by Gail Levin
41. Death certificate for Rose Stein is number 15164 in Kings County (Brooklyn). She was then twenty-six years old and died in the Jewish Hospital, Brooklyn. Her eldest child, her daughter Muriel Pearl, was born August 17, 1922. At the time of Rose’s death, Lee was nineteen and her sister Ruth (b. 1910) was only seventeen. LKCR, 301, gives the erroneous information that Ruth married William Stein when she was just fourteen, in “late 1927 or early 1928.” This is in error, since Ruth was already seventeen or eighteen at the time of Rose’s death. Evidently Ruth lied about the age she married to make herself seem younger.
Chapter 4: National Academy and First Love, 1928–32 (pp. 51–78)
1. On May 14, 1926, as recorded in The Long Islander, a newspaper based in Huntington, New York, Anna Krassner signed a mortgage for $10,000 buying from F. Ritter property on the “eastside of the road adjoining land of O. Anderson, Greenlawn, in the township of Huntington” (p. 16). Author’s interview with Krasner’s niece Muriel Stein Dressler.
2. This is documented by the U.S. Census of 1930.
3. Louise Dougher and Carol Bloomgarden, Greenlawn: A Long Island Hamlet (Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2000), 122.
4. 1968-Campbell, 63.
5. That LK was right-handed was confirmed by 1965-Friedman, 16, note 3. Standing in front of a mirror to copy what one sees, what one sees to one’s right is one’s right hand with one’s left to one’s left; but from the standpoint of the person looking out from within the picture, my right is the outlooker’s left, my left the outlooker’s right.
6. Definitions of dyslexia are rapidly changing and beyond the scope of this study.
7. 175 West 109th Street: 1980-Slobodkina, 241.
8. Florence N. Levy, American Art Annual Who’s Who in Art, vol. XXIV for 1927 (Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Arts, 1928), 314.
9. Art Schools of the National Academy of Design, One Hundred and Third Year Season of 1928–1929, 19.
10. Eliot Clark, History of the National Academy of Design, 1825–1953 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1954), 211.
11. 1975-Nemser-1, 72.
12. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 242. Slobodkina, born 9-22-1908, was just about a month older than LK.
13. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 242.
14. According to LKP, AAA, roll 3771, frame 50. 1968-Campbell, 63.
15. 1968-Campbell, 63.
16. 1968-Campbell, 63.
17. Krasner later claimed to have painted this Self-Portrait after the first year to gain admission to life classes at the academy, but if this were so, she could not have been promoted to life on January 26, 1929, following her first term in the fall of 1928.
18. 1975-Nemser-1, 72.
19. Neilson had studied with William Merritt Chase in New York and showed in the Paris Salon, winning a silver medal in 1914: Florence N. Levy, American Art Annual Who’s Who in Art, vol. XXIV for 1927 (Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Arts, 1928), 671.
20. 1968-Campbell, 62, based on his interview with LK.
21. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 283 and 324. Slobodkina’s greatest fame was as a children’s book author and illustrator, especially Caps for Sale, first published in 1940 and still in print.
22. Eda Mirsky Mann quoted in “Woman Enough: Interview with My Mother,” in 1994-Jong, 301.
23. Eda Mirsky Mann quoted in 1994-Jong, 302.
24. Author’s interview with Erica Jong, February 3, 2010.
25. Molly Jong-Fast, Sex Doctors in the Basement (New York: Villard Books, 2005), 5. Molly’s mother is Eda’s daughter, Erica Jong.
26. Born in Russia on August 15, 1911, Igor registered as “Igor O. Pantuckoff. 1983-Rose, 16, claims that Bolotowsky was “a White Russian,” instead of Jewish, but he appeared in the second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, which notes that he showed abstract painting in the first exhibition of World Alliance of Yiddish Culture (YKUF) in 1938.
27. Joop Sanders (b. 1921) to the author, interview of December 12, 2007.
28. 1984-Jonas.
29. “Col. Oleg Pantuhoff, Served in Russian Imperial Guard,” NYT, October 28, 1973, 60. This obituary noted that he died in Nice, France, but that he had lived in the United States half his life. He was twice wounded in World War I and decorated for bravery; he was “founder of the Russian Boy Scouts.” Oleg Ivanovich Pantuhoff was “a captain in the Imperial Russian Guards, and a man of considerable moral strength and organizational talent.” See http://WRrXJMcatsAJ:histclo.com/youth/youth/org/sco/country/rus/hist/sr-hist.htm as of August 6, 2007. See NYT, 9-23-45, Igor’s older brother, Major Oleg Pantuhoff, Jr., would later serve as a U.S. Army officer and as a Russian translator for Dwight Eisenhower. Oleg I. Pantuhoff (Igor’s father) married Nina Michailovna Drobovolskaya in Vilnius, Lithuania, on May 11, 1908. Their first son, Oleg Jr., was born on May 2, 1910. See http://www.scoutmaster.ru/ru/news/Pantuhoff_Bday.htm as of August 6, 2007. See also ND-Pantuhoff, Sr.
