Percy MacKaye (1875–1956) was an American dramatist and poet .
41-735: MacKaye was born in New York City into a theatrical family. His father, Steele MacKaye , was a popular actor, playwright, and producer, while his mother, Mary, wrote a dramatization of Pride and Prejudice , first produced in 1910. His brother James MacKaye was a philosopher, while brother Benton MacKaye was a forester and conservationist. His sister, Hazel MacKaye , became a women's suffrage leader and pageant director. After graduating from Harvard in 1897, he traveled in Europe for three years, residing in Rome, Switzerland and London, studying at
82-476: A debt to Boston's intellectual ferment. A luncheon at his club on February 27, 1870, for instance, found these members of Hunt's circle dining together: Ralph Waldo Emerson ; James Russell Lowell ; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ; Edward Clarke Cabot ; Martin Brimmer ; Thomas Gold Appleton ; William James ; Francis Blackwell Forbes ; and James T. Fields . Joining the group as guest was Erastus Brigham Bigelow ,
123-490: A family of wealth and prominence in Connecticut. Hunt attended Harvard College but withdrew in his junior year. Having been denied the opportunity to paint and draw by an overbearing father, Jane Leavitt Hunt resolved that her children would be given the chance to study the arts in the best academies—even if it meant moving to Europe to attend them. Following the death of his congressman father from cholera in 1832 at
164-622: A founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . William Morris Hunt died at the Isles of Shoals , New Hampshire , in 1879, apparently a suicide. Hunt had gone to the New Hampshire shore to recover from a crippling depression. But he continued to work, executing his last sketch three days before his death. His body was discovered by his friend, New Hampshire poet Celia Thaxter . His brother Richard Morris Hunt
205-664: A full-length portrait by the artist Emanuel Leutze in Düsseldorf in 1864. Formerly part of the collection of Col. Leavitt Hunt at Elmshome in Vermont, the location of that portrait is now unknown. William Morris Hunt and his wife, the former Louisa Dumaresq Perkins, had five children. His daughter Eleanor "Ellen" (1858–1941) married German officer of the Prussian Army Ernst Curt Sigismond Diederich (1851–1887). One of their children
246-764: A fund to purchase many of his paintings and donate them to the Museum of Fine Arts. Aside from the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Athenaeum has a number of the artist's works in its collection, a gift of William Morris Hunt II. Also owning works by Hunt are New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art , the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ,
287-417: A lithographer and sculptor as well. From 1850 to 1877, the Vermont native was Boston's leading portrait and landscape painter; there was a backlog of Brahmins clamoring to be painted by him. Hunt is widely credited for having influenced the styles of Winslow Homer , Childe Hassam and John Joseph Enneking . Hunt's signature lively brushwork, partly derived from study of contemporary European painting, marked
328-510: A new phase in 'oil sketching' that was carried on by Homer and others. Other friends and associates included artist Frank Hill Smith . "The greatest of Boston painters", writes art historian G. W. Sheldon in his American Painters , "and one of the few really great American painters, Mr. William Morris Hunt, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont." While a friend and student of Millet, "Hunt is an entirely original artist, and every picture of his
369-400: A popular portrait painter. Before his lauded return to America in 1855, Hunt was married in Paris to Louise Dumaresq Perkins, daughter of Thomas Handasyd Perkins Jr. (son of Thomas Handasyd Perkins ), a Boston merchant, philanthropist and patron of the arts. Hunt was married to Perkins again upon his return to Boston in 1855, perhaps for legal reasons. Hunt was married for the second time in
410-458: A posthumous assessment of Hunt: To the late William M. Hunt that we must ascribe ... the general impulse toward foreign styles now modifying the arts of design in this country. ... The power of Mr. Hunt was ... felt in directing a large number of young art-students to visit Paris, and eventually also Munich, at each of which the tendency has been for some years toward bolder methods in the technics of art. The result has been to introduce to [America]
451-908: A theatre capable of seating 10,000 people—the "Spectatorium"—but the Panic of 1893 deprived the project of necessary funds. The project was left incomplete. MacKaye married Jeannie Spring, the daughter of Marcus Spring , during the time he was teaching art at Marcus Spring's Eagleswood Military Academy , in Perth Amboy, New Jersey . After a brief marriage to Jeannie, which ended in divorce, MacKaye married his second wife, Mary K. Medbery, in 1865. The couple had six children, four of whom attained notability: philosopher James MacKaye , poet and playwright Percy MacKaye , conservationist Benton MacKaye , and suffragist Hazel MacKaye . Steele MacKaye fell ill in February 1894, and his physicians urged him to move to
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#1732798643081492-661: A truer perception of the vital importance of style in the present stage of our art, and to emphasize the truth that he who has anything to say will make it much more effective if he knows how to give it adequate utterance. After leaving Paris, Hunt painted and used his family connections to establish art schools in Newport, Rhode Island , Brattleboro, Vermont, the Faial Island in the Azores , and finally in Boston , where he became
533-468: A warmer climate. He left Chicago on February 22 on a private train headed for San Diego. The train was near Timpas, Colorado on February 25 when MacKaye's health began to rapidly decline up until his death at 7:45 in the morning. His son, Percy, published his father's biography, Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye , in 1927. Steele MacKaye was widely known for being an innovator in theater technology. He patented and invented more than 100 inventions including
