Philip Leslie Hale papers
name: label: Creator
content: Hale, Philip Leslie, 1865-1931
label: Names
content: Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
label: Names
content: Butler, Theodore Earl, 1861-1936
label: Names
content: Cox, Kenyon, 1856-1919
label: Names
content: Hale, Nancy, 1908-
label: Names
content: Hart, William H., b. 1863
label: Names
content: Kennedy, Albert J. (Albert Joseph), 1879-1968
label: Names
content: Tarbell, Edmund Charles, 1862-1938
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Occupation
content: Art critics -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: Art -- History
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Painting, American
label: Topic
content: Painters -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: Authors -- Massachusetts -- Boston
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Philip Leslie Hale papers were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1962 by the artist's daughter, Nancy Hale Bowers. Additionally, notes written by Mrs. Nathan Hale were donated by Lilian Westcott Hale in 1963.
creator: label: Creator
content: Hale, Philip Leslie, 1865-1931
setName: label: See more items in
content: Philip Leslie Hale papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: The papers of Boston painter, teacher, critic, and writer Philip Leslie Hale measure 7.4 linear feet and date from 1818 to 1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1877 to 1939. Biographical information; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, including many artists; sketches and 9 sketchbooks; writings; printed material; and photographs document the artist's career and personal life. The collection also includes research materials and catalogs compiled by Albert J. Kennedy for a never-published Philip Leslie Hale memorial volume.
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931) was the son of prominent Unitarian minister and well-known author, Edward Everett Hale. Members of this distinguished old Boston family included such ancestors as Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, influential preacher Lyman Beecher, educator Catherine Beecher, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. From a young age Philip's talent and interest in drawing was encouraged by his parents, especially his mother. An older artist sister, Ellen Day Hale (1855-1940) and an aunt, Susan Hale (1834-1910), a trained painter, provided Philip with his first art lessons.

Family tradition and expectations decreed that after completing studies at the Boston Latin School and Roxbury Latin School, Hale would attend Harvard. After passing Harvard's entrance examination, as required by his father, Philip was free to pursue art. He enrolled in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in the fall of 1883, where he was an early pupil of Edmund C. Tarbell. The following year he continued his studies in New York at the Art Students League under J. Alden Weir and Kenyon Cox.

In early 1887, Hale went to Paris, adopted a bohemian lifestyle, and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. He became friends with fellow students Theodore Butler and William Howard ("Peggy") Hart. In the summer of 1888, the three made their first trip to Giverny, where they were among the first Americans to experiment with Impressionism. They met other American artists, including Theodore Robinson, John Leslie Breck, and Theodore Wendel, who also had been drawn to Giverny by the presence of Claude Monet. Hale returned to Boston in the summer of 1890, but was soon drawn back to Paris to be with his sweetheart Katharine Kinsella. He spent the summers of 1891-1893 continuing his experiment with Impressionism in Giverny, and during that period traveled to London, Paris, and Spain, periodically returning home and to the family's Rhode Island summer place.

In 1893 Hale began teaching cast drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he remained on the faculty until his death in 1931. Eventually he became the chief instructor of drawing, and also offered courses in life drawing, artistic anatomy, and art history. Hale also taught at the Worcester Art Museum (1898-1910), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1913-1928), and Boston University (1926-1928).

Hale's first solo exhibition, held in 1899 at Durand-Ruel Galleries in New York City, consisted of Impressionist paintings and pastels that received mixed reviews. In subsequent years his work became increasingly academic and focused on figure paintings and portraits. He exhibited frequently in national and international shows, won numerous medals and prizes, and was elected an Associate National Academician of the National Academy of Design in 1917.

In 1902, Hale married former student, Lilian Westcott, a painter and portraitist whose success during some periods eclipsed that of her husband.

Philip Leslie Hale, like many of his relatives, was a noted writer and speaker. His column "Art in Paris" appeared regularly in the Canadian-based periodical Arcadia: A Journal Devoted to Music, Art and Literature between 1892 and 1893 and discussed Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Symbolism. Hale regularly contributed art columns, reviews, and miscellaneous articles to the Boston Daily Advertiser, Boston Commonwealth, Boston Herald, and Boston Evening Transcript during the first decade of the twentieth century.

Hale's teaching stressed the importance of learning Old Master's techniques. He had a life-long interest in Vermeer, and as a writer and critic he generated quite a bit of enthusiasm for that artist among the figurative painters of the Boston School, his own students, and others. Jan Vermeer of Delft, a highly regarded monograph by Philip Leslie Hale - the first on the subject published in the United States - appeared in 1913. He wrote several other books on art subjects, and his services as a lecturer on art topics were sought after by a variety of organizations both locally and nationally.