30. Slovo o polku Igoreve (tr. by Vladimir Nabokov, Song of Igor’s Campaign, 1960). Aleksandr Borodin’s opera Prince Igor was first performed posthumously in 1890. Left unfinished at Borodin’s death, it was completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov.
31. See Major Oleg Pantuhoff, Jr., C.A.C., A.U.S., “Russia Revisited: An Emigrant Returns to His Native Country,” in Slavonic and East European Review: American Series, vol. 3, no. 1. (May 1944): 71–76.
32. “Col. Oleg Pantuhoff, Served in Russian Imperial Guard,” NYT, October 28, 1973, 60.
33. ND-Pantuhoff, Sr., 280.
34. ND-Pantuhoff, Sr., 280.
35. ND-Pantuhoff, Sr., 283.
36. “Col. Oleg Pantuhoff, Served in Russian Imperial Guard,” NYT, October 28, 1973, 60.
37. This is documented in the U.S. Census of 1930.
38. http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&u=http://www.scoutmaster.ru/ru/news/Pantuhoff_Bday.htm. A painting of St. George by Igor’s mother survives in Australia. According to their granddaughter, Leigh Olshan, Oleg Sr. and Nina Pantuhoff earned money in America by painting “Chinese” screens for Sloan’s furniture store. (Author’s interview with Olshan, April 14, 2008.)
39. In the Life Schools class, Pantuhoff got the Cannon Prize of $100; for the Men’s Night Class—Figure, the Suydam Silver Medal; for the Still Life Class, the School Prize of $10; Honorable Mention in the Composition Class, where honorable mention also went to William Steig [1907–2003], the future New Yorker cartoonist and children’s book author and illustrator, who, like Krasner, was the child of Jewish immigrants.
40. See National Academy of Design, Department of Schools Annual Distribution of Awards of Merit, published annually each spring.
41. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 283.
42. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 283. Pantuhoff’s name is variously transliterated from the Russian. Originally it was more often Pantukof, of which Pentukhov is a variation.
43. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 372.
44. Quoted in Phyllis Blanchard and Carlyn Manasses, New Girls for Old (New York: The Macaulay Company, 1930), 61; as quoted in 1978-Rothman, 178. See also Paula S. Fass, The Beautiful and the Damned: American Youth in the 1920s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).
45. LKCR. Chronology gives an incorrect age for Ruth Krassner Stein at her marriage. The Pearl Movie House was located at 1901–1902 Broadway, just north of East New York. It was opened by Herman Weingarten and designed in 1914 by the architect Albert Kunzi, but by August 1927 the owner’s name was Morris Stein, William Stein’s father.
46. Available on Ancestry.com under the spelling “Krasser,” misspelled by the census taker.
47. Author’s interview with Muriel Stein Dressler, June 4, 2008. Muriel Stein was born in August 1922, so was probably about eight to ten during the time of these memories.
48. Author’s interview with Muriel Stein Dressler, June 4, 2008.
49. Muriel Stein Dressler to the author, 10-10-06, and Muriel Stein Dressler to Lee Krasner, letter of October 29, 1965, AAA, LK papers, reel 3771, frames 1009�
��1010, which reminisces.
50. Author’s interview with Muriel Stein Dressler, 10-10-06 and 8-7-08. The 1931 film she recalled was Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise.
51. Richard H. Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the Depression Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 44.
52. 1984-Abel, 12.
53. Ivan Olinsky was born on January 1, 1878 (or 1879, as he claimed he later discovered). Olinsky was born in Elizabethgrad in the Ukraine, in the Russian empire. Ivan G. Olinsky is identified as a Jew in John Simons, ed., Who’s Who in American Jewry (New York: National News Association, Inc, 1938–39), vol. 3, 787; Isaac Landman, ed., in collaboration with…Louis Rittenberg…al.], The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (New York: Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., c. 1939–1943); and he is on the list of “Jews of Prominence in the United States” in Harry Schneiderman, ed., The American Jewish Year Book 5683 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1922), 187. Olinsky returned from studying in Europe on September 12, 1910, passing through Ellis Island, where immigration agents noted with skepticism that for ethnicity, he “claims U.S.A.” Ivan Olinsky married Geniève A. Karfunkle, whose name suggests that she was also Jewish. See also Alexander Beider, “A Dictionary of Jewish Surnames from the Russian Empire” (New Jersey: Avotaynu, 1993), there is an entry for Olinsky (Olinskij) giving the location where the surname occurred as Elisavetgrad.
