Contention between the conservative Fine Arts Academy and local artists over the perceived underrepresentation of Buffalo artists in the Academy’s organization and its exhibitions led to a meeting of the disgruntled artists. As a result, on Tuesday, March 31, 1891, the Buffalo Society of Artists was born in the studio of James Francis Brown.  For the past 129 years, the Society has managed to endure without reliance on salaried staff or owning any assets other than its records and its history. It is an organization with an impressive story to tell, threads of which reach back decades prior to its official founding. 

In the midst of the most devastating conflict ever experienced on U.S. soil, the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, parent of the present Albright-Knox Art Gallery, was established in 1862. In fact, that same decade produced the Buffalo Historical Society and the Natural Science Society. Hoping to follow the example set by New York’s National Academy of Design, founded in 1825, well-heeled Buffalo visionaries with names like Letchworth, Albright, Rumsey, Jewett and Fillmore were among the founders and patrons of the Fine Arts Academy. While they encouraged, and often collaborated with, local artists during the first three decades of the Academy’s existence, there was the somewhat justified impression that Buffalo artists were becoming increasingly ignored in favor of more widely appreciated art and artists. The Academy’s mission, it seemed (if not stated), was to bring the best art to Buffalo, and to thereby raise the cultural IQ of its growing populace – not necessarily to promote Buffalo artists. New York City and Europe were the preferred sources for the best art.

Nonetheless, while great art was certainly to be had elsewhere, by 1862 Buffalo had already become the established home of such recognized artists as William J. Wilgus, Thomas LeClear, William H. Beard and Lars Gustaf Sellstedt. All but Wilgus, who died at the age of 34, were involved in the formation of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, and all four would be elected to full membership in the prestigious National Academy of Design. But of the four, only Sellstedt would continue to reside in Buffalo after the Civil War.

Sellstedt came to Buffalo from Sweden in 1842. Primarily self-taught as an artist, he was a major supporter of his adopted city’s cultural scene and one of the founding members of the Fine Arts Academy, where he served as director and later as president in 1876 and 1877. Closely associated with the Academy throughout most of the first 50 years of its existence, Sellstedt always recognized and promoted local talent.

In his opening address as president of the Academy in 1876, after spending most of the previous year in Europe, Sellstedt encouraged the support of American art while also urging the creation of an art school to be associated with the Academy. Hence, in 1887, the Buffalo Art School was established. The organizing committee for the school consisted of Sellstedt, Ammi Farnham, Alice Russell Glenny, William C. Cornwell, and Frank C. Penfold – all of whom would play leadership roles within the soon-to-be-born Buffalo Society of Artists (BSA), with Glenny, Cornwell, and Penfold serving as BSA presidents after founding president James Francis Brown.

The Buffalo Art School would, four years later in 1891, become the Art Students League, sponsored by the Fine Arts Academy but independently managed. The school’s first “critic,” or lead instructor, was George Bridgman, who taught there for several years before assuming a similar position at the New York Art Students League, where he remained for 45 years. Bridgman was among those present in Brown’s studio in 1891 when the BSA was created. Many prominent artists studied under Bridgman, both in Buffalo and New York, among them cartoonist Will Eisner, painter Norman Rockwell and BSA artists John Rummell, David Urquhart Wilcox, Cornelia Sage Quinton and Mildred Green. Today, Bridgman is best remembered for his books on anatomy for artists, based on a system called “constructive anatomy” that he had developed.

As reported in the April 1891 Buffalo Evening News article, it was initially proposed that only “color men” were to be exhibiting members of the Buffalo Society of Artists, but that was quickly changed to include all artists (men and women), including sculptors and painters who did black and white work. This was largely at the insistence of Ammi Farnham. The nascent Society formed a committee to draft a constitution and bylaws, and agreed to have annual exhibitions for the benefit of Buffalo artists. There were 22 charter members.

If there were any hard feelings between the BSA and the Fine Arts Academy in that first year, it wasn’t apparent, as the Society’s first exhibition was hosted in the Academy’s gallery in the Buffalo Library. This occurred on November 15, 1891, and was quite a success. Thirty-five artists were represented with 168 paintings. As noted in a contemporary Buffalo Courier article, a “committee of selection” (made up of Brown, Farnham, Bridgman, Glenny and Rose Clark) had rejected 80 paintings, “…for it was deemed best to establish a good standard to begin with.” The cover of the exhibition catalogue was designed by Bridgman, who entered the largest painting (over 13 feet wide and eight feet high), entitled Boy Overboard. This drew considerable attention, especially as the painting had also been exhibited in the 1889 Paris Salon as Mousse á la Mer [Foam on the Sea].

