Abraham Rattner
Encyclopedia
Abraham Rattner was an American artist, best known for his richly colored paintings, often with religious subject matter. During World War I, he served in France with the U.S. Army as a camouflage
artist.
to a Russian father and a Rumanian mother. He initially intended to be an architect, in pursuit of which he studied at George Washington University
. Deciding instead to concentrate on painting, he then went on to study art at the Corcoran School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
.
(Behrens 2009). He was sent to France, where he was "promoted to sergeant, put in charge of camouflage research, and served at the front in the second Battle of the Marne
, Château-Thierry
, Belleau Wood
, and on the Hindenberg Line. He received a severe back wound which troubled him for the rest of his life" (Culkin 1980).
. He became known for his rich use of color
and surrealist aspects of his work, which often pertained to religion. Although while living in Paris, he had met and studied the paintings of Claude Monet
, his work is generally closer to that of Georges Rouault
and Pablo Picasso
. During World War II, he again volunteered for camouflage service, but was able to do very little (Culkin 1980). Later, he taught at several schools, including The New School
, New York (1947–55), and Yale University
, New Haven, Connecticut
(1952–53).
art gallery. Rattner was also a long-time friend of the American writer Henry Miller
, who wrote about their friendship in 1968 in A Word About Abraham Rattner.
, Buffalo, New York
; Art Institute of Chicago
; Baltimore Museum of Art
; Detroit Institute of Arts
; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
, Montgomery, Alabama
; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
, Philadelphia Museum of Art
; Phillips Collection
, Washington, D.C.
; Wadsworth Atheneum
, Hartford, Connecticut
; Whitney Museum of American Art
, New York City; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
; and the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art
on the campus of St. Petersburg College
in Tarpon Springs, Florida
. He designed the stained glass east wall which dominates the interior of the Chicago Loop Synagogue (1960), described by architectural critic Brian de Breffny as "[p]erhaps the most beautiful synagogue interior in the United States."
Archives of American Art
Camouflage
Camouflage is a method of concealment that allows an otherwise visible animal, military vehicle, or other object to remain unnoticed, by blending with its environment. Examples include a leopard's spotted coat, the battledress of a modern soldier and a leaf-mimic butterfly...
artist.
Early life
Rattner was born in Poughkeepsie, New YorkPoughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...
to a Russian father and a Rumanian mother. He initially intended to be an architect, in pursuit of which he studied at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
. Deciding instead to concentrate on painting, he then went on to study art at the Corcoran School of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
.
Camouflage service
With the entry of the U.S. in World War I, Rattner was recruited to join the U.S. Army's camouflage section by that unit's commanding officer, Homer Saint-Gaudens, son of sculptor Augustus Saint-GaudensAugustus Saint-Gaudens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...
(Behrens 2009). He was sent to France, where he was "promoted to sergeant, put in charge of camouflage research, and served at the front in the second Battle of the Marne
Battle of the Marne
There were two Battles of the Marne, taking place near the Marne River in Marne, France during World War I:* First Battle of the Marne * Second Battle of the Marne...
, Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry
Château-Thierry is a commune in northern France about east-northeast of Paris. It is a sub-prefecture of the Aisne department in Picardy.-History:...
, Belleau Wood
Belleau Wood
Belleau Wood may refer to:* The Battle of Belleau Wood, near Château-Thierry, France, the scene of heavy fighting by U.S. Marines in World War I* USS Belleau Wood, two United States Navy ships that have been named after the Battle:...
, and on the Hindenberg Line. He received a severe back wound which troubled him for the rest of his life" (Culkin 1980).
Artist career
Rattner lived in Paris from 1920 until 1940, when he returned to New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. He became known for his rich use of color
Color
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
and surrealist aspects of his work, which often pertained to religion. Although while living in Paris, he had met and studied the paintings of Claude Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, his work is generally closer to that of Georges Rouault
Georges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
and Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
. During World War II, he again volunteered for camouflage service, but was able to do very little (Culkin 1980). Later, he taught at several schools, including The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
, New York (1947–55), and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
(1952–53).
Personal life
In 1924, Rattner married an American art student and fashion illustrator named Bettina Bedwell, who later became the Paris fashion correspondent for the New York News-Chicago Tribune Syndicate. In 1947, she died suddenly from kidney infection. In 1949, he married Esther Gentle, a New York City sculptor, painter, printmaker, and business person, who ran an art reproductions business and a New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
art gallery. Rattner was also a long-time friend of the American writer Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
, who wrote about their friendship in 1968 in A Word About Abraham Rattner.
Collections
His artwork is in the Albright-Knox Art GalleryAlbright-Knox Art Gallery
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is an art museum located in Delaware Park in Buffalo, New York. The gallery is a major showplace for modern art and contemporary art. It is located directly across the street from Buffalo State College.-History:...
, Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
; Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
; Baltimore Museum of Art
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, was founded in 1914. Built in the Roman Temple style, the Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. Founded in 1914 with a single painting, the BMA today has 90,000 works...
; Detroit Institute of Arts
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts is a museum located in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, featuring several art collections. For seventy years, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts has been a showcase for the visual arts in Central Alabama...
, Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...
, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
; Phillips Collection
Phillips Collection
The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H...
, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
; Wadsworth Atheneum
Wadsworth Atheneum
The Wadsworth Atheneum is the oldest public art museum in the United States, with significant holdings of French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School landscapes, modernist masterpieces and contemporary works, as well as extensive holdings in early American furniture and...
, Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
; Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, New York City; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
; and the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art
Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of St. Petersburg College in Tarpon Springs, Florida. The museum houses a permanent collection which includes paintings by Abraham Rattner and contemporary Florida sculpture including modern art by Abraham Rattner, Esther Gentle,...
on the campus of St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College is a fully accredited post-secondary educational institution located in St. Petersburg, Florida, serving some 65,000 students annually...
in Tarpon Springs, Florida
Tarpon Springs, Florida
Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 21,003 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 22,554....
. He designed the stained glass east wall which dominates the interior of the Chicago Loop Synagogue (1960), described by architectural critic Brian de Breffny as "[p]erhaps the most beautiful synagogue interior in the United States."
External links
Archives of American Art
Archives of American Art
The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 16 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washington, D.C...