54. “Modern Art Museum Open Exhibitions Will Be Free to the Public Today,” NYT, 11-8-1929, 6.
55. “New Art Museum Visited by Scores,” NYT, November 9, 1929, 24.
56. 1968-Campbell, 62–63.
57. 1975-Nemser-1, 84.
58. 1975-Nemser-1, 84. Krasner identified Dickinson and told this story in an interview with 1964-Seckler.
59. 1964-Seckler.
60. Dickinson’s success was such that in 1926 the founders of the new fine arts museum in Atlanta, Georgia, had commissioned him to paint the portrait of Hattie High, who donated her home on Peachtree Street to house the new museum, which took her surname.
61. 1979-Munro, 106–7.
62. 1979-Munro, 107. Krasner made a similar comment to the author, 1977-Rose outtake.
63. Author’s interview with Eda Mirsky Mann, February 24, 2010.
64. 1981-Langer.
65. 1980-Slobodkina, vol. II, 294.
66. 1982-Bolotowsky, 16.
67. ND-Tabak-1.
68. According to Fritz Bultman, quoted in 1985-Potter, 65, Pantuhoff “paid great attention to her as an artist.”
69. 1965-Vogel. The author, who met Kroll in his old age (c. 1971), can vouch for his gregarious personality.
70. LK to the author, recorded by 1977-Rose.
71. 1968-Campbell, 63, based on his interview with LK. See also 1965-Friedman, 7; 1979-Munro, 107.
72. Ralph Flint, “Matisse Exhibit Opens Season at Modern Museum,” Art News, November 7, 1931, reprinted in 1977-Diamonstein-2, 109.
73. Beth S. Wenger, New York Jews and the Great Depression: Uncertain Promise (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 3.
74. 1966-Rose and see also, 1979-Munro, 106.
75. Forbes Watson, “The All American Nineteen,” The Arts, 16, January 1930, 308–10.
76. See Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, 239.
77. Thomas Hart Benton, “Art and Nationalism,” The Modern Monthly, 8, May 1934, 232–36.
78. The group also included artists Phil Bard, Bernarda Bryson (later Mrs. Ben Shahn), James Guy, and Joseph Pandolfini.
79. “3,500 Reds in Rally Protest on Job Aid,” NYT, February 5, 1932, 16.
80. 1964-Gorelick.
81. 1979-Novak. In particular, she planned to teach at Thorton High School, which might have been Thornton Donovan High School, founded in 1901 in New Rochelle, New York.
82. Karen Arenson, “Bulletin Board: Miller’s City College Secret,” NYT, October 31, 2001.
83. 1964-Seckler; LK often recounted this to the author and in interviews: 1972-Rose-1 and 1979-Novak.
84. 1984-Abel, 35.
85. 1979-Novak.
86. 1975-Nemser-1, 72–73.
87. 1970-Rosenberg.
88. 1979-Novak.
89. 1979-Novak.
90. 1970-Rosenberg.
91. 1970-Rosenberg.
92. May Tabak Rosenberg, “Art Project,” unpublished ms, p. 9. Archives of American Art.
93. See Friedman, Whitechapel, 7. A list is also in Lee Krasner Papers, AAA, reel 3771, frame 50. See chapter on Joe Gould in Ross Wetzsteon, Republic of Dreams. Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia, 1910–1960 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002), 418–30.
94. “Bodenheim Vanishes as Girl Takes Life,” NYT, July 21, 1928, 1, and “Keeps Missing Girl from Bodenheim,” NYT, July 22, 1928, 1.
95. “Keeps Missing Girl from Bodenheim,” NYT, July 22, 1928, 1.
96. “Bodenheim Vanishes as Girl Takes Life,” NYT, July 21, 1928, 1.
97. “Keeps Missing Girl from Bodenheim,” NYT, July 22, 1928, 1.
98. Lee Krasner to the author, many times in conversation.
Chapter 5: Enduring the Great Depression, 1932–36 (pp. 79–116)
1. ND-Tabak-1.
2. Krasner to the author. This is in complete contrast to Jeffrey Grove’s “Chronology,” in LKCR, 302, which states that “despite their nearly ten-year relationship, Krasner characterized Pantuhoff as only ‘a friend.’” See also 1996-Wagner, 119, who remarks upon LK’s “singular reluctance to admit the extent of Pantuhoff’s role in it [her life] to later interviewers, as if she feared that revealing their former closeness would impinge on her standing as Pollock’s wife and widow. Wagner failed to interview those closer to Krasner (myself or her niece Muriel) who knew about her relationship with Igor.