A Buffalo Courier review appearing on the day of the opening of the exhibition described the new club as follows: “It is the design of the Buffalo Society of Artists to make their fellow townsmen better acquainted with the achievements of local artists… They believe that if the people of Buffalo once understand what her artists are doing they will foster and encourage them. It is the intention to follow [this exhibition] up with others, so that the exhibitions of the Buffalo Society of Artists shall become an institution.”

The BSA was off to a good start. Its first decade would produce memorable exhibitions, enticing the best local artists to show their best work.  A fellowship prize was instituted in 1894, to be awarded at the annual exhibition, in the amount of $50. Rose Clark won that first prize with her painting Making Pictures. BSA presidents Frank Penfold and Alice Russell Glenny would also go on to win this coveted award. The fellowship prize would be awarded annually until 1938 (with the exception of four years, due to conflicts with other events, or to a lack of funds). In 1939, the practice of awarding gold, silver, and bronze medals for the top three artists was started, continuing to this day.

There were three categories of BSA membership: active, associate and fellows. Active members were established exhibiting artists whose membership was required to be approved by a committee, comprised primarily of BSA officers. Associate members were those interested, non-exhibiting members of the community who wished to support the BSA. “Fellows” was a category of membership that attracted those able to provide more substantial financial support to the organization. With some variation, this scheme is similar to the present exhibiting and associate memberships. Today’s “sponsors” are non-members who contribute to the organization.

Running from May until November, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition was of immense significance for Buffalo, though it is unfortunate that President William McKinley’s assassination seems to be the most remembered aspect of the event. Raphael Beck, an active exhibiting member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, was present at the fairgrounds on September 5, sketching McKinley’s likeness while the president delivered an address to a crowd of some 50,000. After completing the sketches, Beck left for New York City, but after hearing of the shooting the next day went immediately to work painting the last portrait to be made of McKinley, entitled President McKinley Delivering His Last Great Speech at the Pan-American Exposition, Sept. 5, 1901. The nearly seven-foot high frame for Beck’s portrait was created by noted Buffalo furniture maker and representative of the Arts and Crafts movement, Charles Rohlfs, also an active BSA member. The portrait would hang in the U.S. Senate chambers for some time before being returned to Buffalo, and is now part of a permanent Pan-American exhibit at the Buffalo History Museum.

A highlight of the exposition was to be the unveiling of John J. Albright’s gift to Buffalo: a gallery for the Fine Arts Academy, for which he gave nearly $400,000 (equivalent to over $9,000,000 today). As the Fine Arts Pavilion, this would have been one of only two permanent structures built for the exhibition. Delays in the shipment of marble prevented the scheduled opening, however. The Albright Art Gallery, as it was ultimately to be named, would be completed in 1905, and became the new home of the Fine Arts Academy. 

The other permanent structure, which did get built in time for the Pan-Am opening, was the New York State Building, designed by noted Buffalo architect George Cary, who would serve as BSA president in 1905. After the exposition closed, the building became the home of the Buffalo Historical Society – today’s Buffalo History Museum. Cary also designed the Ethnology Building, which was demolished after the exposition ended.

Despite the use of a temporary building, the Pan-Am art exhibition may have been the most significant in America to that time. Most of the great signatures of American art were represented, including John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Albert Bierstadt and Mary Cassatt. What is less recognized is that there were some 28 paintings exhibited by a dozen BSA artists, including founders and early leaders of the Society.

Alice Russell Glenny, who served several terms as BSA president from 1893 to 1908, won a mural competition to decorate the New York State Building. Her painting, Blessing of the Cross at Fort Denonville, depicts Father Pierre Millet dedicating an 18-foot cross at the mouth of the Niagara River in 1688, where French soldiers succumbed to starvation and disease. The scene shows Millet, surrounded by a small group of soldiers and American Indians, blessing the raised cross while a faint figure of Christ hovers behind him.

Evelyn Rumsey Cary, a woman’s suffragette and sister-in-law to architect George Cary, served as BSA president in 1897. Her iconic Art Nouveau Spirit of Niagara painting was the official emblem for the Pan-American Exposition. Thousands of posters based on this painting were printed as souvenirs for the visitors. Both Cary’s Spirit of Niagara and Glenny’s Blessing of the Cross remain on the walls of the Buffalo History Museum.

Hiram H. Green, who served on the Society of Artists Council in 1894, painted a remarkable bird’s-eye view of the exhibition grounds. The incredible detail made the image appear as though it had been produced by a camera, not a paintbrush. Green’s younger sister, Mildred, also served on the BSA Council, and won numerous awards as an exhibiting artist with the society.

