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HELEN SAWYER FARNSWORTH : 1936-1937 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY DETAILING A YEAR IN LIFE OF A NOTED AMERICAN ARTIST AND TEACHER, FOUNDER OF ART SCHOOLS IN NORTH TRURO AND SARATOGA, AND A MEMBER OF AMERICAN WOMEN ARTIST ASSOCIATION

12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. On offer is a remarkable 1936-7 diary of Helen Sawyer Farnsworth, a daughter of painter and photographer Wells Moses Sawyer, wife of a renowned portrait painter Jerry Farnsworth, and an active member of the Cape Cod art colony. Helen Sawyer Farnsworth (1900-1999) was a prominent artist and art teacher, a member of the National Association of Women Artists, the National Arts Club, Washington, Yonkers Art Association and Provincetown Art Association. Her artistic life was mainly associated with Cape Cod, and she and her husband were very active in intellectual, cultural and social milieu, teaching, participating in exhibitions, organizing and visiting various events. The diary mentions numerous events, places and people, including famous writers and artists, like John and Katy Dos Passos, Phyliss Duganne, Charles Hawthorne, Dawn Powell, William and Lucy L’Engles, Blakeman. The diary covers the full year of 1936 and the first three weeks of January 1937. Helen Sawyer first started the diary on January 22, 1936, and when reached the end of December, filled the first pages, from January 1 to January 21, with January 1937 entries. The 1936 entries start with a trip to Philadelphia to opening of the 131-st Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she and her husband were regularly exhibiting. They spent the winter of 1936, one of the coldest in American history, in Sparta and New York, and then in early May went to North Truro. The diary covers a variety of topics –Helen writes about her work, sometimes only mentioning what she was working on, naming the place or the model, and sometimes describing her work in more detail: “Painted at the West End”, “Painted on Pontiac”, “Drove to Indian village to get a model....Painted the Indian girl”, “Drove to Superior. Grey clouds. Snow on mountains. Great clouds at sunset. Painted from hill, watched evening fall over Arizona!” She mentions some of her best known paintings, including “Corn hill” and “Trees by the Turn” for which she received the first honorable mention in Chicago. Almost all entries document weather, and being an artist she tends to describe colors, light, appearance of sky and clouds: “heavy, curious clouds without form”, “brilliant sky, ‘snow is thawing turning black”, “yellow heather coming out on the moors”. She also documents her daily activities, like gardening or cooking, records names of books she was reading and movies she saw. In December 1936 the family took a trip through Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico to Arizona, which she describes in detail: December 12: “Marfa a small rather Mexican town with small Spanish church and plaza…fine mountains and cattle ranches cactus + yucca, yellow fields, red mountains, blue lava flows.” December 20: “Drove to the Papago Reservation…Beer in the café. Indians gambling on the machines”, December 29: “Heavy rainfall night. There is snow on Apache Leap + Pichets’ Post this morning…Climbed the hill and looked at Superstition Mountains: Pichet Post + Apache Leap. Color and drama more than the wildest symphony” January 5: “Explored the old mill of Silver King mine in the creek, in the old town of Penel. They were mining this tailing, getting 9.00 a ton…All very interesting, the tailing pond, old churches etc.” Size:7’2 x 5’1 Physical description: Red cloth cover with black geometric pattern titled: The Wanamaker Diary; year at the right bottom corner: 1936 Condition: good, minor wear, slightly faded cover with a tiny ink blot at the upper edge, ink blots on few pages, spine is slightly detached, ink has slightly faded at some places; a part of the page with personal information has been torn off, but the torn part has been preserved and the text is clearly seen. Neither of the above affects readability.. Illustr.: /. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good

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