AFA Autumn 2018

Antiques & Fine Art 113 2018 “‘Order!’ yells the Catgut. ‘Stop that infernal din in the corner, and you fellows drop that art stuff and listen to a sonata that will melt your soul into honey.’”  1 In Francis Hopkinson Smith’s account of a weekly Tile Club meeting, we quickly learn that humor was essential, live music was welcomed, and camaraderie was fundamental. Founded in 1877 on the heels of the Philadelphia Centennial, the Tile Club was one of many societies that formed in the United States during the late nineteenth century. Of the many art clubs that were organized then, it has since been aptly described as “perhaps the smallest, one of the shortest lived, and most definitely the least understood.”  2 Based in New York City, Tilers comprised such well-known artists as Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John H. Twachtman, and J. Alden Weir. This group of young artists, inspired by the wave of interest in the decorative arts that flooded the 1876 Exposition, decided to meet once a week and contribute to the “decorative age.” They were also responding to the manufacture of inferior, mass-produced goods resulting from industrialization. With a desire to support the creation of honestly made products in keeping with the teachings Charles Stanley Reinhart (1844–1896), The Tile Club at Work, 1879. Etching on paper, 16 x 22½ inches. Heckscher Museum of Art, museum purchase (2001.6.2). Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911), Procession of Ye Tilers at Long Island, 1878. Ink and pencil on cardboard, 4½ x 24¾ inches. Chazen Museum of Art; Gift of D. Frederick Baker from the Baker/Pisano Collection (2017.27.20). This image shows the Tilers starting on their first trip, leaving from the western terminus of the Long Island Railroad and disembarking at Babylon, Long Island. From there they went to Captree Island, Sayville, Lake Ronkonkoma, and to their final destination, East Hampton.