Other Buffalo Society of Artists who exhibited in the Pan-Am included Burr Nicholls, Frank Penfold, Lucius Hitchcock, Alexis Fournier, Edward Dufner, Claire Shuttleworth and the ubiquitous Lars Sellstedt. His self-portrait was titled L.G. Sellstedt, N.A., an indication of his prestigious membership in the National Academy of Design.

As the BSA entered its adolescent years, and the wonderful gift from John J. Albright to the Fine Arts Academy took shape in the form of the Albright Art Gallery in 1905, there remained an uneasiness regarding how the two organizations related. The Academy was now a well-managed and financed institution with a permanent structure in which to house the finest specimens of art from all over the world. The Buffalo Society of Artists, on the other hand, was a local club, managed by a board chosen from among its member artists – fine artists, to be sure – with a mission to promote Buffalo art. This mission, while not directly at odds, clearly did not represent the Academy’s focus. 

The Academy had always provided exhibition and library space to the BSA in its location in the Buffalo Library building, and would continue, it seemed, to do so within the new gallery. And BSA artists had always reciprocated by not only exhibiting their finest paintings, but also in bringing in exemplary outside art by the masters as “loaners” to educate the local artists. (French impressionists Claude Monet and Eduard Manet were featured in the 1896 BSA spring exhibition.) Added to this, the indefatigable Lars Sellstedt was not only an established leader within the Academy but also an exhibiting member of the BSA. 

Thus, while structurally different, there appeared to be considerable synergy between the Academy and the Buffalo Society of Artists. It is therefore not surprising that, with the completion of the Albright Art Gallery, the Academy tendered an offer to the leadership of the BSA to merge with it. The Academy also approached the Art Students League about a merger, which it readily accepted. 

Society President George Cary conveyed the offer to the BSA membership, inviting them to a meeting on March 20, 1905, to vote on whether or not to accept it.  The discussion at that meeting resulted in a counterproposal, whereby the BSA would be treated as a “chapter” of the Academy, a status that would allow it to maintain its independence and leadership while cementing its affiliation with the “parent” organization. Apparently, these terms were unacceptable to the Academy, as no record of a formal decision has been found. The merger never took place and the BSA retained its independence and identity as an organization managed by and supporting local artists, deciding that its mission and its future could best be assured by remaining a separate entity.

Despite failure of the merger, the Fine Arts Academy continued to provide exhibition and meeting space to the BSA—to be shared with the Art Students League—and a cordial, if not altogether amicable, relationship continued between the organizations. Following the death of the gallery’s first director, Charles M. Kurtz, in 1909, his assistant Cornelia Bentley Sage carried on his work before being appointed to full directorship in 1910, a position she would hold until 1924.

A tireless administrator, Ms. Sage served simultaneous roles as gallery director and as president of the Buffalo Society of Artists from 1911 through 1920, the longest run in BSA history. Under her leadership, the relationship with the Academy remained on a strong footing. In 1914, in addition to the 20th Annual Exhibition of the Buffalo Society of Artists, Sage also arranged a “Local Salon” at the Albright Gallery. 

The first exhibition of its kind in Buffalo (perhaps inspired by the famous Paris Salon), the Salon was dedicated as a tribute to Buffalo artists, living and deceased, representing the best of each artist’s work. Over 100 artists and 480 works of art were included in the exhibition. Many BSA founding members were included, while younger artists who were to assume future leadership roles in the Society, such as Charles Reiffel, Mildred Green, Arthur Kowalski and William Schwanekamp, exhibited in a section called “Local Artists Who are at Present Residing in Buffalo.”

In 1920, Bernard V. Carpenter would assume the helm of the BSA for eight years. Cornelia Bentley Sage Quinton (she married in 1917) would leave her Albright Gallery directorship in 1924, to become director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

The Society was quite active in the years leading up to and during the First World War. Several BSA artists did their part in support of the war effort by producing posters. Prominent among them was Alex O. Levy. Levy had come to Buffalo in 1909 to become art director for the Matthews-Northrup Company. His illustrative work appeared in popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. He worked as an art director at the Larkin Soap Company for 15 years and painted murals in the Larkin Administration Building as well as other city business offices. 

To support the war effort, both Levy and fellow Society member H. H. Green executed poster art, in what may be described as an early Art Deco style, used to promote the sale of Liberty Bonds. Urquhart Wilcox, who exhibited with the BSA for many years, created posters to recruit members for the American Red Cross. Wilcox was the brother of attorney Ansley Wilcox, in whose home President Roosevelt had taken the oath of office after McKinley’s assassination in 1901.

