson signed by the numerous artists attending the dinner, including Victor C. Anderson, George Elmer Browne, Gordon Grant, Eugene Higgens, Ivan G. Olinsky, Eugene Speicher, Guy Wiggens, and Keith Shaw Williams, among others.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Ernest Lawson (1873-1939) was painter active in New York City and member of the group of American early modernist painters known as "The Eight." 

Born in Nova Scotia, Canada and raised in Kansas, Ernest Lawson moved to New York City in the 1880s.  There, he studied at the Art Students League and studied under John Twachtman.  He also studied at the Cos Cob Connecticut summer art school before moving to Paris in 1893 to study at the Académie Julian.  While in Paris he also shared a studio with W. Somerset Maugham, who is believed to have used Lawson as the inspiration for the character "Frederick Lawson" in his 1915 novel Of Human Bondage
.

Lawson returned to the United States in 1896 and transitioned from his Impressionist style to a Realist style, painting primarily cityscapes.  Lawson had his first solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1907 and won a prize for a winter landscape.  Lawson joined the group painters that would become known as "The Eight," whose members included Robert Henri, William Glackens, John Sloan, George Luks, Everett Shinn, Arthur B. Davies, and William Prendergast.  These painters protested that the exhibition system in New York was a closed system that did not welcome change and modern style.  In 1908, Macbeth Galleries staged the seminal show of the "The Eight." 

Lawson married Ella Holman and they had two daughters Margaret and Dorothy.  Lawson tragically drowned in Florida in 1939.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.5 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1907-1967
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.lawserne
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged as 1 series.

Series 1:  Ernest Lawson papers, 1907-1967 (0.5 linear feet; Box 1, OVs 2-4)
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The Ernest Lawson papers were microfilmed upon receipt onto reel 1788.  In 2014, Jayna Josefson created a finding aid to the papers with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Portions of the papers were microfilmed on reel 1788, which is available for interlibrary loan.  Researchers are advised that the microfilm is incomplete.
label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The collection is available on 35 mm microfilm reel 1788 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The scattered papers of painter Ernest Lawson measure 0.6 linear feet and date from 1907 to 1967.  The papers consist of family correspondence with daughter Margaret, and between Margaret and her mother Ella Lawson; a dismantled scrapbook containing exhibition announcements, catalogs, and clippings; and a 1937 photograph of a group of artists at a dinner at the Salmagundi Club honoring Lawson along with a photograph of a work of art by Lawson signed by the numerous artists attending the dinner, including Victor C. Anderson, George Elmer Browne, Gordon Grant, Eugene Higgens, Ivan G. Olinsky, Eugene Speicher, Guy Wiggens, and Keith Shaw Williams, among others.