574-501: Is a spontaneous and independent product." In a bit of art history revisionism, some scholars are now re-examining Hunt's powerful pull on other early New England artists, many better-known. Hunt was an important figure in New England arts and society. Besides collecting himself, Hunt encouraged other Boston collectors to buy works by European artists such as Millet, Monet and others. After one early exhibition of French artists at
615-489: The Boston Athenaeum , including works by Millet and Rousseau, for instance, an art professor at Harvard had written a condemnation in a Boston newspaper. Outraged, painter Hunt fired back a response in The Boston Daily Advertiser . "It is not our fault we inherit ignorance in art," Hunt wrote, "but we are not obliged to advertise it." In 1867, for instance, Hunt and his wife sailed to Paris to attend
656-495: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 . Hunt owned many canvases by Millet, including Millet's The Sower , for which Millet somewhat unwillingly accepted a payment of $ 60 from Hunt. Among his later works, American landscapes predominated. In the summer of 1878, the year before his death, Hunt painted a series of sweeping views of Niagara Falls. His later works also include the "Bathers: Twice Painted" and "The Allegories" for
697-478: The Great Boston Fire of 1872 . Another disaster was the deterioration of the stone panels in the State Capitol at Albany, New York, on which a number of his murals had been painted. This is believed to have led to his depression and presumed suicide. William Morris Hunt was born into prominence. The family of Hunt's father Jonathan Hunt , were among Vermont's founders and largest landowners; his mother's
738-1127: The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Addison Gallery of American Art at Hunt's alma mater Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., the Bennington Museum , Vermont, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art , the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Currier Museum of Art in New Hampshire, the Harvard University Art Museums , Salem's Peabody Essex Museum ,
779-584: The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and many others. In accordance with a long expressed desire, William Morris Hunt was buried at Prospect Hill cemetery in Brattleboro, Vermont , beside other family members. Two decades after Hunt's death, his former pupil Helen Mary Knowlton published her biography of the Boston painter entitled The Art-Life of William Morris Hunt . Morris sat for
820-539: The Soviet Proletcult Theatre movement. Steele MacKaye James Morrison Steele MacKaye ( / m ə ˈ k aɪ / mə- KY ; June 6, 1842 – February 25, 1894) was an American playwright, actor , theater manager and inventor. Having acted, written, directed and produced numerous and popular plays and theatrical spectaculars of the day, he became one of the most famous actors and theater producers of his generation. Steele MacKaye
861-521: The University of Leipzig in 1899–1900. He returned to New York City to teach at a private school until 1904, when he joined a colony of artists and writers in Cornish , New Hampshire, and devoted himself entirely to dramatic work. He wrote the plays The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1903, Sappho and Phaon in 1907, Jeanne D'Arc in 1907, The Scarecrow in 1908, Anti-Matrimony in 1910, and
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#1732798643081902-461: The École des Beaux-Arts , where William studied painting under Couture. "From the training and inspiration each of the brothers was to experience in the next several years in France would come great strides for each in his work," writes historian David McCullough . "'Mr. William Hunt is our most promising artist here,' reported Thomas Appleton to his father." Hunt then spent the next two years under
943-539: The Assembly Chamber of the State Capitol at Albany, New York , now lost due to disintegration of the stone panels on which they were painted (some scholars trace Hunt's deepening depression that led to his suicide to his despair over the loss of the Albany murals). His book, Talks about Art (London, 1878), was especially well received. Nor did Hunt confine himself to oil painting. He was prolific, working as
984-665: The Folding Theater Chair, the Fire Curtain, and the unique Double-Stage System. The Double-Stage System was a large elevator-like structure that was used to load scenery on and off of the stage. It was only ever installed in the Madison Square Theatre (not to be confused with Madison Square Garden ) because of its cost and complexity. The system cut the time of intermissions between scenes of plays from around 6 minutes to 40 seconds, which made
1025-621: The United States a year later, he lectured on the philosophy of ethics and "natural" acting in New York, Boston and elsewhere. In 1873 he became the first American actor to portray Hamlet in London . MacKaye was the author of thirty plays. As a dramatist, MacKaye is seen as representative of the transition from an older theatrical tradition to a newer one, incorporating realism and naturalistic portrayals. His first play to be published
1066-523: The age of 44, Hunt's mother Jane took him and his brothers to Switzerland, the South of France and to Rome, where Hunt studied with Thomas Couture in Paris, coming under the influence of Jean-François Millet after being greatly inspired by Millet's The Sower at the 1851 Paris Salon. The Hunt family remained in Europe for a dozen years. During part of that time, William Morris Hunt and his brother Richard Morris Hunt shared an apartment at 1 rue Jacob, close by
1107-452: The fashion to sit for Hunt; among his best paintings of this genre are those of William M. Evarts , Mrs. Charles Francis Adams , the Rev. James Freeman Clarke , Senator Charles Sumner , William H. Gardner, Chief Justice Shaw and Judge Horace Gray . Many of Hunt's paintings and sketches, together with five large Millets and other art treasures collected by him in Europe, were destroyed in