Levy, as Society president during the depression years of 1933-1936, would figure prominently when a “split” occurred between the traditionalists and modernists of the BSA, resulting in the formation of a more progressive group that called itself the Patteran, after a line from a Rudyard Kipling poem. Siding with the traditionalists, a feud between Levy and Gordon Washburn, the progressive director of the Albright Art Gallery, would ultimately result in the BSA losing its exclusive privilege to exhibit in Gallery rooms when Washburn instituted the more generic Western New York Exhibition. This new annual show would be open to all local artists, leaving no doubt that any perceived symbiotic relationship between the Fine Arts Academy and the Buffalo Society of Artists had ended. Today, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the BSA exist as mutually respecting organizations, pursuing separate and important missions.

Among those who served our nation during the Second World War were award-winning BSA artists Robert N. Blair, Willard J. Sauter and George Palmer. Blair was the winner of ten gold or silver medals in BSA annual exhibitions over the span of 50 years. Joining the Army in 1943, Sergeant Blair was permitted by his commanding officer to sketch his experiences on the European battlefield from 1944 to 1945. These sketches were the basis for hundreds of expressionistic renderings of the horrors witnessed by the artist. After a 1985 solo exhibition at the Burchfield Art Center, entitled "A Soldiers Portfolio: War Paintings," Blair donated approximately 175 of his watercolors to the Burchfield, primarily representing scenes of the Battle of the Bulge and the post-war occupation of Berlin.

Willard Sauter, known for his oil and watercolor landscapes, was elected BSA president in 1941. He served until June 1943, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving abroad in Italy and France. He won many awards with his paintings, including silver medals in BSA exhibitions in 1940 and 1943, and a gold medal in 1956. While in the Army, Sauter painted portraits of his fellow soldiers in addition to composing poetry.

George Palmer served two terms as BSA president, in 1960 and 1973, while winning exhibition awards with his artwork. His college days were cut short in 1943 when he was drafted into the Navy Medical Corps, serving until 1945. While aboard USS Enrico enroute to Okinawa via the Panama Canal, the ship was attacked by a Kamikaze plane, killing 49 officers and men, including the captain. Between his duties as a medic, Palmer would make pastel portraits of his shipmates. Positive reactions to this work encouraged his desire to pursue art.  Portraiture would become his specialty. His many commissioned portraits include the late mayor Frank Sedita, George Arthur, Lucille Ball, Christine Baranski and Grover Washington Jr. His career as a portrait, landscape and abstract artist, and as an art instructor, continues to this day at age 95.

Throughout its history, the Buffalo Society of Artists has remained 100% volunteer. There are no paid employees among the membership, including the BSA board, its officers and its trustees. The BSA owns no structure in which to host exhibitions. Its mission has remained much as it was originally conceived by its founders in 1891 – to support and promote Buffalo art and artists.

With that said, the 21st century and its accompanying technology present the BSA with opportunities and challenges unlike any encountered previously. It communicates with members via “eFlash” messages, while public interface efforts include a website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “Virtual jurying” of exhibitions occurs after artists upload digital images of their artwork. An ongoing Video Archive Project includes more than two-dozen online videos of prominent Western New York artists – viewable from anywhere in the world on the BSA website (buffalosocietyofartists.org). One wonders how much more valuable such a project would be if it could have included live video recordings of early artists such as Lars Sellstedt, Evelyn Rumsey Cary and Alex Levy!

Technology also enabled the very recent acquisition by the Burchfield Penney Art Center of a painting by Frank C. Penfold, the BSA’s fourth president in 1896. The publicity manager of the Penzance Auction House in the United Kingdom discovered Penfold’s BSA connection by researching his name via online newspapers. She ultimately found email addresses of board members and chairpersons on the BSA website and informed them of the upcoming auction in late 2017. 

Correct identification of the work was made through a 1902 Illustrated Buffalo Express article found on the Internet. The article included a large reproduction, description and the names of the six people in the painting, including Mrs. Penfold and BSA artist Burr Nicholls. If not for the global and virtually instantaneous reach of the Internet, this painting by one of the Society’s founders likely would not have made its way home to Buffalo.

While the organization has never intended to profit financially from its activities, and has always operated on a shoestring, the Buffalo Society of Artists was officially recognized as not-for-profit educational organization only three years ago. Designation under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code presents the BSA with awesome new opportunities, but equally awesome new responsibilities.  

Is volunteerism enough? Must there be a transition to a more top-down management structure – controlled and directed like a corporation, with hired staff and a board composed of business professionals in addition to artists? If the BSA has been “just a club” for its first 129 years, it’s a club in the finest sense of the word – a proud, grass-roots organization that has had 100% reliance on its member artists. But is such a foundation sufficient to sustain the BSA through the challenges of this century? 

Much more remains to be told concerning the long history of the Buffalo Society of Artists. A project is currently underway to publish the complete story of the organization from its pre-1891 roots through the present, including today’s exhibiting BSA artists who have inherited the spirit and dedication of their founders.