Philip Leslie Hale died following emergency surgery in Dedham, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1931.
function: label: Function
content: Artists' studios -- Massachusetts
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 7.4 Linear Feet
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1818-1962
label: Date
content: bulk 1877-1939
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.halephil
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sketchbooks
label: Type
content: Sketches
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: The collecion is arranged as 7 series:

Series 1: Biographical Materials, 1875-1939 (0.4 linear feet; Box 1)

Series 2: Correspondence, 1818-1944 (2 linear feet; Boxes 1-3)

Series 3: Writings, circa 1910-1930 (0.8 linear feet; Boxes 3-4)

Series 4: Artwork, circa 1870-1930 (0.4 linear feet; Box 4)

Series 5: Memorial Book, circa 1862-1962 (2.8 linear feet; Boxes 4-8, OV 9)

Series 6: Printed Material, 1883-1951 (8 folders; Box 7)

Series 7: Photographic Material, 1868-1931 (12 folders; Box 7)
processinfo: label: Processing Information note
content: The papers received a preliminary level of processing and were microfilmed onto reels D97-D104 in 1962; these reels are no longer in circulation. In 2004, Catherine S. Gaines organized and merged all accessions into one logical archival arrangement. In 2013, the collection was prepared for scanning by Judy Ng and digitized with funding provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: The bulk of the collection was digitized in 2012 and is available on the Archives of American Art's website.  Blank pages, blank versos of photographs, photographs and negatives of artwork, duplicates, and routine financial documents have not been scanned.  In some cases, exhibition catalogs and other publications have had their covers, title pages, and relevant pages scanned.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketchbooks
label: Genre/Form
content: Sketches
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: The papers of Boston painter, teacher, critic, and writer Philip Leslie Hale measure 7.4 linear feet and date from 1818 to 1962, with the bulk of the material dating from 1877 to 1939. Biographical information; correspondence with family, friends, and colleagues, including many artists; sketches and 9 sketchbooks; writings; printed material; and photographs document the artist's career and personal life. The collection also includes research materials and catalogs compiled by Albert J. Kennedy for a never-published Philip Leslie Hale memorial volume.

Biographical materials include financial and legal records; personal documents, such as educational records and biographical notes; printed material; and notes concerning art classes and teaching. Also included are scattered letters, invitations, schoolwork, and notebooks from his youth. Ten notebooks contain sketches, along with some class notes and essays.

Family, general, and business correspondence document the personal and professional life of Philip Leslie Hale and, to a lesser extent, several of his relatives. Family correspondence includes Hale's exchanges with various relatives, and some of their correspondence with others. General correspondence with friends, colleagues, and other artists is both personal and professional in nature. Correspondents include Theodore Butler, Kenyon Cox, Nancy Hale, William H. Hart, and Edmund C. Tarbell. Business correspondence concerns many aspects of Hale's career. Correspondents include students, arts institutions, models, and publishers.

Writings by Philip L. Hale consist of lectures on anatomy, art history, and various art topics; miscellaneous articles; notes on artists, esthetics and philosophy either for classroom use or his writings; character sketches, a play, poems, and political writings.

Artwork consists of 9 sketchbooks and loose sketches in pencil and ink of heads, figures, anatomical studies, landscapes, and miscellaneous subjects. A much smaller number of pastels, prints, and oil sketches are included. This series also includes a few items by other artists.

Research files and catalogs, compiled from 1932 to 1939 by Hale's friend Albert J. Kennedy for a never-published memorial volume, include extensive correspondence and notes of interviews with friends, relatives, colleagues, former students, and models recording their reminiscences of Hale. Kennedy collected exhibition catalogs and a variety of other printed material, along with biographical and genealogical information, and photographs of Hale's work. Many of his research notes consist of handwritten transcriptions of published articles by and about Hale.

Printed material about Philip L. Hale includes articles, reviews, and miscellaneous newspaper clippings mentioning him or containing reproductions of his work. Printed items by Hale consist of art reviews, miscellaneous articles on art topics, copies of his columns that appeared in Arcadia: A Journal Devoted to Music, Art and Literature, and the text of a speech.

The majority of photographs record works of art, mainly by Philip L. Hale, and also by Lilian Westcott Hale, Robert Payne, and Edmund C. Tarbell. Personal photographs include images of Hale, his relatives, and friends. There are also several group portraits of the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition Jury, a group portrait with students, views of Hale at work in his studio and in the classroom, pictures of a summer house, and landscapes.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Archival Materials note
content: The Archives of American Art also holds a separately cataloged collection of Philip Leslie Hale drawings on microfilm reel 3766 and two collections related to the Hale family, including the Ellen Hale and Hale family papers and the Edward Everett Hale letter to an unidentified person.