3. Authors interview with Joop Sanders, December 12, 2007.
4. Wainwright Evans and Ben Lindsay, The Companionate Marriage (New York: Boni & Livright, 1927).
5. Muriel Stein Dressler to the author, interview of 8-07-08.
6. The possible dates of their visit are defined by 1935, when Webb first hired the teenaged Ella Fitzgerald after she won a talent contest at the Apollo Theater and redesigned his show around the singer, who provided him with his biggest hit record, “A Tisket-A-Tasket,” in 1938, just before his death on June 16, 1939.
7. Muriel Stein Dressler to the author, interview of 10-10-2006.
8. Robert S. Lynd, “Family Members as Consumers,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 160, March 1932, 91, quoted in 1978-Rothman, 180.
9. Lillian Olinsey Kiesler to Deborah Solomon, AAA, and Ruth Appelhof to the author, 9-4-2007, among others.
10. Igor Pantuhoff quoted by Fritz Bultman in 1985-Potter, 65.
11. 1984-Jonas. Some twelve to fifteen million people in the United States were out of work by 1932. See also Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., “The First Hundred Days of the New Deal,” in Isabel Leighton, The Aspirin Age 1919–1941 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949), 277.
12. 1964-Gorelick.
13. Reuben Kadish quoted in 1989-Kisseloff, 465.
14. Kadish quoted in 1989-Kisseloff, 467. Pollock did later trade a painting with Dan Miller, who owned the general store in Springs.
15. “Convention Throng Hails Roosevelt,” NYT, July 3, 1932, 9.
16. “Job Goodman, 58, Abstract Painter,” NYT, December 14, 1955, 13.
17. http://www.greenwichhouse.org/HISTORY.HTM as of July 16, 2007.
18. See Gail Levin, Synchromism and American Abstraction, 1910–1925 (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1978), 31–33.
19. Axel Madsen, “Jackson Pollock: The Hollow and the Bump,” The Carleton Miscellany, vol. 7, no. 3, Summer 1966, reprinted in 1998-Karmel, 106.
20. Thomas Hart Benton, An American in Art: A Professional and Technical Autobiography (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1969), 39.
21. See “Topics of the Times,” NYT, 2-16-1933, 18. 1999-Hobbs, 30, speculated t
hat publicity about the U.S. Customs Department’s claim that the nudes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling were obscene might have “catalyzed” LK’s interest, but this seems unlikely, given Goodman’s teaching methods and the fact that this “scandal” lasted only one day.
22. 1970-Rosenberg.
23. “Independents to Barter Art Works at Show; Dentistry or the Rent Will Buy a Painting,” NYT, March 15, 1932, 1.
24. Art Front, no. 1, November 1934. See also Patricia Hills, “Art Movements,” in Mary Jo Buhle, Paul Buhle, amd Dan Georgakas, Encyclopedia of the American Left (Chicago: St. James Press, 1990), 67.
25. See 2002-Hemingway, 85–86.
26. “History of the Artists Union,” Art Front, no. 1, November 1934, 3.
27. 1964-Gorelick.
28. 1965-Block.
29. Max Spivak, “Bread Upon the Waters,” Art Front, no. 1, November 1934.
30. “Artists to Adorn Nation’s Buildings,” NYT, December 12, 1933, 28.
31. “Artists to Adorn Nation’s Buildings,” NYT, December 12, 1933, 28.
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, radio address from the White House on May 10, 1939, as printed in the Herald Tribune on May 11, 1939.
33. 1984-Abel, 39.
34. 1983-Rose, 34.
35. 1970-Rosenberg.
36. Krasner’s first job on the PWAP was executing illustrations of Foraminifera for the textbooks of marine biology of a City College professor. This was her second job illustrating textbooks.
37. 1964-Seckler.
38. 1979-Munro, 106.
39. “Wages for Artists,” Art Front, vol. 1, no. 4, April 1935, 1.
40. Lee Krasner to Judith Wolfe, interview of January 5, 1984.
41. 1983-Liss.
42. 1983-Liss. Krasner understood that Pantuhof had not made history while Pollock had.
43. 2004-Stevens, 92.
44. Many such ads for Capehart ran in NYT, December 16, 1934, 28.
45. 2004-Stevens, 91.
46. 1983-Liss.
47. 2004-Stevens, 113.
48. Leon Kroll to Elizabeth Ames, March 4, 1934, NYPL.
49. 1982-Bolotowsky, 30, note 5.
50. Leon Kroll to Elizabeth Ames, letter of April 20, 1934, Yaddo papers, NYPL.
51. Note from Igor and Lenore Pantukoff to Elizabeth Ames at Yaddo, NYPL, Yaddo papers, box 217.