1148-531: The influence from his father, who was also an art connoisseur, MacKaye initially planned to become an artist. During his teens he studied painting with William Morris Hunt , then continued his studies at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. He returned to the U.S. in order to serve for the Union Army during the American Civil War . A member of New York's Seventh Regiment, he eventually rose to
1189-465: The influential King's Chapel in Boston by academic and clergyman Ephraim Peabody , shortly before Peabody's death in 1856. On his return, Hunt painted some of his most handsome canvases, all reminiscent of his life in France and of Millet's influence. Such works include The Belated Kid , Girl at the Fountain , Hurdy-Gurdy Boy , and others – but the public called for portraits, and it became
1230-561: The opening of the Exposition Universelle . In his lectures and art classes, Hunt attracted large numbers of students, many of them from prominent Brahmin families. The Boston philosopher and author William James studied with Hunt for a time, before turning away from painting to concentrate on his writing. In 1871 Hunt was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. Hunt's career owed
1271-466: The people to self-government in its leisure". To this end he called for the active involvement of the public, not merely as spectators, professional staff not dominated by commercial considerations and the elimination of private profit by endowment and public support. This idea is most apparent in his play Caliban by the Yellow Sands (1916). This concept was influential on Platon Kerzhentsev and
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1312-594: The poetry collection The Far Familiar in 1937. In 1950, MacKaye published The Mystery of Hamlet King of Denmark, or What We Will , a series of four plays written as prequels to William Shakespeare 's Hamlet . His sister Hazel acted in or helped produce several of his early works. He was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1914. In the 1920s, MacKaye was poet in residence at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio . He lectured on
1353-572: The rank of Major before an illness forced his retirement. MacKaye would later model in full uniform for John Quincy Adams Ward 's Seventh Regiment Memorial statue, which stands in Central Park . In 1869, MacKaye traveled to Paris with his family, where he became the disciple of the renowned French acting teacher François Delsarte . Under Delsarte, MacKaye learned to enhance performance through pose and gesture. He would later teach and utilize this system during his career. On his return to
1394-677: The theatre at Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other universities in the United States. Percy MacKaye is considered to be the first poet of the Atomic Era because of his sonnet "The Atomic Law," which was published in the Christmas 1945 issue of The Churchman . In 1912, he published The Civic Theatre in Relation to the Redemption of Leisure; A Book of Suggestions . Here he presented a concept of Civic Theatre as "the conscious awakening of
1435-517: The theatre more enjoyable to go to as a whole. MacKaye is also responsible for converting the Lyceum Theatre to an overhead-lit theater. This is the first recorded occurrence of an overhead lighting structure in a North-American theater. He wrote the plays Monaldi and Marriage . Other works include: William Morris Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (brother) William Morris Hunt (March 31, 1824 – September 8, 1879)
1476-597: The tutelage of Millet in Barbizon before his return to the states. The companionship of Millet had a lasting influence on Hunt's character and style, and his work grew in strength, in beauty and in seriousness. He was among the biggest proponents of the Barbizon school in America, and he more than any other turned the rising generation of American painters towards Paris. About his influence, S. G. W. Benjamin wrote in
1517-547: Was Hazel Kirke , which was privately printed in New York in 1880. The play, while a smash-hit with audiences, received neutral-to-negative response from theatre critics, who criticized its lack of a primary antagonist. In the mid-1880s he helped establish the first school of acting in the United States, the Lyceum Theatre School, which later became the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). He
1558-510: Was a celebrated architect. Another brother, Leavitt Hunt , was a well-known photographer and attorney. A fourth brother, Jonathan, was a Paris physician who also committed suicide. The William Morris Hunt Library of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is named in honor of this painter. (Hunt was a founding member of the Museum of Fine Arts' museum school). Following Hunt's death, his Harvard classmates and other Bostonians contributed to
1599-622: Was also well known for his theatrical innovations, having invented a variety of devices including flame-proof curtains, folding theater seats and the "Nebulator", a machine for creating clouds onstage. In all, he patented over 100 theatrical inventions. By 1885, MacKaye had established three theaters in New York City : the St. James, Madison Square and the Lyceum Theatre . For the Chicago World's Fair of 1893, he began to construct
1640-544: Was an American painter. Born into the political Hunt family of Vermont , he trained in Paris with the realist Jean-François Millet and studied under him at the Barbizon artists’ colony, before founding a similar group on his return to America. He became Boston's leading portrait and landscape painter, also working as a lithographer and sculptor. In 1871 he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate Academician. Many of his works were destroyed in
1681-768: Was born in Buffalo, New York . His father, Colonel James M. MacKaye, was a successful attorney and an ardent abolitionist ; Steele's mother died when he was young. He had two sisters, Emily MacKaye von Hesse and Sarah MacKaye Warner, and two half-brothers, William Henry MacKaye and Henry Goodwin MacKaye. While young, Steele attended Roe's Military Academy in Cornwall-on-Hudson and the William Leverett Boarding School in Newport. Under